Join the St. Ignatius Parish Community as a Liturgical Volunteer! St. Ignatius Parish warmly invites you to get involved with our liturgical community. We are currently seeking volunteer students to serve in various liturgical roles, including altar servers and lay readers. This opportunity is open to students from 6th grade through 12th grade. By participating in servers and readers, you will have the chance to assist in our liturgical services. Your role will be crucial in fostering a deeper spiritual connection among our young parishioners and enhancing the overall worship experience at St. Ignatius Parish. Altar Server Training Sessions To prepare you for these roles, we have scheduled three Altar Server Training sessions: August 25: 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM (6th graders and up) September 22: 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM (6th graders and up) October 6: 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM (aimed at Confirmation youth, but all 6th graders and older are welcome) For more information, please reach out to Tom Fregoso. He can provide details about the role of Liturgical Youth Minister and how you can get involved. This is a wonderful opportunity to connect with fellow parishioners, make a positive impact on the youth, and contribute your talents to our community. We look forward to embarking on this rewarding journey with you!

St. Ignatius Parish is thrilled to announce the launch of its monthly gatherings for junior high and high school students, beginning with a delightful Youth Ministry Ice Cream Sundae Social. This kickoff event will take place on Sunday, August 25th, immediately following the 5 PM Mass. We invite all junior high (6-8th grade), high school (9-12th grade) students, and those who have been recently confirmed at St. Ignatius Parish to join us for an evening of sweet treats and engaging conversations. For more information, reach out to Tom Fregoso at the Youth Ministry (tfregoso@usfca.edu). Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to kick off the school year with a fun, meaningful, and of course delicious event. We look forward to seeing you there!

A new partnership! The new Youth Ministry Social Justice Club and the Simple Needs Sunday program are partnering to help deliver essential and everyday items to our homeless and struggling neighbors. For example, this summer Wiley (age 13) and Ella (age 11) delivered items donated by St. Ignatius parishioners to St. Anthony's Women's and Children's Services. We invite your family to join us in our efforts! Each month there will be a different agency that we are supporting, but the process will be the same. Contact Tom Fregoso at the Youth Ministry (tfregoso@usfca.edu) or Liz O'Brien Wilkes at Simple Needs (eobwilkes@gmail.com) to learn more.

Nearly every year since I first entered the Society of Jesus, I spend part of the month of July re-reading the Autobiography of St. Ignatius, in preparation for his feast day on 31 July. It is, for me, one of the foundational books of my Jesuit life; the story that reminds me, both in its form and substance, of what my vocation to the Jesuits entails, while challenging me to avoid settling for anything less. At times touched with self-deprecating humor and alive with a mature humility, this story of his years of pilgrimage and discovery—of the ways the young Iñigo was gradually and lovingly led to surrender all he was to God—consoles me in the twists and turns of my own journey. I can appreciate the false starts and the failed attempts of the Pilgrim whom Ignatius describes. And though, as a young man, I was stunned (like many modern readers) by the excessive acts of mortification and penance in which Iñigo engages, yet I recognize today the desire of youth, and I am moved by the journey he makes from mere external penances to the deeper mortification that comes from mission. The older I get—and I am older now than Ignatius was when he dictated the text—the more I see the pattern in the story, a pattern that incarnates the Spiritual Exercises in the life of the Pilgrim, and that ends just as the Pilgrim becomes a part of something greater than himself, just as the Lord takes and receives all he is and puts it at the service of the Church. For Ignatius, the Exercises as prayed or studied was only the beginning: it was the Exercises as lived which mattered—that journey from narcissism to humility, from vainglory to surrender, from the illusional happiness of self-determination to the real joy of love and the giving of oneself to others.

St. Ignatius Parish youth, families, and friends of the parish (all are welcome!), get ready for a night unlike any other, celebrating San Francisco legend Jerry Garcia in style with a tribute game that promises to be an immersive experience. Everyone is welcome! The tribute game, held at Oracle Park on August 12 will feature a live performance before the show (6:15 pm) by the band Moonalice. Come to the SF Giant's youth and family outing (vs Atlanta)!

On Holy Thursday of 1993, at the Mass of the Lord's Supper, I sat beside the Director of Liturgy at St. Perpetua Parish in Lafayette, California, where I ministered as a recently ordained deacon. Together we had processed up the aisle, together we had refilled pitchers and changed basins during the ritual of foot washing, and together we had set and decorated the table of celebration—all according to the careful plans composed by this gifted liturgist. Yet, as the altar was set and the gifts were placed upon it, my partner in ministry returned to the pew where we had been sitting together for much of the Mass, while I was called forward to stand beside the presider and help prepare the gifts. Pouring the water into the chalice, I spoke the words of the prayer—“Through the mingling of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity”—and then handed the chalice to the priest, who raised it as he recited, quietly beneath the offertory hymn, the word of the berakah—“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation. . .” A few moments later, at the conclusion of the Eucharistic prayer, I raised the chalice, while the doxology was sung by the presider. In all these ways, I assisted at the table of the Eucharist in a manner my companion could not, simply because the liturgist with whom I ministered that night was a woman.

