The aim of training men as Jesuits is the formation of the entire person for service in Christ’s mission to the world. This formation has several components which work together to first elicit great desires for God in the hearts of novices, shape these desires by deep study of philosophy, temper the desires through work with God’s people, provide rich study of theology and finally, finish with a period of intense prayer and direct service.

Formation as a Jesuit is long, an average of 10 years for those men becoming priests and somewhat shorter for those called to be brothers. Training is in-depth because of the work entrusted by the Church to the Society of Jesus. We are called, like our founders, to stand among the poor equipped with the most complete education available. We wish to bring the sharpest minds and the warmest hearts to the varied work of serving God’s people.

Novitiate

The first two years of Jesuit formation is a school of the heart. Men are challenged to live in community with their brothers, many whom they would not naturally select as friends and yet are called to become friends in the Lord. Living under the loving rule of the novice director, the novice undergoes a series of experiments with the goal being to gather further information and experience with the works of the Society and the interior growth of the man. Key to this time is the thirty day silent retreat, based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, which leads a novice to an encounter with Christ, the living God. After two years, a novice applies for his first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and becomes a Jesuit Scholastic or Brother.

A scholastic is a Jesuit who is preparing for priesthood, while a brother is one who does not discern a call to sacramental ministry in the Church.

First Studies

These three years invite the young Jesuit to integrate his spiritual growth with the life of the intellect. Through careful study of culture and the history of ideas, the man begins to see the work of God throughout all systems of thought. Often during this time, Jesuits earn masters degrees in philosophy or other fields. Currently, there are three Jesuit First Studies programs in the United States: St. Louis University, Loyola University Chicago, and Fordham University in New York City.

Regency

A two to three year period spent living with other Jesuits and working in a Jesuit ministry. This period is a break from studies and also allows the man to reconnect with the desires to serve God’s people which inspired him to join the Society in the first place. In high schools and universities, in parishes and with Native American peoples, the young Jesuit gains experience and skills for later ministry.

Theology

Following regency, both Jesuit scholastics and brothers return to studies in preparation for work in ministry. The scholastic spends three years earning at least a Master’s of Divinity in preparation for priestly ordination. Typically young Jesuits study theology at one of two centers; either in Berkeley, California at the Jesuit School of Theology, or Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Tertianship

Three to five years after ordination (or the equivalent for a brother), Jesuits undergo this final stage of formation. Tertianship repeats many of the experiences of the novitiate, including the thirty day retreat, but this time in light of many years of ministry as a Jesuit. The six to nine month period reconnects the Jesuit to the original grace which led him to the Society of Jesus and prepares him for the invitation to final vows, in which he will become fully and finally incorporated into the Society.