Candidates gather at a recent Come and See Weekend

Who is a Jesuit Candidate?

A Jesuit Candidate is a man who is discerning the call to service in the Church as either a priest or brother in the Society of Jesus. Candidates range in age from students in high school and college to men already pursuing careers. As a Candidate, a man is offered several opportunities to learn about and experience what life and ministry in the Society of Jesus involve.

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How can I become a Candidate?

A man who is interested in the Candidates' program should contact the Jesuit Vocation Office. The Vocation Director then introduces him to one of the Jesuit priests or brothers responsible for coordinating vocations in the man's local area. After a period of reflection and conversation, the Area Vocation Coordinator may invite the man to join the JesuitCandidates. A Candidate continues in his ordinary occupation and participates in programs as he is able. He is also involved in spiritual direction and Ignatian prayer.

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Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction is the help that one person gives another to enable him or her to become more conscious of how God is working in his or her life and how he or she may become more responsive to God. The term "direction" does not mean to imply that the director alone is the active partner in the relationship - the one who initiates, leads and instructs - while the one being directed is the passive receiver of the director's wisdom.

In the spiritual direction of Candidates, the emphasis is on helping a person examine carefully the desire and attraction to become a priest or brother in the Society of Jesus. As a Candidate, a man and his director, over a period of several months, will prayerfully try to discern whether the desire for a religious vocation is from God, that is, whether God is calling the man now, or in the near future, to be a Jesuit priest or brother.

What are some of the matters talked about in Spiritual Direction? Anyone who believes that he or she may have a vocation to religious life should be willing to invest time in conversations with a director he or she can trust and with whom he or she can talk openly about matters that have a close bearing upon a religious vocation.

Within the context of the Society of Jesus, the director will want to know about the origin and growth of the desire for the priesthood or brotherhood as a Jesuit. A person in direction may anticipate discussing one's life of faith, prayer, and an experience of God's nearness, support, and call to life in the Society of Jesus. It may be somewhat difficult at the beginning of spiritual direction to put into words things that are very personal and interior, but with the help of the director this should become easier as the conversations unfold.

A vocation to any manner of religious life develops out of one's personal history. The spiritual director will be interested, therefore, in knowing a Candidate's background: family, friends, values, interests, and anything else that might be helpful.

Part of spiritual direction will also involve learning more about the Society of Jesus in today's world. In such a context, the Candidate is more greatly disposed to making an enlightened decision about the future.

How frequently does spiritual direction take place? In ideal circumstances, the Candidate meets every two or three weeks with the Spiritual Director during the first four or five months. After this beginning period, the meeting frequency may be changed, by mutual agreement, to once a month, always with any eye toward helping the Candidate make, confirm or strengthen a decision on whether God is calling him to religious life in the Society of Jesus.

What role does the Spiritual Director play in the formal application to the Society of Jesus? The Spiritual Director is not a member of the Admissions Board and does not participate in the Board's deliberation. He or she is never asked to supply an evaluation of an aptitude for the Jesuits. The work of the Director is to help in the discernment of God's activity in the Candidate's life.

For more about Spiritual Direction download and read Companions in Grace, The Ministry of Spiritual Direction, by Mary Naughton, Pastoral Associate of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York, NY.

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SJAP Yahoo Group

The SJAP (Society of Jesus Candidates' Program) Yahoo Group is an electronic discussion community for members of the Jesuit Candidates of the Maryland, New England and New York Provinces. The group keeps Candidates updated on events, news, photos, and opinions of men in discernment.

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