Are you, or anyone you know, interested in becoming a Catholic? Or if you are already baptized, would you like to complete the sacraments of initiation by receiving the Eucharist and being confirmed in the Catholic Church? Adults (18+) are invited to join our upcoming Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults program here at St. Ignatius Parish with classes starting Sunday, Sept. 8, and extending through Sunday, June 1, 2025. All participants will receive the sacraments at the Easter Vigil on April 19, 2025.

When they gathered during those steamy summer days in Philadelphia, there was no certainty of the result. Although the war had been going on for over a year, there was still a sense, among a number of delegates, that they were simply English citizens, demanding their rights according to the traditions and customs of their nation. The King and Parliament had sought to deprive them of this identity, but surely a proper resolution would emerge. But, on 7 June 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia rose to offer a resolution: “That these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states.” Though six of the thirteen colonies opposed an immediate declaration, still a committee was appointed to draft a document for the Congress to debate. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania was the old man of the committee, which included John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Young Jefferson—a writer of great skill and energy, educated in the philosophy of the Enlightenment—was given the task of drafting the document, and returned with a treatise that others felt needed only minor revision. And when it was read to the whole Congress, it was passed unanimously, affirming an principle greater than the men who approved it, a vision of society in which “all men are created equal” and possessed of “unalienable rights” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” rights that no power on earth—neither king nor Parliament, political majority nor religious zealot—could justly deny or extinguish. Through Revolution and Civil War; through the marches of Suffragettes and the riots at Stonewall; through the blood of Martin Luther King and the fasting of Cesar Chavez; through waves of immigrants from Ireland and Poland, Italy and Eastern Europe, Vietnam and Korea, our nation has strained to live into this principle, to uncover what it means for all people to be created equal, for all to possess not just civil or procedural rights, but “unalienable” rights: i.e., rights derived not from the actions of the state but by the hand and will of the Creator. 

Ignatian Spirituality has the simplest of premises: seek to find God in all things. But the language associated with it can seem daunting if you don’t know what it means. So in plain English, here is a guide to understanding the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. Saint Ignatius designed a retreat to help people deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and grow in the inner freedom they need to discern where God is truly calling them. The freedom sought in this retreat is a freedom from anything that disrupts our ability to experience what our heart most deeply desires. The retreat is known as the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius because it includes a series of contemplations (meditations or visualizations), reflections and prayers - quite literally “spiritual exercises” - to use in daily spiritual practice. Ignatius structured it in four “weeks” because he envisioned that his exercises would be undertaken during a thirty-day silent retreat and directed by an experienced companion on the journey, a spiritual director. These are not literally seven-day weeks, but "movements" or “stages”. The four movements include: 1) God’s love and mercy and the reality of our sinfulness, in all its complexity, 2) Jesus’ life, from the moment of his incarnation and throughout his public ministry, 3) Jesus' last days, from his arrest to his passion, crucifixion and death; and finally, 4) Jesus’ Resurrection, his Ascension, and the coming of his Holy Spirit, and his ongoing mission which we live out.

St. Ignatius Parish youth and families, get ready for an exclusive basketball experience this summer, a reward for all the girls who played in our inaugural season and for all the boys who hope to play in our upcoming CYO season. The sixth annual California Classic Summer, held at Chase Center on July 6 will feature games between the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, and Miami Heat. This basketball showcase features 2024 NBA Draft picks, second-year pros and more players competing to land their spot on an NBA roster for the 2024-25 season.

As many of you know, my father has been in and out of the hospital since his mild stroke on Holy Thursday. During his last stint at Good Samaritan in San Jose, I was in the room when one of the medical professionals asked him if he preferred to be called Joseph or Joe. I was shocked to learn – after knowing him for 65 years – that he prefers Joseph. What?! Who knew? My grandmother called him Joseph, and my mother calls him that when she wants his attention or he's in trouble.

The St. Ignatius Parish ARC (Anti Racism Committee) and the Joint (St. Ignatius and St. Agnes) Solidarity Network invite all parishioners to participate in a Summer Book Read of Javier Zamora’s Solito. We will have two discussions, one in person and one virtual, after hospitality on July 14 and August 4, and via Zoom on Thursday, July 18 and August 8. The reading project is a ramp up to a larger retreat on immigration the two ministries are sponsoring, starting in September and running through the fall. Copies of Javier Zamora’s memoir are available in the In All Things Bookstore, as well in local bookstores, the Public Library and online. Javier Zamora took a three-thousand-mile journey when he was just nine years old from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the US border. His memoir provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.

