Partners Fall 2011 – Page 5 of 7
November 17, 2011 in Fall 2011, Partners, pdf
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How did you ever decide
to become a Jesuit?
By Fr. Raymond Guiao, SJ
It’s an honest question: “How did you ever decide to become a Jesuit? And it has been posed to many a Jesuit—often in an unguarded moment—by a sincere friend, student, parishioner, or retreatant. My own answer goes something like this: I don’t think I decided on life in the Society of Jesus so much as I responded to God’s call to this way of being.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Geez, another Jesuit caught up in the semantics of a simple question!” Maybe you’re right, but I do think that there is an important distinction here between “deciding to become a Jesuit” and “answering God’s call to become a Jesuit.”
And I think deep down, for all of us, whether we’re a religious, or married, or single, or a priest, or a brother, or a sister, our true vocation in life is far more about heeding God’s call than it is about deciding between options.
I see this every day in my work as Formation Director of the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus. I work with over 50 intelligent, talented, generous, and dedicated men who each and every day hear and answer God’s call to become ever more the Jesuit that God calls them to be.
The men who apply and enter religious life as Jesuits are largely men who have many options in life. They bring to the Jesuits multiple academic degrees and years of professional experience in everything from art and music to management and finance, from engineering and medicine to education and social work. And with all of their admirable talents and high achievements, their desire to live God’s call is something these men re-visit each and every day.
And each day, Jesuits in formation re-commit themselves to become ever more the apostle God calls them to be, sent on mission to “help souls,” as St. Ignatius puts it, not for their own self-gain or by their own self-directed pursuits, but for the good of others and for the glory of God (continued below).
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But, as you may know, becoming a Jesuit (i.e., Jesuit formation) takes a very long time (see shaded box above).
Why so long a formation? Why so many steps? Why so many years? These are all questions I used to ask myself when I was going through Jesuit formation! Maybe I can best answer that by saying that Jesuit formation is about a way of being in the world, a way of being that takes a lifetime to realize and to live out. It may help to consider that becoming a Jesuit is more properly referred to as “Jesuit formation” as opposed to “Jesuit training.” Sure, we Jesuits receive lots of training in critical thinking, leadership skills, and pastoral practice. But, becoming a Jesuit is a much bigger project than acquiring important skills, which is training. Becoming a Jesuit is about being formed, over the course of one’s lifetime. With time and testing, the Jesuit is formed to be utterly available to serve the mission of the Society of Jesus, wherever the need is greatest, and however the glory of God may be advanced.
In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius that are at the heart of Jesuit formation and spirituality, one of the last contemplations is what’s known as the contemplatio, or “The Contemplation to Attain the Love of God.” When a Jesuit prays the contemplatio, he considers all that God has given him and done for him. Moved by his realization of the depth of God’s own love for him, the Jesuit surrenders everything to God:
All that I have and call my own, Lord,
You have given to me. And now I give it all back to you.
Do with it all what you will.
Yet, give me only your love and your grace,
And with these, I will be rich enough.
Such is an act of the heart—a response to God’s initiative of love—way more than it is an exercise of the mind.
It’s true that we all make important decisions in life. But, Jesuit formation is first and foremost a response by generous and capable men to be formed into the Sons of Ignatius that God calls them to be.
I count it as among the richest blessing in my life to be missioned to accompany the men in my charge through the many years of their Jesuit formation. Every day, I witness in them the lived-out truth spoken in the New Testament: “Love consists in this: Not that we have loved God, but that God has first loved us” (1 John 4:10).
Such is the Jesuit’s calling. And such is at the heart of our Jesuit formation.
It’s an honest question: “How did you ever decide to become a Jesuit? And it has been posed to many a Jesuit—often in an unguarded moment—by a sincere friend, student, parishioner, or retreatant. My own answer goes something like this: I don’t think I decided on life in the Society of Jesus so much as I responded to God’s call to this way of being.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Geez, another Jesuit caught up in the semantics of a simple question!” Maybe you’re right, but I do think that there is an important distinction here between “deciding to become a Jesuit” and “answering God’s call to become a Jesuit.”
And I think deep down, for all of us, whether we’re a religious, or married, or single, or a priest, or a brother, or a sister, our true vocation in life is far more about heeding God’s call than it is about deciding between options.
I see this every day in my work as Formation Director of the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus. I work with over 50 intelligent, talented, generous, and dedicated men who each and every day hear and answer God’s call to become ever more the Jesuit that God calls them to be.
The men who apply and enter religious life as Jesuits are largely men who have many options in life. They bring to the Jesuits multiple academic degrees and years of professional experience in everything from art and music to management and finance, from engineering and medicine to education and social work. And with all of their admirable talents and high achievements, their desire to live God’s call is something these men re-visit each and every day.
And each day, Jesuits in formation re-commit themselves to become ever more the apostle God calls them to be, sent on mission to “help souls,” as St. Ignatius puts it, not for their own self-gain or by their own self-directed pursuits, but for the good of others and for the glory of God (continued below).
But, as you may know, becoming a Jesuit (i.e., Jesuit formation) takes a very long time (see shaded box above).
Why so long a formation? Why so many steps? Why so many years? These are all questions I used to ask myself when I was going through Jesuit formation! Maybe I can best answer that by saying that Jesuit formation is about a way of being in the world, a way of being that takes a lifetime to realize and to live out. It may help to consider that becoming a Jesuit is more properly referred to as “Jesuit formation” as opposed to “Jesuit training.” Sure, we Jesuits receive lots of training in critical thinking, leadership skills, and pastoral practice. But, becoming a Jesuit is a much bigger project than acquiring important skills, which is training. Becoming a Jesuit is about being formed, over the course of one’s lifetime. With time and testing, the Jesuit is formed to be utterly available to serve the mission of the Society of Jesus, wherever the need is greatest, and however the glory of God may be advanced.
In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius that are at the heart of Jesuit formation and spirituality, one of the last contemplations is what’s known as the contemplatio, or “The Contemplation to Attain the Love of God.” When a Jesuit prays the contemplatio, he considers all that God has given him and done for him. Moved by his realization of the depth of God’s own love for him, the Jesuit surrenders everything to God:
All that I have and call my own, Lord,
You have given to me. And now I give it all back to you.
Do with it all what you will.
Yet, give me only your love and your grace,
And with these, I will be rich enough.
Such is an act of the heart—a response to God’s initiative of love—way more than it is an exercise of the mind.
It’s true that we all make important decisions in life. But, Jesuit formation is first and foremost a response by generous and capable men to be formed into the Sons of Ignatius that God calls them to be.
I count it as among the richest blessing in my life to be missioned to accompany the men in my charge through the many years of their Jesuit formation. Every day, I witness in them the lived-out truth spoken in the New Testament: “Love consists in this: Not that we have loved God, but that God has first loved us” (1 John 4:10).
Such is the Jesuit’s calling. And such is at the heart of our Jesuit formation.
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