Of Human Bondage and Belief

By Adam Hincks, S.J.

(Photo: Jonathan Kim, Lejac, B.C.)

Man is not a reasoning animal; he is a seeing, feeling, contemplating, acting animal. He is influenced by what is direct and precise. – Bl. J. H. Newman

This summer I read W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage for the first time and found it thoroughly engrossing. It is a magnificent Bildungsroman chronicling the life of its protagonist, Philip Carey, from his early childhood through to his early thirties. At the same time, though probably not by design, the novel provides a good portrait of the early twentieth century, having particularly vivid depictions of Bohemian Paris and lower- and middle-class London during that period.

As a young man living abroad, Philip loses his Christian faith, never to regain it. It is an abrupt experience for him, coming in the middle of a conversation with a freethinking, American theology student.

Philip paused for a while, then he said: “I don’t see why one should believe in God at all.” The words were no sooner out of his mouth than he realised that he had ceased to do so. It took his breath away like a plunge into cold water … It was the most startling experience he had ever had.

Life is a Dance: God and Salsa-Dancing

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

Credit: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

I have learned to see life as a dance. We have a God who knows how to dance and who leads us, as we dance to the music of his Heart. I find God not just in dancing as an analogy for life. To be more specific, I find him as I dance salsa. Salsa-dancing is a very important part of my Latin American culture. Despite its basic steps, salsa-dancing is a creative and wonderful form of self-expression. The way one turns and moves is all about how one interprets the rhythm of the music. My whole being – mind, body and soul – is engaged when I dance salsa.

Spontaneous Combustion of Love

By Edmund Lo, S.J.

(neatoshop.com)

Those of you who teaches may be familiar with the saying that we learn the most when we teach something. This certainly applies to me and my time at Camp Ekon, even though I am now two weeks removed from the normal hustle and bustle of camp life. One of my responsibilities at the camp was to lead reflection sessions for the older campers in the leader-in-training program. In these sessions, I gave them a specific question on which to reflect, so that they would be able to look deeper into their experiences. Instead of dwelling upon the tastiness of camp food or the entertainment value of the all-camp activities, they would be invited to dwell on something more profound.

Since this process was less of a lecture and more of a sharing of experiences, I did not leave myself out of it, and participated in the sharing as well. One of the questions I gave them was: “How have I been changed during my time at Ekon?” I remembered feeling a jolt to my system when I was reflecting on this question. I initially thought that this was not my first rodeo at Ekon, and things had been going rather smoothly; but surely, I have been changed in some way? Thankfully, I found it, but not without a bit of prayerful introspection.

Sabbath

By Artur Suski, S.J. 

Photo: http://www.truth2u.org

Few of us were left unaffected after watching the film or seeing the musical Fiddler on the Roof. A group of us watched this masterpiece together recently. It was my second time watching it, and this time around, I was moved by it in a different way. The first time I was mostly entertained by the comedy of the work. This time, however, I was really moved by the way the Jewish faith was presented, especially their observance of the Sabbath.

Loreto-Bound: The Experience of Pilgrimage

By John D. O’Brien, S.J.

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As young people return home from an invigorating World Youth Day in Rio, and as pilgrims trod the historic path of St. James, and as student groups return from pilgrimages within Canada, these mid-summer months seem conducive to a look at the hallowed Jesuit tradition of “the pilgrimage”. What follows is an account of this author’s first Ignatian pilgrimage, an eight-day foot-journey undertaken when he was a resident student of the Casa Balthasar in Rome.

The idea of making a pilgrimage, that is, journeying to some place of spiritual significance, is commonly understood by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, but as to what may entail an ‘Ignatian pilgrimage’, would require further explanation. Such a pilgrimage is taken after the example of that perennial pilgrim, St. Ignatius of Loyola, who himself followed those first disciples of Our Lord (Mt 10:5-16, Mk 6:7-13, Lk 9:1-6), who were sent to preach without any provisions, to rely on whatever God would provide for them. Therefore it was in this ‘Ignatian’ spirit of trusting in Divine Providence, that a pair of students from the Casa Balthasar set out for eight full days without money, though with a razor and a toothbrush between them. This was also going to be an exercise in pushing the limits of one’s comfort zone.

I AM who I AM: The Quality of Being

By Brother Daniel Leckman, S.J.

http://breathecast.christianpost.com/

A few weeks ago, in our Mass readings, we encountered the story of God telling Moses ‘I am who I am’ (Exodus 3:13-20). The passage left me rather pensive, with not very much not say about it. It’s only when I connected it with an experience I had as part of my summer program that I gained new understanding into God's encounter with Moses, and my encounter with this passage.

An Apology for Power

By Adam Hincks, S.J.

(Image: Christ Pantocrater, Monreale, Sicily)

Such wondrous power God to his Saint will lend. – Milton

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Lord Acton (a Catholic, as it turns out) once famously wrote. In our culture, with its deep mistrust of power, this is a truism. Power is associated with tyranny and abuse. It enables big people to oppress little people. It is something dangerous that must be contained through checks and balances. If there are some that must have more power than others, we treat it as a necessary evil. After all, history can provide a litany of examples of people whose power seems to have led to terrible corruption.

Despite the apparently obvious truth of Lord Acton’s dictum, I would like to question it—most obviously because it carries the absurd corollary that God, who has infinite power, is absolutely corrupt. On the other hand, there really does seem to be a correlation between power and corruption that we can see any day just by reading the news. However, it is a fallacy to turn correlation into causation and claim that power directly causes corruption. In fact, power is of itself a good and in is really a lack of power that leads to corruption.