he last of the Renewal Retreats as scheduled, in connection with the commencement of the Golden Jubilee of the Province, was directed by Fr Rex Pai (MDU) from 21–29 August at Christ Hall. 35 Jesuits made the retreat. As a hunch it could be said that the average age of the participants was around 60, the youngest being 30 years old and the oldest 92. The bulk
of the group consisted of Provincials, Socii, Superiors, Principals and Consultors all past and present. There were three inputs daily, each for an hour’s duration, the last being an hour of adoration at night-fall, before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, with intermittent sprinkle of pep talks, sharings and hymns. The exercitants seemed dead-seriously prayerful. Galore were the reflections from back-bare-skulls and tube-light foreheads but heart-level sharings hard to come by. Besides these, 4 hours of personal prayer was prescribed. The inputs were ‘quintessentials’ gleaned from the gold-mine of Fr Rex Pai’s vast experience as a Spiritual Master and a suave, simple and transparent Jesuit administrator. They were simple, deep and pertinent to this era. He shared with us even his choicest retreat materials.
In spite of the cloud-burst rains in North India and in our neighboruing states and a mild spill-over to Kerala, Calicut sustained a preautumnal air-conditioned weather conducive to prayer. Convenient accommodation, reason ably good food, concerned and sensitive Christ Hall Community, ever-vigilant and alert Socius and Minister made the conduct of the retreat smooth-sailing. The retreatants are very grate ful to one and all of the organizers. Having stayed in one of the newly-built Curia rooms the present reporter takes this opportunity to congratulate the incumbent Provincial on his meticulous planning and impeccable execution of the new building. It is an ‘incarnation’ of sweet reasonableness. In addition to this, is there not a felt-need for the Mother-house of our Province to have a decent chapel for the spiritual bonhomie of the Jesuits, instead of the present wayside, wooden, ‘dum-dum’ oratory!