We’re grateful for our generous 100th Anniversary Celebration sponsors!
The Jesuits and staff are grateful for the many people who give of their time, talent and treasure to support the Mission and ministry of Manresa. On Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, we celebrated our Volunteers and Benefactors with a special appreciation dinner. Guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in the lounge, followed by a plated dinner in the dining room. Each guest received a stemless wine glass with Manresa’s 100th Anniversary logo.
By Fr. Peter Fennessy, SJ
Christmas has come, and in “Madonna of the Fir Tree” by Marianne Stokes, the Virgin proudly shows us her Son, the newborn Savior of the world. His halo bears a cross that alludes to the way in which He will save us. The symbolism in this painting is open to various interpretations. The fir tree is associated with the Christmas tree and so with the birth of Christ. As an evergreen it can represent eternal life and hope. Its strength in storms makes it a symbol of resilience and the ability to overcome adversity. Crows are sometimes seen in combination with symbols of hope or redemption; they manifest the contrast between light and darkness, life and death, despair and salvation. So, this painting might portray the fact that light, hope and eternal life have entered our world of darkness and sin in the person of the newborn Lord. It might refer to the prophecy of Isaiah, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree” (Isaiah 55:13), the thorn here symbolizing pain, sorrow and suffering that will give place to beauty, fragrance and endless life. Or perhaps it is just a lovely picture of Mary and her newborn Child.
In October, the staff and family of Facilities Manager Pete Luyckx gathered for a luncheon to celebrate his retirement from Manresa. Pete began his 41-year career at Manresa in September 1984, a year after coming on retreat with his father.
“I heard they were looking for someone, and Fr. Simon hired me,” said Pete, who holds the record for the longest serving staff member.
Pete said he stayed as long as he did because the job “offered a steady paycheck and every day’s work was different.”
Though he won’t miss the middle-of-the-night false alarm calls or snow removal each winter, Pete said he will miss the people at Manresa.
“It’s kind of like a family, you know. And I’ll miss the free lunches, of course,” he quipped.
Pete is confident that facilities assistants Leonard Waske and Vito Gill will do a great job of picking up where he leaves off. “The place is in good hands,” he said.
His plans for retirement are to “take it easy, travel up north this winter and maybe travel the country in the spring.” He said he’s also happy to help out at Manresa when needed.
Manresa is grateful for Pete’s faithful service and wishes him all the best in the years to come.
By Fr. Peter Fennessy, SJ
Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, (detail) Thanksgiving at Plymouth (1925), oil on canvas, original 30 × 39.13 inches, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Colonists in New England and Canada regularly celebrated days of prayer and thanksgiving. Jennie Augusta Brownscombe’s “Thanksgiving at Plymouth” depicts Plymouth Colony’s first harvest feast in 1621, often thought to be the origin of our Thanksgiving. Although Native Americans attended this celebration, Brownscombe may have been making a point when she huddled them together so far to the side. Thanksgiving is not a happy feast for Native Americans.
Christians believe gratitude is appropriate every day. Each day at the Eucharist (Greek for “thanksgiving”) most Prefaces begin, “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give You thanks, Father most holy, through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ.” Saint Paul writes, “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Saint Ignatius, in the final Contemplation of his Spiritual Exercises, says that all things around and within us are gifts from God, for which we ought to be grateful. For Ignatius, ingratitude was the greatest of all sins. We should make our own the prayer of Dag Hammarskjöld that begins, “For all that has been—Thanks!”
Manresa Memos is our in-house newsletter highlighting upcoming programs, events and other opportunities. It is published six times a year and available by mail or email. Subscribe to our mailing list here.
Read this issue
Manresa Memos is our in-house newsletter highlighting upcoming programs, events and other opportunities. It is published six times a year and available by mail or email. Subscribe to our mailing list here.
Read this issueEnjoy our latest video highlighting Manresa’s history. Created by Highway Media, the video is part of our year-long celebration of Manresa’s 100th Anniversary.
By Fr. Peter Fennessy, SJ
Hubert McGoldrick, (detail) Revelation of The Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1925), stained glass window, St. Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland
We celebrate the feast of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque on October 16 not only because of her holiness of life, but also because of the Lord’s revelations to her of His love for us, illustrated in this stained-glass window.
Those revelations led to our modern devotion to the Sacred Heart and its feast. Pope Pius XI said, “the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was instituted at a time when men were oppressed by the sad and gloomy severity of Jansenism, which had made their hearts grow cold, and shut them out from the love of God and the hope of salvation.” That heresy taught that people were predestined to heaven or hell and could do nothing about it, that most people couldn’t love God enough to be forgiven their sins and were unworthy to receive Communion or its grace.
In apparitions to Margaret Mary between 1673 and 1675 Jesus made clear His love for us and His disappointment—not anger—when we fail to return the love that He so much desires from us. Margaret Mary’s director, St. Claude La Colombière, SJ, and his fellow Jesuits today promote this devotion to the Sacred Heart and oppose any Jansenist denial of it.
God blessed us with a beautiful day to kick off our year-long celebration of Manresa’s 100th Anniversary. More than 200 people attended the Outdoor Mass on Sunday, Sept. 28. Fr. Fran Daly, SJ, past executive director, and Sr. Linda Sevcik, SM, current executive director, welcomed everyone before the Mass started. Fr. Steve Hurd, SJ served as celebrant, Fr. Peter Fennessy, SJ offered the homily, while other Jesuits helped to distribute communion. The Gesu Parish Choir led the singing. Guests received an engraved memorial stone as a reminder that we are “living stones” made alive by God through faith in Christ (I Pet. 2:4-7, Eph. 2:19-22). After the Mass, Ovations Dining Services served a tasty array of refreshments. Students from Brother Rice and Marian High Schools helped with set up and greeting guests, as did members of Manresa’s staff and board. We are grateful to all those who took part in preparing this special event, to those who were able to be with us and for our online community’s good wishes. To God be the glory! (Photos by Paul Seibold)
By Fr. Peter Fennessy, SJ
Ivan Milev, Prayer (1925), Iskra Historical Museum, Kazanlak, Bulgaria.
Ivan Milev was said to be the first and only artist to paint Bulgarian rural Christians where we can see their souls, customs and hopes. His attention to the poor villagers led him to appreciate their spirituality and prayer.
In his “Evening Prayer in the Field” (1925) two peasants pause, sickles still in their hands, to bow, bless themselves and pray in the midst of their work. In “Prayer” (also 1925) a peasant woman prays before her home icons. Her pious features are also iconic—geometric, abstract, intimating her unearthly, eternal and spiritual dimension. She has turned away from her daily labors and also from us to be absorbed in her prayer and intent only on the Lord.
She symbolizes and models for us why Manresa Jesuit Retreat House was founded. It is a holy place to which we withdraw from our usual lives. We enter into its silence and the silence of our hearts, the better to hear God’s words and receive God’s graces. It is holy ground where we refresh ourselves, our spiritual energies and our relationship with the Lord, and from which we return again to our usual lives strengthened in the Spirit and more fully ourselves.