Friday, May 31, marked the 10th anniversary of Deacon Eddy Gutierrez’s ordination. We congratulate you, Deacon Eddy, and we count our blessings that you continue to be missioned to St. Ignatius Parish by the Archbishop of San Francisco. Your presence among us has been a great gift to our community these ten years. We are grateful to you for the ways you break open the Word in your preaching on Sundays, as you share with us your experiences of the Lord, especially in the ways that s/he is revealed through your beautiful family. You have also been a wonderful gift to the women and men who have come into the Church through the RCIA program. And you have had a significant impact on those at whose weddings you have presided and whose children you have baptized. We are all so grateful. We pray that God continue to abundantly bless you in your ministry – and that your ministry continues to be among us at St. Ignatius.

About 30 years ago, two Jesuits I know were driving through the Alaskan bush, arguing about theology—as Jesuits can do. The older Jesuit complained that the younger men were not teaching the Eskimos about transubstantiation (i.e., St. Thomas Aquinas’ explanation of how the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus). “Well,” said the younger Jesuit, “the truth is that I am not sure I understand that whole view of the world.” At this the older Jesuit started to sputter and yelled, “Then what do you tell people about the Eucharist? What do you believe?” The younger Jesuit looked thoughtful and said, “I believe that whatever it was that happened between Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper, happens every time we gather around the altar and break the bread and share the cup. I am not sure exactly of how it works, or what it all means in metaphysical detail. . .but I know it’s something real and powerful that changes everything.”

The California Ignatian Advocacy Summit took place April 14 and 15 in Sacramento. Jesuit high school students, including from St. Ignatius, as well as parishioners, priests, volunteers and adult Ignatian leaders engaged directly with legislators at the California State Capitol on legislative priorities selected by the students in the fall. The focus areas were housing/homelessness, climate change and migration. See the response from St. Ignatius High school students and Advocacy Day priorities in our email newsletter and on our website under "news" or directly at stignatiussf.org/news

Reading recently about the attacks by Israeli militias on food and medical supplies destined for the starving refugees of Gaza, about the genocidal attacks against women and children in Darfur, and about the dissolution of Haiti under gang leadership, I was drawn back to a book I read more than two decades ago, describing the once unimaginable Rwandan massacres, “We Regret to Inform You That Tomorrow We Shall Be Killed With All Our Families.” This book’s title comes from a letter written to a pastor by a member of his congregation, who did not know that the pastor, at that very moment, was leading the group who was about to massacre the writer and his family. Indeed, throughout the book, there are countless stories of priests and ministers, religious women and lay leaders betraying the people with whom they worshipped—giving up their neighbors and their companions to the forces of race-hatred and the pressure of mob rule. In one particularly heartbreaking story, two Rwandan religious sisters—two nuns—were convicted of genocide for participating in the killing and burning of people who had come to them, originally, for refuge and protection. That vowed religious, dedicated to the faith of Jesus, could be involved in such horrendous acts as these should not, I suppose, surprise me—and today, sadly, it likely would not. Yet, reading this passage again, I am still struck by the defense, offered by the nuns for their actions: “We did what we could reasonably do in the situation. We are not heroes; we are just ordinary women.”

Several months ago, I had a conversation with my spiritual director that has proven invaluable. As a “doer,” and as one that too easily acts out of an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, I was encouraged by her to end each day by taking just a few minutes to reflect on “how you and your colleagues made it possible for the kingdom to expand a bit more that day.” That advice has helped me notice the many places in our parish where there is vitality, growth, enthusiasm, energy, hope, and joy. It is helping me to notice those things more as I experience them, in the moment. And it leads me to consider how best to continue to steward all that God is doing among us.

On Mother’s Day, we celebrate our mothers and step-mothers, our grandmothers and godmothers, any and all whose love for us has given us life, bound our wounds, celebrated our achievements, forgiven our wrongs, lit our paths, and given us reasons to hold onto hope and life with joy. We honor those women whose love for us has been a metaphor for God’s own love for us.

In recent weeks, Fr. John has done a wonderful job bringing the Synod back into focus for our parish. He laid out for us the history of synodality, beginning with the early Church, its resurrection and affirmation in Vatican II, its loss of purpose in the last decades of the last century and the first one of this century, and its recovery by Pope Francis to revitalize the work of Vatican II by creating a Church rooted in the People of God. Pope Francis’ recovery of this model of synodality is rooted in his belief in the good will of the faithful and their ability to notice the movement of the Holy Spirit in their lives and in the world around them.

Welcome! We are excited that you might consider being part of a brand new program at St. Ignatius Parish. We are building a girls basketball program for grades 3rd-8th. Please complete the form below to so that we can start lining up players, coaches and volunteers to help.