Gerard w hughes biography of donald

  • Gerard William Hughes, Jesuit priest and spiritual writer, born 22 March 1924; died 4 November 2014.
  • Gerry W. Hughes SJ, whose Requiem Mass will be celebrated at Farm St. Jesuit Church in central London on Monday, loved stories and their telling.
  • Gerard W. Hughes (1924-2014) was a Jesuit priest and the author of God, Where Are You?, God in All Things, and Cry of Wonder.

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    In Search of a Way: Two Journeys of Spiritual Discovery

    'I don't think you know who you are.'At first, Gerard Hughes had a ready answer: 'I am a Jesuit priest.' A year later the question exploded inside him. What is the meaning of Christian faith? What is the Church? What does it mean to be a Christian, a Jesuit? After living with these questions for seven years he was given a year off for study and began with two weeks on a desert island followed by a ten week walk to Rome.The author of God of Surprises writes with great candour about his own inner journey and his walk to Rome: the 'outer' journey which helped to focus and clarify many of his spiritual perceptions. This is the revised edition of a book which will make you reflect deeply and laugh aloud; a unique blend of spiritual perception and hard-headed worldly wisdom.

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    Gerry W. Hughes S.J., whose Requiem Mass will be celebrated at Farm St. Jesuit Church in central London on Monday, loved stories and their telling. One of his favorites was about a meeting of a group of religious, that he was obliged to attend reluctantly. It began with an instruction to the group to form a circle and consecutively introduce themselves, sharing with the group their names, their provenance and something about their Jungian MBTI psychological profile or their Enneagram number. Gerry noticed that he’d be the last in the circle to speak. His turn came; he introduced himself by name, indicated that he was a Scottish Jesuit then announced “and I am a unique creation of God.”

    Those who knew Fr. Gerry, and there are many, will instantly recognise the man from this little anecdote, that he loved to tell, and that it speaks eloquently of who he is and how he looked at life. Gerry was not a rebel. He was a questioner. And if to ask questions is to posit the infinite, as spiri

  • gerard w hughes biography of donald

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    As I wrote in my conversion story, I realised that the greatest utmaning in my life would be receiving and responding to God’s love.

    The Calvinist God

    I grew up with a Calvinist God, an angry, intolerant figure who was going to send many of us to hell no matter what if we hadn’t made it onto the list of Elect. After being brought up with a weekly diet of hell, fire and judgement sermons, it was hard for me to believe in God’s love.

    This kind of fear was certainly not limited to a Calvinist upbringing. In God of Surprises, Fr Gerard Hughes writes about the Catholic version, comparing religious instruction to a small child being taken to see their Great-Uncle George whom supposedly loves them. Before they leave, however, he shows them the furnace in the cellar and threatens to throw them in if they don’t visit every week.

    In the church inom was brought up in, only people who had been shown by God that they were among the Elect were considered to be saved. The other people, no