The Pioneer Association has launched a Lenten campaign this year, urging Irish people to abstain from alcohol during Lent or at least to reduce their consumption. Speaking on Temperance Sunday, 22 February, Padraig Brady, CEO of the Pioneers, noted the devastating impact which alcoholism is having on Irish society. He identified crime, accidents, absenteeism and the cost of healthcare as ...

Ash Wednesday, 25 February, marks the tenth anniversary of Sacred Space, the online prayer website set up by the Jesuit Communication Centre in Leeson Street. It has been a phenomenal success. Today it is available in nearly twenty different languages, and up to 20,000 unique visitors come to the site every weekday. In more recent years it has extended beyond ...

President Mary McAleese gave generously of her time and attention this week to a group of students from the Jesuit Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. Accompanied by two Jesuits, Donal Doyle and Mike Milward, the students are currently on a visit to Ireland as part of their Irish Studies course. The trip is designed to give context and to add ...

When Barney, Michael and Alan McGuckian, three sons of Pauline McGuckian and all three Jesuit priests, were at their mother’s death-bed this week they started to recite Vespers together when they saw that she was near the end. They had just reached the antiphon: “The bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him”, when old Pauline did just that, and quietly ...

The future of Milltown Park is still full of question-marks, but one item is clear. The community will be moving into a building which is being constructed on the site of the old Cherryfield. This picture shows the present state of the building, viewed from the new Cherryfield. You can see the outlines of three storeys, and a fourth will ...

The typically Jesuit Novena of Grace, begun in 1643 by an Italian devotee of St Francis Xavier, still draws crowds in many Dublin parishes from 4 to 10 March. The Novena of Grace originated in Naples, Italy in 1643. A Jesuit was cured through the intercession of St Francis Xavier, who promised that those who made the nine days of ...

Before their suppression in 1773, the Jesuits had been called the schoolmasters of Europe. Back in 1605 Francis Bacon, the philosopher and Lord Chancellor of England, had advised:  “For education consult the schools of the Jesuits. Nothing hitherto in practice surpasses this.” – The Advancement of Learning: Book 1 (1605)

Last  May Edmond Grace SJ appealed for funds to buy desks for a school in Syngonya, Zambia. The response was amazing:  the desks, as you see from the photo, are now in place, and Edmond extends his sincere thanks to everyone who contributed so generously and promptly. Brian Lennon’s book on forgiveness – So you can’t forgive…? Moving towards freedom – ...

The country, the Society of Jesus, the Irish Province and the Gardiner Street community combined beautifully and joyously to celebrate the first Irish Jesuit to reach the venerable age of one hundred years. Forty Jesuits gathered on 18 February to toast Proinsias O Fionnagain, our “great gift of grace”, as Derek Cassidy, Superior of the Gardiner Street community, said in his ...

Over five hundred people attended the annual mass of thanksgiving and prayer for the canonisation of  Fr John Sullivan SJ in Gardiner St Church on Saturday 21 February. Fr Tom Morrissey SJ gave a  fascinating account of the life of the Jesuit whom many people believe is a saint. He spoke of  Fr John Sullivan’s love of the poor, his life of prayer and fasting, and ...