WEB= http://homepage.eircom.net/~jadsj Editor: John A. Dunne S.J. socius@jesuit.ie

June '03 #2

This Newsletter is addressed privately to Lay, Religious, and Jesuits together.
This Newsletter may not print well, as it is designed for the screen only... sorry about that!

Contents

Notice Board RIP Assembly Talks: Book Advert News

Slí Eile Advert Provincial Mary Maume Jim Corkery Milltown Institute

p.1 p.1 p 2 p 4 p.9 p.11 p.11

is seeking to appoint a new full-time Coordinator of the Slí Eile Volunteer Communities These offers young men and women opportunities to work for justice and to explore their faith For further information please write to The Director, Slí Eile, 20 Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin 1. email info@sli-eile.com tel. 01 8880606 Deadline for completed applications: July 8th, 2003. Slí Eile - new ways to explore and discover the important things Slí Eile is a Jesuit initiative

Fr. Sean Hughes S.J. died peacefully in Cherrifield Lodge Thursday night, June 19th. May he rest in the peace of his and our Lord

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More from the Assembly In Clongowes, June 7th

The text of the talks by
Fr. Provincial, Mary Maume, & Jim Corkery.

Provincial's Address to the Assembly, June 7th '03

"Can we renew our determination to go forward together?"

• Introduction
  I welcome you warmly to this Province Assembly. I believe we are at an important moment in the history of the Church in Ireland, and that together as lay people, religious and Jesuits we have an important contribution to make to our future. I welcome this opportunity to brief you on my understanding of our situation and to issue an invitation arising out of this briefing.
  Briefing
  a. Context There is a project going on among Jesuits, and now with religious and some laity in Western Europe, which is attempting to understand and respond to the relationship between faith and culture in our region. The results to date are interesting: The Church is widely perceived to be an obstacle to the preaching of the Gospel (authoritarian, non-democratic, paternalistic, clerical and outmoded); religion is often treated as fundamentalism and struggles to make its voice heard in public debate; Christians (including Jesuits) are affected by the prevailing individualism and secularism so that belief in God is less spontaneous and there is less confidence that Christianity or Catholicism has all the answers. In Ireland we Jesuits are conscious of our ageing profile and lack of vocations: in 1982 there were 356 Irish Jesuits. Today we number 200 (180 in Ireland; average age 70; 30 under 50, of whom two are novices and six outside the country, i.e. 22 altogether); 93 over 70. We are all conscious of the scandal of Child Sexual Abuse by clergy. You all know that Vatican II rediscovered the value of the lay vocation, the equality of all baptised Christians: And yet for many laity this has not been backed up by the formation and opportunity of employment that would make it more meaningful, while for us Jesuits it has proved difficult to identify the value of religious, Jesuit life in the context of this positive evaluation of the lay vocation. There are important and unresolved questions about sexuality and celibacy which affect us all, Jesuit and lay alike. In the face of all this much religious language sounds tired and clichéd.
  This is a partial description of the situation we face in Ireland at this time. Its effect on Jesuits is mixed: loss of heart in planning for a future which we won't be part of; sadness at younger Jesuits leaving; shame about the CSA phenomenon; anger that clergy seem to bear the brunt of society's criticism; excitement that something new is happening and hope that we can be faithful participants in what is emerging. How can we be more effective in tapping into the power of the gospel in response to this situation?
  b. Province planning I began a Strategic Planning exercise about 1½ years ago in response to this situation. The first phase of this exercise is now reaching completion. It involved widespread consultation of Jesuit communities and apostolates, with lay facilitation, a particular focus on the under 50s Jesuit group, and in a context where the Jesuit Father, Father Kolvenbach, was urging Jesuits in Europe in particular to engage in planning, not least because of the reduction in manpower.
  It should be said at this point, as many of you know, that decision-making within the Jesuit Order takes place according to a process of discernment which involves widespread consultation, planning, prayer and ultimately a decision by the appropriate authority - Superior, Director of Work, Board of Management, Provincial. Overall responsibility and Province - wide decisions rest with the Provincial, who is assisted by four Jesuit Consultors. The planning exercise was mainly internal, Jesuit, with the help of some laity, in an effort to see what we as Jesuits wanted. The main results -
