~ 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 …
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Meet particular Jesuits and read their answers to some important questions about our life together.
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 …
Loyola Productions has launched a new service a YouTube channel dedicated to promoting the works and mission of the Society of Jesus. Here’s a great story on sustainability at LMU.
This weekend a group of us are headed south to the border! Br. Jim Siwicki SJ, and Fr. Jack Bentz, SJ, and some men discerning a call to the Jesuits will spend three days at the Kino Border Initiative. KBI, is a work of the Jesuit Refugee Service focused on accompanying men and women who are deported from the States and dropped in Northern Mexico.
This is a new project for us and we are not sure how things are all going to go exactly… but we do know the following …
If you want to be a Jesuit, you ought to see what life is like for a Jesuit novice. This means a visit to the one of the two novitiate sites for the West Coast Jesuits. The novices spend time in both Portland and Los Angeles and so can you.
A few things to know before you go on a Candidates Weekend.
1–The weekend is very informal.
It’s main point is for YOU, the man seeking, to EXPERIENCE other CANDIDATES SEEKING. So don’t expect much lecturing, preaching, power points, or small group discussions. Do expect …
~ by Fr. Jack Bentz, SJ
“God could have created you anyway God wanted. And God created you as you are.” Time and time again I find myself saying this to folks in the confessional and to myself. Can we accept this? If God is God he is all powerful, all knowing and all the rest. So do you really think God was checking his email when you were created?
The bare facts– Our God is a God who creates us out of love and God does not create anything that does …
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