As we begin the holy season of Advent, I wanted to get a post up after a very long time. As it probably has been for you, my life has been incredibly busy this past year. Now, as we move into this season of waiting, longing and hoping, we are reminded of our great dependance on God.
Yes, we need Him more than ever. To think otherwise is folly. I pray that you would join me in using these days of Advent to reinvigorate our belief in Jesus Christ, the cause of our joy and source of our hope. He alone can save us. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is the Prince of Peace.
I’m sitting at home on this snowy winter’s day. It’s nice to to have the day off due to all the snow and ice we are predicted to receive before the storm ends tonight. Last week, I had chance to attend a New Year’s eve retreat day at Bon Secours Retreat Center, and it was delightful and thought provoking.
Our retreat leader was named Joy, and her name certainly matched her personality. I signed up for the retreat because I saw that Joy would be presenting through the lens of Ignatian Spirituality, which is also the spirituality which guides nearly everything I do, including the retreats I lead at Bon Secours.
It was a lovely day, warm enough to walk the grounds during our break times, or sit by the pond just outside our meeting space. I took this photo of the pond a few years ago while on another retreat. Maybe someone there this morning, took as similar photo as the snow and sunrise blended together.
Recently Pope Francis declared a Jubilee of Hope, starting this past Christmas and lasting through 2025. It’s hard to believe the Great Jubilee declared by St. Pope John Paul II was twenty-five years ago. I was blessed to participate in that amazing event in a number of ways, including trips with my family to Italy.
I really liked Pope Francis’ call to become a person of hope, starting now and hopefully lasting all my days. In a lot of ways, our world seems to be lacking this great virtue of hope, and I for one want to make being a person of hope a personal priority this year. I’ve been working on it since Christmas, but need to step it up. The presenter on the New Year’s retreat mentioned above gave the participants several handouts on how to be more hopeful in our daily lives, and I have already found them helpful.
So how about you? Could you answer Pope Francis’ call to become a person of hope, to bring hope to the hopeless, and to remind others about the importance of this virtue, which has the potential of making the world a better place? We’re just six days into the New Year. We have 359 days to go!
Last week, I reached a milestone anniversary of sorts. Thirty-five years ago, I flew across the country and began an adventure which continues to this day. When I moved to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins University, I thought I would be back in California, where my roots are, as soon as I graduated. God had other plans…
On my first day, August 14, 1989, I settled into a downtown hotel and then walked around the city a bit, easily walking to the Inner Harbor just a short distance away. I got the quick sense that I would like it here, with the exception of the incredible humidity, which I had never experienced before. I wasn’t keeping a journal at that time, so exactly how those first days were spent are lost to me, with the exception of one major occurrence.
When I woke up the next day, August 15th, I knew I wanted to go to church. Not only was it the anniversary of my grandfather’s death, it was also a Holy Day of obligation to Catholics. It was the Feast of the Assumption, and I went down to the front desk asking if there was a Catholic Church nearby. The receptionist told me “there is a great big one just down the street. You can’t miss it.” I went outside and saw that the hotel was at the intersection of Franklin and Cathedral, and the great big church was the Basilica of the Assumption, the oldest Catholic cathedral in the United States. If I had looked out my hotel room window that morning, I could have easily seen it. In the photo here, my hotel was the multi story building on the left.
The Basilica is an amazing building, designed by Benjamin Latrobe, who went on to help design the U.S. Capital in Washington. When I walked into the Basilica for the first time, the interior was dark, with the walls painted grey. The stained glass windows, although beautiful, did not let much light in. Despite the darkness, I immediately fell in love with the place, and grateful to be there for Mass, my first in my new hometown, on it’s Feast Day. Some time later, I spent a few years working on Sundays at the Basilica, and feel blessed to have wonderful memories of my days there. I still visit from time to time, enjoying the restored brightness of the interior, with the cream colored walls and the clear windows which let in plenty of welcomed light.