  Regrouping - growth
  # Manresa has been renovated and new personnel are in place to help implement the emphasis on a lay clientele; Manresa has a focus as Resource Centre for lay formation.
  # JCC and their publications are in process of being reorganised under Paddy Carberry; the new thrust will mean that they are more in service of the Jesuit Province and collaborators to communicate with the media and one another. Appointment of Mr. Gary O'Sullivan as Communications Manager of JCC.
  # The CFJ has a new lay Director, Mr. Eugene Quinn, with a Jesuit Chair of the Board, Brian Lennon.
  # The new Central Director of the Pioneers is Mr. Pádraic Naughton.
  # There is a strong thrust to bring about lay responsibility for the maintenance of the Jesuit Ignatian ethos in our schools. Appointment of Dermot Cowhey as Head of Crescent College Comprehensive and Gerard Foley as Head of Belvedere.
  # The Trustees of the Milltown Institute have approved a five-year strategic plan for the Institute with an annual review and a major review in the Autumn of 2004.
  Regrouping - reduction
  # We have closed a Formation Community in Ballymun
  # We have announced to the relevant bishops that we are unable to fill the role of Curate in our parishes.
  # We have announced the sale of the Clongowes Farm and are monitoring the property situations in Galway and Dooradoyle.
  # We have announced to the people of Ballymun that following a meeting with Cardinal Connell we will be withdrawing from responsibility for the parish next summer. A Jesuit community will remain in Ballymun.
  # We have announced our withdrawal from responsibility for the parish of St. Ignatius in Galway. It will remain a 'Service Church'.
  Question: Can we continue in the following areas?
  # Can we continue to maintain our commitment to Northern Ireland in the context of reduced numbers? (Under review) Update
  # Can we continue to maintain our commitment to University Hall? (Under review)
  # The merging of communities. (Under review)
  c. Emerging insights
• Several key insights emerged from this exercise
  1. We need to harness our resources so as to respond proactively to the needs of Ireland, in particular in the areas of intellectual (including second-level) spiritual and social ministry, with special sensitivity to young adults, Northern Ireland and the need for good communications.
  2. We need to envisage a less burdensome future, and so cut back on certain areas.
  3. Our partnership with lay people and religious will be absolutely crucial to the continuation of our mission in Ireland.
  4. With regard to more specific details of this Lay / Jay partnership I note the developments in Manresa and the colleges in particular; the new Lay / SJ Bulletin as a way of promoting further communication; and the many other ways in which you, as laity and we as Jesuits collaborate on a daily basis.
  5. A need for Jesuits to develop better ways of living together, a more open sharing of difficulties and dreams.
  6. A realisation that, given the difficulties we face, we are driven back to our Principle and Foundation to faith in Jesus Christ, to a green hope that is rooted in the wood of the soil of resurrection.
  
  Invitation
  We are clear as Jesuits that we will be a lot less numerous in future. We also have confidence in our tradition, in particular that of the discernment that goes with the Spiritual Exercises and our international links. We believe that this tradition has much to offer the Ireland of today and the Church of today as we attempt to discern our way forward in a time of crisis. We are sure that this will be done more effectively if we do it together with you as lay people.
  Can we, then, renew our determination to go forward together? We, on our side, want to place at your disposal the resources of formation and opportunity which you need. We want to hear from you what these needs are. We are asking you, now, this second phase of planning, to help us with your wisdom and insight to plot the way forward together. The Lay / SJ Committee, set up after the working group review in 2001, and coming out of the 1998 Province Congregation can be the coordinator of this collaboration. It is an important consultative part of the structure of decision making at Province level to which I earlier referred. And we would be grateful, also, if we could receive from you as well as give to you: We know (even if we sometimes find it hard to admit) that we, too, need formation, not least to work with you in a more cooperative way.
  Conclusion
  The obverse side of the crisis that we face in Ireland today is the wonderful challenge facing us, in the company of a God who never disappoints. Let us, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus allow ourselves to become part of a conversation along that journey that changes downcast faces into hearts that burn within us.
  

