Dear Miriam,

Risen! That’s the thrust of Easter: life budding up and out of lethal wounds. For Christians, those death-defying gashes appear in the body of Christ. But all of nature shares that same dynamic. Food, for example, is the daily reminder that life-giving-sacrifice creates a closed, vibrant circuit.

Such Easter truths were on my mind last month in our Community Orchard. Late winter pruning had begun. To prune is to touch paradox. You take away in order to get more. You harm for the sake of health. Because your hope is fruit, you limit the capacity to produce.

Overly aggressive pruning can kill a tree. Timid pruning, more typically the vice of orchard novices, will give you lots of leaves and tiny apples. You have to sculpt a tree with an artist’s eye, imagining its shape years into the future. You have to think like a tree, getting inside its limbs, feeling their need for sunlight, airflow and strength when laden in September.

Greg with Christine Goddard,

expert Community Orchard volunteer

So much of life is knowing what to cut and what to keep. The Community Orchard itself is a product of extended “pruning”. After Ignatius Farm no longer had the brawn and brains of Jesuit brothers, its orchard fell into neglect. We didn’t have sufficient staff to care for it properly. Many trees became diseased and required removal.

Those wounds have brought the orchard into a new, collective vitality. Now a teaching and sharing space, the Community Orchard relies on volunteers for its health and growth. Last year, thanks to these volunteers, the orchard provided thousands of pounds of donations to local charitable services. Renewed life continues this year. It’s Easter in action outside! If you wish to get involved, please write to farmoutreach@ignatiusguelph.ca.

Community Shared Agriculture

Now’s the time to sign up for Ignatius Farm CSA! Find out more and register online here.

We expect CSA shares to sell out in April or early May. If you plan to purchase a CSA share with Ignatius Farm, do so this month! CSA Summer shares will secure you delicious fresh Ignatius produce all the way to Thanksgiving; Choose the harvest segments that suit your summer plans!

As we seed and set in motion the growing miracles and tasks of the upcoming months, we look forward to seeing you every week for the beautiful harvest! 

Ignatius Farm Launch - April 18, 6:30-8pm

Join us as we kick off our 24th growing season. See several short farm films, enjoy light snacks, and celebrate the amazing farm and food community we have here. Find out all the details and register here.

Community Orchard Mulching - April 27, 9:30am-noon

Find out more here & register!

Mark your calendar for our Annual Seedling Sale on Saturday May 18, 9am-12:30pm. More details can be found here.

Stay up to date with what’s happening at the Farm by subscribing to the Farm E-News here.

Eric Jensen SJ has just had three small books published by Novalis, following upon A Teaching Jesus: Ignatian Contemplations with the Gospel of Matthew, published earlier this year.

They are:

• A Very Human Jesus: Ignatian Contemplations with the Gospel of Mark
• A Compassionate Jesus: Ignatian Contemplations with the Gospel of Luke
• A Conversational Jesus: Ignatian Contemplations with the Gospel of John

His earlier book, From Forgiveness to Healing: Preparing our Hearts for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Novalis), has been given to the priests of the diocese of Hamilton by Bishop Douglas Crosby.

His book, Entering Christ’s Prayer: A Retreat in 32 Meditations (now out of print after ten years), has just been translated into Chinese by the Jesuits in Taiwan. If you wish for a copy of this book in Chinese please check with your local bookstore.

Taste of Diversity Returns!

We are very excited to announce the return of our beloved dinners for 2024.

Tickets are limited so book early to save your seats.

November 13 - Service 5pm, Dinner 6pm

$100 ea dinner

Tickets: register online here!

or call 519-824-1250 ext 241

Cedar Circle Sunday Afternoons

April 21, 2:30-4pm

Loyola House

Celebrate Earth Day early with meanderings and meditations on the welcoming Ignatius land. We’ll wonder at the blessings and responsibilities born of being Earthlings. 

Find out more here at ignatiusguelph.ca under events.

Alana Levandoski Concert: Cianalas/Tãsknota

May 13, 7pm Loyola House

‘Cianalas’ means homesick or longing in Scottish Gaelic. ‘Tãsknota’ means homesick in Kashubian. Cianalas/Tãsknota, sings to the ache we feel in our hearts for home, because we now inhabit a time for addressing the disregarded aspects of our own histories.

For more information & tickets ($20 ea) follow this link.

Loyola House Chapel in its' building stage. - used by permission, Jesuit Archives

From Chuck Wilson -

Passover - During Lent one year while I was a student at the University of Guelph, my roommate and I responded to an invitation to participate in a Seder meal at Loyola to celebrate Passover. It was a reflective, quiet, candle-lit meal of lamb and mint, both raised on the farm. There followed a discussion about the meaning and context of Passover as well as an invitation to wash the feet of those at our table, and to have our feet washed in turn. This felt uncomfortably intimate, particularly since my roommate and I had not laundered our socks in an unreasonably long time. I recall the room being silent, save for the splashing of water, the sound of towels wiping feet, and the occasional giggle from the ticklishness. When this ritual was complete, we walked over to the barn. We gathered there in the light of a lantern on straw bales beside the livestock pens. We read and prayed together, as the heat from the animals kept us warm and their shuffling and chewing kept us company. As we walked back from the barn under a cold, starry sky, I recall thinking that the Christ had been born into such earthy beginnings, and that he had spent his entire life in touch with the soil - including that from my own socks.  

Please send your own Loyola House stories and memories to tpacker@ignatiusguelph.ca.

This is the third “Land Lovers” profile, compiled by local Guelph artist, writer and Ignatius land lover, Dawn Matheson, with photography by Teresa Blanking, a flower gardener. Please reach out to us if you are a lover of our fields and forests, flora and fauna and want to share in the wonder. We’d like to profile you.

Meet Michael and Matthew Hamp, a father-and-son team who have walked the land at Ignatius, slowly, tenderly, hand-in-hand, for over 20 years. The land has been the intermediary in their relationship as Matt negotiates the world without speech.

1. Who are you? What would you like us to know about you?

(Michael:) My journey on the land started many years ago as walker, runner, skier, teacher, chaplain, and friend. I have been blessed to experience the seasons through the eyes of Mother Nature.

I hope that my retreat work with St James’ Catholic High School students left them with positive experiences that will last a long time. Perhaps they will bring their own children to move slowly along the trails and through the forests. Like us, the land is constantly changing.

2. How do you spend most of your time out on the land at Ignatius?

I now walk— and have for over 20 years— with my youngest son, Matt, 31, who lives with Autism and Downs Syndrome, which means something different for every individual.

3. Why do you come? What does this land offer you?

The land, for Matty, has been a celebration of freedom, openness, and delight. Sensing a wealth of joyful emotions. Feeling the earth. Knowing fatigue.

It’s fascinating to walk with him because he is picking things up that are beyond you and I. He lives in the moment. But, this freedom is not constant. Autism has changed Matty, robbed him in a way I only know as mystery. The land itself has become, at times, a scary place filled with rocks, holes, roots, uneven grassy paths, dogs barking, loud birds squawking overhead, the high-pitched sounds of school children … and, yet, there are days when the delight returns and he feels the earth, and enjoys greeting strangers or farm workers. This delight is why we both come.

4. What do you do to give back to the land?

The land continues to evolve for him and for me; continues to give and to teach. Where will it take us in the weeks ahead as the land prepares itself for spring? For myself, this experience is far from my early days as a young man. Now, I live through Matt in constant prayer, trying to absorb the mystery of my son as we venture onto the land once more. Because he cannot speak the land becomes our

way of communicating. His deliberate walk slows me down and teaches me again and again of what is truly holy. His face guides my next step. I am so grateful for this land and this time — this place to be with him.