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A few weeks ago, I shared some reflections on my visit in June to Parroquia San Antonio, our sister parish in Soyapango, El Salvador, and on the friendship that has united our parishes for 25 years. Next week, we will have the joy of welcoming a delegation from San Antonio to St. Ignatius. On Sunday, November 29, during the 10 am Mass, representatives of our two parishes will sign a renewed Sister Parish Covenant, recommitting our communities to the friendship and shared mission that began in 2001.

The Shelter Meal Program at St. Ignatius Parish is having its annual Thanksgiving Pie Drive on Sunday, November 22. This year we are continuing to provide Bay View Senior Services with pies for their Thanksgiving dinner. With your support, we’ll provide 125 homemade or purchased apple and sweet potato pies to Bay View Senior Services, providing approximately 1000 desserts for low-income older adults and adults with disabilities on Thanksgiving Day.

When Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. arrived at West Point in 1932 the administrators were caught off guard, as they were not expecting a light-skinned, mixed race cadet. One drop of negro blood still consigned you to the ashes, and so Cadet Davis was housed in a converted janitor’s closet. West Point invoked the policy of “Coventry”, more clearly, the silent treatment, hoping the extreme social isolation would force him to quit.

As we celebrate the 25-year anniversary of our Las Vecinas de El Salvador ministry and renew our Sister Parish Covenant this November, we are more committed than ever to support the scholarships, job training workshops, food distribution program, health clinic, and other special programs and projects we fund. Our online auction is the main fundraising event of the year, and we need your donations to make it a success!

Last weekend, we began the month of November, when the Church remembers in a special way all those who have gone before us in faith, with our annual All Souls Day Requiem Mass. It was a beautiful and moving celebration. Our choir, under the direction of Patrick Hagen, led us in prayer with Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, and the church was filled with parishioners who had come to remember and pray for their beloved dead, entrusting them once again to the loving embrace of God. As Fr. John reminded us in his homily, “Death does not sever the bonds of love.”

Phoebe was a highly regarded companion and supporter of Saint Paul. Phoebe was a member of the church of Cenchreae (pron. sin-cree-ah) a port city of Corinth. It seems likely that Saint Paul founded that community and that Phoebe was one of the first to hear him proclaim the good news there. Paul refers to Phoebe as a benefactor. She likely used her influence among the people of Cenchreae to open a few doors for Paul when he first arrived. She also provided Paul with financial support to allow him to carry on his work. Before long, Paul entrusted the church to local leaders so that he could continue his travels around the Mediterranean. Phoebe was one of those leaders—she was a deacon in the community when Paul returned to Cenchreae sometime later. It was at Cenchreae that Saint Paul composed his famous letter to the Romans. Paul had never been to Rome but wanted to offer some instruction to the Christian community there. He wrote the letter in anticipation of the visit he planned to make a few months later. Paul needed an ambassador to Rome, someone who would not only deliver his letter but also make a good impression and win a favorable hearing among the leaders of the church there. He needed someone with good standing in the Cenchreae community who had the resources and the wherewithal to make the long journey. Paul chose Phoebe as his representative and entrusted her with the letter. In his letter to the Romans Paul writes, “I commend to you Phoebe, our sister who is a minister of the church at Cenchreae that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones and help her in any way she may need.” The story of Phoebe provides a window into the early church. The faith communities that sprung up throughout the Mediterranean were founded and inspired by charismatic preachers like Paul and then supported and maintained by local leaders like Phoebe. We are grateful for all the leaders of the early church who provided the generations to follow with a great legacy. Dan Daly, SJ Transcript of a video created and narrated by Dan Daly. Dan Daly is a Jesuit priest, author and storyteller. Find a link to the original video on our website and in your email newsletter.

November 1st is the Solemnity of All Saints, and November 2nd is All Souls’ Day, when the Global Church prays for all our faithful departed. This year, for our annual Requiem Mass, the choir and our chamber orchestra present Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna in its entirety.

