Non-silent Retreat, A Day of Prayer for Mothers
Motherhood, the path for many women, is also a divine call to participation in God's creative and redemptive work. Ignatius will accompany us as we explore this grace. (Based on The Mother's Calling, Paulist Press 2011)
Ms. Julie Paavola is a writer, retreat leader and trained spiritual director. She has a Masters in Religion from the Graduate Theological Union and studied Carmelite spirituality for ten years. She is bilingual and has spent years ministering to the Hispanic community, serving as Assistant Director of Religious Education for Hispanics in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and as Minister to Community for the growing Hispanic community in North Carolina. There she worked at a Franciscan parish doing community organizing, social justice education and ministry to the Hispanic community.
Julie has contributed to retreats and conferences nationwide on a variety of subjects from prayer and discernment, to peace and justice, stewardship and family life. Her most recent work is a book on the spirituality of motherhood for our times and she is currently working on a book about motherhood as vocation. Julie feels blessed to also be taking part in the Pierre Favre course at the Jesuit Retreat House in Los Altos, which provides training in giving the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. She makes her home in Northern California with her husband and two children, Joseph (7) and Daniel (4).
Assisting
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. More about Fr. Jim
Fr. Duc Vu, S.J., a software engineer before joining the Jesuits, was ordained in 2002 and served in a parish until 2007. An M.F.A. in Creative Writing reflects his interest in life as story. He likes to explore the creative dynamic among stories human and divine, as well as the fascinating dialectic between our corporeality and spirituality.