Ignatian Spirituality by Mary Maume, Assistant Pastoral Coordinator in Clongowes

"The Longest Journey in Life is the Journey Inward"

How has Ignatian Spirituality been applied in my life at this point and
how can it help young people find meaning in their lives?

The Question:
When the practice of prayer that I inherited from my parents or from school did not seem to meet my needs; when I was not making many connections between the gospel stories and the lived experience; when life appeared to be going well, but I still felt an unease and a restlessness, it was time to look at another way. Was it the language that was not making sense or was it the method? Was it that I was not making connections between the thoughts and feeling and experiences that I had with the living Jesus as he struggled with his particular life situation?

It was not about a lack of readiness for faith to deepen, but about finding a method that incorporates all of who we are: the good, the bad and the ugly. In times of stress we are inclined to revert to an inherited way of praying, a way for me which was trying to contact a distant God, rather than a God who became human. In this relating there tended to be a fear to take on board all the reactions that one could have: the anger, the resentment etc. as if they were wrong.

Ignatian Way

With the Ignatian way, all the reactions good or bad were acceptable and could be incorporated into a way of praying that helped me towards greater integration. As Roland Roltheiser said about Spirituality : it is ultimately about what we do with our desires; what we do with the longing , both in terms of handling the pain and the hope they bring us , is our spirituality." This put Ignatian Spirituality in context for me.

What is Ignatian Spirituality

There is a deliberateness about Ignatian spirituality that struck me from the beginning. It was about noticing what was happening in our lives; It was about exploring a spirituality that works for you personally and makes sense of your personal journey. Where can we see a glimmer of light in the pain and suffering of our lives? In the interaction with someone, what have I learned about my own stubbornness or blindness? It is about recognising or being sensitive to what occurs in our lives on a daily basis. It is more about not drifting with the tide of resignation about what life has given us, but actively creating constructive change.

What I observed:

Through dialogue with people who pray daily, who lead good lives but are not at peace within themselves, either in their occupations, or in their family relationships; who are bitter or resentful because of lost opportunities, I felt that there was a missing link in our understanding of the message of Jesus: "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full." John 10:10. Ignatius points to Jesus and endeavours to deepen the relationship with the person of Jesus, so that people are brought into an intimate knowledge of the man who walked the earth. So not only the intellect and will was used but the creative use of the imagination and the feelings to get in touch with real flesh and real blood: someone who felt joy, pain and anxiety as he faced opposition. To be able to create the scene and journey with the person of Jesus helped me to connect the human and the spiritual. Composition of Place or in other words recalling a scene from scripture and being fully present in it, using the senses as far as possible was a way of praying I was unaware of. In Luke 24 Verse 36 and onwards, trying to visualise the scene as Jesus appeared to the Eleven, who were agitated and unsure and recalling what he said: "See my hands and my feet that it is myself; Touch me and see for yourself; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have", was a revelation.
The point of having your own picture -whatever image that arises in the imagination when you have placed yourself in a receptive mode, will belong to your particular relationship with Jesus.

Examen:

When we put time aside to reflect over our daily life and notice what is happening we call it the examination of consciousness or the Examen.
How was I doing as person in my day to day interaction with my family, with my colleagues? So the value of the Examen of St. Ignatius helped me to look at my day and see the choices made that day; see movements within the day, how was I affected by the various interactions with people: did I see a bigger plan amidst the turmoil? Can we find God in all the murky experiences of the day, so what can be learned form all the meeting points during the day? Can we find God in all things as Ignatius sought to do?

