Jamshedpur Jesuits

Fr. Martin and Br. Ignatius at Fr. Deeney's birthday party.

dear tom,
after a long time indeed!! i go through your mails ...but replies were always a tougher work!!!! hope you are in your best health...wish you the same..... greg is fine, but not yet back to his best.....now he will be getting a new man in the place of somy...somy is going to rome for ignatian spirituality course.... bene is doing his level best to defeat the age...never say die...of late, he is not in his best active self....now he is making his retreat at xlri... i am almost settled now at trtc....waiting for the auditing to be over.... the rest is fine...

love...in christ..
martin, sj

Thought I'd share this e-mail with you. Of course multiple explanations are necessary.

-- Martin , SJ is a buddy of mine from the Jamshedpur Province in India that I visited last summer. You've got to love the internet when you can stay in touch with people 9,000 miles away.

-- I only thought I had a tough name. I call him Fr. Martin but his real name is Peter Martin Thattakath, SJ. He tried to explain to me about how the second 'T' is pronounced differently but it went way over my head. That's OK because I don't think there are too many Indians who can pronounce my name. In fact Fr. Deeney has abbreviated me to be Tom Brz, reminiscent of Bill Mlkvy, the Temple Owl without a vowel.

-- Greg is Fr. Greg D'Silva, SJ, who contracted malaria after we visited. Greg is the pastor at St. Paul Miki in Pandabir, the school we raised money for. Many Indian Catholics have Portuguese surnames as way back when it was the custom upon conversion. Good to hear he's doing better. Still on our prayer list though. Keep those e-mails coming Greg (joke).

-- Bene is Br. Benedict Kuhur, SJ. Martin refers to his age -- which is up there -- but he is a tireless worker for our Lord, rides a motorcycle barefoot, and builds shrines at tribal churches. His recitation of the Animi Christi after Mass at St. Paul Miki in Pandabir, in the Ho language, was one of the most beautiful prayers I ever heard.

-- Good for Somy! I tried to get Fr. Raj, your provincial, to get you, Jerry and Greg to come to Philly but I was obviously not persuasive enough. Speaking of Fr. Raj -- he made the front page of the Maryland Province website!

JAMSHEDPUR PROVINCIAL VISITS MARYLAND PROVINCE

Michael Thanaraj, SJ, provincial of the Jamshedpur (center) poses with George Bur, SJ (right) and Bruce Maivelett, SJ, during a visit to St. Joseph's Preparatory School, Philadelphia. Fr. Raj, as he is called, visited parishes and schools throughout the province before visiting New York and then going to Rome. It was his first visit to the Maryland Province

-- TRTC is located near St. Xavier's School in Lupungutu and is, in American parlance, a community college for the tribals (Hos, Mundas) in the area. The people are trained in areas such as computers and agriculture, and there are Jesuit lawyers on staff to take care of their legal affairs. XLRI is the Xavier Labor Relations Institute (XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur) and is one of the top business schools on the subcontinent.

in·tinc·tion

Pronunciation: \in-ˈtiŋ(k)-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin intinction-, intinctio baptism, from Latin intingere to dip in, from in- + tingere to dip, moisten: the administration of the sacrament of Communion by dipping bread in wine and giving both together to the communicant.

Many pre-Vatican II Catholics in America would be familiar with this term, although its practice has faded since. One benefit to intinction, besides a greater respect for the body and blood of Christ, is that it decreases the risk of spreading disease, particularly for the priest who normally drinks last from the chalice. No purificator is necessary and it limits the excessive amount of extraordinary ministers (ya know, just before communion, when it looks like D-Day on Normandy Beach so many people are traipsing upon the altar, some looking like they just got done cutting the lawn, others clutching their pocketbooks because Lord knows that the sacristy wouldn't be safe). This is how communion is given all over India, and so all churches use an intinctorium, which is a small chalice inside a ceborium.

If you want to impress someone at the St. Jude Shops -- ask for the price on an intintorium. "The what?" I think you call it the "chalice communion cup." Now ole 44 didn't get many gifts from above, but he can talk. In fact Mr. Cummings of Southside Scranton, a champ in his own rite, once told me I could "talk a dog off the back of a meat wagon." So the nice lady asks me why I'm buying it, and ten minutes later after hearing all about my trip to Lupungutu, Jamshedpur, Basahatu and Chaibassa (amazingly she was still awake) -- she gave me a $50 discount!

So Fr. Martin... I hope is well with you and my Jeb buddies so far away. If I ever get to the post office you have another intinctorium on the way, along with some other goodies.

Br. Bene (just call me Bene), Fr. Martin, and Fr. Deeney (sporting his St. Joe's AMDG t-shirt) with Kelly Carr and Greg McCarthy from the Loyola Foundation, at St. Paul Miki.

