Born November 8, 1948 
Entered August 21, 1966 
Ordained June 7, 1975 
Resides Chicago, IL   

Finding & Being Found  

“Where are you?” is the first question in Scripture as God goes looking for his beloved creatures, Adam and Eve.

As a small child I remember being lost (left behind!) by my family after a day of fun at Coney Island in Cincinnati. After what seemed like hours of wandering and crying, I remember being found, swept up into my father’s arms, and taken safely home.

After dinner every night we said the family rosary; each one of us had a favorite decade. Mine was and still is the finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. The Coney Island experience gave me an affinity experience of the young Jesus and an awareness of parental love, especially protection.

When I was a grown man and many years after ordination, I remember my dad reaching out to hold me in his arms after a dark patch in my life when I felt lost, like the Prodigal Son. Good Jesuit brothers did and do the same for me. These moments taught me that we have to celebrate when what was lost is now found. Feeling found, especially after feeling lost, is such a gift given to me by my family and the Society that I have to give it away to others.

Life in the Society has been a life of finding God in all things; in all peoples, including my brother Jesuits; the people I’ve been privileged to serve; my family. It has been a life of never truly being lost … but daily finding, being found, uncovering, discovering, and pointing out … God is here, God is with us. God saying, “I see you” even when I don’t see or sense him.

“Where are you?” goes both ways. God to me/us and me/us to God. “Where are you?” I think the response for me and God is the same: “Here I am! Stop looking, you found me.” I’ve found him in the Society of Jesus.

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