How at Age 50 I entered the Society of Jesus and Never Looked Back

By Henk Van Meijel, S.J.

There is an old folk saying: If you want to make God laugh then tell God your plans for life. Each one of us has an image of ourselves which represents some aspects of our true being. Proper discernment for whatever one undertakes in life is thus important. First, one naturally has to pray and reflect, but also confide this to spiritual persons, for the simple fact that a spiritual director will see dimensions about ourselves that we cannot perceive. As a teenager in the Netherlands during the late sixties and early seventies I did feel a religious calling, but there was no one around with whom I could talk to about this. In time this calling seemingly died out. During this period, as in North America, the Church was in a great flux which caused many to leave religious life, and only a scant few to enter. I married and had three children.

Vowed for Life and Lord

By Adam Lalonde, S.J.

Three weeks ago I made my first and perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Interiorly I had been telling myself that there would be no public display of emotion. I wondered if some people would be put off. Would they understand that I had spent two years preparing for the vows I would now profess? If so, then it should be obvious that I had already been through the struggles, the joys, the discernment. I had spent countless hours in prayer, in retreats, in seminars, and spiritual direction. Everything that was to be experienced emotionally had been done. Now I would simply be declaring publicly what I was already living in my heart.

That’s not quite how it turned out. The moment came. I knelt before the elevated Eucharist as per the centuries-old tradition of the Society of Jesus. And that’s when it began to hit me. I was suddenly aware of my Lord before me and my family, friends, and my brothers in the Society behind me. And then (in French) I said the words:

What Makes a Jesuit Heart Beat? The Little Happiness: Principle and Foundation

By Fr. Peter Bisson, S.J.

Fr. Bisson, the Provincial Superior of the Jesuits in English Canada, gave this speech on Saturday, May 12th, 2012, for the closing ceremony of the 400th Anniversary of the Jesuits in Canada. This text and the song were translated from the French originals by Santiago Rodriguez, S.J. 

The vision of God and of the world that inspires the Society of Jesus, and those who share this vision, is expressed in part by these lines from Félix Leclerc:

It's a little joy

That I had gathered

It was all in tears

On the edge of a ditch

When it saw me passing by

It began to shout out

"Sir, pick me up

And bring me to your place

My brothers have forgotten me, I’m fallen, I'm sick

If you don't pick me up I'll die; what a shame!

I'll make myself small, tender and obedient, I promise

Sir, I'm begging you, free me of my torture

Sur, I'm begging you, free me of my torture.”

Jesuits of English Canada

By the blog editors

Last summer, the Jesuits who belong to the Province of English Canada, together with a number of their lay collaborators and a delegation of Jesuits from the French Canada Province, came together with Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, the Father General of the Society of Jesus, for a congress in Midland, Ontario. The occasion was the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Jesuits in Canada, and to pray, discern, and discuss directions for the future.

A short video was recently released that conveys the highlights of that historic gathering. It also provides a certain glimpse of the Jesuits in Canada today: