Jesuits live together in community, which is a fundamental part of their Jesuit identity. Just like any family, they gather around the dinner table, watch Netflix, do chores around the house and, occasionally, have spirited debates about the most efficient way to load a dishwasher.
There is one way, however, where Jesuits are not like other families: They have a chapel in their homes. The chapel—whether large and historic or simple and unadorned—is a place not only for individual prayer and contemplation but where the community gathers to celebrate the Eucharist.
We asked four Jesuits to introduce us to their community chapels, places that are very different geographically and aesthetically but the same in the way that matters most.
The Chapel at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos, California
By Dan Peterson, SJ
I first saw the Sacred Heart painting the day I entered the novitiate one Sunday in March 1961. Having said goodbye to my family, I was ushered into the chapel by my novice “angel,” or guide, in time for the community chanting of the Office of Compline. The antiphonal singing of the Latin Psalms by the 165-member community, supported by the organ in the loft, washed over me and filled the chapel. Thought by many Jesuits to be “too monastic,” I found it very devotional, and I felt welcomed to this new life.
The chapel at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California, has been at the heart of community life since its construction in 1914-1915. For almost 110 years, it has been a place for daily Mass and private prayer. When I arrived as a novice, the building housed the novitiate for the Jesuit’s California Province (now Jesuits West), and the chapel was a new addition to the novitiate building complex first established in 1888. Today, the complex serves as the Jesuit West Province’s retirement community and infirmary, home to more than 80 senior Jesuits, including me.
The chapel, renovated many times over the years, features a large painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus over the high altar. Jesus is portrayed as extending his arms in blessing over the world.
The backstory of the painting involves Mexican Jesuits exiled by an anticlerical government. A group of Mexican Jesuits arrived in Los Gatos in the fall of 1914 to continue their studies alongside their California comrades. Among them was Miguel Pro, later martyred and named a blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1988. Although the exiles remained at Los Gatos for only a few months, the story of Pro and his companions became a part of province memory. The painting was done by the noted Mexican Jesuit artist, Father Gonzalo Carrasco, SJ (1859-1936), who was also exiled by the same government anticlerical policies. Installed in November 1915 in gratitude to the community for offering refuge to the exiled Mexican Jesuits, the painting features medallion portraits of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier over the side altars.
A major chapel renovation was begun in 1938 as part of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Los Gatos novitiate. Wrought iron reredos, or ornamental screens, were added behind the main altar and side altars. The reredos were designed by San Francisco architect Edward Eames and executed by Brother John Benecke, SJ(1885-1962).
The design incorporates the motifs of grape leaves and grape clusters, representing both the Eucharist as well as the production of altar wine, which sustained the novitiate’s operations for nearly a century.
Br. Benecke also made the altar rails and the bronze tabernacle on the high altar. They were removed during a later chapel renovation and incorporated into the wrought iron gates at the main entrance of Sacred Heart Jesuit Center. More than six decades after I arrived as a young man of 22, I find myself in the same chapel with the painting of the Sacred Heart still inviting me to reflect on the graces received in my life and on the lives, gifts and ministries of the Jesuit priests and brothers in the retirement community around me. May it continue to be a place for liturgical celebration, prayer and reflection for many years to come.
Br. Dan Peterson, SJ, is the archivist for the Jesuits West Province.
The Chapel of The Holy Trinity At La Storta, Portland, Oregon
By Chris Weekly, SJ
For more than 100 years, Jesuits and colleagues have gathered and prayed on a few green acres in the heart of East Portland. First acquired in 1907, these grounds have been a home to St. Ignatius Parish and School almost from the beginning, as well as the original provincial residence and then Loyola Retreat House, which hugged the gentle slope of the land here from 1953 to 2001.
From the air, this place appears to be part of the network of parks that dot the city. The local coyotes and birds know this, as they traverse the grounds, traveling from one cluster of evergreens to another. But for those who want to walk in peace, pray and gather for the Eucharist, the Loyola grounds are special.
