For the past eight years I have worked with several organizations who use the arts to mitigate trauma in the veteran community. Since March 2020, I have offered over 250 free one-hour guided meditation sessions via Zoom, creating a secure space for people to share in community. I would now like to offer this practice to the St. Ignatius community. I was moved to create this series in response to the potential stress of the upcoming midterm elections and the trauma of seeing attacks on the lives and dignity of our immigrant siblings across the country. We are bearing witness to the daily suffering of strangers and in some cases, our friends and neighbors as they face injustice, intimidation and cruelty, resulting in our collective anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. Our collective nervous systems may be on high alert. In the guided meditation, we start with 'theatre as medicine” tools: grounding, breathing and observation without judgment. Next is a guided journey where imagination is stimulated, as it is one of the elements that goes offline when dealing with trauma. After returning the participants to the present moment, I offer a few minutes to jot down notes, and then anyone who wishes is invited to share their insights.

The Parish Finance Committee is pleased to share the approved budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. This year, we are reflecting on what it means to become ever more fully a Eucharistic People: a community that receives God's gifts with gratitude and, in turn, gives generously of ourselves to become a blessing to others. Our parish budget is one expression of that calling. We expect to invest $2.95 million in the mission and ministries of St. Ignatius Parish. These numbers represent much more than the cost of operating a church. They represent choices about the kind of parish we seek to become.

In joyous hope, on September 3, we celebrated the Feast of St. Phoebe. This was the start of St. Phoebe Fall, a time when we celebrate the renewal of discernment of opening our diaconate to women. Our new American pope, Pope Leo XIV, has encouraged us to reignite the discernment of women’s leadership and full participation in the Catholic Church. In a moving declaration of equal dignity of Catholic women he observed that “what the Holy Spirit started cannot be stopped”. It is my hope that the synodal discussion of opening the diaconate to women will continue, through all papacies, until women may begin serving Jesus Christ as diaconesses!