TK in The Hoya.

On a much happier note than the preceding post, today is the birthday of Georgetown Jesuit Father Tom King, without whose example and influence I almost certainly would not be a Jesuit novice today. I first encountered TK through his 11:15 pm daily Mass, later took his course on Teilhard (possibly the most intellectually challenging class I've ever taken), made various retreats and visited the Holy Land with him, and developed a keener understanding of Jesuit life and spirituality from his example. We've remained friends over the years, and I regret I won't be back on the Hilltop to attend the TK birthday soiree after tonight's 11:15 - always a very special event. In honor of Father King's birthday, I'm presenting readers of this blog with a variety of articles by or about him from The Hoya ("Georgetown University's Newspaper of Record Since 1920"). A good place to start is this profile from 2000, which provides as fine an introduction as any to a man a 1999 Hoya editorial justly lauded as Georgetown's Man of the Century. For a more recent profile emphasizing change and continuity at the university over the course of TK's 37 years on the Hilltop, click here. For a younger Jesuit's fond ode to Father King's annual Christmas Mass - itself a venerable Georgetown tradition - consult this op-ed by Father Ryan Maher. For a fairly decent precis of King's thoughts on Teilhard, there's this 2002 article reporting on a talk TK gave on the subject. Turning to Hoya pieces written by TK himself, here's a fine 2001 op-ed on Catholic higher education. Saving the best for last, here is "Sources of Stability," a must-read 2000 piece TK wrote touching on the origins of his vocation to the Jesuits. Happy reading! AMDG.