I made my yearly retreat in Fairfax, Marin County at a villa the Jesuit Community has there. Across the Golden Gate Bridge where it was sunny, not foggy and in a nice setting, near redwood trees and where I saw each day at least one and often more deer on the property. The usual retreat for a Jesuit includes five-hour-long meditations or prayer times each day. I also tended to go for a nearby walk of about 45 minutes and on five of the eight days went to mass at Saint Anselm’s in San Anselmo or on the last day (a Sunday) at Saint Rita’s in Fairfax. My first two-and-a half days there another Jesuit was also there on retreat and I said mass in the villa with him.

Please note that the following protocols and policies are in place for July and August of 2021 at St. Ignatius Parish related to Covid-19

It seems each week we take another step forward, out of the world as we knew it for nearly 15 months. Here at St. Ignatius, every Sunday, we see familiar faces, some belonging to those we’ve longed to see and others belonging to those we didn’t know we missed until we saw them.

St. Ignatius Parish is a welcoming and inclusive Jesuit, Catholic Community in San Francisco.  It is one of the most dynamic parishes in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Parishioners travel long distances to take part in vibrant and engaging liturgies and participate in many services to marginalized populations.

Donal Dorr’s book is also about new earth awareness as was his important earlier book about Laudato Si Option for the Poor and for the Earth. This new book, published by Orbis Press was released in 2020. It Is a very profound contemplation on faith and commitment and what they mean for a new earth awareness. Dorr speaks in his introduction about ecological spirituality and adduces Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the contribution of Barbara Ward Jackson’s work in connection with the papal synod of 1971. Dorr reminds us: “ Every creature is a gift from God and has a distinctive value and its own role in The Integral web of the Cosmos.”

Many of you know of our nearly 20-year covenantal relationship with our sister parish in Soyapango, El Salvador, Parroquia San Antonio. The bi-country ministry is called Las Vecinas, or The Neighbors, an apt name because the best connotations of being neighbors have characterized our relationship for two decades: we have become friends, we have lived one another’s joys and struggles, we help each other when and how we can, each is better for having the other in our lives.

During the Season of Lent our Catholic tradition calls us to fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Many of us have memories of eating fish-sticks with our families on Lenten-Fridays, or a big pot of tuna casserole!

As our Parish continues to grow and innovate, we're looking for a Director of Operations to play a key role in all Parish activities.The Senior Director of Parish Operations role focuses on providing greater capacity through resource management and both hands-on and strategic operational expertise in the day-to-day operations of the parish.

Founded in 1855, St. Ignatius Parish is a welcoming and inclusive Catholic community. A Jesuit parish, we are called to be companions of Jesus. We come together through Word and Sacrament to grow in our relationship with God and to find the inspiration, desire and strength to be men and women for others.

Colette Lafia is probably well known to members of Saint Ignatius Parish. Over the years she has done a number of excellent adult faith formation talks for the parish on topics of spirituality. She is an active spiritual director and also does talks on spirituality at Mercy Center in Burlingame. Lafia asked me if I would do a review of her recent book, The Divine Heart: Seven Ways to Live in God’s Love (Monkfish Book Publishing Company, 2021 162 pp.)

This weekend we set aside some time to celebrate and honor our mothers and stepmothers, our grandmothers and our godmothers, to pray for them and give thanks to God for their presence in our lives.