Need information and direction on becoming a Jesuit

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onimike

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Hi everyone. My name is Mike. I’m 24. I live in Roscoe Illinois. I want to be a Jesuit but I don’t know where to start. What should I do?
 
Why don’t you start by trying to find a spiritual director for yourself? Find someone you can trust and who you can respect their opinions. They will help you in deciding whether becoming a Jesuit is the life for you. Also, go on the internet! You can find locations of Jesuit orders that way, and visit those orders for yourself and see how the Jesuits live their lives. Good luck, Mike. 🙂
 
A coupla books to take a gander at:

In Good Company: The Fast Track from the Corporate World to Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience by Fr. James Martin, SJ
*The Fifth Week * by Fr. William O’Malley, SJ. I suggest the newer edition with the afterword by the above-mentioned Jim Martin. It’s more of a current look at the formation process.

Also, YouTube has tons of stuff. Just search for Jesuit Vocations.

+AMDG+
 
I skimmed thru the websites and I just got home from talking to my parish priest/ spiritual director. As for the books recommended, I’ll look for them when I have the chance. Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I can get it going now. Godbless to you all.
 
onimike said:
I skimmed thru the websites and I just got home from talking to my parish priest/ spiritual director. As for the books recommended, I’ll look for them when I have the chance. Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I can get it going now. Godbless to you all.
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Dear onimike,
Praised be Jesus Christ for your desire to serve and love Him more fully.

Please forgive me if I seem too upfront, but I want to ask you to please be very careful regarding discernment to the Jesuits, and be sure that you have investigated all options before making a final decision. It might even be good for you to visit other communities as well, to help round out your discernment so that you will be in a position to make an informed decision about who you will be spending the rest of your life with.

The Jesuits have suffered tremendously over the past 60 years, more so than any other religious order. There are very few orthodox Jesuits left loyal to the Holy Father (it used to be the shining star of the Jesuit order that their 4th vow is loyalty to the Pope, now an optional vow). And do not assume you will be strong enough to reform the community from the inside. Fr. John Hardon stated that it is a serious error to willingly place our formation and our faith in jeopardy in the hopes of changing an institution from the inside, and it is presumption and pride on our part to think we are that strong/holy. He even went so far as to consider it grave matter to do so, and potentially a mortal sin. Please bear in mind, he was also a Jesuit. (and a very holy man who’s cause for canonization is now in progress).

I apologize for the frankness of this post from a complete stranger.
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Mike appears to have left this thread. He sounds mature and is probably capable of doing his own discerning.
 
Rising_Suns said:
I want to ask you to please be very careful regarding discernment to the Jesuits, and be sure that you have investigated all options before making a final decision.
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I think this is a little presumptuous of you, since you don’t know what process of discernment Mike has already undergone. (I’m another Mike, by the way, not the originator of this thread).
Rising_Suns said:
The Jesuits have suffered tremendously over the past 60 years, more so than any other religious order. There are very few orthodox Jesuits left loyal to the Holy Father (it used to be the shining star of the Jesuit order that their 4th vow is loyalty to the Pope, now an optional vow).
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And I think this is astonishingly uncharitable of you. :eek:

The Holy See has not seen fit to suppress the Society of Jesus – which they would not hesitate to do if things were as bad as you suggest. The ability to make these kind of judgements is not a privilege granted to you.
Rising_Suns said:
And do not assume you will be strong enough to reform the community from the inside. Fr. John Hardon stated that it is a serious error to willingly place our formation and our faith in jeopardy in the hopes of changing an institution from the inside, and it is presumption and pride on our part to think we are that strong/holy.
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In all charity, I think the presumption that leads you to feel that you can dismiss a religious family the size of the Jesuits is also an act of spiritual pride. I appreciate that you and other people may have had negative experiences of individuals, and am entirely aware that such experiences can be highly destructive of trust. But the Jesuits are a large and international institute, and I am sure that you have not encountered more than a small minority of their membership. An example from personal experience:

I made my own journey into the Latin Church through the witness of Mother Teresa and her sisters. Mother initially belonged to an Ignatian congregation, and incorporated a great deal of Jesuit spirituality into the charism of the Missionaries of Charity. Confessors, teachers and spiritual directors for her sisters were and are routinely recruited from amongst the ranks of the Jesuits. The priest who instructed me in my entry into the Church was one of these men, a close associate of the MC’s in Calcutta. He is one of the most by-the-book and reliable priests I have ever met, and his confreres were equally orthodox. Mother was not in the habit of taking chances with the spiritual development of her sisters, and neither are her successors, who seek out similarly safe counsel for their membership.

This priest and his community were not exceptions, they are typical of the men who have assisted the MCs in their missions throughout the world. When Mother founded the Missionary Brothers of Charity, she appointed as general a man who was given permission to transfer from the Jesuits to the MC brothers; his successor was of the same pedigree.

This is just one concrete example of why you are mistaken. Although I’m sure you can list contrary examples – and I am not downplaying the reality or significance of such experiences – your blanket dismissal of the Society of Jesus, and the implication that orthodoxy is rare and errors are rampant amongst their number, assumes a level of awareness that you simply cannot have unless you have carried out a detailed international study of the institute.

Please do not slander so many servants of the Church so casually. I see this as one of the great self-inflicted wounds of our present age, that we criticise and vilify elements from within Christ’s Church here on earth so easily, focusing on negative elements and generalising them as though our personal experience can be extended universally without exceptions.

We should expect this kind of attack from opponents of Christianity. We should not expect it from amongst our own.
 
Dear Ocarm,
May the peace of Christ be with you.

Indeed I should have mortified my tongue and practiced silence, since the original poster did not ask for opinions on the Jesuits. It was imprudence on my part; and a much needed humiliation. Thank you.

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