S o if God wishes to be found here we have to look at ourselves and all those with whom we interact on a daily basis: it throws light on what was good and what was draining. It also looks at more subtle things that we would easily dismiss: a kind word from someone when the going is rough, a student willing to help even though it does not suit him or her. I could glean moments of joy and value perhaps in small insignificant events. Being grateful for the gifts in my life can easily be overlooked and asking God to enlighten me on what he is asking of me was a completely new departure.

In the Fifth Year Prayer Group

I did the Examen with a small group of fifth year students. After getting through their initial resistance, they were happy to recognise the friendship of others; how they felt when they were negative: e.g. When they were unwilling to entertain someone who was feeling low. It was useful for them to sit and recall the times when they dismissed people. They would have rationalised what they did as necessary: e.g. this was their personal time. On reflection, they were aware that what was required was an ability to respond to the moment and be with some one who was not coping well. It created awareness of how Jesus would respond to a friend in need. It was about sensitive listening and It also helped them to feel sorrow for their shortcoming. With boys I felt it was great way for them to talk about how they felt, how others felt because they were dismissive of them, how preoccupied they can get. It helped them to focus on making small changes in their attitudes to their peers.
It also enabled them to put the day to rest, using their own words to connect to the person of Jesus. What would Jesus have done in the circumstance? How would he have felt? Could they find it in their hearts to forgive and to be grateful for all the gifts they have received.? What guidance do they require to face a new day?

Discernment in making decisions:

With the plurality of approach to the Ignatian model it is ideally suited to the life of lay people who are struggling to make sense of their lives amidst the pull of consumer culture and this is very obvious with young people. When a few of the students in the prayer Group spoke about the expectations of the consumer society: the important job, the car, the beautiful partner; to have made it,as they would say. We spoke in the prayer Group about coming back to the school ten years from now, having been successful according to the criteria laid down by the culture, with the beautiful partner on their arm. One student remarked: 'I don't know if I'm really happy.' On the outside it all looks good and I can even visualise a beautiful girl, but I am really pleasing my peers. We spoke about values and what it would feel like to have a peace inside born from doing a job in which you felt you were making a difference; that you felt your decision was on a deeper reflection of who you were called to be. What would the person of Jesus say to both situations? How does it really feel in the heart? They found a terrible struggle to remove themselves from the expectations of the world. They said that they tended to remain with what was predictable for them ; where they knew they would be successful as determined by parents, friends and the culture.

Their conclusion was that it was challenging to evaluate both options, rather than be lured in one direction.

Kairos:
We run the Kairos Retreat each year, which is a peer ministry retreat for fifth years, given by sixth year students. It is an experience of Christian Community with a series of talks given both by peers and adults. It's about young people evalgelising young people and coming to grips with the social context in which they are living. The peers compliment the adult retreat team by sharing their own personal history and Christian beliefs. The programme lasts for three and a half days with the challenge to meet fairly regularly to integrate the retreat into their own daily life. "Love is shown more in deeds than in words."

Day I looks at who am I, what is the purpose of my life and how might I find fulfillment within that purpose? It is modelled in part on The Principle and Foundation of St. Ignatius.

Day 2 who is Jesus in my life? Can I answer the call of Jesus?

Day 3 Christ's message for me. Learning bout our potential and endeavouring to appreciate the help we receive from God in achieving our potential.

Day 4. Living the message. In our day to day lives, in our relationships with family, school friends, in pour relationship with God.

Effects of Kairos:

Both the adults and student leaders felt that they gleaned a lot about themselves and their faith, when preparing the talks and had to deal with different emotions. The preparation was a major growth period for them.

The retreatants felt that the experience was an intense one, but a very valuable one, resulting in a closer bond with one another and a greater awareness of the other's needs, and a greater sensitivity to their parents. Several students who have experienced Kairos have offered to lead Advent and Lenten Night Prayer and have done so very successfully.

Finding God in all things

Ignatian Spirituality asks us to find God in all creation, experiencing God in the beauty of nature, in the disabled whom we work with every week, (whom I will discuss later) in the lines of poetry that's transformative for us. What dimension of me was awakened in my reading of the poem e.g. Canal Bank Walk by Patrick Kavanagh? "Leafy-with-love-banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me, that I do
The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,
Grow with nature again as before I grew."
As creatures we are in awe of our creator because of the indescribable beauty he has given us to enrich the experiences of our lives. It is given so that we may grow in greater union with God, rather than grow separate from the creator.

Previous to being aware of Ignatian Spirituality, I might enjoy the colours of nature, or walk with quiet serenity through the forest of Donadea, which is quite close to where I reside, but it was more of an escape from the trials of life or in an attempt to renew myself or to share a walk with family or friends. Being aware of God in nature, you use the senses more to absorb the experience in its totality, rather than walk in a semi-comatose state. With a different awareness and connectedness the trials of the world seem fairly insignificant alongside the vastness of creation. Ignatius asks us to use them to assist us in our journey towards God: to find God in all things.

How to Pray:

Setting time and a place aside for prayer, making a deliberate appointment with the Lord elevates the Prayer time to something significant, so that if I have difficulty keeping the appointment, I do not treat it frivolously. AN act of will and choice is required to make the time available, no matter how short that period is. People do it unconsciously every day: it is part of who they are. It is a swing of the heart to meet the person of Jesus in prayer and imagine that person waiting for me. It is about creating a sacred space somewhere within the house, even in a corner if no other space is available. What matters is to choose the time, Matthew 12: 'Lord it is good for us to be there'.

As Ignatius stressed to use what helps, rather than use what you were told would help, gives a great freedom in prayer method. In School the Fourth Year students run a club for disabled adults every Wednesday evening and at the start the boys were reluctant to commence the evening with prayer, but now I notice that they have learned from the disabled a way to pray unselfconsciously, that has affected them very deeply. For e.g. some of the men pray for Mr. Bean because he makes them laugh; they pray for their careers in St. Raphael's and their families; they pray for the boys in school because they are good to them and spend time with them. Now the boys bring their own cares to the prayer session without worrying about the reaction of their peers. It has been a valuable learning experience. The boys also noticed that the disabled live in the present and there are no pretentious: they respond to how people treat them rather than who people are. It is an Ignatian way in a quiet, unpretentious setting.

It also challenges us to live in the present; it gives a deeper meaning to relationships in our lives because we are unaware of the future. The awareness of God in all around helps to avoid blaming others when life turns sour, when we experience bereavement or general discontent in our lives. I believe that through the Ignatian Vision we are asked to notice what is happening internally, we are invited to take responsibility for how we feel and given tools to make relevant changes, so that our lives can be more harmonious. It gives us clarity so that the quality of lives can improve.

I find the text Sadhana, (A Way to God), by Fr. Tony de Mello very useful with young people as the exercises are short and can be uses very successfully.

Spiritual Direction:

I would have regarded it as mainly the reserve of religious, but having experienced Spiritual Direction all year, I realised that it is an amazing way of again being deliberate in our search for God and for meaning in life. So much internal movement in our lives can be missed, or forgotten about and so in Spiritual Direction we notice the subtleties within, that may be crucial to understanding what is really happening.
I found that recognising models, out of which we unconsciously operate, very useful in my day to day interaction with people. It made me more aware of the need to embrace different ways of doing things and accepting that each person is unique and has his or her own way of relating to the world. Thus St. Ignatius' perception of the Trinity at work in the universe.
It made me more aware of accepting how different cultures express themselves in prayer. Can I embrace that difference comfortably? Can I accept that the people in our lives are our teachers and we should observe them more carefully.

Some members of our staff who had spiritual direction once a week during Lent, said that it was a very valuable experience. It gave them time out to reflect on their lives in a very gentle and meaningful way. Ignatian spirituality had come alive for them.

