Duc in Altum

 Published in the annual magazine of the Dominican Studentate at Nagpur, Veritas , Vol. 19 (2022-23), pp. 48-49. A moth is drawn to a flame so irresistibly that it is inevitably consumed by it, the very object of its desire. Indeed, desire is one of the most powerful emotions that we, as human beings feel, and the samething that we see even in other species. For instance, the plant’s innate desire for the sun, leads it to direct its growth in the sun’s direction. Likewise, animals too, following their sense appetite go in search of the fulfillment of their natural desires. Desire, then, is something that is imbued by the Creator into nature, a gift that helps to sustains the order of the Universe. Man, the crown of God’s creation, is blessed with the desire for God, and nothing less than God can satisfy him. But even this is not the greatest desire. For, far greater than every desire of man, is God’s desire, a desire so wonderfully expressed by Jesus on the night of the Last Supper...

Published in Dominican Ashram, Vol. 5 Issue 4 (December 2023), pp. 159-167. Reproduced with permission. “A Jesuit, a Franciscan and a Dominican…” This brings to mind the many anecdotes that one hears about them from time to time. The underlying assumption here is that these three great religious families have always had their own very distinctive and differentiated approach to life and its many challenges. But could the spiritualities of the great founders Francis of Assisi, Dominic de Guzman, and Ignatius of Loyola, despite their unique approaches have some common ground and compatibility with each other? This question came to the fore when on that rainy evening of 13 March 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was presented to the Church from the Balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, as Pope Francis. Many in the Church were surprised that this first “Francis,” a son of St. Ignatius, was the first Jesuit to occupy the chair of St. Peter as head of the Catholic Church. On the very ne...