Dr. Jennifer Bryson, Ethics and Public Policy Center Fellow in Catholic Women's Forum presented at the Little Way Café on Thursday April 23, 2026 on the profound insights on the saints and sanctity according to the writings and life of Ida Görres. An adult Catholic convert, she shared her own conversion story on The Journey Home.

Currently, she is translating the works of Ida Friederike Görres (1901-1971) from German to English, and via the Sports Policy Initiative, she researches and advocates for sound sports governance.

Dr. Bryson has studied and worked in Egypt and Yemen, been an intelligence agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency, including two years as an interrogator at Guantanamo, and worked at several research institutes, including the Witherspoon Institute and Religious Freedom Institute. Her articles are at jenniferbryson.net.

Dr. Bryson earned her B.A. from Stanford in Political Science, her M.A. in medieval European intellectual History from Yale, and her Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Yale, with a focus on Greco-Arabic and Islamic studies. She learned German in high school in Austria and while studying Marxism-Leninism for a year in former East Germany as an undergraduate. Bryson was an Earhart Fellow, a Richard M. Weaver Fellow of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and a Fulbright Scholar. Her Ph.D. work included the study of translation theory.

From 2021–2023 she was a Visiting Researcher at the Pope Benedict XVI Philosophical-Theological Institute, known as Hochschule Heiligenkreuz, in Austria, while translating several works by Ida Görres. Her translations include the German government’s report, “Anti-Semitism among Islamists in Germany,” Görres’ 1970 lecture “Trusting the Church,” and Görres’ book The Church in the Flesh (2023), John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed (2024), Bread Grows in Winter (2025) with a foreword by Bishop Varden who recently preached to Pope Leo for his 2026 Lenten retreat, and most recently What Binds Marriage Forever (2026).

St. Louis Director of Faith Formation Jamie Hickman discusses the term Abba (Father) as a central Mystery within the greatest Mystery (the Trinity) & Christ is key to knowing & loving the Father. The Greek letter μ (mu) is spoken with the mouth starting in a closed position and then gradually the lips open in order to let out the sound, which shows us the deep meaning of the word mystery: that which is hidden is intended to be revealed.

μυστήριον (mystērion, moos-tay'-ree-on) means mystery https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3466/rsv/mgnt/0-1/

Abba occurs 3 times in the RSV: https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=abba&t=RSV#s=s_primary_0_1

Ἀββᾶ (Chaldean / Aramaic: abba, ab-ah') means Father https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g5/rsv/mgnt/0-1/

πατήρ (Greek: patēr, pat-ayr') means Father https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3962/rsv/mgnt/0-1/

Pater (Latin: patēr, pat-ayr') means Father

Church Teaching on Genesis 1-3 June 30, 1909 https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-01-1909-ocr.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasimodo

The Come and See class occurred Sunday April 12, 2026 (Divine Mercy Sunday, aka Low Sunday or Sunday in the Octave of Easter or Domenica in Albis or Quasimodo Sunday). The Latin term Quasimodo comes from the Introit of the Mass for that day: "Quasi modo géniti infántes, allelúia, rationábile, sine dolo lac concupíscite, allelúia, allelúia, allelúia" ("As newborn babes, alleluia, desire the rational milk without guile, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia). This is the calling of all Christians: to be like or according to the mode of (quasimodo) newborn infants -- to be childlike (seek to know and love the Father). After the Last Supper, Christ tells his disciples incredibly an important message, which we hear or read in John 14:8 (the heart of the chapter), Jesus says: "Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also." The mysteries are meant to be seen, to be shared, to be lived. We can only love what and whom we know, so the Christian must seek to see the face of Christ in order to see the Father. When we see, we know, we "get" or "grasp" it -- we do not exhaust it, but we begin to understand. Over a lifetime and even into eternity, we shall understand better who the Father is by help Christ by becoming another Christ.

We often hear the phrase "Be the best version of yourself," but through a Catholic lens, this means letting Jesus live through you fully.

Listen to Fr. O'Hare delve into this topic, and how it relates to the vertical and horizontal union we promote here at St. Louis Parish.