My time at Johns Hopkins came and went, as did my Mount Vernon apartment, and the Sunday job at the Basilica. I moved out of the city and into a more rural setting, where I live and work today. Life has flown by, and it’s hard to believe more than three decades have passed since I arrived in Baltimore, an eager and hope-filled twenty-something, ready to take on the world. I’m grateful God has been with me every step of the way. Life goes on…
Last Saturday, I returned home from an 8 day Ignatian Retreat at the retreat center I’ve frequented for more than twenty years. I had made my own eight day retreats with the same director for ten years, and those graced experiences drew me deeply into Ignatian spirituality and its vision of “finding God in all things.”
Staying true to St. Ignatius’ vision of building off your own experience to share aspects of Ignatian spirituality with others, I now lead these retreats with the help of other spiritual directors, and this retreat was our third time working together. One of the exciting things about holding our retreats at Bon Secours is the fact that, in addition to those we’ve worked with previously, new retreatants who we don’t know are added to our individual lists. We meet with each retreatant for about an hour each day, and it’s a real blessing to provide spiritual guidance.
In addition to the daily spiritual direction sessions, everyone has the opportunity to go to Mass each day, and also go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation if they desire. Lastly, we end our day with a time of Eucharistic Adoration. This photo was taken during one of those experiences of praying before the Lord, present in the Eucharist.
At the end of the retreat, we gather our whole group together for what is known as the “gathering of graces,” a time when each retreatant can share about their experiences over the eight days and how God was present to them. This gathering at the end is one of my favorite aspects of the retreat. I’m always left with a sense of gratitude, knowing that each person, in their own way, felt drawn to God and experienced moments of grace throughout our days together. What a blessing!
Friends, it seems like the world in getting more and more crazy, and yet Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is calling us to trust in Him. I pray that you are blessed to have a rich and meaningful relationship with God. For many, including me, this relationship with God helps me to keep things in perspective and calls me to trust God more deeply, come what may. If you don’t have a relationship with God, or that relationship has grown cold, let today be the day that you reach out to God, and start that relationship again. He is the one who knows your name and loves you with an everlasting love. God is waiting for you.
Last week, I had the chance to attend a gathering of people who lead retreats at Bon Secours Retreat and Conference Center in Marriottsville. This is the first time the center has gathered us together, and I was so grateful for the chance to meet other directors and hear about the work they are doing, which include retreats on all manner of topics.
As it happens, I also had the chance last week to engage in an email conversation with the person who led me through ten annual Ignatian Retreats, all taking place at Bon Secours. A decade of annual eight day retreats with the same person guiding you can be life-changing if you let it, and I can truly say that they were for me. At one point in the pandemic lockdown, when I was so worried about my own health, family and friends, my job, etc., a thought came to me, “Read your retreat journals.”
I went to my bookself and pulled out more than two feet of journals and brought them downstairs and put them on my coffee table. Then I went to make a pot of coffee. With a nice cup of joe in my hand, I sat down on the sofa and picked up the journal (an old spiral bound college notebook from Walmart) from my 2008 retreat and began to read. Although that first retreat over fifteen years ago was a spiritual game-changer for me, I quickly realized how much I had forgotten about that initial experience of an eight day retreat, done in silence.
As I began looking through the journal, I was happy to see that the first page was filled with prayer intentions. I wrote those down before I left for the retreat and prayed each day with them. I still pray for some of those people today!
At my first session with Stephen, he asked me the following two questions: “Who is God for you right now?” and “Who is the God you’ve come to be with?” Then he gave me Psalm 139 to pray with, and asked me to write down my thoughts in my journal after my prayer. That reflection, filling three pages, included where I did the reflection, how was I feeling, what I was seeing around me (the rising sun, the pond, etc.) and what I was sensing.
I think I’ll do another post (or maybe several) about all that I wrote down about my retreat experiences, which were rich, rich, rich and God was so present to me, just as He is today.
Speaking of today, I’ve begun getting my handouts together for the eight day retreat I’m leading at the end of July. It takes me a lot of time to discern what God might want me to offer this year’s group of retreatants. Some will be coming back to join me, just as I did with Stephen, and others will be meeting with me for the first time. I pray about all of them as I choose the Scripture passages, Ignatian quotes, and images which might be helpful for their daily reflection and discernment.
