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Jesuit Tom O’Hara dedicated much of his ministry in the Jesuits in spiritual guidance and in particular in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius as well as in Parish Ministry. He became an expert spiritual guide. He wrote accessible texts on the spiritual life including At Home with God, At Home with Jesus, and At Home with the Spirit. Tom found a home in the life of the Trinity furnished by the insights of St Ignatius. And all the time, his spiritual insights were grounded in the practicality and earthiness of his life and of the lives of those whom he befriended particularly through weddings and baptisms and at regular celebrations of the parish Eucharist in the Parish of North Sydney. He died just short of his 84th birthday.
Fr Tom O’Hara SJ, who spent much of his Jesuit life giving the Spiritual Exercises, explores in depth St Ignatius’ invitation to contemplate the events of Christ’s life in the Second Week of the Exercises. He asks whether Ignatian prayer is contemplative in the sense developed by John of the Cross and others. He argues cogently against many commentators that Ignatius’ understanding of contemplation was open to wordless prayer, although it did not demand it.