After the old retreat house closed and was taken down, the entire grounds were reimagined. And in 2003, Loyola Jesuit Center opened, housing Jesuits working in the Portland area, as well as the province offices, meeting and guest spaces, and a beautiful new chapel.
Named the Chapel of the Holy Trinity at La Storta, the space recalls a pivotal moment in the life of St. Ignatius and his first companions. In 1537, while stopped in a village outside Rome and afraid of what they might encounter in that city, Ignatius had a vision. It was of Christ carrying his cross and the voice of God assuring them, “I will be favorable to you,” placing Ignatius and his companions at the side of Jesus laboring as they walk into their future.
The chapel was purposely designed to bring the outside in and the inside out. Two sides of the chapel are all glass, with the back window opening onto undulating waters and a pond, evoking baptism, as well as the forested vista and a path leading to the Mary Grotto and Stations of the Cross. The front opens onto a plaza for sitting to read, share lunch or visit—a world apart from busy Powell Boulevard, which is only 100 yards away.
The Jesuits who worked with the architects to design the cedar-clad chapel wanted worshippers to experience the beauty of nature and the quiet of the trees. That sense of reverence for the natural world is very much in keeping with the early Jesuits in the West and their encounters with Native Americans and immigrants in the expansive beauty of this entire region.
By the spring of 2003, Loyola Jesuit Center was complete, but the chapel seemed a little spare. The provincial at the time suggested a triptych to adorn the walls, and he commissioned Kathy Sievers, an Oregon-based iconographer, to create three beautiful icons showing key moments in the life of our founder: the call of St. Ignatius; the vision at La Storta; and his missioning of St. Francis Xavier for his service to India and the Far East.
These scenes reflect the present as well. Each week, Portland Jesuits have their community-wide Mass here. And each weekday, St. Ignatius Parish celebrates morning Mass in this airy and intimate venue. There we all gather in the quiet to pray, listen for Scripture’s vision and share the Eucharist before we are sent back into the city to work and care for family members and neighbors in need.
As the days and seasons unfold, people from all walks of life stroll through the grounds, grateful for this oasis in the busy city, the heart of which is this chapel. And for those who look and listen deeply, these canopied trees and sacred spaces certainly provide peace and renewal, but they are also a reminder that this fragile, forested Earth is our common home, to be cared for and preserved for generations yet to come.
Fr. Chris Weekly, SJ, is the provincial assistant for pastoral ministries for the Jesuits West Province.
Clougherty Chapel, Loyola High School of Los Angeles
By Greg Goethals, SJ
Coming to Loyola High School as a freshman in ’69, all I could think of was that this is the most beautiful campus I’ve ever seen. Entering the St. Ignatius Chapel, located in Ruppert Hall, the Jesuit residence, was awe-inspiring. It was quiet, somber, otherworldly, with dark painted walls to look like stone. The bones were the same as they are now, but it was different. It was the end of the old way, given that the Second Vatican Council had taken place only a few years before. There were pews and the altar faced the St. Ignatius stained-glass window, which was
made in Paris in 1957 and was one of the only stained-glass windows in the chapel at that time. And you were supposed to pay a visit to the chapel twice a day!
When I came back as a novice in the late 70s, there were huge changes—the pews were taken out, gold carpet was put in, the ceiling was painted blue. The altar was in the center, with chairs surrounding it in a semicircle. The rest of the inspiring stained-glass windows were installed and dedicated in 1980.
After the 1980 renovation, the chapel was renamed in honor of Francis H. Clougherty ’29, the first of many generations of Cloughertys to attend Loyola. It was former Loyola president, the legendary Pat Cahalan, SJ’s idea to thank him for his generosity to our school. The whole family led the way for the modernization as well as the revival of the campus and still do.
