Pedro Arrupe was a Spanish Basque Jesuit priest who served The Society of Jesus as the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. The only other Spanish Basque Jesuit who served as Superior General was the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola. Arupe led the Jesuits to implement the spirit and documents of the Second Vatican Council, especially the Council’s calls for faith which does justice and a “preferential option for the poor.” Jesuit Vincent O’Keefe said Arrupe was “a second Ignatius of Loyola, a refounder of the Society in the light of Vatican II.”
Arrupe taught that “only by being a man or woman for others” could a person claim to be a follower of Christ.
He was born into a bourgeois family in the industrial city of Bilbao, Spain in 1907 and died in Rome on 1991. After studying As a medical student in Spain, for a few years, Arrupe joined the Jesuits. He was stationed in Hiroshima when the atom bomb was dropped on that city, and relied on his medical training to assist those who were injured. He even converted a residence for Jesuits into a hospital to care for victims.
After the changes following Vatican II (1962–1965), there was tension within the Society as to how the life of a Jesuit was to be lived. While some religious groups in the Catholic church have limits to him the works they take on, the Society of Jesus encourages its members to follow their interest and talents and the needs of the times into a whole range of ministries – as theologians, missionaries, retreat directors, teachers, artists, writers, musicians, counselors, scientists, and pastors – to bring glory to God in all areas of human endeavor .This is in line with the crowning contemplation of Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises through which Jesuits learn to find God in all things As Arrupe’s biographer said of him, he “saw the hand of God in everything.”
The title of “Nothing is More Practical than Finding God: One of these 10 Practices Can Make This Happen for YOU” is taken from one of Arupe’s most famous quotations which can be found within the first pages of this book.