Editor’s note: Throughout July, we’re hosting 31 Days with St. Ignatius, a month-long celebration of Ignatian spirituality. In addition to the calendar of Ignatian articles found here, posts on dotMagis this month will explore the theme of “Finding God in the Unexpected.”
“We’re going to the Beast Meat Restaurant.”
It was July, 1994, and I was attending the annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Prague. The best part of such meetings, of course, occurs over coffee or lunch, and so I happily accepted an invitation to join some colleagues at a restaurant specializing in game: “beast meat,” as it was translated literally on the menu.
My scientific research in graduate school had involved studying meteorites: rocks that fall to Earth from the asteroid belt, holding clues to the origin and evolution of planets. But eventually my work led in other directions. I spent a couple of years in Africa with the Peace Corps, followed by four years teaching at a small college. Finally, in 1989, my journey led me to join the Jesuits. Four years later I was assigned to the Vatican Observatory.
Now, after novitiate and philosophy studies, I was trying to pick up my scientific career, and
