Retreat Director
Fr. Thomas H. O’Neill, S.J.
Fr. Thomas H. O’Neill, S.J., has long been interested in the deep and abiding connections between spirituality and the arts. Tom’s interest in the arts is rooted in his own personal pilgrimage of faith and creation. After several years teaching high school history and religion, Tom began to be haunted by a deep sense that “something was missing” in his soul. This search led him from the classroom to the studio, and from California to New York, where, in 2002, he received an M.F.A. in painting from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
In his painting and in his ministry, Tom seeks to explore the relationship between order and chaos, the manifestation of the sacred in the ordinary, and the unfolding presence of God in moments of Beauty and Truth. Influences on Tom’s work include the tradition of Icon writing, the visual expression of our earliest ancestors, and the labor and legacy of any number of fellow pilgrims, including Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O’Keefe and Joseph Beuys. In the past few years, Tom’s spiritual and artistic vision was deeply influenced by a sojourn among the Lakota people of Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
Tom is currently the Superior of the Jesuit Community at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco and a member of the school’s Adult Spirituality team.