St. Alphonsus Rodríguez, S.J.'s Feast Day is October 31. We invite you to come to the Chapel of St. Alphonsus Rodríguez, S.J. here in St. Ignatius Church, on this day, this month, or any time. Born in 1532 to a working-class Spanish family, Alphonsus Rodríguez faced many hardships— he lost his father at age 13, lost his own wife and children to a plague outbreak, and suffered a business bankruptcy that left him desolate and in poor health. When he applied to become a Jesuit priest, even the Jesuits initially rejected him as too infirm and unqualified.

I was honored to be part of the delegation from St. Ignatius Parish that recently traveled to El Salvador to renew our bond with our sister parish, the San Antonio de Padua Parish in Soyapango. In June, this group of 9 parishioners went with Fr. Greg to El Salvador. The delegation went to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the founding of Parroquia San Antonio — and the 25-year anniversary of our sister parish covenant.

In what parts of our lives do we feel the need to dominate? To have control? Is it keeping up with the latest trends? Finding the perfect job to make the most amount of money? For me as a college student, it manifests in wanting to get the perfect grades. In Genesis 1 it says, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

This past June, I had the privilege of traveling again with a delegation from St. Ignatius to Parroquia San Antonio, our sister parish in Soyapango, El Salvador. We went to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a relationship that began when our two parishes entered into a Sister Parish Covenant in 2001. I had been to San Antonio twice before, but this visit renewed my own commitment to Las Vecinas de El Salvador, reminding me how important this relationship is to St. Ignatius.

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!

Perhaps the main difference between migrants and immigrants is that immigrants move—usually permanently—from one country to another. The other day I was enjoying latte and pastries, sitting in a coffee shop on 9th Street in San Francisco, run by people from Yemen. Sitting at the tables surrounding me were people from the neighborhood chatting with each other in what seemed like many different languages. That made me think about Rick's Cafe from the movie Casablanca. There were people from different backgrounds and situations just passing time with each other, enjoying each other's company, minding their own business. Many of the patrons in this cafe could have been immigrants to this country. Any of these people could be you or me. This scene brought to my mind immigrants of another time and era. I tho

A new frontispiece for the altar during Season of Creation! It has been my great privilege to create a frontispiece for the main altar in St. Ignatius Church to honor the Season of Creation, September 2026. This sacred space has been a part of my life since I was 13 when the interior was unpainted gray plaster and not yet adorned with the glorious stained glass and golden details.

This year, as an environmental activist, I’ve been thinking a lot about data centers. Data centers come up several times a week in discussions facilitated by some of the leading environmental groups, groups such as Food and Water Watch, Center for Biological Diversity, and Sierra Club. These groups tend to focus on the resource drain, in particular on water and energy, of hyperscale data centers.

This year, Yom Kippur is observed from sundown on Sunday, September 20, until nightfall on Monday, September 21. This holiest day of the Jewish year marks the final day of the Ten Days of Repentance on the Hebrew calendar date of 10 Tishrei 5787. Since childhood I have had what Ron Rollheiser called “the holy longing,” a longing for the infinite Grace of God that finite pleasures cannot satisfy. I’ve also long held the conviction that the world needed more fairness.

My family and I discovered St. Ignatius during the pandemic and have continued to drive in from deep in the East Bay. Our children, who are 7 and 13 years old, attend the religious education program through CFF. Our children are willing to drive all the way from the East Bay in part because they also feel the deep, authentic seeking of God in this community.

On September 5 and 6, we will join with congregations across the nation in lifting up and honoring the sacred link between work and human dignity through the initiative Labor in the Pulpit. This is an opportunity to educate ourselves about the issues that impact workers, especially those affected by unchecked technological change, and reflect on the true meaning of Labor Day. A guest speaker will join our Saturday Vigil and Sunday 8 am, 10 am, and 5 pm Masses to share a few words during our pulpit announcements on how to be in solidarity with workers.