Silent Retreat for Men
We are well into both the seasons of spring and Easter—
seasons of going forward. God always calls us forward,
but, fearful, we sometimes draw back. We will discern, with
the help of the Spiritual Exercises, God's ongoing call.
Fr. Gerald F. Hudson, S.J., Fr. Jerry was, for many years, a mathematics teacher (at Loyola High School, Loyola Marymount University, and St. Ignatius College Preparatory). He has served several times as a director in the JRC 36-day program. He joined the staff of the JRC in August of 2006 and has been involved in retreats and spiritual direction.
Mrs. Nancy McGaraghan, began her professional life with a career in public accounting. Years later, she returned to school to earn a Master's Degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. She has taught Spirituality, often through dream work and the Enneagram, at a residential recovery program for women. She has planned and directed retreats in her parish and with outside groups. She is currently working in hospital ministry. Nancy is a Lector and Eucharistic Minister at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Palo Alto. She first came to the Jesuit Retreat Center to continue her study of Ignatian spirituality in the Pierre Favre Program and was fortunate to take a year out from that program to make her own retreat at the Center, the 19th Annotation of the Ignatian Exercises. Nancy is married and derives her greatest pleasure from her husband and family of four grown sons and their spouses and six grandchildren.
Assisting
Fr. Kevin Ballard, S.J., was born in San Francisco and raised in a traveling military family, joined the Society of Jesus in 1972 and was ordained in 1985. His ministry, mainly in parishes, has also included community organizing, high school teaching, and retreat work. Three years in Kathmandu, Nepal were a highlight and delight. His ongoing interest in Ignatian Spirituality has entailed directing the Spiritual Exercises in their various forms. Since 1981, the blessings of the 12 Steps have been key to life and work. Judaism has been an ongoing inspiration. He is blessed to live sober, one day at a time, since 1981. Kevin is recreated by languages, bird-watching and "staring into space!"
Fr. James Flynn, S.J. was born in 1942 in Los Angeles, CA and attended St. Charles Grammar
School in North Hollywood. After graduating from Bishop Garcia Diego
High School in Santa Barbara in 1960, he matriculated at Santa Clara
University. On September 8, 1961, he entered the Society of Jesus at
Los Gatos.
After the normal course of training at Los Gatos, Fr. Jim majored in
philosophy and English at Gonzaga University, graduating in 1967. He
taught at Loyola High School, Los Angeles from 1967-1970, and after
theological studies at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, he
graduated with an M.Div. in 1973. He was ordained a priest on June 15,
1973. That same year he completed a Master's Degree in English
at Loyola University, Los Angeles.
The next 12 years Fr. Jim worked in administration in Jesuit secondary
education: Assistant Principal for Academic Affairs at Loyola High School,
Los Angeles, Campus Minister (1967-81) and Principal (1981-85) at Jesuit High School, Sacramento. After a sabbatical year at the Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA, he pursued graduate studies at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, MA. His concentration was Ignatian Spirituality and American Jesuit Higher Education: how to maintain the Ignatian character of the institutions with fewer and fewer Jesuits. He graduated with a Doctor of Ministry degree in 1989. — more about Fr. Jim
Fr. Jim Hanley, S.J., Spiritual Director Emeritus. A native San Franciscan, Fr. Jim entered the Jesuit order in 1945 after graduation from Sacred Heart High School, San Francisco. Following his ordination to the priesthood in 1958, Fr. Jim served as a teacher of religion and a campus minister at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, San Francisco, and Loyola High School, Los Angeles. He served as president of St. Ignatius College Preparatory and as vice-provincial in charge of formation in the California Province.
Fr. Jim Hanley, S.J. who was on the Retreat Center staff for 25 years, will be helping on various retreats during the year. Fr. Jim now lives at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center at Los Gatos and works as a spiritual director for the priests of the Stockton Diocese.
Ms. Susan Votaw's experience teaching art, special education, and English in secondary schools led her into administration at both continuation and comprehensive high schools in San Jose. During her last six years of principalship she participated in the Advanced Lay Leadership Program offered by the Diocese of San Jose's Institute of Leadership in Ministry, receiving an MA in Pastoral Ministries from Santa Clara in 2005. She is currently on staff at St Francis of Assisi Parish, working in the areas of spirituality and liturgy and in the Pierre Favre formation program at JRC. Her other ministries include spiritual direction and working with the homeless.
Mr. Edwin Waite, in 2006, engaged in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in preparation for his retirement after 25 years in labor relations and human resource management at San Francisco State University. Edwin holds a BS in Business Administration/Human Resource Management and a certificate in Spiritual Direction, Mercy Center; studied at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley; and is currently training in the Pierre Favre Program at JRC, Los Altos.
A life-long Episcopalian, Edwin finds a strong bond with Ignatian spirituality in that, through prayer and out of gratitude for the love we experience in our relationship with Jesus, we are drawn to a life of service and become a people of hope.