Our Annual Eight Day retreat this year will take place from July 27 through August 3rd, and we still have a few openings. If you are interested, you can learn more here. In addition to me, there are three other directors, all well versed in Ignatian Spirituality and wonderful, faith-filled people. Please consider joining us!
For the first time in nearly ten years of leading retreats, I had to make the tough call to cancel my retreat this weekend due to our snowy weather. The retreat center I use called me on Thursday talk it over. Once I learned that it was supposed to snow throughout Friday, and some people were driving from other neighboring states, we really had no choice but to err on the side of caution and cancel. Several immediately signed up for one of my other retreats set for this spring, when the weather most certainly will be warmer.
Throughout the day yesterday, I was asked if I could provide some Ignatian Spirituality/Healthy Living resources which I was going to discuss on the retreat. This morning, I had the idea that maybe you, the readers of this blog, might also like a few ideas before this first month 2024 comes to a close. Here’s a little list which you might find helpful:
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of glad 2023 is behind us. It seemed like I woke up every day asking myself if all the chaos in the world can get any worse. Then I check out the news, and yep, it looked like we kept spinning ever faster out of control. 
Now this doesn’t mean that we’re all lost, and that nothing good is happening, because great things are taking place every day. One of my resolutions for the New Year (yes, I still make them and write them out in my journal) is to be more focused on the positive rather than the negative. I think this will be a good resolution for all of us, since 2024 is shaping up to have plenty of firestorms, especially on the political front.
Another resolution I’ve made is the be more diligent in my prayer life. Although I would say that I devote quite a bit of time in my day to prayer, in 2024 I feel like I’m being called to focus on intercessory prayer, especially for peace in the world, especially Israel. 
I leave you with an image and two songs:
There is a footbridge at the retreat center I lead several retreats a year.. Many people come on my retreats praying about the changes they want to make in their lives. I ask them to see themselves as they are right now, standing on one side of the bridge. I ask them to think about what changes need to happen in order for them to successfully get to where they want to go (the other side of the bridge). What do they need to leave behind, and what will await them once they cross over and get to their destination. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the Bon Secours bridge image to integrate into this post, so I found another bridge image which visually gives you the idea…
I always find this reflection helpful for me, and even though you live far from Bon Secours, you can mindfully do this exercise on your sofa at home. 
As one year ends and another begins, the Christian Church has sung the Te Deum prayer for millennia. I love this rendition from the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. God bless these dear and faithful sisters.
In the early days of the pandemic, a great friend sent me a link to a song by JJ Heller entitled You Already Know, which provided me and many other friends such consolation during those very difficult months. I still play this song on my retreats, since we always need reminding that no matter what happens, God is in the midst of it.
May 2024 bring many blessings to everyone reading these words, and to our country and world. Let’s each make a resolution to pray daily for peace in our hearts, our homes, our workplace/school, our Church, our country and the world in which we live.
I received a text early Sunday from a dear friend, and she wanted to let me know that Father George Lane, SJ had passed away. Fr. Lane was the longtime Publisher at Loyola Press, and that’s how I got to know this wonderful and holy man. A chance encounter with Fr. George at a dinner one night in Chicago literally changed my life and I will always be grateful for his kindness to me.
More than a dozen years ago, I was invited by Loyola Press to come to Chicago for a little gathering of people from all around the country who engaged in faith formation at Catholic parishes. We all used Loyola Press textbooks in our programs. In all honesty, I said yes to the invitation because I had never been to Chicago and I was being offered a free trip. Loyola Press was and continues to be a very generous and caring company, and on that first of what turned out to be many visits to the windy city, my fellow travelers were wonderfully cared for and listened to.
On the second day of my trip, after a long day of presentations and conversations, our group went out to dinner, and we were a large group. I ended up at the end of a very long table, and after I sat down, Fr. George sat down across from me. After we placed our orders and got our drinks, Fr. George asked me “so, Paul, what do you know about Ignatian Spirituality?” “Not much at all” was my honest but timid response. This led to a very nice conversation about St. Ignatius and Loyola Press’ mission to publish books regularly on Ignatius and the spirituality which flowed from Ignatius’ conversion and his Spiritual Exercises. Dinner was served and we moved on to other topics.
