1. Where are you currently missioned and how’s it going?

The Province missioned me to first studies in Chicago at Loyola University. The campus activity and the context of Chicago are worlds away from the novitiate. Concentrating on my mission here reminds me of Aladdin’s task at the beginning of the Disney movie. Rooms of treasure are everywhere but I am only supposed to get the lamp. If I’m to be a real son of Ignatius, I feel I have a lot to learn yet during first studies.

2. When was the first time you thought about being a Jesuit.

It never would have occurred to me early on because I had no idea priests were even human. But when I was nineteen I lived for a few months at my sister parish in El Salvador. While there a Jesuit novice from Panama told me that he hadn’t stop liking women when he entered the novitiate and that complicated things.

3. How have your friendships changed or stayed the same since you entered the Portland novitiate?

Before I entered I had support from a few loyal pillars. In some ways I am less mysterious to them since entering. They heard a lot from me through letters during the novitiate, although not so much now since I am more immersed in community life here. Still, old friends have a curious way of making it to Chicago.
In the Society, friendship is nuanced and multifaceted, instant and long brewing, proximate and distal. I find that the more I lean out the more I am caught and held. Generational gaps, ethnic heritage, and language barriers—in these I have found the source of amazing consolation. Men who affirm me, challenge me, and make me laugh with joy!

4. Is there a particular author, artist, musician, etc. that has resonated with you in these years?

When I am on retreat I like to listen to Silvio Rodriquez because ‘Ojala’ brings me back to the UCA rose garden. The memory reconnects me to the people whose hospitality evangelized me.

5. What’s the biggest surprise so far?

It was a surprise to discover that my BA in philosophy allowed me the opportunity to pursue Arabic while I am here in first studies as a complement to theology preparation. And when I was asking permissions for summer plans I never expected that I would be encouraged to go Amman, Jordan this summer!

6. Is there anything you would want to tell a man considering the Jesuits?

Let’s say that the man has a serious relationship yet he finds himself fascinated by a Jesuit he knows. He likes to read and after stealing some time to privately read The Fifth Week he thinks that he has recognized something. In that case I would ask him to name the affinity and dare him to explore further. He is already asking himself the dangerous questions about the meaning of his life. Others have been there. The Jesuits he has read about are not fiction, like the apostles, they became REAL when they followed the call.