I had my first silent retreat with Fr. Danilo B. Gozar S.J., our new school chaplain.  Among the countless retreats he has given and the myriads of retreatants that he has encountered, I didn't expect that he would particularly remember me.  But I do remember him, because it was also my introduction to the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.  And for this, I am thankful that he has been instrumental in my continuing pilgrimage.

     Fr. Danny was born on September 5, 1950 in Calapan City, Mindoro Oriental.  He finished his basic education at the Calapan Central School and completed high school at the St. Augustine Seminary.  He graduated from the University of Manila with a Bachelor of Arts degree, major in English Literature.  He was a medical representative, a logistics officer, and a teacher, before finally entering the Society of Jesus in May 1978.  Ten years after, on March 25, he was ordained a Jesuit.

     His first assignment was at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University as Campus Minister and College Theology teacher from 1988 to 1990.  He was moved to the Jesuit Retreat House in Cebu City where he gave retreats.  In 1992, he did his tertianship in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1993, he took a course at St. Beuno's Center of Spirituality in Wales on spiritual direction in the giving of 30-day Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.  After his training abroad, he was assigned to the Jesuit Retreat House in Bukidnon, the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches and back to Cebu City at the Jesuit Retreat House there.

     And now he finds himself in the hustle and bustle of a school community. He regularly celebrates the morning mass and attends to all his chaplaincy work. In his quiet and simple ways, Fr. Danny is making his presence felt in Xavier School.

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• Philippine Jesuits
• Ignaciana
• Jesuit Curia

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