The next morning, when I arrived at the room where our group was meeting, sitting next to my name tag was a little stack of books, tied together with a red ribbon. I was surprised to see that there was nothing placed at anyone else’s place. With that, Fr. George arrived and came up to me. “Those are from me, and I hope they help you learn about Ignatian Spirituality.” In all honesty, I was surprised that he remembered our conversation from the night before. In my mind, I thought it was only small talk and he was just trying to be polite. I thanked him, put the books in my backpack, and later checked them out at lunch. Here’s what Fr. George gave me: What Is Ignatian Spirituality by David Fleming, SJ, A Simple Life-Changing Prayer by Jim Manney, and Inner Compass by Margaret Silf. These books became my nighttime reading for the rest of the trip. Later that day, Fr. George came by again said that he had continued thinking out our conversation the night before, and he encouraged me to attend an Ignatian retreat sometime after I got home.
As Providence would have it, about a week later, I had another meaningful conversation with someone at a meeting at my parish who just happened to work at a retreat center nearby. I learned that they were offering an Ignatian retreat that summer, and I signed up right away. At this point, I had begun to understand that God was at work in all this, that He was nudging me onto a new path, an Ignatian Way. This new way became a life-long journey which continues to this day. This website, Making All Things New, is one of the many fruits which have come from that providential conversation with Fr. George at the Mystic Celt restaurant on Southport Ave., just down the street from the Loyola Press offices.
I will be eternally grateful to Fr. George’s kindness to me, for his little gift of three books which truly set me on a new path. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen!
Several weeks ago, I had the chance to head home to California to celebrate my godmother’s 100th birthday. She’s the last living close friend of my mom, so there was no way I was going to miss the gathering, and I was so happy several of my siblings were also able to attend this milestone marking party. Here’s a group photo with my godmother in the middle with the purple scarf. It was a remarkable event for all kinds of reasons. First, my godmother is still healthy, happy, and continues to experience amazing longevity.
Who wouldn’t be motivated to take better care of themselves so they too could live long and happy lives with optimal healthspans? That word healthspan might be a new one for you. It was new to me as well, and I had learned its meaning just a couple of weeks before my trip.
Providentially, I had a great conversation with the professor who served as my doctoral reader at Catholic University of America. In addition to a love of Ignatian Spirituality, we also share an appreciation of the intersection between spirituality and health. Ed asked me if I had heard of the recently published book Outlive by Peter Attia, MD. I told him I hadn’t, and he suggested I get a copy ASAP, since Attia’s approach to “the science and art of longevity” is based on top notch current research and could be of great benefit to anyone, especially those dealing with the chronic illnesses he calls the “Four Horsemen”: heart disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer and type 2 diabetes. I purchased both digital and print copies, and began reading that evening. I got right into it because of a conversation I had with my endocrinologist a few months ago.
I met with him right before I heading home for Christmas, and he told me that my weight and lab numbers were not where they should be, and I needed to get right to work in improving things in the new year or he would have to give me another prescription for my type 2 diabetes. I knew I hadn’t been taking good care of myself for several reasons, but in the end they were just excuses. After more than a decade with diabetes, I knew what I needed to do, I just wasn’t doing it.
When I got home, I went back to a modified keto diet (30 carbs per meal), which had been really effective in the past. I also began walking for 30 minutes twice a day, now easy to do because of the length of our school building. The weight started coming off and my daily glucose readings slowly came down. In March, my nutritionist, who knows I love data, made an important and game altering suggestion. Would I be interested in trying out a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)? Because my brother, who also has type 2 diabetes, used a CGM with some success awhile back, I immediately said “yes.” From my grad school days at Johns Hopkins, I’ve loved reading and interpreting data, especially if it could lead to improving a situation. My nutritionist said that within a couple of days, I should be able to understand what was causing spikes in my glucose levels, and that’s exactly what happened.
