For some people there will be no Christmas this year. As St. Oscar Romero puts it bluntly, “The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God — for them there will be no Christmas…”

Thanks to this pandemic, it’s going to be a very different kind of Christmas… But it is precisely why–more than ever–we need Christmas!

When I made the leap of faith more than 10 years ago to join the Society of Jesus, it was the terminus of many years of searching and asking, of life’s many twists and turns, of a journey of finding and losing.

What I keep in my “Retreat Guide’s Backpack” of course depends on the notion I have of a good retreat. And for this my most important guide is really St. Ignatius of Loyola himself.

God will show that our promises are not simply a bunch of no’s. God will eventually gently lead you to a place where our vows re-emerge as yeses. And those yeses bring us closer to people and the world, not apart from them.

The youth are counting on us. They need us to believe in them and to take a chance on them. Jesus is with them, waiting for us, to love him in the powerlessness and vulnerability of the young. Yes, the spiritual path lies before us.

It is our hope that during your stay at the Ateneo you have imbibed some, if not all, of these values. They are values you are invited to cherish for the rest of your lives.

We find in the the traditional images of the Sacred Heart, Jesus is calling us back to Himself: calling us to love Him back, calling us to make that response of love through REPARATION, in return for all His tender, affectionate, and wounded love for us.

Our two most ancient enemies, sin and death, have been decisively defeated! The universe and all creation have been liberated! We share in His Victory, Power and Joy!

Universal Apostolic Preferences are the fruit of a process of discernment lasting almost two years. All Jesuits were invited to take part and in addition our mission partners. It concluded with a confirmation from Pope Francis in a special meeting with Fr General Arturo Sosa.