A man visited Michelangelo in his studio as he was chipping away with his chisel at a huge shapeless block of marble. He was surrounded by dust and covered in fragments. The man asked Michelangelo what he was doing, and he replied: I m releasing the angel imprisoned in this marble.

Christopher Gleeson SJ, was born in Melbourne and educated by the Presentation Sisters and the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) whose ranks he joined in 1962. Ordained priest in 1975, he has spent most of his working life as a teacher and administrator in Jesuit schools, nearly twenty-one of which as Head of both Xavier College in Melbourne and St IgnatiusOCO College, Riverview, in Sydney. His peers elected him to serve as Chair of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia from 1999 to 2001. Since leaving Riverview at the end of 2002, he has been Director of Jesuit Publications (now Jesuit Communications) in Melbourne, and inaugural Director of both the Faber Centre of Ignatian Spirituality and the Archdiocesan Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre in Brisbane. In January 2011, he took up his current role as the ProvincialOCOs Delegate for Education and Mission Formation based in Melbourne. Over the years he has written a number of books for parents and teachers: Striking a Balance: Teaching Values and Freedom (Aurora Books, 1993), A Canopy of StarsOCoSome Reflections for the Journey (David Lovell Publishing, 2003), Releasing the AngelOCoSaluting all Who Strive to Teach (ATF Press, 2007), and The Little Angel Released (ATF Press, 2009). The Front PageOCoEveryday Ignatian Spirituality (ATF Press) is his latest book.