As always... if you'd like to make a donation:

The Jesuit Missions
Maryland Province Jesuits
Advancement Office
P.O. Box 64848
Baltimore, MD 21264

443.921.1332

The Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus hiding the name of Jesus?

IHS - Jesuit Residence - SJU

The “IHS” symbol was covered over when “Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind the Gaston Hall stage.” “The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches. Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.”

- Julie Bataille, Georgetown UniversityPres Office

Roman Catholics traditionally use “IHS” as an abbreviation for Jesus’ name. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Ignatius of Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of the Society of Jesus (1541) and thus became the emblem of his institute.” The Society of Jesus is the formal name for the Jesuits.

- Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit: "IHS" And Every Knee Shall Bend, Except?

Just two days after the Easter Triduum, the most solemn time of the Church year wherein we celebrate the central mysteries of our faith, President Obama gave a speech on the national economy at Georgetown University in Washington, the oldest Catholic university in the nation. Before the speech, the White House asked that all signage and symbols behind the stage be covered, including a gold cross and IHS monogram representing the name of Jesus. School officials deferred to the White House and covered the symbol with a piece of black plywood.

The school has explained that the White House wanted a simple backdrop of American flags and blue drape for the speech and, in fairness, let us grant that the White House’s request was driven by simple staging priorities. The school, I am sure, was merely trying to accommodate the president’s advance team. Yet, in deciding to give the speech there, the Administration knew well that the venue was a Catholic University. To ask the University to cover a symbol that gives evidence of its Catholic identity was shameful; but to comply with such an unfair request was scandalous.

Most Reverend Joseph A. Galante, D.D., J.C.D. - Diocese of Camden - “Catholic” a mere label?

Loss of symbols gives rise to thought -- themorningcall.com

More than 40 years ago, the philosopher Paul Ricoeur coined the phrase ''the symbol gives rise to thought.''

His analysis of religious symbolism demonstrated a crucial link between thinking and expression, both of which are intimately connected to the depth of human experience.

Unlike the ordinary language we use to describe our living, and the more scientific language that gives precision to our knowing, symbols touch the realm of the mysterious: They point to meaning beyond us; they convey the meaningfulness that lies within us.

Even in a virtual world, where simulation has become astonishingly accurate and animation appears more and more lifelike, symbols still hold sway by their power to to evoke something profound.

Consider, for instance, the flag-draped coffin of a fallen soldier, the sight of which moves one to silent attention, stirs one to grateful admiration, and gives rise to thoughts of civic and human solidarity.

In religion, symbols are necessary because they express what cannot be conveyed by our limited language. By definition, symbols point beyond themselves to something else, and allow us to evoke what is supernatural and what transcends the ordinary. Christians see this especially during Eastertide -- in colors or sounds or things. The penitential purples of Lent and the bloody crimsons of the Passion give way to the dazzling whites of the Resurrection.The uplifting tone of words like ''hosanna'' and ''alleluia'' touch a chord in the soul when sung aloud.Most of all, a paschal candle remains lit to symbolize the light and new life of the risen, one that now (and still) dispels the darkness and death that shrouds our existence. The tallest of candles, the paschal light burns throughout the season to signify the exultant reality of what Christians believe about the Easter event and promise it bears for the world.

But just as a person's religious character is not confined to a church, so the character of religious symbols is not limited to worship. Because such symbols evoke a meaningfulness that cannot be communicated by other means, they constitute an important way to express not only one's belief but also one's identity. Without such symbols, meaning is lost, and meaningfulness is absent. Thus, the temporary loss of symbols at Georgetown University gives rise to the thought that an institution's religious character is merely fashionable, able to be covered up for different occasions. Recently, university officials there chose to conceal from any camera's view the Christogram -- the letters ''IHS'' with a cross extending upward from the center -- that adorns the archway above the dais at which President Obama delivered a speech on economics (a message, ironically, based, in part, on the biblical metaphor of ''the house built upon rock'').

One effect of this cover-up was to provide a ''consistent backdrop'' to the presidential speech; the other was to hide away the religious ''identity'' of the place, for those letters are central to the seal of the Society of Jesus, the Catholic religious order that founded the university. Which effect was intended, and whose initiative led to the iconoclastic decision, have been matters of debate. But whether it was sought by the White House or offered by the university, the symbolic message was evident -- nothing religious should be considered alongside political posturing. Some may brush this aside, as even one Jesuit (Thomas Reese, SJ) did when he said it was more about ''camera quality'' and ''communications strategy'' than theology.

But if Ricoeur is right, a new thought arises from the symbolism of covering one's religious identity in what looked like a black cloth.

Rev. Thomas F. Dailey, OSFS, is director of the Salesian Center for Faith and Culture at DeSales University in Center Valley.

more... Obama at Georgetown: No Jesuit seal

Jesuit Cemetery at Georgetown; what would those great men have thought?

Better yet... think he'd have ever hidden the name of Jesus?