A couple of weekends ago, twelve men spent time with the Jesuit novices of the West Coast in sunny Los Angeles. Well, Culver City really, but close enough. As promised, the men got to pray, hang out, talk with, interrogate, and view the novices up close and personally. Here, some of them are taking a look at the beautiful Los Angeles Cathedral, visiting Dolores Mission, hanging out in the sun, and, of course, playing music.
Meet particular Jesuits and read their answers to some important questions about our life together.
~ by Fr. Dennis Recio, SJ
Some years ago, Fr. Paul Harman SJ, my superior during first studies, spoke to the men in formation about three tables at which Jesuits participate. This article seeks to name the three tables and to make a few connections as to how one can expect to see these tables in the context of Jesuit life.
The coffee table is the table at which Jesuits congregate to: discuss news, read newspapers, or chat informally. As one Jesuit once commented: “The sign of a Jesuit community is the …
~ by Perry Petrich, SJ
Spiritual Direction
Definition: “Help given from one believer to another that enables the latter to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship” (Barry, The Practice of Spiritual Direction, p. 8).
Discussion: A spiritual director is a companion with whom one talks about God and prayer. Through regular meetings, spiritual directors help their directees notice God’s active work in their lives.
Spiritual directors in …
CANDIDATES WEEKEND
Saturday February 18-Monday February 20 (President’s Day Weekend)
Jesuit Novitiate, Culver City, CA
DISCERNMENT RETREAT FOR CANDIDATES
Friday March 30- Monday April 2 (Palm Sunday Weekend)
Jesuit Novitiate, Portland, OR
Contact a Jesuit Vocation Director
~ by Fr. Jack Bentz, SJ
It’s January and new leaves are being turned all around us. New leaves in whole new chapters of our lives. In the world of vocation directors, this is the time when men with whom we have been in conversation come to us and say, “I think I want to apply to enter the novitiate.” Now that is the first leaf in a new chapter, not a new book but a new chapter has begun. The book is called Discernment and this chapter is called, The Spiritual Autobiography.
Late …
Trung Pham, SJ, was born in Vietnam, migrated with his parents to America in 1990 and resettled in Orange County. After graduating from UCLA in Chemical Engineering, he entered the Jesuits in 1998. Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises and the Jesuit tradition for the arts, he earned a Master’s of Fine Arts at the Pratt Institute in New York and taught drawing and painting at Santa Clara University. He is currently studying at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley and will be ordained a priest this coming June 9th, 2012 …
-Perry Petrich, SJ
Spiritual Autobiography
Definitions-
Spiritual: ”Of or relating to, affecting or concerning, the spirit or higher moral qualities, esp. as regarded in a religious aspect” (OED).
Autobiography: ”An account of a person’s life given by himself or herself. Also: the process of writing such an account; these considered as a literary genre” (OED).
Discussion: A spiritual autobiography is written by a person desiring to recount how God has worked throughout his or her life. All Jesuits compose a spiritual autobiography in the process of applying to the Society of Jesus.
St. Ignatius wrote his …
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