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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.

As you know, I close my pastoral letters to you with the words Oremus pro invicem – “Let us pray for one another.” For me, it is more than a sign-off. Praying for one another is one of the ways we live our life together as a parish. Every week, people ask me, one of our associate pastors, or a member of our staff to pray for someone they love: a parent facing surgery, a child beginning college, a marriage going through a difficult time, someone who has died. Sometimes the request is simply, “Please pray for me.” It is a privilege to be entrusted with those prayers.

We are excited to bring our community together for this special season of ecumenical solidarity! Each year from September 1 to October 4, the Christian family unites for this worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. It is a special season where Catholics celebrate God as Creator, and acknowledge Creation as the divine continuing act that summons us as collaborators to love and care for the gift of all that is created. Followers of Christ from around the globe, share a common call to care for Creation. We are co-creatures and part of all that God has made. Our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of the Earth.

When the choir reached out last year to invite new members, I responded thinking this would be an opportunity for our daughter to sing with others. We wanted Sol to connect her desire to sing — she does so constantly at home and on her bike — with our church community and her faith.

Singing with the St. Ignatius choir isn’t something I do just because I love to sing. And I do love to sing! One reason I joined initially is so that my children avoid my attempts to sing the super high, soaring soprano descants next to them in the pews, on our living room couch during a livestream Mass, or even in the Communion line behind them — while they (unsuccessfully) fight the urge to physically back away, shake their heads and roll their eyes like they want to completely disown me. (Which they are justified in doing, because if you’ve ever heard them sing, you know that their voices are so much better than mine!) This happened a lot before joining. It was important that I found a proper outlet. Now it only happens — sometimes! But, it is definitely better than when I was doing that alone in the pews! (You’re welcome, regulars in the St. Joseph section!) If you, too, are feeling a bit like an over enthusiastic pew diva, you might want to think about joining!

At the end of June, I wrote to you following the announcement that the Archdiocese of San Francisco had reached a $395 million settlement agreement associated with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At that time, I told you that St. Ignatius Parish would be assessed a portion of the settlement and that, when I received that assessment, I would consult with parish and Jesuit leadership to discern our response. I have now received our assessment, and those conversations are underway. I will have more to say about that in the weeks ahead.

Pablo comes to us most recently from working as a communications coordinator at the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute and is pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley. Learn more about Pablo in this short interview! What about your background helped you prepare for this opportunity? Being a catechist in 2nd grade at St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan transformed my life and helped me discover my vocation as a religious educator. Being part of the OCIA team for three years and leading the youth ministry provided me with a broad perspective of the needs and challenges of religious education and Ignatian spirituality. Also, working at an organization called Thrive For Life, I prepared retreats for women and men behind bars, as well as for their families and friends. This led me deeper into the Jesuit charism, and I learned to adapt it to different contexts, and further integrate it into my own spiritual journey.

This summer, the ARC at St. Ignatius Parish (Anti-Racism Committee) joyously invites the entire parish community to join us in reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (2020), a New York Times and a Washington Post bestseller: "As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise."