​Loyola House -- 300 Newbury Street, Boston

Jesuit Connections began this year’s series of “Pizza & a Pint Conversations” with a panel of four alumni from Jesuit schools who have been called to serve the Church as ordained clergy or lay ministers in a variety of Christian traditions.

Lyn Campbell, a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, shared her experience of being raised in the Roman Catholic tradition and the path that led her to becoming an ordained Episcopal priest. Joceyln Collen, a Fairfield University graduate with a Master of Divinity from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, discussed her work with “Catholic Women Preach" as chaplain and religion teacher at a school for special needs children, and her prison ministry work in Boston. Jason Downer, SJ, a graduate of Canisius College and a current student at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, shared his journey to becoming a Jesuit. Mina Kaddis, a graduate of Boston College, talked about his multi-dimensional vocation as a practicing dentist, husband, father, and an ordained priest in the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Boston College – Connors Center, Dover, Massachusetts

Jesuit Connections opened the 2017-2018 year with a retreat amid the early fall colors of the Connors Center, Boston College’s historic retreat house set among 80 wooded acres on the banks of the Charles River in rural Dover, Massachusetts.

The retreat was led by Meg Fox-Kelly who overseas retreat programs and serves as a chaplain at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. It included a Mass celebrated by Joe Simmons, SJ, a theology student at Boston College and staff writer at The Jesuit Post. The daylong retreat introduced the theme for Jesuit Connections’ 2017-2018 programming: “Vocation, Broadly Interpreted.” Retreat participants arrived to a warm welcome from the Connors Center staff and gathered in the mansion’s oak-paneled South Parlor (which includes a secret door hidden in one of the bookcases!) for Meg’s first talk on Ignatian discernment. Over the course of the day, Meg drew on her own vocation as a mother, former high school religion teacher, and a campus minister.