Although I haven’t had time to research it, the particular low carb bread I ate for breakfast each day nearly doubled my glucose readings. No other food I ate during the day so negatively effected my glucose numbers like that, so I immediately stopped eating the bread. Within a couple of days, my numbers consistently came down to an average of 85-95 an hour or so after eating. My weight also dropped week after week and I’ve had to buy a smaller size twice now. Why am I sharing all this?
Well, this past Friday I had a follow-up visit with my endocrinologist, who I have been seeing now for over five years. My blood work came back showing the most positive numbers they have in my medical record. With my weight loss, I’m at a normal weight for someone my height, and my blood pressure is optimal. I left the office so grateful for my improved health situation and reaching this milestone.
Being with my godmother for her birthday showed me and my siblings what life could be like in old age when you properly care for yourself throughout the years. At her birthday party, I saw someone who knew what to do and did it. Dr. Attia’s book Outlive mentions healthy 100 year olds several times, and what might be possible for you and I if we followed his suggestions in the science and art of longevity. I’ve realized that no matter how many years I have left, I want them all to filled with optimal health. That could be possible for me and you if we were to integrate Attia’s five main tactics for improving healthspan: Exercise, Nutrition, Sleep, Emotional health and Supplements into our daily lives. Please consider getting his book, watching his you tube videos, and checking out his website. Do your own research and then consider making an appointment with your healthcare provider if you feel challenged to make some changes.
NOTE: As always, please do not make any changes to your healthcare without checking with your healthcare provider first. This blog post is for informational purposes only.
This past weekend, I led another Making All Things New retreat, and gratefully the participant’s positive evaluations reminded me once again that many people are looking to make positive changes in their lives through the lens of Ignatian Spirituality.
Its hard to believe I’ve been leading versions of this retreat for nearly ten years now. The retreat came about through my own experience of being diagnosed with Type II diabetes right around the time a wonderful woman took me through St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. My experience of the Exercises is known today my many as the “retreat in everyday life,” meaning you are engaged in work, family life, etc., while making the retreat over several months. Although I didn’t really know it at the time, I needed to make some major changes in my life, and with Ignatius’ “cura personalis” (care for the whole person) approach, those thirty-five weeks of focusing my body, mind and spirit were transformative.
As noted elsewhere on this blog, I prayed each day using material from the Exercises and given to me by Nancy, my Director/Guide. I grabbed a hold of Ignatius’ description of himself in his autobiography as “the Pilgrim” and began walking twice a day for about thirty minutes in the morning and afternoon. Finally, using Ignatius’ “Rules for Eating” as a starting point, I changed my diet and began eating a very healthy diet.
These three daily practices (praying, walking, eating) had a wonderful effect on me, so much so that I felt compelled to share my experience with whoever will listen. Maybe that’s why you’re here. Please know I’m so glad you are reading these words, and I pray that you would find what you need here on this blog to develop your own transformative experience. Please note that if you have health issues, it is very important that you check with your healthcare provider before making major changes to your diet and exercise routines. Changes to your prayer life, on the other hand, needs no physician consultation! You can make those changes right now.
As we move through these first days of Lent, I’m challenging myself, with God’s help, to make this Lent 2023 transformative. My retreat last weekend reminded me that, as Pope St. Paul VI said, it’s more important for me to be a witness than it is to be a teacher.
This morning, I returned to my favorite walking path, where I passed this pond. I’m going to walk at least 30 minutes each day this Lent. I’m also leading a wonderful group of people through a twelve week version of Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, so my prayer life will be extra rich, and finally, I’m going to work on my diet, choosing healthy recipes to cook for myself and my friends. Here are some websites you might find helpful:
Please note that I am not affiliated with these websites and offer them as possible resources.
Lastly, I would ask you to consider using these forty days of Lent to spend quality time working on those issues which might be holding you back from being the person God calls you to be. Make the changes God puts on your heart, and start writing your thoughts, feelings and inspirations in a journal. That’s what St. Ignatius did over 500 years ago, and his journal, now known as the Spiritual Exercises, continues to change lives. I know, because that’s what happened to me. Know you are blessed, and have a holy Lent.
