Ignatian spirituality family loses a giant: Tribute to Gerard W Hughes SJ
Jesuit priest and world renown Ignatian author and spiritual director Fr Gerard W Hughes has died in Boscombe, England. He was 90 years old and has been a Jesuit for 72 years. He died peacefully on the 4 November. AnneMarie Pauline Campbell from the Jesuit Institute South Africa writes this tribute to Gerry.
This morning I discovered that the Ignatian author and spiritual director Gerry W. Hughes SJ has died at the age of 90 at the Jesuit community in Boscombe in England. He was suffering from pancreatic cancer.
I never had the opportunity to meet Gerry Hughes in person, but (as I suspect is true for many), he had a profound impact on my life through his writings. As a young student in the Jesuit Catholic Chaplaincy his first book "God of Surprises" opened up to me a totally new understanding of who God is, of how to pray differently and the beginnings of the realisation that I could trust my experience. For me it was the book which unlocked something for me that has been unfolding ever since. Twenty five years later I can recall so many people I have accompanied on their spiritual journey that I have loaned one of my many copies to and how many of them have been deeply impacted by what he wrote. Later I was helped by some of his other writings.
To read on see: www.jesuitinstitute.org.za/A-tribute-to-Gerard-W.-Hughes-SJ