Dr Gemma Simmonds is Senior Lecturer in Pastoral and Social Studies and Theology at Heythrop College, University of London, where she teaches Ignatian spirituality. A sister of the Congregation of Jesus, she has worked in teaching and in university and prison chaplaincy and done missionary work among women and street children in Brazil. She has been a spiritual director and retreat-giver since the 1990s and is a renowned international speaker and a regular broadcaster on religious programmes.