In Conclusion:
In finding a method of prayer that makes sense in our lives, brings us in closer contact with our purpose. In Ignatian Spirituality that is clear and so it gives us a greater order about what we do, so that our lives are more deliberate.
I conclude with the words of Adrian Van Kaam in 'Search of Spiritual Identity':

"The life of the Spirit is each person's search for spiritual identity, a search that will never be ended in this life. As long as we live we will discover new aspects of our spiritual identity, hidden from time and eternity in the divine Word.".

Surely St. Ignatius has given both lay and religious a creative way of discovering that the 'longest journey in our lives, is the journey inwards'. Dag Hammarskold in Markings.

Learned Ministry; Jim Corkery S.J., Dean, SystematicTheology, Milltown Institute.

"The Intellectual, in the Ignatian Vision, is Not Alone-Standing"

Point One: The Foundation for Collaborative Ministry

At the outset, I wish to offer you three incidents/'pictures' for your consideration:
(a) A postgraduate student friend (A.C.): our weekly 'steps' meeting;
(b) J.D. and self in Toronto in summer 1985 - that sidewalk restaurant;
(c) Illness/death of a Jesuit companion - and the companionship experienced in it.
The key elements in (a), (b) and (c) are: friendship, faith and theology. The last, theology, arises (recall Gustavo Gutierrez, also the Emmaus story) at sundown. It is a conversation attempting to make sense of lives shared in a particular context. Such a conversation is ultimately transformative because it brings into dialogue my/our story and the Great Story of what God did in Jesus Christ. If the dialogue is authentic, with our true selves genuinely in dialogue with the very ground of our being (Sebastian Moore), then it transforms us into Christs for today's world - into people who live his story for our time. Such a conversation (SJ-SJ; lay-SJ) = basis for collaborative ministry engaged in by a community of disciples.

Point Two: The Intellectual, in the Ignatian Vision, is Not Alone-Standing

If asked (as secondary teacher, philosopher, theologian, social/human scientist, historian), 'what do you love?', the answer is not, strictly speaking, 'theology', or 'psychology', or whatever, but rather: not those things in themselves but those things for the way in which they enable us to better serve Christ's Kingdom mission. Ignatius as theology student liked:
(a) an Aristotelian-type principle, a foundation that is buildable upon and returnable to;
(b) recourse to scriptural and patristic texts, with original languages, etc., as well as the warmth of the devotional, above all Imitatio Christi and giving Exx. (sentir/gustar);
(c) working among the sick, and the poor and unlettered; teaching catechism to children.
So Ignatius, the student of theology, kept together (a), (b), (c): the intellectual, the affective, the social. Institutionally they are represented in the province in MITP/schools; Manresa+; CFJ+ (and in people engaged, respectively, in intellectual [incl. 2nd ed.], spiritual and social ministries). Intellectuality, then, isn't pure, in Ignatian vision; it's in service of Kingdom…

Point Three: Based on Above, the Issues in Collaborative Ministry (Intellectual) become:
· fostering SJ-Lay theological conversation (deriving from faith + friendship)
· aligning stories understood in such conversation with God's 'Great Story in Xt'
· accepting the grace of conversion/transformation that comes with such aligning.
Practically, all this means:
· making resources (intellectual, spiritual, social) available to lay colleagues and learning from the wisdom/insights of lay colleagues in each of these areas……
Concretely, this will involve, inter alia, such undertakings as:
· continuing (subsidized) retreats at Manresa and making available spiritual direction
· scholarships and worktime concessions for MITP degree and course programmes
· more egalitarian and honest collaboration (looking to contracts, conditions [retreats, sabbaticals, holidays] and realistic remuneration) in our intellectual institutions
· creating new forms of institutional, publishing and project collaboration that, from the start, envisage/incorporate equal lay-Jesuit involvement
· Bringing together directors of intellectual works along lines of school heads' group
· Refocusing/retraining SJs for teamwork/shared ownership of enterprises (MITP?).

