During this year’s Delegates Meeting we said farewell to Fr Bernard Peeters sj who, after many years as a member of the JECSE Steering Committee and the Executive Team, was standing down. He was thanked for his long and dedicated service to JECSE.

As many of our readers will know, Bernard was often the one who organized the spiritual times during our JECSE conferences and he did this with all his heart and soul. His presentations were always imaginary and colorful, his celebrations deep and compassionate, fully reflecting our human diversity in all its beauty. And there was not only always color but also music. Bernard always reminded us not to forget the songs, to bring new ones and (like a good teacher) to practice our harmony beforehand.

Bernard indeed finds God in everything, meeting people in profound openness, taking them as he finds them. He encourages the schools to creatively find new paths in the midst of their own challenges. He inspires true interreligious dialogue and he never forgets the perspective of those less privileged or more vulnerable in whatever way.

Bernard loves the painting below, designed on behalf of the Belgium-South schools’ network to visually represent the dynamic of Ignatian pedagogy. I think it shows how for him it is all about God’s presence in real life, amidst real people, embracing all people in their personal and collective learning journey.

On behalf of all of us I would like to express our gratitude to Bernard, for all the good, rich, profound work he did in JECSE.