Innovation & Perseverance

When Fr. Andy Alexander, SJ, and Maureen McCann Waldron were working together in the Collaborative Ministry Office at Creighton University (CU) in Omaha, they had an idea. The world had recently been introduced to a technological advance known as the Internet, and they were convinced in 1997 that it could be used to offer Ignatian spiritual resources.

Some people scoffed. “They told us the internet was a toy,” Fr. Alexander says. “It doesn’t belong in a university, and it doesn’t belong in spirituality.”

But the Jesuit and the CU alumna (BA ’75, MA ’98) persevered. At first, the Daily Reflections they posted online helped faculty and staff understand and contribute to CU’s mission. Ultimately, the website grew into a resource that receives millions of hits from around the world annually. Their innovation also led to what is believed to be the first online version of the movements of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, set up for weekly practice over 34 weeks.

“Maureen and I spent eight months translating the movements of the Exercises into an online experience with which busy people could pray,” Fr. Alexander says. “The online retreat became a new adaptation, which we thought St. Ignatius, whose life’s purpose was missionary work in many forms, would enjoy. It is an opportunity for people to enter into an encounter with our Lord in their everyday lives.”

Available in several languages, including Chinese, the site offers Stations of the Cross devotions and prayer resources that correspond with the liturgical calendar. Today, it is sustained by CU’s Division of Mission and Ministry, and supported by dozens of faculty, staff, Jesuits and retirees who write reflections.

“I am very grateful for the privilege of serving Creighton’s Online Ministries for its first 27 years,” Fr. Alexander says. “I’ve been consoled to see how, since I left Creighton, the site has been lovingly updated and continued by Cynthia Schmersal, vice president of Mission and Ministry.”

Other assignments over the years included teaching at St. Francis Mission among the Lakota and Mahvpíya Lúta | Red Cloud Indian School, both in South Dakota; serving as vocation director, provincial assistant and director of formation for the then-Wisconsin Province; and serving as pastor at Church of the Gesu in Milwaukee and interim president at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha.

“I’ve been blessed to do the things the Society has asked me to do,” he adds. “They’ve shaped me. While working at the province, I was asked to computerize the office. I had never spent time on a computer in my life, and I literally went to a store, bought a computer and dived in. Had that not happened, I’d never have been able to sit with Maureen and start our online work.”

Today, Fr. Alexander is missioned to St. Camillus Jesuit Community to pray for the Church and the Society. While reducing his ministerial activity for health reasons wasn’t easy, “our faith has allowed me to trust and surrender to the reality that my life is in God’s hands,” he says. “We truly pray for our friends and benefactors here. Please continue to pray for us.”

For more about Creighton’s web ministries, visit OnlineMinistries.creighton.edu.