Jump forward to 2006 when we remodeled Ruppert Hall for the Jesuits. The balcony was converted into an intimate community chapel for the Jesuits within Clougherty Chapel. The railing, or grill, was moved above the frieze to create its own private and more defined space but still one with the chapel. Looking out at its intricate details, the Stations of the Cross, the stained-glass windows, it envelops you.
It’s thought-provoking that Clougherty Chapel is about to celebrate its centennial. When my dad was here, it was only 10 years old, basically a new building that is now steeped in history. It needs some polishing to bring it back to its full glory. That’s why we’re in the process of launching a capital campaign. And once again, the Cloughertys have made the initial, very generous gift.
The chapel is the religious core, the religious heartbeat of the school. That’s why I said no to building another chapel during our renovations. This is a spiritual, sacred place in the Loyola consciousness and 22-acre campus.
The wrinkles of time aside, this holy chapel continues to give me solace. Whether it’s celebrating Mass underneath the stained-glass window of St. Ignatius or reflecting from its upper balcony, it still inspires awe and peace in this graduate of the class of 1973.
Fr. Greg Goethals, SJ, is president of Loyola High School of Los Angeles.
Madonna Della Strada Jesuit Community Chapel, Spokane, Washington
By Tom Lamanna, SJ
In 2017, the Jesuits in Spokane moved into a new home on the campus of Gonzaga University. Our community was dedicated to Madonna della Strada, which is the name of a 13th century fresco of the Blessed Mother holding the Christ child, an image that today adorns an altar at the Jesuits’ Church of the Gesù in Rome. Madonna della Strada is Italian for “Our Lady of the Way,” and it is a fitting name for our community because, as Jesuits, our way has always been illuminated by the Blessed Mother.
For 137 years, since Gonzaga’s founding, there has been a Jesuit community within the same few acres of our current home at the corner of Boone Avenue and Astor Street. While our sleek and light-filled new home is very different from our former one, it has one important common feature—our community chapel.
For some people, the family room is the centerpiece of their home, and while we Jesuits enjoy hanging out and watching sports together, the true heart of our home is our chapel.
When the Jesuits made the move to our new community, a few items were brought over from the former community chapel, including the altar, pulpit and pedestal for the tabernacle, which had been made by Brother Lloyd St. Marie, SJ. Br. Lloyd, who died in 1996, was a woodworker and skilled craftsman, who served for decades as a carpenter at Gonzaga University.
His brother, Father Louis St. Marie, SJ, was also a Jesuit and an artisan in his own right. Fr. Lou was a long serving professor of art at Gonzaga, who decades ago consulted and collaborated on a beautiful mosaic of Christ the King surrounded by saints of the Society of Jesus. The mosaic had been installed in our old community chapel but was, unfortunately, not able to be moved, although a reproduction was made, which hangs today in our community.
The chapel is still a work in progress. The community has commissioned a noted local artist to create a main piece for the chapel depicting Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of All), one of the oldest Byzantine religious icons. The painting, in memory of Father Steve Kuder, SJ, a beloved teacher, administrator, spiritual director and pastor who died in 2021, is a gift from Steve’s family and friends.
The chapel is a place of encounter with God, one another, and friends and benefactors. As a community, we hold Mass there every weeknight and have held vigils, funerals and memorials for brothers of ours who have passed away and whose remains have come to Spokane for burial. During Covid, we held the remains of a few of ours waiting for burial until their families could join us as we commended them to the Lord. Having the remains of our brothers with us is a way of both honoring them and holding them in our community.
The chapel is also a place of community prayer and reflection. The governing boards and benefactors of both the university and our high school, Gonzaga Prep, periodically join the community for Mass, as do province benefactors.
Mostly the men of the community use the space for personal and community prayer, joining in a long tradition here in Spokane and in the whole history of the Society of Jesus to seek to know, love and serve the Lord our God.
Fr. Tom Lamanna, SJ, is the pastor of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish in Spokane, Washington.
