Posted: November 29

A world premiere

(Loyola, Spain) It rained hard last not, just like it has been doing in Rome, where the Tiber River reached its highest mark in 25 years, covering the broad walkways on either side of the channel. The River Urola that flows through the narrow valley where the family of St. Ignatius lived is, of course, much smaller. The sturdy stone walkways all around the shrine that honors the founder of the Jesuits make it seem as though the Basque people here are prepared for rain. I saw an older man this morning out walking in rubber boots while I was unsuccessfully trying to dodge puddles of rain water. He was certainly more prepared than I and less concerned.

This evening I will present the world premiere of the movie that Loyola Productions has made to help the Jubilee 2006 celebrations of St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Pierre Favre, founding members of the Society of Jesus. The movie lasts one half hour and is very well made. It features three American television actors playing the roles of the early Jesuits along with documentary footage of Jesuit works from all over the world. As far as I can remember, it is the first movie to really show the worldwide nature of the Society. Of course, I am partial because I helped write some of the script and sort through the mountain of material that Jesuit production houses sent to the Los Angeles headquarters of Loyola Productions. We will see how the provincials who are gathered at Loyola react. At least one of them is in the movie, so he should be pleased, and Father General shows up, but he does not have any vanity and would not insist on being featured in any case. His ideas are at the heart of the movie however, in that if follows a thematic rather than a historic approach. The actors play three scenes from the period when the men were students at the University of Paris. The actors show their personality so the movie does not have to tell what they were like. The documentary footage then illustrates the apostolic themes that each one of them represents.

That presentation will take place tonight. Meanwhile, I took advantage of a sudden burst of sunlight to get photographs of the basilica; I see a painting here, with the fall colors of the trees in front of the basilica´s dome and the light playing off the clouds. This is a nice break from doing the programming for web sites, which is what have been doing for the past two weeks. It is actually quite engaging, and I enjoy just digging into the challenge of creating new functions. All of the principles of design come into play so it is not as abstract as it might seem. A good web page is a tool which ought to work as intuitively as any other well-designed tool. Ignatius would have appreciated that. One of the very last letters he ever wrote concerned the printing press he had just bought so they could reproduce the Spiritual Exercises. He was not happy with the aesthetics of the italics font and complained that there were not enough vowells to typeset the book. This from a man who was born in this remote valley at the end of the middle ages. But he went through enormous transformations, as must we all. If only we can have his trust in the Lord.