Upper Midwest Jesuits | Chicago-Detroit Province

Joel Medina, SJ

A native of McAllen, Texas, Joel was born to Juan Medina (d. 1995) and Maria Amada Gomez on March 4, 1955.  He spent much of his youth in Texas with his five sisters and two brothers before attending Jackson Community College in Jackson, Michigan, in 1973.  In 1988, after receiving his B.S. in Nursing from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, he began work as a registered nurse.  While reflecting on his vocation and what led him to the Jesuits, Joel said, “I worked as a registered nurse for more than 20 years, and it provided me with many clinical opportunities to be of service to people, yet I had a desire for more from life, and concomitantly I felt called by God to discern a vocation to the Society of Jesus.”

It wasn’t until January of 2002, while attending Regis College at the University of Toronto in Ontario and studying theology, that Joel’s call to the priesthood grew stronger.  At the end of his Ignatian discernment retreat, it was during a quiet moment at the Loyola House chapel in Berkley, Michigan, that Joel felt the presence of God lift away his concerns about joining the priesthood and guide him toward the Jesuits.  On August 24, 2002, just eight months after his retreat, Joel entered the Society of Jesus.  He has since studied philosophy and theology at Loyola University Chicago from 2004 to 2006, and is continuing his degree in theology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Joel, who will serve as a chaplain at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Illinois, and assist at St. Procopius Parish, looks forward to the new opportunities ahead. “As a Jesuit priest,” he says, “I wish to encourage people on their faith journey.  I will invite my brothers and sisters to listen to him and rest in him.  I do believe that our Lord provides us with the graces to return to him and he encourages us on our faith journey.”