Robert C HartBob Hart co-founded and chairs the Sister Parish Ministry of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, a community development program serving Haitian migrant workers in the Dominican Republic. He is on the board of Ability Housing and the Jacksonvile World Affairs Council. He retired in 2007 from a thirty-year energy career, which began in the coalfields of West Virginia and extended to the electric power industries of more than thirty countries throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Mr. Hart holds an AB, magna cum laude, from Harvard University. "I did the Exercises five years ago, publishing my journal from that experience in a book, One Man's Journey. My personal journey since then has certainly not been quiet. Like everyone else on the planet, I am a new person every second of every day, sometimes changed to a noticeable extent. For me, the greatest change in who I am has been spiritual. I believe my faith in God, and thein my small part I play in His great Creation, haves continued to grow stronger, even as they haveit has changed and evolved. I am now more comfortable in my personal relationship with God, and, even more important, I have found a very rewarding place in two new communities of encounter (borrowing the phrase from Pope Francis): The first is the Living School community, which consists primarily of professors, lecturers, and students of the Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There are now more than 360 graduates of the two-year program, with another 500 students enrolled or accepted. Applications for the cohort of 2018-2020 will be accepted beginning in June, 2017. The second community consists of the more than 600 missionaries, and the thousands of villagers and patients who have been touched by the Sister Parish Ministry of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic parish in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida Among other things, these two communities, both gifts from God, participate with Him as He momently creates me, converts me, and increases my consciousness of the universe. The Living School is an experiential faith learning project that feeds my head. The Sister Parish Ministry is an experiential faith service project that feeds my heart. My faith is different today, just as I am different and the world is different. I want to better know this new person I have become, and understand him in the context of the new world. Once again, I want to meet Christ each day in the quiet rhythm of Ignatius - patiently, delicately, and deeply seeing Him in my evolving faith. The Exercises provide a perfect environment and a sound program for this encounter. That answers the question as to why I want to do Annotation 19 again. As for why I am moved to do it now, there are three related answers. First, five years seems like a good interval for the kind of introspective experience offered by an Ignatian retreat. I considered doing a thirty-day silent retreat, or putting together two or three one-week retreats. After some frustrating efforts to arrange my schedule around the schedule of various spiritual advisors, I reflected on how much I enjoyed and grew from doing Annotation 19 five years ago, and the decision was easy. Second, the recent presidential election in the United States was somewhat discouraging from the outset, and grew more polarized and tribal as the months passed, leaving me depressed and demoralized. I need the Exercises to lift my spirits. Finally, I am not confident in what the future has in store, for this country, this church, our global society, and, importantly, me. I need the Exercises to make me strong." Read More Read Less