From World CLC ExCo: The images seen of what happened in Beirut this week deeply sadden the whole CLC. It is a real disaster following two strong explosions at the port of Beirut. The city is devastated. There are a lot of victims, wounded, people lost under the ruins or thrown into the sea, and widespread damage in the area. In the blink of an eye, many found themselves homeless. It is sad. (click blue text above to read more.)

Gifts Received from our Ignatian Spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises (Click on Title for Full Report)

Happy Feast of St. Ignatius to all in CLC and to our Jesuit collaborators and our dear friends around the World! Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me. Saint Ignatius Loyola

Please join with CLC USA President Barb Rudolph and CLC members and communities across the USA in offering a special prayer for healing and change in these troubling times. Please click in the blue heading text above to read the prayer.

Please click the headline above to view this powerful video collage of excerpts from the recent worldwide CLC Zoom video call featuring CLC members from 5 continents sharing their experiences and testimonies about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their communities. The video includes opening remarks from Fr. General Arturo Sosa S.J. of the Jesuits and includes comments from a young Emergency Room physician in Spain and a person in Northern Italy, two areas which have suffered greatly. Speakers from CLC-USA included Ann Marie Brennan of Metro NY CLC and Ed Plocha of Washington State.

Metro NY CLC members attended Fr. Greg Boyle SJ's talk at Fordham Prep on March 8th. Fr. Greg is the founder of Homeboy Industries which works with gang members in LA. Peppered with humor, Fr. Greg 's masterful storytelling was especially relevant to CLCers as he shared his life's work by interweaving prayer, relationship with God, and mission in creating a "culture of kinship" and of healing with those on the margins. It was an outstanding and moving talk that resonates deeply with our Ignatian charism. Click blue heading text to view Fr. Greg's talk starting at 11:45.

Former CLC World President Mauricio Lopez writes passionately about the Pope's new apostolic exhortation: Querida Amazonia. Mauricio was named by Pope Francis as the only layperson among the 18 members of the pre-synodal council that helped draft the gathering's eventual working document, and was later a participant at the synod.

CLC is with and for young people. Youth are an indispensable part of the apostolic body. Youth is not just a nice topic for the 2020 World CLC Day (March 25th), but it is a major concern and challenge for all of us in CLC. We are inviting you to launch a long-term effort! Regional CLC teams, National ExCo’s, National formation teams and leaders of local communities, should design concrete plans to communicate and offer the gift of CLC to young people in this new context. In general, all the members of local CLC should review how to share our gifts with the younger people.

Click the blue text above to view this short video which beautifully captures the wonderful spirit of the Assembly. More news and photos of the Assembly will follow in the next days and weeks.

NY Metro CLC members have been working along with others on the planning and logistics for the Jesuit/Ignatian family's participation in the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development happening in NYC this week. The Forum theme is "Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality,” and the Sustainable Development Goals that will be reviewed include quality education, reduced inequalities and climate action.

CLC's UN Working Group was instrumental in the first-ever Jesuit/Ignatian collaboration at the UN's High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. CLC-USA members worked very closely with the Jesuit Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat in Rome on planning and logistics to facilitate the attendance of the Jesuits and other Ignatian collaborators at this important UN Forum which begins July 9th. CLC also helped to organize the special event planned for Thursday evening July 11th at the Jesuit Conference Center in Manhattan entitled "How To Collaborate on the Care of Our Common Home." Jesuit Fr. General Sosa made a special video for the Jesuit/Ignatian delegation and said “This is an important event for the Society of Jesus, first of all because we have a long experience of working in all these fields in numerous places in the world: accompanying excluded persons and communities, working for justice and reconciliation and for the care of our common home."

Click the blue headline text to read and download the latest letter from the World ExCo to all members with reflections on the significance of the World Assembly held in Buenos Aires in 2018. "... move the tent... create spaces of transcendence wherever we are concretely committed!"

Topic: Paths for Reconciliation, Using our CLC Gifts to Build Bridges: Vital, Social, Cultural, Personal, Religious Facilitated by Sister Laurence Loubiere, XMM Sr. Laurence Loubières, of the Xavières Missionaires du Christ Jésus, is the director of the Jesuit Service for Discernment in Common and assistant to the Canadian provincial for communal discernment, based at Sacred Heart House in Toronto.

Please view the profoundly beautiful new video about the Jesuits recently announced Universal Apostolic Preferences narrated by Fr. General Sosa. Please click on the blue heading text to get link to video and learn more.

Father General Arturo Sosa has urged members of Christian Life Community (CLC) define the mission of the movement in relation to the key elements of the Second Vatican Council. Father General also reminded the CLC members of the importance of involving the youth in the mission of the movement. Youths will ensure continuity of the mission of community in different parts of the world. He said the members of CLC were apostles within the Church, sent out on mission. As such, their mission should also include reaching the youth, who in recent years are being recognised as a very important group within the Christian family.

Told through the voices of residents, Moundsville is “an economic biography of a classic American town” located along the Ohio River in West Virginia. Pittsburgh CLC member and former Wall Street Journal reporter John W. Miller co-directed the film with David Bernarbo. The stories of the local people--in their own voices--offer a great way for us to better connect and understand each other... and to laugh with and appreciate one another, too! It was very well done!

Here's another article by John W. Miller (Breathing Room CLC, Pittsburgh) that explores his latest film project with a behind-the-scenes analysis of choices he and his partner made in framing the narrative of this small town. I think the documentary is an example of wisdom language that Fr Nicholas speaks to us about as we live our vocation in the world, preaching the gospel at all times, if necessary using words, and always inviting, not imposing a deeper understanding of one another, from a world view based in Love.

Be part of the largest annual Catholic social justice gathering in the United States. Click the blue text heading above to go to the IFTJ website with the list of all speakers and events. The Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ) is an annual gathering for members of the Ignatian family (Jesuit institutions and larger church) to come together in the context of social justice and solidarity to learn, reflect, pray, network, and advocate together. It is a place where people are empowered, re-energized, inspired, challenged, and supported by a community that sees faith and justice integrally linked. Now in its 21st year, the IFTJ has a rich history rooted in honoring the Jesuits and their companions who were martyred in El Salvador in 1989.

The final document of the Buenos Aires World Assembly is not … final. And maybe we should not even refer to a document, because it’s rather a narrative. Thus, you have two excellent reasons to dive into the reading with curiosity. Please click on the blue heading text above to read the document.