Dear Miriam,

At the tail end of January, Michael W. Higgins, stellar scholar and storyteller, walked a full Loyola House of retreatants through the intimate journals of Thomas Merton, the unconventional Trappist monk whose voice sounded loudly in the civil rights and peace movements of the 1960’s. Among the enthralled participants was a longtime friend both of Michael and IJC. Adrienne has been making retreats here since 1967, just three years after its grand opening on June 28, 1964. As you can imagine, she could write her own fascinating journals from all the memories she’s gathered at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre over nearly six decades.

Greg with "the two Bills":

Bill Clarke SJ and William Mbilinyi SJ,

the eldest and youngest Jesuits in Guelph

“The day you cease to change”, states Jesuit author, Anthony de Mello, “is the day you cease to live.” The fact that Loyola House still lives and thrives after 60 years shows that the spirit of hope dwells in our capacity to flow and transform. Change, in fact, began at the beginning. Initially constructed for Catholic weekend retreats restricted to men, Loyola House quickly expanded to welcome women. Today, an increasingly diverse community of people of various faiths consider Loyola House home.

Over the course of this year, we want to celebrate this home by sharing stories of connection. So many of us have been touched and changed by what we’ve experienced in Loyola House and on Ignatius land. Please send us your memories. We’ll feature some in upcoming issues of the IJC Voice. Gratitude shared is gratitude multiplied.

Email your transformative Loyola House memories to: officecoordinator@ignatiusguelph.ca.

Registration is open for 2024!

Now’s the time to sign up for CSA & Community Garden plots. Register online here.

2024 Farm Immersion Internship applications are now open! Consider this opportunity and apply! https://ignatiusguelph.ca/ignatius-farm/internships/

Interested in being part of the Ignatius Farm Community Orchard Collective? Register for this event on March 3! Learn more about the orchard here on YouTube.

Interested in keeping up-to-date on the Farm's activities at a deeper level? Sign up for the Farm's E-News here!

Taste of Diversity Returns!

We are very excited to announce the return of our beloved dinners for 2024.

Tickets are limited so book early to save your seats.

April 9 - Mass 5pm, Dinner 6pm

November 13 - Service 5pm, Dinner 6pm

$100 per dinner, $180 for April and November

Tickets: register online here!

or call 519-824-1250 ext 241

Cedar Circle Sunday Afternoons

February 18, 2:30-4pm

St. Brigid's VIlla

Sally Ludwig continues presenting Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects. Trained in anti-oppression work, Compassionate Communication, Circle Process, the Transition movement, Permaculture and other social technologies, Sally co-founded Transition Guelph and serves as Lead Trainer for Transition in southwestern Ontario.

Find out more here on our website, ignatiusguelph.ca under events.

Book Launch of Circles and the Cross

March 13, 7pm Loyola House

Organic farmer, professor, and author, Loren Wilkinson, presents his latest book, Circles and the Cross, that explores how philosophy, hard science, poetry and religion must work together in our response to the ecological crises of our day.

No need to register, just come. Donations welcome.

For more information see here or contact: gkennedy@ignatiusguelph.ca

This is the second in a new addition to our newsletter, the “Land Lovers” profile, complied by local Guelph artist, writer and Ignatius land lover, Dawn Matheson, with photography by Teresa Blanking.

Please reach out to us If you are a lover of our fields and forests, flora and fauna and want to share in the wonder. We’d like to profile you. 

Who are you? What would you like us to know about you?

My name is Matt Vermeulen and my wife Jenny and I moved to Guelph in 2007 after having spent two years in the small eastern Ontario town of Perth. It was in Perth where we were first exposed to the concept of Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) and where we got involved with projects and professions centered on environmental and human flourishing. It was 2012, just shy of my 40th birthday, when I first began treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic condition that all but ended my career. The next few years were very dark times as I struggled to maintain my physical and emotional self. The day my lovely friend and neighbour said, "Have you considered a garden plot or CSA at Ignatius?" my life changed in wonderful ways and "The Farm" became a second home.

How do you spend most of your time out on the land at Ignatius?

During the growing season, I maintain a garden plot, volunteer in the fields alongside the farmers, and contribute to some carpentry projects. In the off-season, it is skiing plus more carpentry, repairs and maintenance. I regularly walk the land all year round on both sides of Highway 6. All of my time, however, is spent in deep gratitude and appreciation for the Jesuits and the other like-minded people of our area who come to the IJC to make manifest a philosophy of community, responsibility and humility.

Why do you come? What does this land offer you?

I can answer this with very few words: faith in humanity. Among a majority of the people I have met over the years at IJC, there is a palpable aura I interpret as a desire for connections between themselves and the earth, the life growing there and each other. It truly feels like a place of peace.

What do you do to give back to the land?

There is no escaping the reality that humans have created money, and that, without it, our hopes and dreams often remain only that. At every opportunity my wife and I donate and/or purchase what we can from the IJC, mostly through the farm and related programs. I feel confident that our contributions to IJC will be used to protect and improve the land for generations to come.