Rejoice and be glad!

Our Mission

Ignatians West transforms lives by supporting nonprofit agencies that assist people who are poor or marginalized through the service and companionship of mature adults 50+ who are available to share their experience and talent in meaningful part time volunteer positions and reflect on their encounters in the Ignatian tradition.

The psalmist set the tone for the Easter readings:

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

I hope you celebrate today, gathering with family and friends, sharing a special meal, and that you can relax and enjoy this day. Holy Thursday and Good Friday took us to a place of solemn remembrance and a sense of sadness. We know the resurrection story and view it with awe, the fulfillment of the scripture. The darkness, the sorrow, the sadness give way today to joy.

Celebration might require extra effort, given what’s happening all around us. But for today, we can set aside our worries and embrace the hope of Jesus' resurrection. We can live through the day moment to moment, savoring what is in front of us, no matter how simple or small the moment might be. For today, let us rejoice and be glad.

There is no doubt that we are in dark times, as people are “taken,” removed from society, for things that were accepted in a free society in the past. Spoken or written words can bring trouble when least expected. Immigration status, thought to be legal, is challenged, and deportations are taking place quickly outside of normal legal channels. Jobs thought to be secure are gone, and research into all sorts of diseases has been halted, and the list goes on. All of this is true and difficult, but just for today, let us rejoice and be glad.

If you attended an Easter vigil or Easter morning liturgy, I am going to guess that the church was crowded, more so than usual, as people came to the altar to celebrate. Seeing the long communion lines and crowded pews is a moment of grace. There is no need to lament that this is not the usual Sunday crowd or wonder how we can get them to come back or why they only come a few times a year. It is a time to look around and bless each person present. God brought them for reasons unknown to us, let us rejoice and be glad.

We need this moment, today, to gather ourselves, breathe in all that is good, and thank God. Then, we can rise up tomorrow and do whatever each of us can to bring much-needed peace and justice to our communities. Jesus set the example, he is the model, let us rejoice and be glad.

Easter blessings and peace,

Anne

Fr. Tom O'Neill, SJ received an MFA in painting from the Pratt Institute in New York in 2002. Rather than making "pictures" Tom's paintings are the result of a process that involves both control (choosing the colors, density or viscosity of the paint, location where it is applied or poured) -- and a complete lack of control -- (allowing the paint to dry, blend, mix and flow into other colors the way it does, following its own internal mechanisms.) He works with the canvas flat on a table, pouring and dripping the paint from brushes, straws and sticks. Less the realization of a vision of what the painting will be, Tom's process is more like alchemy -- putting together materials that will themselves create something new.

It is only in recent years that Tom realized that his process echoed the Grace of the Serenity Prayer. Some of what he does, he controls. Much of what happens on the canvas, he has absolutely now control over. He began working with this process back in the early 2000's. It was 14 years later that the Serenity Prayer blossomed in a newfound life of sobriety.

These paintings, which are in his office at Loyola High School, express the images found in a verse of St. Patrick's Breastplate, or "The Deer's Cry"

I arise today, through the strength of heaven;

light of sun,

radiance of moon,

splendor of fire,

speed of lightning,

swiftness of wind,

depth of sea,

stability of earth,

firmness of rock (which I am still working on)

There is something beautiful and raw in observing the beauty rooted within God's Creation. Even as our world can seem torn by division, turmoil and mistrust, there is, as the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, "the dearest freshness deep down things."

Happy Easter

Tom O'Neill, S.J.

Loyola Jesuit Community

I have finally started to update my website!

Website of my paintings and other artwork

http://tommyosj.wordpress.com/

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