Discernment

Richard Leonard SJ gives a talk about the discernment of spirits and making good choices. He's funny - when talking about Ignatius and his wish that riches not be important to those making the Exercises, Leonard says this ...

It's a bit rich, pardon the pun, a Jesuit talking about riches. We're famous for many things, and real estate is one of them. ... We've got a good eye for real estate in Australia, I can tell you. I took my first vows at arguably the most beautiful school in Australia, a high school - St. Ignatius' College, Riverview ... we bought a penninsula in Sydney Harbor in 1871 - water on three sides of this extraordinary property - and we built beautiful sandstone buildings facing down onto the Sydney Harbor in 1878, and we built a beautiful chapel in 1893. Now I took my first vows on this magnificent estate ... poverty, chastity, and obedience for life, in the chapel there. My mother came ... Mum has a sharp wit, so as we came outside from having taken my life vows to the Jesuits, Mum looked at the sandstone buildings, she looked at Sydney CBD [central business district] on the horizon, the Sydney Harbor water, beautiful and glittering as it was on three sides, and she looked at the manicured lawns and then the sprinklers went sh-sh-sh, and my mother turned to me and she said, "If this is poverty, I want to see chastity."

The school ...



You can watch the video here.