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

I am a regent serving as a resident physician at Texas Tech University Family Medicine Department- El Paso. I belong to the Sacred Heart Jesuit Community in this border city. I am greatly consoled with the openness of the people. They are eager to share the graces the Lord has granted them and to receive gratefully the little I can offer. This is a very loving and caring community.

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

Probably when I was a boy scout in my teens. The prayer we repeated constantly as scouts in Costa Rica was the prayer for generosity of Saint Ignatius. Costa Rican scout spirituality had the legacy of Jérôme Sevin, SJ; a French Jesuit who started scouting among French Catholics.

I heard about Francis Xavier thanks to a book written by the Combonian Missionaries. I came across Francis Borja’s story in a Castillian TV series about Saint Theresa of Jesus. All started to make sense after reading some works of Fernando Soto-Hay S.J., a Mexican Jesuit who has written on scout spirituality for the past three decades. His ministry opened my heart to the joyful adventures of becoming a Jesuit.

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

I have many more friends now. They are from the most diverse cultures and ideologies. My old friends remain faithful and supportive, and we enjoy more the few words we share here and there when it is possible.

4. Is there a particular author, artist, musician, etc. that has resonated with you during these years of religious life?

Saint Ignatius has become more and more familiar as I am constantly reading and praying with his biography, Spiritual Exercises and Constitutions.

Recently, I have been fascinated by the works of a Catholic Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Dr. Hilgers (Creighton U.), who has developed an approach to women’s health that deeply cooperates with their physiology instead of suppresing it (www.naprotechnology.com). This is more in harmony with the medicine I believe in for both men and wowen, and has a spiritual center difficult to find in other approaches.

5. What’s the biggest surprise so far?

Probably the ability to engage in fruitful conversation with so many people, so diverse, and to find so much joy in every single encounter, even when challenged many times.

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

It is all worthy! God does the work! You just let Him do it and follow Him where ever He might lead you… .