OK, I have to admit it.  Up to this morning, I didn't know we had an National Trails Day.  Well, on my early morning sweep of the on-line news, I found that the first Saturday in June is, you guessed it, National Trails Day.  You can learn more by visiting the American Hiking Society's website.  So, now I'm sure you are wondering if I knew about the American Hiking...

Last night, I finished my task of leading a group through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  The six of us spent 30+ weeks together, sometimes in person, sometimes online, and all of it a very rich and rewarding experience for everyone.  It is a great blessing for me to have seen the transformation of each pilgrim, and, as typical at the end of the Exercises, we gathered for a...

Happy Memorial Day.  I'm just getting back from one of our most successful and meaningful Making All Things New retreats.  I met so many great people, all trying to improve themselves: body, mind, and spirit.  St. Ignatius called that approach cura personalis (care for the whole person).  Sometimes we think that such thoughts/concepts are new, but Ignatius was writing about...

"Sing praise to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.  For his anger is but for a moment, and is favor is for a lifetime.  Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning." (Psalm 30:4-5)).Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a morning person.  With a little help from a cup or two of coffee, I try to approach the new day with some level of...

So, I know I'm a bit late with this post, but if you haven't gotten your veggie plants/seeds yet, it's not too late!  In my area of the country, Mother's Day is the usual weekend when it's safe to start planting things outside.  Wouldn't you know that two days after I got my plants into the ground and several containers, we had a frost warning.  In mid May!If you want to get...

St. Ignatius  still seemed a bit unreal to me when we left Montserrat and headed down the mountain to Manresa, where he would live for nearly a year, living as a hermit, having mystical experiences, writing in his notebook, and, in a moment of despair, even contemplated suicide.  God revealed himself to Ignatius in this little town, and even though he planned to stay there just a few...

It's almost 400 miles from the castle of Loyola to the Benedictine Monastery high up the mountains of Montserrat.  When you are riding in a coach bus, the miles pass slowly, but painlessly.  No so for St. Ignatius.  After months of recuperation from his battle injury and subsequent surgeries, he was ready to head out of the family castle and visit the famous Shrine of our Lady of...

A year ago today, my fellow pilgrims and I were in Loyola, the ancestral home of St. Ignatius.  Amongst the baroque grandeur of the  17th century Basilica built in his honor, it was a bit hard for me to find a glimpse of the real Ignatius, who probably wouldn't have been thrilled with the huge and fancy church.  In an unexpected way, I found what I was looking for in what's...

This past week, I marked anniversaries of two important events in my life, and both involved pilgrimages. The first pilgrimage began the last week of April of 2009.  Easter was late that year, and I held off getting a routine medical checkup until after all the events of Holy Week were over.  As I recall, I went to get some blood work done on...