HOME

Changing Healthcare Organisations by David Coghlan S.J. & Eilish Mc Auliffe This book is very comprehensive introduction to the field of organisation development. It is useful, practical resource for those interested in or directly involved in organizational development or change in health services - topical in the extreme. Blackhall Publishing ISBN 1 842180 52 5

Jesuits on the Web
www.jesuit.ie = General information and links to our work in Ireland and world wide.
www.sacredspace.ie = Pray for a few moments - regroup your energies - relax a moment
www.jesuitvocations.ie = putting people in touch about joining.

	Ordination of Tony O'Riordan, Friday 27th June, Gonzaga Chapel. Feast of the Sacred Heart.
	Pray for Tony, please.

Milltown Institute:
Brian Grogan writes….

STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH KIMMAGE MISSON INSTITUTE
Our link with is moving smoothly along. The Department of Mission Theology and Cultures will be the visible mode of KMI presence at Milltown; its Head has just been announced by the KMI Governors as Dr Paddy Roe cssp. His doctoral thesis (Maynooth) was on the relationship between the Theology of Tradition and Inculturation. He was Registrar and Academic Dean at Tanzaga College, the Catholic University of East Africa. Arrangements for the transfer of KMI Staff into the MI system have been satisfactorily agreed. Some 25 KMI students came on May 28 to Milltown, were welcomed, fed and brought on tour. Their presence from September onward will increase the number of nationalities at MI to above thirty.

RECOGNISED COLLEGE STATUS
Much labour was expended to have our submission for Recognised College status within NUI approved and ready for early June. Sadly, we missed that deadline, so the submission will now be made in good time for the October meeting of the Governing Authority of UCD, who must approve it before it goes for ratification to the Senate of the NUI.

FINANCE
A Fund-raising Committee is in process of formation, whose goal is to raise €200,000 annually. On 22 May an evening was held which brought together representatives of the Trustees, the Institute Finance Committee, students, alumni, and business persons, including bankers, an auctioneer, a PRO, a political fund-raiser, and several entrepreneurs.
Tea and sandwiches were followed by a Power Point presentation of the Institute. An open discussion chaired by Noel Barber and Tony Spollen, our financial advisor, brought many comments from the floor, including the remark from an entrepreneur that our target figure was too low! The money would be used mainly to provide salaries for a core group of staff who would be primarily responsible for curriculum development. This is a requirement should we achieve Recognised College status.
The total contributed or pledged over the past six months to the Joe Veale Chair of Spirituality and to the Kevin O'Donnell Chair of Mentoring is more than €180,000. This includes a generous donation from the Boston College community, who retain warm memories of Joe Veale. Without Noel Barber's flair and support, most of this money would never have come our way.

SPIRITUALITY AT THE CUTTING EDGE
Most of my time is spent in administration, so it is a consolation to spend time with students and notice how their time here changes them. Fourteen MA students in Applied Spirituality presented their theses recently and made me feel that the administrative labour is worthwhile. Topics included: A critique of Reiki (a New Age Healing process); the Spirituality of Immigrant Survivors of Torture; Religious Experience of the Intellectually Disabled; Spirituality of Survivors of Suicide; Spirituality of the Mentally Ill; Spirituality of Theatre; Sexuality and Spirituality; How Church-alienated persons approach the Idea of Dying etc.. These students fulfil MI's motto of Bringing Scholarship to Life.

FAREWELLS
Fr Frank Dromey's retirement at the age of 70 was marked at a very pleasant Dinner attended by some 50 staff on May 8. Frank had served the Institute for many years until his stroke in August 2000.

On May 23 we said goodbye to our neighbours CORI, who are moving to new premises at Avila, the ODC centre off Morehampton Road, and to Sr Elizabeth Maxwell who is retiring from the post of Secretary General to become Provincial of the Northern Presentation Province. CORI have been tenants at Milltown Park for nearly 30 years. Their departure enables the Irish School of Ecumenics to undertake much-needed expansion of its premises.

Archive

Updated 20/6/03

Happy St. Aloysius Gonzaga Day - 21st - to all