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Jesus, art and pop culture

By April Beane

How would St. Ignatius of Loyola relieve midday boredom? Would he approve of Facebook?

An exploration of these questions and other modern issues are discussed daily on The Jesuit Post, a site that provides blogs, essays, audio and video to show how God can be found in all things.

Yes, even today.

Joe Simmons, S.J., Arts ’04, is a weekly blogger.  The former Marquette tour guide and O’Donnell Hall RA has written about sarcasm, Facebook and Mass distractions. (Even a Jesuit-in-process, as Simmons describes himself, can have trouble paying attention in church, once in a while.) 

“We’re trying to find what are the issues out there that lurk beneath the surface of the general consciousness. In my experience, underlying most modern concerns are the deeper spiritual questions that people have been thinking about for centuries,” says Simmons.

Simmons, along with fellow Marquette alumni Joe Hoover, S.J., Arts ’94, and Rev. Jim McDermott, S.J., Arts ’91, a former Marquette Trustee, have really struck a chord with followers by exploring diverse issues that touch on faith and spirituality.

With cheeky headlines and fun graphics, The Jesuit Post hopes to grab the attention of a broader audience searching for contemporary conversations about God.

Even though the three Marquette graduates live in different states, the site helps them keep in touch.

“We Jesuits usually sit around the dinner table and have a playful argument, each taking a side, and have an interesting debate about something current. Now we’ve taken it to the Internet,” Simmons says.

The Internet also provides a virtual table for others to join in the conversation and fulfill the site’s hope, as expressed by site editor Paddy Gilger, S.J., in 2012: “to help people think about God and the church a little differently, a little more deeply and a little more often.”