Fumbling towards Beatitude

Fr. Phil nailed the interview on the EWTN Live last week. They say the network reaches 110 million households. Probably a million people watched their flagship show. But this knowledge did not enervate our fearless leader, who spoke very eloquently about Hearts on Fire.

We rushed from Tampa to Irondale (Birmingham), Alabama for the EWTN Live interview, that it took us a little longer to get our pictures organized. But this retreat (July 20-21) went very well. We were blessed to have David Paternostro, SJ, a New Orleans Province scholastic currently working at Jesuit High in Tampa , help us out. 

I'm writing from Birmingham, Alabama, where the Hearts on Fire mission band has docked after a long drive today from Tampa, and where we are enjoying the hospitality of Fr. Mitch Pacwa, the host of EWTN Live! and fellow Jesuit. Tomorrow night, Fr. Phil Hurley, S.J., our intrepid leader, will appear on the show and talk about what we do . The rest of us will be there too, probably waving from the stands! To tune in online at 8 PM (Wed, July 25), visit:  http://www.ewtn.com/multimedia/live.asp This day is also the 44th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae Vitae. The editors of the Jesuit blog Ibo et Non Redibo (of which I am one) decided a while back to do a series of reflections on the teaching , which have been posted at the site over the past week. My own humble contribution is on the meaning of "ends", which seemed to me the crux of the issue. I hope it is intelligible. You can read it here , along with the others. Finally, since we're

I've been mulling over whether to say this, but I think I will. Once we arrived in Louisiana, all the characters from the southern writers I've read left the confines of my imagination and appeared in real life, the cuisine magically became distinctly delicious, and we entered another time. Our first stop was the St. Charles College novitiate and retreat centre in  Grand Coteau , where spanish moss hangs from oak trees, the cicadas buzz incessantly in the humid heat, and where the birth dates in the cemetery begin in the 1700s.

Fr. Jay Hooks, S.J. celebrates the Vigil Mass at the retreat The Hearts on Fire mission band has had a busy two weeks, journeying to Corpus Christi , Texas on the Gulf Coast. The team stayed at the campus of the SOLT community, which operates a retreat centre there, alongside their novitiate and the shrine of Our Lady of Corpus Christi . 

The Hearts on Fire Team in San Antonio, Texas First of all, San Antonio is a great, if underrated city. Seventh largest in the United States, and second biggest in Texas, yet often overshadowed by its younger brothers Dallas and Houston with all their corporate behemoths and professional sports teams (S.A. only has one: the NBA's Spurs). But S.A. has more history, and Texans will forgive me, more charm. Home to a huge Latino population, the oldest cathedral in the U.S., and a series of historic missions, the city was very receptive to us both as visitors and retreat-givers.