"Mientras Hay Alma, Hay Esperanza: Where There is Life, There is Hope"
Rev. Jake Empereur, S.J.
There is life in the giftedness of lesbian and gay persons. Hope springs from such giftedness. This presentation is about the hope found in difference, in another way of loving, in a distinct religious sensibility, in the filling up with greater wholeness the beauty of humanity. The gay/lesbian presence in church serves as an important source for theological reflection: that God created gay and lesbian people to reflect the richness of God’s own loving. This richness of diversity is multiplied and enhanced as it finds a home in different cultural contexts. What does the Latina lesbian or the Latino gay man bring to this diversity? Spiritual direction is about such giftedness. The whole work of spiritual direction with gay and lesbian persons can be summed up in the cry of Jesus when the bound Lazarus emerged from the tomb: Desátenlo y déjenlo caminar (Untie him and let him go.)
Rev. Jake Empereur, S.J., is vicar and liturgist at the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas, where he also works in Hispanic ministry. He founded the Institute for Spirituality and Worship while a professor of systematic and liturgical theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union, and is founding editor of Modern Liturgy Magazine. Fr. Empereur’s latest books are The Enneagram and Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Direction and the Gay Person. He is presently complete a book on Hispanic sacramental theology and practice.
Loyola University - Faculty Profiles
Course: Presiding Skills
Address: Cathedral of San Fernando, 115 Main Plaza, San Antonio TX 78205
Phone: (210) 224-0288
Fax: (210) 271-0149
E-mail: gr057@ollac.ollusa.eduFr. Jake Empereur is a parochial vicar and liturgist at the San Fernando Cathedral, in San Antonio TX. For many years, he taught spirituality, liturgical, and systematic theology at the Jesuit School of Theology and the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California, where he also participated in the doctoral program in theology and the arts. He is the author of several books including Worship: Exploring the Sacred and The Liturgy That Does Justice. His latest book, published in 1997, is The Enneagram and Spiritual Direction.