Scripture Readings

• First Reading: 2 Tim 4:1-5

• Responsorial Psalm: Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11

• Alleluia Verse: Matt 5:16

• Gospel: Matt 5:13-19

Reflection on Today’s Feast

By Fr. Charles Frederico, SJ

Availability and Depth. These two words have captured my understanding of a Jesuit vocation for many years. Of course, they are not new words, nor are they new ways to express things “Jesuit”, that’s to say, they have always more or less been in the lexicon. But these very powerful words, oft repeated by former Fr. General Adolfo Nicolas, solidify what I have come to know and understand are the guiding forces or the grace that infuses every Jesuit vocation since our beginning.

Deepening awareness of where and how one understands ALL that our loving God is doing for each of us at a given moment came to Ignatius over a lifetime and sets up for us as followers of his mission, how and what to do. In his recuperation at the Castle Loyola, in his reflectiveness in the cave at Manresa, in his studies at Paris and at his desk writing letters from Rome as the General, Father Ignatius instilled the importance of ongoing deepening and availability to the grace of God. Thus that concept of deepening is in the life blood of our Order.

Enter into the picture, Peter Canisius. Back in 1543, when Peter Canisius met the Society of Jesus in Germany, it was this deepening that captured his gifted mind and opened his heart to serve Christ and the Church for a lifetime. Peter Canisius became openly available to the needs of God’s people in time and place through the particular lenses of Ignatian Spirituality. His heart never turned back.

Peter Canisius is the hero of Catholic Central Europe. He revitalized faith communities by teaching children catechism; he opened universities to capture the minds of young adults; he opened parishes to create faith spaces for families; and he informed and educated the political leaders on how to be faith-filled guides for the people. Deepening roots was his modus operandi and he made himself available to multiple people, places and experiences, all with the intention of finding, listening and loving Christ in, through and around them.

 As a teacher and campus minister today at Canisius High School in Buffalo, I see those same principles of work that guided Peter Canisius in my own ministry with our students. Helping young people deepen their roots is my key role as a Jesuit priest - spiritual roots through the Kairos retreats, social justice roots by the experience of service immersions, academic roots through religion classes, but more importantly, in my mind, relationship roots, creating spaces in all of those areas for our students to know brotherhood. The encounter with depth allows availability and there grace is active. Christ is made known. I believe only there, in that actively vulnerable space, can we hope to capture the minds and hearts of a culture, and point them toward Christ.  Grace then provides for all future possibilities.

 The privilege of walking with the youth of Canisius High School and attempting to show them the path to God is very humbling and rewarding. My vocation and dependence on Jesus Christ has never been stronger. I pray that others see the gift of this work and feel called to serve with greater depth and availability in the Society of Jesus. May grace show us the way.

St. Peter Canisius, pray for us!

Fr. Charles Frederico, SJ, is the Director of Campus Ministry at Canisius High School in Buffalo, NY.

Previous Reflections

April 27, 2021 – By Fr. Patrick Nolan, SJ

Peter Canisius was born on May 8, 1521 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. As a teenager he traveled to study at the University of Cologne, where by 1540 he earned a master’s degree. While he was continuing his theology studies and as he contemplated a vocation to the priesthood, he heard about the newly founded Society of Jesus. Then, Canisius traveled to Mainz to visit with St. Peter Faber to inquire about the Society. Soon thereafter Canisius made the Spiritual Exercises under the direction of Faber.

 Canisius described the retreat experience in a letter to a friend:

 For my own part, I can hardly find the words to tell you how these Spiritual Exercises have changed my soul and senses, enlightened my mind with new rays of heavenly grace, and inspired me with fresh strength and fortitude. The abundance of the divine favours overflows even into my body, and I feel altogether invigorated and changed into a new man. (James Broderick, Saint Peter Canisius, p 36).

 When I was in discernment, Br. Christopher Derby, SJ, invited me to make a discernment retreat with Fr. Lucien Longtin, SJ, in Wernersville, PA. I was working in New York at the time, so I took off Friday and made a weekend retreat. I returned to the city and went for a run in Central Park before going to the Sunday evening Mass. It was springtime and all of the trees were in bloom. I had such a sense of confirmation from the retreat, and I felt like I was running on air and that all of God’s creation was sharing in this joy.

 As a new priest, Canisius served as a theological consultant at the Council of Trent, and then he went to Rome where St. Ignatius was preparing to start the first school in Messina, Sicily. In February 1548, St. Ignatius called together all of the Jesuits in the house in Rome and asked if they would be willing to go to Sicily to start this new school. Canisius was among the ten Jesuits chosen for this important apostolate.

 When I was in my last year of First Studies in Chicago, I received a phone call from my provincial, Fr. David Ciancimino, SJ, asking me if I would consider teaching at Yap Catholic High School in the Pacific Islands of Micronesia. He had sent Fr. Mickey Corcoran, SJ, and Fr. John Mulreany, SJ, only two years earlier to start the school with the people of Yap. What an honor to be a part of such a holy start-up; what a mission! I can’t help think of St. Ignatius and these early Jesuits as they imagined what the first school might be like. I can imagine how this experience helped give Canisius the blueprint to found another 18 schools in his lifetime.

 Throughout the rest of his life, Canisius taught, wrote a Catechism, which became Germany’s most popular book, opened schools, served as provincial superior of Germany, and represented the Church at ecumenical gatherings with Protestants, but throughout this time he continued to preach in parishes and before the royal court.

 One of the best parts of my theology studies was the preparation I received to be a retreat preacher and a homilist at Mass. In my practicum course, I observed Fr. Casey Beaumier, SJ, preach a men’s retreat at White House Retreat House in St. Louis, MO during the fall. Then once a week I met with Fr. Casey and two Jesuit friends as we workshopped our own 10-11 retreat talks. By the spring, I preached my first retreat over a year before my priestly ordination. In addition, every Thursday night I’d assist and offer a short homily at Fr. Casey’s Candlelight Mass on the Boston College campus as a deacon. I admire St. Peter Canisius’ desire to continue to preach in the midst of his busy life as an educator and administrator. I give thanks for the preparation I received and for the opportunities these days to say Mass each weekend in a parish or on a college campus.

 Let me close by sharing with you a prayer of St. Peter Canisius for the Society of Jesus. When I pray with it, I give thanks for all of the Jesuits I have admired who have helped form me to be an apostle. Through the intercession of St. Peter Canisius, may Jesus continue to inspire young men to consider a life of service in the company that bears his name.

I commend to you, Lord Jesus, the whole Society of Jesus:
our superiors and our subjects,
our old and our young,
our sound and our sick,
our ministries of body and soul.
May we be rightly governed to the glory of your name
and to the upbuilding of your Church.
Through you may we grow in our numbers and in our service. May we know our
vocation thoroughly, and, knowing it, love it;
and thus may all in the Society
serve your majesty worthily and faithfully,
cling to the commands and the counsels of the Gospel,
and, united in the love of brothers,
feel your blessings on our provinces,
our schools, our missions, and all our ministries.
May we be sober, simple, prudent, peaceable,
and studious of solid virtue:
may our lives conform to the Name we bear
and our deeds reflect to the vows we profess.
We commend to you all the brothers
who share our life in the Society
and all our companions and partners
who share our heritage and our vision.
With the Father and the Holy Spirit,
we praise you forever.
Amen.