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(3) STUDIES IN THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUITS. mwk. Jesuit Formation Today:. An. Invitation. To Dialogue and Involvement. William A. Barry,. S.J.. NOVEMBER. 1988.

(4) THE SEMINAR ON JESUIT SPIRITUALITY A. group of Jesuits appointed from their provinces. The Seminar. in the. United. States.. studies topics pertaining to the spiritual doctrine and. American. and communicates the results to the members of the provinces. This is done in the spirit of Vatican IPs recommendation to religious institutes to recapture the original inspiration of their founders and to adapt it to the circumstances of modern times. The Seminar welcomes reactions or comments in regard to the material which it publishes. practice of Jesuits, especially. The Seminar. United. Jesuits of the Jesuits. focuses. its. States.. Jesuits,. direct attention. The. and work of the. may be common religious, laity, men. also to. and/or. the Studies, while meant especially for American Jesuits,. are not exclusively for them. Others cordially. life. issues treated. of other regions, to other priests,. women. Hence. on the. welcome. who may. find. them helpful are. to read them.. CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE SEMINAR L.. Patrick. Carroll,. S.J.,. is. pastor. of. St.. Leo's. Parish. in. Tacoma,. Washington and superior of the Jesuit community there. John A. Coleman, S.J., teaches Christian social ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. Robert N. Doran, S.J., is one of the editors of the complete works of Bernard Lonergan and teacher of systematic theology at Regis College, the Jesuit School of Theology in Toronto. Philip C. Fischer, S.J., is secretary of the Seminar and an editor at the Institute of Jesuit Sources.. David J. Hassel, S.J., teaches philosophy at Loyola University, Chicago and regularly writes on topics in spirituality. Frank J. Houdek, S.J., teaches historical theology and spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. Arthur F. McGovern, S.J., teaches philosophy and is director of the Honors Program at the University of Detroit. Michael J. O'Sullivan, S.J., teaches psychology at Loyola Marymount University.. John W. Padberg, S.J., is chairman of the Seminar, editor of Studies, and director and editor at the Institute of Jesuit Sources. Paul A. Soukup, S.J., teaches communications at Santa Clara University. David S. Toolan, S.J., is associate editor of Commonweal and superior of the West Side Jesuit Community in New York. Copyright. © 1988 and published by The Seminar on. 3700 West Pine Blvd.,. St.. Louis,. MO. 63108. Jesuit Spirituality,. (Tel. 314-652-5737).

(5) William A. Barry,. JESUIT. S.J.. FORMATION TODAY:. AN INVITATION TO DIALOGUE AND INVOLVEMENT. Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits. 20/5. November 1988.

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(7) For Your Information.. .. .. Four men, working. in four different provinces. recently started their three-year terms as Spirituality.. scribed. you a. As promised. and then. I. members of. the Seminar. in the previous issue of Studies in. how someone does become. little. of the Society of Jesus,. a. member. on. Jesuit. which. of the Seminar,. I. de-. shall tell. I. of the background of these newest participants in the Seminar, shall. note some of the characteristics of the whole group of. eleven members.. member. L. Patrick Carroll, a. of the Oregon Province,. at St.. is. Leo's. Parish in Tacoma, Washington where he has been pastor for four years.. has also been at. Joseph's in Seattle, was for. St.. some. program "Resources for Spiritual Leadership" which especially for retreats in daily. engaged. life,. member someone engaged in a Jesuits serve) who would come writing.. As you know,. We. years director of the. trains spiritual directors. and spent a year. in directing retreats in Lesotho.. in Africa principally. have long wanted as a Seminar. many. parish apostolate (where so to the. the Seminar. He. of our. Seminar also with a background. members. in. are the persons primarily. responsible for the essays which appear in Studies. Fr. Carroll very well. responds to that desire. especially. on the. He. religious. is. the author of numerous articles and books,. life,. most notably the book, Chaos or Creation:. Spirituality at Mid-Life.. Robert N. Doran, a member of the Wisconsin Province, serves. Upper Canadian Province. in the. as associate professor of theology at Regis Col-. lege, the Jesuit school of theology in. Toronto.. He. is. also associate director. of the Lonergan Institute, one of two general editors of the multi-volume. Complete Works of Bernard Lonergan and co-editor of the that series, recently published. own several books among his numerous his. Review for Religious collectively entitled. David. J.. is. by the University of Toronto Press.. a series in the last. named. journal, three articles. "Jungian Psychology and Christian Spirituality.". Hassell, a. On. Among. such journals as Tliought, Tfie Tliomist and. member. of the Chicago Province, has. philosophy at Loyola University in Chicago since 1968. extensively.. in. Psychic Conversion and TJieological Foundations, and. articles in is. volume. first. the philosophy of God, for instance, he. He Is. taught. has written. the author of. Searching the Limits of Love, on the philosophy and theology of education, the author of City of Wisdom:. A. Christian Vision of the. American. and on secularization, the co-author of Progress and the directed the tertianship. program. in his. province for. Crisis. six years,. University;. of Man.. He. docs personal.

(8) spiritual direction. Dark Intimacy.. and has written two books on prayer, Radical Prayer and. Currently he. working on another book, The Ache of. is. Alienation.. David. West Side. the. New York Province, is superior of Community on 98th Street in New York, and associate. Toolan, a. S.. Jesuit. member. of the. A. Commonweal magazine.. editor of. year ago he published a deservedly. praised book, Facing West from California's Shores, subtitled. Journey into. movement. tial". book. Consciousness.. in the. It is. Jesuit's. an account of the "human poten-. United States, and one of Father Toolan's aims. in the. movement "understood in terms of mainstream Western He is interested in the new cosmology and the new scientif-. to have the. is. orthodoxy. ic. New Age. A. .. .. .". paradigms currently under discussion. in. America.. Those four new members, together with the seven veterans, are. named on. The present work and. the inside front cover of Studies.. all. profes-. sional preparation of the eleven of us range. from theology and. communication and philosophy, from history. to parish pastoring to psycholo-. We come. gy. six. literature to. from seven of the United States provinces, and we work. of those provinces and in Canada.. Our. in. ministries take place in schools. of theology, in universities, in a parish, in research centers, and publishing. We. houses.. range in age from a senior of. at thirty-six. forties. Three of us are. and one. member. can change every year, as can. our. sixties, five in. the. youngest fifties,. member. two. in the. In that age spread, the only five year group-. in the thirties.. ing presently without a. in. sixty-five to the. is. all. the forty-one to forty-five range. But that. the other groupings, with the choice of. new. members.. The pages in ality. location of the correspondents in our "Letters to the Editor". this issue testify to the far-flung. of Jesuits.. California. is. close enough, but. Wherever you, our. distance.. an. puts. it,. to. We. in Cincinnati, first. it. We. some. the Seminar itself.. Belong," introduces. have never had an issue devoted, as the subtitle. You. are not. we when George Wilson of the member of the staff of Management Design subject to us. We found that it evoked new. Neither were. Maryland Province, presently a. will find. "Where Do. at. on the Seminar. "United States Jesuits and Their Memberships.". sure what that means?. ideas, old. members of. essays in Studies and. next issue of Studies, entitled. original subject.. Japan and Egypt are. readers, are, the. welcome your comments on the. The. readership of Studies in the Spiritu-. proposed the. problems, unusual opportunities, fresh images.. doing the same thing for you. I. in January.. John W. Padberg Editor. hope. that. you.

(9) CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION I.. 1. THE GOAL OF FORMATION: WHAT JESUIT?. 5. Companionship with others. 9. Apostolic availability and focus aside. 11. 13. Obstacles to this kind of development. 13. 13. Obstacles within the individual. Obstacles from relationships in community. Obstacles from our culture. II.. 23. THE STAGES OF FORMATION Acceptance into the novitiate. The. 25. 27. novitiate. Studies after the novitiate. The regency period Theology. A FORMED. 4. Companionship with Jesus. An. IS. 33. 38. 43. After theology. 48. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 51. 25. 16.

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(11) JESUIT FORMATION TODAY:. AN INVITATION TO DIALOGUE AND INVOLVEMENT *. William A. Barry,. S.J.. INTRODUCTION When. became. I. vice-provincial for formation for the. New. Eng-. land Province of the Society of Jesus in 1978, almost immediately. had. make. to. and the health and. individuals. Whom. do. very serious decisions that would affect the. I. I. what orientation?. matters, but. Is this. I. What. man. still. into a. moving. I. have to help. me make. first. these. formed. presumed. criteria.. More-. that the Jesuit in formation. Were man was. Jesuit by the time of final vows.. me. to decide. in the desired direction?. whether a. Furthermore, were there. by which we could judge that a man had matured. ciently during. *. approve for. found myself needing more concrete. there any criteria that would help. criteria. I. read the documents of the Society pertaining to these. would mature. any. do. ready to begin the study of theology. criteria did. over, the course of formation. actually. Whom. send each scholastic to study philosophy and with. or to be ordained? decisions?. of. of the province and Society.. vitality. accept into the novitiate?. vows? Where do. lives. I. any period of formation?. Author's address: Boston College, Chestnut. Hill,. Since. MA. I. found. 02167.. little. suffi-. written.

(12) BARRY. 2 material that helped,. which. began. I. to sketch out for myself. some. criteria. then shared with the members of the Jesuit Conference. I. Committee on Formation (JCCF). At. their urging. and with the help. of various groups of formation personnel in the United States Assis-. tance. I. developed a monograph on the development and integration. of a Jesuit's spiritual and apostolic. who. read. appreciated. it. al discussions. it. life in. and suggested. formation.. that. it. Many. Jesuits. be published. Sever-. with the Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality resulted in the. present issue of Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, a treatment of Jesuit formation today. Two. meant. me. reasons impel. to. for the general Jesuit reader.. make. the effort.. Both the. Thirty-first. and Thirty-second General Congregations make the point that every-. one. responsible for formation.. is. "Indeed, everyone in the province. should be ready to offer generous help to the formation of our men.". The. latter. f. congregation adds:. The present document,. then, although dealing principally with. the formation of young Jesuits, looks, in a certain sense, to. our members since. are involved in formation as that task. all. presented here. All of. us, after all, constitute. all is. an apostolic body. which the younger members are gradually integrated. Moreover, older Jesuits themselves need a permanent and continuing formation, which our formal training must have in view from the start. Our apostolic calling requires personal and everdeepening study not only on the part of the young but on the. into. part of If. Jesuits. we. all Jesuits.. are. all. 2. responsible for formation, both of the younger. and of ourselves, then we need. end, and in order to the general. work. means toward. to. we need to agree on the end and we do not work together, then our. it.. If. Lord. unconvincing to "formed" Jesuits, to those. GC. 31, n. 120.. 2.. GC. 32, n. 136.. that. together,. rhetoric about being friends in the. 1.. work together toward. will. sound hollow and. in formation,. and. to those.

(13) FORMATION TODAY. JESUIT who might be. 3. interested in joining us.. Secondly, the Society in the United States faces no more serious. problem than that of the union of minds and. internal. residences, by. Lord.". and. are not communities of "friends in the. large,. Friendship requires mutual trust and care, the subordination. of our fears of one another to our love for one another. tish. Our. hearts.. The. Scot-. philosopher John Macmurray distinguishes "community" from. "society" in the following paragraph.. Any community. of persons, as distinct from a mere society,. a group of individuals united in a. of which. which in. A. is. common. the motivation. life,. Like a society, a community. positive.. acts together; but unlike a. mere. society. is. is. a group. members are. its. communion with one another; they constitute a fellowship. society whose members act together without forming a fellow-. ship can only be constituted by a. common. cooperate to achieve a purpose which each of them, interest, desires to achieve,. The. co-operation.. in his. own. and which can only be achieved by. relations of. its. members are. functional; each. plays his allotted part in the achievement of the. The. They. purpose.. society then has an organic form:. it. is. common. end.. an organization of. and each member is a function of the group. A community, however, is a unity of persons as persons. // cannot functions;. be defined It. is. in. functional terms, by relation to a. common. purpose.. not organic in structure, and cannot be constituted or. maintained by organization, but only by the motives which sustain the personal relations of. and maintained by a mutual each. member. of the group. its. affection. is. members.. // is. This can only. in positive. constituted. mean. that. personal relation to. each of the others taken severally. The structure of a community is the nexus or network of the active relations of friendship 3 between all possible pairs of its members. If. we. 3.. John Macmurray, Persons. are to achieve community, then,. a. Community?". in. relationships. Relation (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.. have expanded on these ideas Human Development 8 (1987): 6-11.. 1979), 157-158 (italics mine).. Group. in. we must develop. I. in. "What Makes. a.

(14) BARRY. 4. of mutual affection one with another.. Unintegrated. fears,. and thus community grated fears that. however, make mutual affection problematic. make. why. all. contend that one (but only one) of the. I. these days often experience one another as. Jesuits. we have. strangers derives from the different formations. is. as they.. Of. their. seem. us. to. course, for the younger Jesuit the shoe. foot: he, too,. To. had.. come from another planet, so outlook from what we knew when we were as young. older Jesuits young Jesuits can different. have such uninte-. particularly hard to entrust ourselves to. it. others, especially strangers.. reasons. We. difficult to achieve.. can feel that he. he enters a house of formed. is. on the other. entering an alien environment. is. Jesuits.. to bridge this formational gap.. If. I. hope. nothing. when. that this essay can help else,. it. can serve as xm. opening for conversations about the different formations we have had with the hope that lives. we. will find that. are founded upon the. same bedrock. Further,. essay will whet the appetites of ing formation. what. I.. and. underneath the differences oui. will give. some of. I. hope. that the. us older Jesuits for continu-. our younger members a clearer idea of. their formation intends.. TOE GOAL OF FORMATION: WIIAT The JCCF began. its. document. IS. A. FORMED. JESUIT?. "Criteria for Entrance into the. Society of Jesus" (1981) in this way:. What does. the Society expect of an entering novice?. the potential to al. become. Congregation.. who. Clearly,. a Jesuit as described in the 32nd Gener-. There the ideal of the. Jesuit today. is. a. man. has experienced himself as a sinner, yet called to be a. companion of Jesus on. mission.. He. must be a. man who. has. let. the Spiritual Exercises touch him deeply in heart and mind.. Thus, he must be a has. let. man. of passion and great desires, a. Jesus die for him, a. intimately, to love. him and. man who. to. want. has. come. to follow. him. to. man who. know. Jesus. in serving the.

(15) JESUIT. FORMATION TODAY much abandon. Father's cause with as. 5. And. as Jesus himself had.. the Jesuit follows Jesus in companionship with other Jesuits. in. a real union of minds and hearts.. Such union presupposes that the Jesuit can talk about the things that matter most to him with other Jesuits. The companionship is apostolic; it is oriented to mission and ultimately to a mission that needs to be concretized in particular places and times; the Jesuit needs to be able to. and. give his heart to particular people, places. According to our. last. two general congregations, apostolic compan-. ionship today requires a. promotion of. The. institutions.. commitment. to the service of faith. and the. justice as well as to a preferential option for the poor.. goal proposed seems to presuppose development in at least these. three areas: companionship with Jesus, companionship with other. companions of. Jesus,. and apostolic commitment. especially the poor, as Jesus. was committed.. I. to. God's people,. propose to describe. such development in each area.. Companionship with Jesus If. prayer can be defined as conscious relationship with God,. then the development of prayer. developing relationship.. life. can be described. The developmental. terms of a. in. pattern can then be. described as a continuum running from a cold, emotionally distant, highly stylized relationship between a person and. God. to the mystical. union of a person with God. Since the developmental pattern. conceived as a continuum,. is. a person can be anywhere along the line.. I. will try to sketch. out a. developmental pattern that corresponds to an interpersonal view of the dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises.. 4. In this description. talking about the experience a person has of. I. am. God, not about God's. See William A. Barry, "The Experience of the First and Second Weeks of the Review for Religious 32 (1973): 102-109; "On Asking God to Reveal Himself in the Spiritual Exercises:' Review for Religious 37 (1978): 171 -To Also found in David Fleming, ed., Notes on the Spiritual Exercises (St. ouis: Review. 4.. Spiritual Exercises". 1. for Religious, 1983), 95-102, 72-77..

(16) BARRY actual attitude. and relationship. to the person.. At the very low end of the continuum God. is. experienced as. The. very distant, cold, demanding and imperious, fearsome.. toward a closer relationship comes with the experience that. real step. God. cares for me, and this elicits from. and. to. trust in him.. lished,. first. When. the response of gratitude. this relationship. we have what might be. Foundation. me. is. relatively firmly estab-. called the affective Principle. and. This can be called the. for the rest of the journey.. experience of having a spiritual identity, a real relationship to God. It is. the experience of wholeness that allows one to. know brokenness,. the experience of being loved and lovely that precedes the experience. of sinfulness, the experience of enjoyment and oneness with. God. enables a person to see the present state of self and world as a. fall. Without such an experience of God's primordial love. from grace.. and. that. care, a person remains rooted in a distant, perhaps scrupulous,. perhaps resentful relationship with God.. The. next step seems to be taken. selves as sinners. itous. Their. initial. when people experience them-. experience of God's love seems gratu-. and undeserved, but now they begin. to see themselves as. unwor-. God really love me with all my past sins and my present sinfulness? God seems distant once more. He comes close again (in experience) when I realize that God thy as well because of personal. sin.. so loved me, sins and. he. I. all,. that. know. exactly. who. I. something for the Lord.. even though Jesus and the. At. least. is. by. gratitude and the desire to do this. stage of the journey there. an experience of a distinction of persons. At and. sin. this stage also. seem so. a conversion of heart, the. enormous. in. God.. people may experience the pervasiveness of. sinful structures in. sinfulness can. It. me. beloved Jesus die for me.. have been and am. This experience frees. people radically and the response. is. let his. personally accept Jesus' dying for. Father. Could. our world and. in themselves.. If. personal. intractable, rendering us almost despairing of. we and economic problems we. how much more. social, political,. sometimes seems better not. powerless do. to read the. feel before. face today.. newspaper or. to. watch.

(17) FORMATION TODAY. JESUIT the news on television.. —. Darkness does threaten to overcome the. Consumerism, racism,. light.. nationalistic prejudices, the. these cultural and social forces. seem. arms race. and our world.. to rule us. Week". our present world and Church, the "First. experience,. I. In. be-. needs to include a relative freedom from the overpowering. lieve,. sense of being trapped by these dark forces. to. 7. come. With. St.. to the felt conclusion that the light has not. John we need. been and. will. never be overcome by the darkness.. Week". This "First. to. know. vision, his loves. more. and. know. Jesus better, to. are ready and. his values, his. hates, in order to love. As they. closely.. who. dynamic of a developing relationship with. willing into the. They want. experience leads people. Jesus.. dreams,. his. him more and follow him. progress in this dynamic of companionship,. they experience the attraction of Jesus, but also the resistance to and fear of being chosen as his companions.. With the help of God's. grace they are enabled to beg to be chosen as companions, to be put. under the Standard of Christ, to be imbued with the. They want. to. be. effective union. affectively. and. effectively united with Jesus. means being united with. There follow the desires. and. Those who have moved. be well on the way. Jesus' goals. and. to finding. finally to. this far. God. Even though the development. where. strategies.. to share Christ's sufferings, to. to his inner state in the passion,. of glory.. Spirit of Jesus.. be privy. share his experience. along the continuum will. in all things quite literally. is. pictured as a linear continuum,. experience teaches that the stages are not fixed positions from which there. is. A very. no regression.. ing love, for example,. may. life. call into. New. tionship that has gone on.. a. new dimension of sinfulness may. question life crises. of security and bring on old fears of God.. pen frequently solid base, the. to all of us.. person. will,. forgiv-. not and usually does not touch every. aspect of the person. Later in. be uncovered which can. deep experience of the Lord's. But. if. all. of the growth. in rela-. can also shatter a sense. Such "regressions" hap-. the original conversion formed a. with relative ease, be able to return to the. earlier level of relationship..

(18) BARRY. 8. may. It. not be amiss at this point to reflect on the relationship. between the vow of. chastity. and companionship with. of Avila makes an interesting. heart-wrenching. it. was. comment when she "It. seemed. how. describes. home, and espe-. for her to leave her family. her father, to enter the convent.. cially. Teresa. Jesus.. me. to. as. every. if. my body were being wrenched asunder; for, as I had no love of God to subdue my love for my father and kinsfolk, everything was such a strain to me that, if the Lord had not helped me, no reflections of my own would have sufficed to keep me true to my purpose. But the Lord gave me courage to fight against myself and so I car5 ried out my intention." I do not intend to equate love of father and bone. in. mother with the desire for spouse and children; rather. I. want. to use. her insight to point to one of the most powerful motivations for a. vowed. life. of chastity.. The vow of. chastity certainly requires control. of one's sexual drives; yet the living of the. vow. is. not primarily a. matter of control, but rather a matter of where one's heart chored.. Teresa indicates that. grace of. God. it. required. The. verified throughout the autobiography. enamored of the Lord and. much willpower. even passionate love for Jesus. and women. 5.. at the. in friendship. implication. is. I. because. —and. need. this is. become. to use so. believe that for Jesuits a strong,. the best guarantee of remaining. same time being able. and. is. that her heart did. as a result she did not. to stay the course.. vow and. —. an-. her willpower and the. to get her to take the step into religious life. she was not yet in love with God.. true to our. all. is. service.. 10 get close to. men. 6. Teresa of Avila, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, trans, and ed. E. Allison Peers, City, NY: Image Books, 1960), 77. (Italics mine.). (Garden. A. 6. See George Aschenbrenner, Development 5 (1984): 38-43.. "A. Celibate's Relationship with. God,". Human.

(19) JESUIT. FORMATION TODAY. 9. Companionship with others Jesuits are. companions of Jesus and of one another and of many. others, especially of those with. whom. they collaborate in ministry.. "The Union of Minds and Hearts," of G.C. 32 spells out for our day what it means to be companions of one another. In these pages I want to draw out further the implications of the decree. Decree. 11,. Companionship with Jesus and companionship with others seem to. be reciprocals. The more one becomes a companion of. more one becomes So. vice versa.. a. companion of other companions of Jesus and. a person at the lower. Lord. relationship with the ships with others.. Jesus, the. And. will also. usually any. end of the continuum of the. have. move toward more. more openness. the Lord will lead to. distant, superficial relation-. intimacy with. to others just as any. move. toward more intimacy with another person can lead to more openness. The person who. to intimacy with the Lord. tive in action also. just as Jesus. Thus,. is. a very. was and. we can. is. good companion, even. others in terms similar to those. One. is. a bit unnerving,. There. we used. companionship with. in. to describe the developing. Relationships deepen as mutual trans-. relationship with the Lord.. group (which. if. a contempla-. unnerving.. describe development. parency develops.. become. has. is. an. initial. attraction to a person oi a. coupled with a fear that one. will not. be accepted). dares to take the plunge of indicating a desire to get to know. the other (s) or to initial. become a. friend or a. member. euphoria of acceptance can cement. a deeper companionship.. ties. of a group.. The. and give promise. fo:. But honeymoons always end, and then the. hard work of living and working together begins. Jesuits, as. psychologically,. we know, come and. culturally.. in all sizes. company have. to. Lord's grace. this. Willingness. however, which includes the. make companionship. diversity.. Men whe. be willing to open themselves. the diverse companions they arc given. ask, a willingness,. physically,. Part of the challenge of becominr. companions of one another derives from desire to join our. and shapes. is. all. that. to. wc can. real desire that the. with such different people possible..

(20) BARRY. 10. At. there. first. the opportunity to. is. become companions. But as formation moves on,. the Lord) with peers in the novitiate.. men. our young. are called to. (friends in. become companions with older. Jesuits,. with Jesuits from different apostolates and provinces and countries.. The challenge. to. Throughout. remain open to new companions never ends. their lives Jesuits are. asked to continue to develop. the capacity to share with Jesuits and with others the bedrock items i. of their. lives, their. experience of the relationship with the Lord and. The decree on. the call to apostolate which that relationship entails.. union of minds and hearts. on. calls. Jesuits to share their inner lives. with one another for the sake of the apostolate as well as for their individual is. and communal. that Jesuits. become. spiritual growth.. Indeed, the desideratum. so trusting of one another's inner. can become discerning communities.. 7. life. that they. Thus, the "spiritual conversa-. tion" which the Society asks Jesuits to engage in with superiors in the. account of conscience and with spiritual directors analogously possible with Jesuits. for. is. who. many. will. be. at least. other Jesuits (and, indeed, with non-. The. are also companions in the Lord).. quality looked. a growing ability to notice and articulate the religious dimen-. sion of their experience. and a growing willingness. to share. this. dimension of experience with their companions.. On. this quality. of developing mutual transparency about one's. deepest convictions and values rest other aspects of being a companion.. We. have already mentioned the diversity of. Jesuit needs to develop the ability to Jesuits. even though they are not. though. his stay in the. capacity to Jesuits. work. relate closely to. and. 7.. to help other Jesuits to. GC. 32, n. 405.. Kolvenbach, Acta. short.. See the. Romano. letter. as a. man vowed. do the same.. "On. group of. He. grows. in his. deeply communicative manner with. for the sake of the apostolate.. men and women. to a. A. peers or close friends and even. community may be. in a cooperative,. and others. commit himself. Jesuits.. He. He. how. to. to a life of chastity. develops his willing-. Apostolic Discernment in. 19 (1987): 720-740.. learns. Common". by Fr..

(21) JESUIT. FORMATION TODAY. ness to entrust himself and his. and. to help other Jesuits to. in the. freedom from inordinate attachment tian cultural values to. the Society and. life to. grow. and particular. 11. same. He. attitude.. superiors. grows. in. goods and un-Chris-. to material. places,. its. and he helps other. Jesuits. do the same.. One tiones.. the. If. man. of the regularities of Jesuit. life is. the collection of informa-. these informationes are to be of real help to superiors and involved, they must be written by. fellow Jesuit intimately.. It is. companionship when fellow. men who know. their. a sad commentary on the quality of our. can speak only about external. Jesuits. observance regarding one another.. The. Society's health. depends on. companionship described here. Moreover,. this. kind of companionship would go a long way toward helping us to. live. growth. in the kind of. our vows integrally.. We. could speak openly to one another about. our ambivalent attitudes and desires, and. we. could challenge one. another honestly and yet with genuine love about behavior that seems unintegrated.. Such companionship would be one of the best helps. to living a chaste life integrally that. I. know.. 8. Apostolic availability and focus In. two important. letters. Pedro Arrupe wrote strongly and. elo-. quently about the need to integrate our spirituality and apostolate. Efforts to achieve such integration bring. the tensions of our charism.. On. home. the one hand,. to us. we. 9. most strongly. are asked to be. men who love the Lord and want to be with him; on the other hand, we are asked to spend ourselves generously in action. On the one hand, we are required to be men who are available for any mission; on the other hand, we are asked. men who. are deeply contemplative,. 8. See George A. Aschenbrenner, "Celibacy Development 6 (1985): 27-33.. 9.. in. Community and. Ministry,". Human. Pedro Arrupe, "Genuine Integration of the Spiritual Life and Apostolate," Acta 16 (1977): 954-962; "Letter on Apostolic Availability." Acta Romana 17. Romana. (1978): 135-144..

(22) BARRY. 12. become as highly trained as possible in a particular field and to commit ourselves to particular works and people. On the one hand, to. we. are expected to be highly educated, cultured men; on the other. hand,. we. one hand, we are. to. be men who are not ambitious. defined by "this world"; on the other use. all. On. are asked to desire preferentially to help the poor.. we need. be. to. On. our talents to achieve apostolic goals.. the. for success as. effective. and. the one hand,. to. we. Roman Catholic Church; on the other, we are called to be adults who can and do discern the spirits. Our formation must help our men to move toward this very difficult. are asked to be obedient. men. of the. integration.. Can development. in this area. tures might help to see. what we do not want. end of theology. Think of a newly ordained in. formation has been to be ordained and. else. beyond ordination.. He. A couple of carica-. be described?. has given. to have. Jesuit. who. little,. sions.. whose whole aim. has thought of if. corporate apostolate to which he could contribute. skills that. happen by the. little. any, thought to a. He. has honed no. would be useful beyond saying Mass and hearing confes-. When. the provincial looks at his name, he wonders where he. can place him. After theology he wanders from job to job with. little. why nothing seems to work out. Another caricature: Think of a man who has carved out a very precise apostolic focus as a university professor, who has honed his talents in a particular area through a Ph.D. from a prestigious university, but who has no interest insight into. in. nor availability for anything but. his field, including priestly minis-. try.. These caricatures may not be too instances.. far off the. mark. in. They do pinpoint something about the kind of. some Jesuit. we hope to avoid. Considering their opposites might indicate what we hope to achieve. The Society wants men of strong desires and ambition, men with talent who want to use that talent to best advantage for God's people, men who are willing and apostolic development. able to get the best training and education necessary for their apostolate,. men who. are self-starters,. men who have an. apostolic focus that.

(23) FORMATION TODAY. JESUIT. can channel their energies and. wants them to be obedient. To. anywhere.. attain this. talents.. in. 13. At the same time the Society. the best sense, available for mission. end superiors and the men have. to. work. together in open, honest, prayerful dialogue throughout the formation process.. An. aside. The. kinds of development described so far will be greatly en-. hanced by a. spiritual direction that. works with the actual experiences. of young Jesuits, especially their religious experiences.. man to focus on his actual and come to terms with them. It. 10. Such a. spiritual direction helps a. experiences of. the Lord and of. also helps. to bring. life. more and more of. so that gradually. his life into his relationship with the. him. Lord. more and more of himself becomes conscious. to. himself and available for dialogue with the Lord, for healing where necessary, for challenge as well.. Gradually an integration of prayer,. of companionship, and of apostolic thrust and focus takes place.. Obstacles to this kind of development Obstacles to the kinds of development described variety of sources,. from within the. individual,. from the. relationships within the community, from the culture.. what the various stages of formation intend,. it. come from. a. difficulties. of. To understand. may help. to. be aware. of what fonnatores and those being formed must contend with.. Obstacles within. The. Jesuit. tJte. individual. Committee on Formation. criteria for. entrance into. the novitiate recognized that not every candidate has the potential to. move toward. this ideal. of Jesuit development.. There are men who are incapable of the kind of inner freedom. For a detailed description of this kind of spiritual direction, see William A. Ban) and William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction (San Francisco: larper and 10.. I. Row. [Seabury], 1982)..

(24) BARRY. 14. needed to make the full Exercises. Some have little passion and no strong desires. Some are too rigid interiorly and lack the. Some. imaginative capacity needed.. without experience of get the experience.. make. are isolated, lonely. men. and too afraid of life to go out and most cases, those who simply cannot and who give few signs that they will. life. In. the Exercises fully. develop that potential are obvious.. made me less sanguine about that last statement than I was when we first proposed it. I have met some candidates who make a very good initial impression, yet who prove incapa-. Further experience has. ble of making the Exercises because they cannot allow into consciousness any unpleasant or anxiety-producing thoughts, images, or experiences.. my own. In. this issue. we have learned to take a hard look at when the psychological report notes that. province. of inner rigidity. We. a candidate could not profit from psychotherapy. that such a candidate usually. is. have found. so highly defended from anxiety-. producing thoughts, images, and feelings that he could not make the Exercises freely. In. their. award-winning. Imoda n found. empirical. work. Rulla,. that a very high percentage of their. Ridick,. and. sample of new. seminarians and religious showed serious inconsistencies between their. An. conscious values and their subconscious attitudes and needs.. example: a. man wants. to join the Jesuits,. valued, yet unconsciously despises. all. where obedience. authority figures.. is. More. highly. disturb-. ing than this finding, however, was their discovery that formation did little. all. and remedy the. to uncover. inconsistencies.. In a 1977. memo. to. fonnatores Cecil McGarry, then general counselor to Father. General with special care for formation, called attention to empirical. human. work and spoke of the need. growth.. 12. to integrate spiritual. Formation must enable our men. this. and. to face the kalei-. 11. G. M. Rulla, J. Ridick, and F. Imoda, Entering and Leaving Vocation: Intrapsychic Dynamics (Rome: Gregorian University Press and Chicago: Loyola University Press,. 1975). 12. Cecil. McGarry,. "A Memo,". Acta Romana 17 (1978): 33-38..

(25) JESUIT. FORMATION TODAY. doscope of often conflicting. Willpower alone cannot bring. human. order into the maelstrom of the. God and. Only. heart.. with one another can. and the kind of wholeheartedness which. A. and emotions. desires, needs, feelings,. that are part of our inner landscape.. ships with. 15. we. find. in. our relation-. peace for our souls our way of. will sustain. life.. serious obstacle to the development desired in a Jesuit, therefore,. would be an. come. inability to allow strong. and conflicting emotions. to. to consciousness.. Jesuits are. no strangers. and other un-. to rage, lust, prejudice,. wanted emotions. Such emotions can. arise in prayer, but. more often. they arise through relationships in the community or at work.. A. novice may, for example, experience rage or sexual attraction or sadness while talking to a fellow novice or working in the apostolate,. and find the emotions upsetting and unwanted. also to. may become apparent. be a. superiors, but. young. but. Jesuit, I. I. also. also. to a. young. Conflicting desires. Jesuit; for. example, "I want. want a wife and family";. want control of my own. "I. want. The novice or. life.". and desires. Jesuit needs help to allow these feelings. to trust. their days. in the sun, to believe that these inner turmoils are a necessary part. of becoming an integrated Society.. man. Novice directors,. in relationship to the. spiritual directors,. people have to be the kind of. men who. invite. about feelings, especially these unwanted. Lord and. to the. and other formation openness and honesty. feelings, so that. put them before the Lord for healing and thus. men can. move toward an. integral life in the Society.. Another obstacle. to the kind of. development the Society desires. derives from a hesitancy to take inner experience seriously or from. inexperience in describing such experience to others.. The. Spiritual. Exercises, faith-sharing, spiritual direction, the account of conscience,. and individual and communal discernment. movements. seriously,. for example,. all. I. realize that. many of. us older Jesuits. strange since our formation in. many. images, emotions, and. desires,. thoughts, and being able to describe at least. require taking interior. some of them. may. to others.. find such a statement. cases led us to the conclusion.

(26) :. BARRY. 16 that inner experience. was. to. be mistrusted or. at least kept to oneself;. "objective" norms were to be preferred to the "subjectivity" of inner. But the heart of Ignatian. experience.. spirituality lies in holding in. tension the "subjective" (for example, discernment of spirits) and the. "objective" (for example, obedience to legitimate authority).. do not take seriously our inner experience and meaning,. we. we. If. try to discern its. eviscerate a central element of Ignatian spirituality and. preclude authentic growth as Jesuits.. Some. may have. older entrants. emphasis on. difficulty with this. intimacy with the Lord and with other companions of Jesus.. example, an older prior to entrance.. man may not have had much formal prayer life He may even have had a period of alienation. from the Church and can. still. worked hard. but he has not been. in the world,. conversion to the Church he finding. For. more meaning. in the. have doubts about. may come. to see. He. faith.. has. With a. satisfied.. the possibility of. works of the Society.. He. is. impressed. with the Society's tradition of respecting and using the talents of. men. in the apostolate.. to see the "real. Since he has found identity in work, he tends. world" as the world of the Jesuit. fully. regular prayer nor. aware of. is. it,. he does not. he much interested. munity meetings, or domestic duties. since he takes chastity to riage.. In the novitiate. studies. and look. to. do. tion. after ordination.. may. feel like a. Obstacles. from. in general.. really feel the. community. need of. liturgy,. com-. does not expect intimacy. mean the sacrifice of the intimacy of marhe may show concern about postnovitiate. for guarantees. formation about them.. in. He. in the field, thus. and formation. subtly denigrating the world of the novitiate. Without being. its. from the provincial or. assistant for. Often as a novice he knows what he wants In other words, the novitiate. hoop. to. and early forma-. be jumped through.. relationships in. community. Because of the nature of Jesuit sexuality are intimately connected.. life,. issues of authority. For one. conscience requires a trust in the very person. and of. thing, the account of. who can. use what. is.

(27) FORMATION TODAY. JESUIT. "Can. entrusted authoritatively.. my. himself, "tell. superior what. prejudicing his opinion of I. him. tell. am. actually experiencing without. or his decision regarding vows?". don't trust him, he might throw. I. I've fallen in love. and ask. me. says every novice at least to. I," I. me. 17. with another novice,. he'll. me. out.". 'if. me. brand. 'if. him. tell. I. a homosexual. Secondly, because of the intimacy of the. to leave.". relationship of novice or formation director or superior and the. young. Jesuit, all. of the confused and ambivalent sexual and aggressive. feelings everyone has is. to. become a. had toward parents can be. reactivated.. young. relatively integrated Jesuit, therefore, the. he. If. Jesuit. has to begin to deal openly and directly with these very volatile areas. of feelings, emotions, and drives, and do so with men.. and major superiors. tors, spiritual directors,. handle their. own. close encounters. relate to the. learns let. how. have to be able to. will. reactions to the feelings directed at. The young. Lord and. He. to relate to these key authority figures. is. his ultimate trust. more trustworthy than even the still. in these. much about how to men and women through the way he. to other. directors, but these latter. them. Jesuit will learn. us hope, that in the Lord. infinitely. Novice direc-. will find out,. and. that. He. is. best of superiors or spiritual. have a key role. to play, especially in. the early years.. One God. place where the authority issue and the relationship with. interact. is. on the question of whether. As noted. earlier, at the. prayer. a duty, and a hard one at. is. can be a joy, even. if. to pray or not. and why.. lower end of the continuum of relationship,. at times. it. is. that.. At the other end, prayer. as painful. and. difficult as. any. At entrance our men may be more on the duty side. They may not have had very much experience of the attractiveness of the relationship with God. If asked why they pray and if they relationship will be.. could be honest, they might well reply: "Because I'm a Jesuit, because. it's. I. expected of me,"and so. have. to,. forth.. because. At some. time in the novitiate they must face for themselves the question:. "Why do. I. may argue. pray?" They may find themselves too busy to pray. They that for a Jesuit. work. is. prayer.. They may. just give. up.

(28) BARRY. 18. They may expect the novice. prayer. to force. on. it. director and/or spiritual director. on them. What they need For one. in their lives.. is. help to look at what. may. thing, they. is. going. actually pray a great deal. during the day, for example, while going to and from apostolic work, while reading, before Mass, before going to bed.. Secondly, rather. than engaging in a struggle for control, the director can help them. what they. to discover are.. really. want and how 'ambivalent. may help. Thirdly, patient direction. Who. their desires. a young Jesuit to recognize. going to be. God? Because. that the fundamental issue. is:. the change of. entrance and because of the experiments,. life styles at. is. every novice can face the issue of. would have this issue. if. —. he had remained. God. in reality, facing. God. very disturbing.. in his. —. God more. we do. life.. And. facing. very challenging and can be. we have made,. including. not give up our idols easily.. So when. challenges every idol. our images of him, and. profoundly than he. former way of is. of. a novice says that he does not have time for prayer or that for a Jesuit. work. is. prayer, or. when. wants to engage the director. he, consciously or subconsciously,. in a test. or place or something else, what. is. of wills about time of prayer. actually going. inner struggle of whether to let the living. This struggle goes on at. by a fear of. He. is. God. many. levels.. on may be the close.. Early on. may be caused. it. based on an infantile or adolescent image of him.. too stern and judging to be allowed too close.. levels the fear. one's self nize these. if. is. God. 13. God come. more. that. gets close.. one. will lose all control. The young. At deeper. and even lose. Jesuit needs help to recog-. and other sources of resistance. to a closer relationship. with the Lord and to accept them as being as. much. a part of himself. as his real desires for union or intimacy with the Lord.. 14. As he does. very insightful book, Will and Spirit: A Contemplative Psychology (San FranHarper & Row, 1983), Gerald G. May helpfully distinguishes willfulness from willingness and describes how the latter attitude toward ultimate Mystery must continually struggle against our stubborn willfulness. 13. In a. cisco:. 14.. Barry and Connolly, op. cit., describe a number of the sources of resistance "Development of Relationship and Resistance.". ch. 6,. in.

(29) FORMATION TODAY. JESUIT so,. he. he also develops. come. then. will. his capacity for. why. to see. 19. discernment of. examen of consciousness looms so. the. and thus be on the road. large in Ignatian spirituality. Indeed,. spirits.. becoming a. to. contemplative in action. Sexuality. an area where the relationships between. is. God, superiors, peers, and others. Even though much of the between. God and. sexual imagery,. and. self. and become entangled.. interact. traditional language of the relationship. the individual. one reads. is. couched. and frankly. in erotic. about the actual experiences that. little. underlie such imagery in spiritual writing.. May. Gerald. maintains. that the use of such imagery to describe spiritual experience should. not surprise. us.. as a therapist. Rather, he has. and. who spend. from. to believe. his. experience. spiritual director that spiritual experience often has. sexual effects or overtones.. people. come. He. asserts that. it. is. quite. common. for. time in contemplative prayer to experience sexual. fantasies with regard to Jesus or Mary.. Whether the sexual and. 15. erotic crop. up. in people's. prayer. lives. often or not, spiritual directors, formation directors, and other superiors. need. in the. to. keep an open mind and heart so. that, if. such issues arise. prayer of those they work with, they can be talked about.. can be very. difficult for a. young. Jesuit, or. anyone. else, to. such topics in direction or in the account of conscience. not discussed, however, the person. than. let. may just. If. It. mention they are. repress the conflict rather. the Lord deal with him as he really. Open and. is.. honest. dialogue with the Lord about every issue, including one's actual sexual and erotic feelings and fantasies,. freedom and. come. Jung. the royal road to inner. integrity.. Perhaps, too, most to. is. men who. way of. life. have. to terms with the fact that they have a strong dose of. what. calls. enter a celibate. "anima," the feminine principle. This. discuss clearly because so. much. of what. is. is. a difficult area to. termed "masculine" and. "feminine" seems culture-bound rather than tied to sexual gender. 15.. Gerald G. May, op.. cit.,. 149-152..

(30) BARRY. 20 per. Moreover,. se.. showing preference. items. ininity,. most psychological. in. weighted toward the feminine. for. side; yet. tests. the. of masculinity/fem-. and reading are. arts. most educated men would. Hence, many of our entering novices would. indicate such interests.. have had to cope with having "feminine" interests prior to entrance.. At the same. time,. it. can be disconcerting to find oneself. male environment that even the experience of. And. sense of identity.. is. finally,. all-. The language and. not linked to sports.. spirituality as "passive". an. in. can also disturb one's. one can wonder about the motives. one's choice of a celibate, communitarian. life. for. In a rather. style.. remarkable autobiography Matthew Kelty, a Trappist hermit, notes. what he sees things,. some. exceptional. as his difference. — and. not. it is. —. is still. strong enough to set. hesitate to say that this has. I. homosexuality, for though of an orientation that. He. I. have never practiced. certainly as. is. some. much. it,. he. — and. others like him. need. to. A. is. — have need. not a monastic one,. come. it. may. off. not. from. relationship to. am. well aware. "anima" and. well be that. While the. 16. feels. come. of solitude to. terms with himself and his desire for communion. vocation. I. me. if. in that direction as the other.". ascribes his feeling of difference to a strong. that. insight into. capacity for the poetic and the spiritual which,. Nor do. others.. from many others: "Some. to. Jesuit. many of our men. to terms with their feminine side.. related, but separate, obstacle has to. No. do with relationships. how much more open our novitiates and other formation communities are and how much more contact there is with men and women outside of them, the primary community is still. with peers.. matter. going to be one's fellow Jesuits.. On. the one hand, one. is. This primacy poses two challenges.. expected to come to some basic. friendship with a very disparate group of men, not. would have chosen and even. 16.. Matthew. companions. if. conflict of personalities. is. as. 99.. of. and. whom. one. one had a choice. This disparity a large challenge to any. Kelty, Flute Solo: Reflections of a Trappist. Image Books, 1980).. all. trust. Hermit (Garden. young. City,. NY:.

(31) JESUIT. FORMATION TODAY. 21. But we ask from him the openness. man's vocation.. to such chal-. who. lenge, a desire to give the benefit of the doubt to those. We. and perhaps always, seem out of tune with him.. selection processes,. men. formation for. one. one and. to. one another. They. also. work. Not only. out.. in faith-sharing groups,. do they get. important that they do. The. so.. both. in talk,. to. know one. together, live together, go. together, recreate and play together.. difficult missions. our. in. and we provide multiple opportunities during. to try. another in depth.. ask a great deal. But we also put some confidence. under these circumstances.. own. at first,. and. novitiate. its. And. on. it. is. experiments and. formation in general are aimed at enabling openness and vulnerability not only to the Lord but also to one another.. we. combination of attitudes. own way and. But if. present to. some. for signs that this. degree, and growing.. many young. kind of formation also raises for. not for most, the fear of intimacy with men.. argues that. some of. the fear. men have. derives from fear of homosexuality. Miller,. who. did research on. men and. to explain, at the beginning, that. For our men two. my. She. cites the. friendship:. subject. in. his. may cause much. life. &. 18. Ibid.,. Houghton. Row, 103.. have. bizarre necessity 18. a. Such experiences. Such a man needs. inner turmoil and self-doubt.. help to see that his reactions are to be expected.. Harper. I. listens to another's. and/or shares his own.. Rubin, Just Friends: The Role of Friendship. words of Stuart. man who had identity may become. First,. heterosexual. 17. men. not homosexuality.". aware of erotic and even sexual feelings as he description of his inner. Rubin. "Everywhere. The. is. possibilities are noted.. developed a confidence. Lillian. Jesuits,. of intimacy with other. gone there has been the same misconception.. 17. Lillian B.. an interesting. a growing toughness to go one's. During early formation we look is. this. for,. is. a growing ability to be vulnerable and dependent on. one another. combination. look. It. in. When we. Our. Lives. speak. (New York:. 1985).. The. citation. Mifflin, 1983), 3.. is. from Stuart Miller,. Men and. Friendship. (Bottom.

(32) BARRY. 22. the language of the heart with another person, male or female,. and sexual aspects of ourselves are bound. sensual, erotic,. touched.. It is. no secret. that. men who. to. be. they might be con-. felt that. firmed homosexuals because of their reactions to fellow religious while in a confined religious-life atmosphere have found themselves to. be confirmed heterosexuals. in their attractions. when. they have. left. when they have entered more open apostolic communities. Be that as it may be, the kind of unsettling reaction I referred to needs to be dealt with by our young men lest their fear of intimacy with men become an obstacle to the development of close relationships. There are also young Jesuits (and older ones, as well) who know that their predominant orientation is homosexual or who discover it in early formation. For such men intimacy with fellow Jesuits poses the same challenges that a heterosexual Jesuit experiences when faced with intimacy with women, namely, how to be celibate and yet be close to someone toward whom one can become sexually attracted or it,. or. with. whom one. can. fall in love.. I. do not believe. that there are any. rules or techniques that can. keep either from happening.. we do. will learn. expect that our. men. from. they are not perpetually "falling in love.". However,. their experience so that. know. also. I. that fear of. sexual attraction can keep a person frozen in distant relationships.. And. in the Society. er.. Obviously,. belief that. be looking. God. if. a. man. his. strangers to one anoth-. people. for a lover or a spouse or a initial. men. has entered religious. wants him to serve. should trust that. Lord and. such fears can keep. motivation.. in his directors,. with the honest. life. way, he will not. in this. chance to. As he develops. fall in love.. He. in his trust in the. he learns to entrust more and more of. himself and his experiences to them. This kind of openness and trust is. the best guarantee that he will be able to. work. his. some of the tangled. thickets of sensuality, eroticism,. that are so intimately. bound up. to. and sexuality. Formatores need. encourage our young men to understand that such openness and. honesty are essential to their. 19.. in all relationships.. way through. One. issue that presently. own happiness and. fulfillment.. engages discussion and controversy. is. 19. the question of.

(33) JESUIT While the. it. should be clear that. issue of heterosexual attraction.. some. In. celibates.. vocation. may. attraction. realizes that. way. I. was addressing also the. Such attractions. may prove. cases such attractions. not God's. is. 23. paragraph began with the question of a homo-. last. sexual attraction,. FORMATION TODAY. an individual.. for. will. will. be most. fulfilled as a. to. that the celibate. In other cases. lead to a deeper conviction of one's. he. happen. a. call, as. the. man. companion of Jesus and of. other Jesuits.. Some. of these same issues can, of course, hinder a Jesuit's. development as an apostle called religious. and with. in this. age to collaborate with other. lay colleagues in ministry.. try requires at least. some emotional. closeness to those with. share ministry.. Formation. come any such. obstacles as they arise.. will. Collaboration in minis-. have to help our young. whom we. men. to over-. But an even more insidious. obstacle to cooperation with non-Jesuits. is. our corporate pride.. Often enough our colleagues get the impression that we have. all. the. we have little to learn from them. Our formation must our men to avoid this pitfall to real collaboration. We must. answers, that. help. come. to see ourselves as part of "this least Society.". Obstacles from our culture. We. need. to take. ment the Society han, in. "We. are. all. up one. desires in. its. last. obstacle to the kinds of develop-. men.. cultural addicts.". 20. In the. words of William Calla-. Social scientists note that males. our culture are socialized into competing with other males and. openness about one's sexual orientation beyond the context of spiritual direction or the account of conscience. I am not talking about "coming out of the closet," but about how much of oneself one shares with a group who are one's companions in the Lord. "If I tell them, will they keep an entrusted secret? Or will what I say now haunt my whole apostolic career in the Society?" There are no easy answers, but the question does raise the issue of. trust.. William R. Callahan, "The Impact of Culture on Religious Values and DecisionMaking," in Soundings: A Task Force on Social Consciousness and Ignatian Spirituality. 20.. (Washington, D.C.: Center of Concern, 1974)..

(34) BARRY. 24 into fearing that. On. man. any signs of affection for another. are homosexual.. the broader scale educated, middle-class Americans share. unarticulated cultural values. 21. many. Body odors are. and expectations.. Running hot water, three square meals a. anathema, for example.. day, with snacks in between, a relatively full refrigerator. and. larder,. T.V. and a car at one's disposal or at least up for use through negotiation,. money. movies and other entertainment. for. —. these are only. a few of the expectations middle-class Americans share. that hard. work. will. be rewarded and tend. rewards results from laziness.. We. to. We. expect. assume that lack of such. accept what social scientists. call. the "just-world hypothesis" and thus tend to presume that the victims. of calamities such as rape, mutilating accident, or endemic poverty. somehow. are. responsible for their plight.. Callahan makes the point. of our cultural addiction with a trenchant example: "It difficult for. who. is. is. far. more. an American to relate to a loving, honest, virtuous person. dirty or smelly, than to relate to a dishonest, unscrupulous, ex-. ploitative person. who. is. neat and well-mannered/'. we imbibe many of our. subconscious racial and ethnic stereotypes that mother's milk, as to other people.. it. were, and that condition. Many. All of us have. with our reactions. of these cultural expectations and values are. not only contrary to Christian values and hopes but also obstacles to the development desired by the Society for will. men.. Our formation. have to be countercultural and be experienced as such. young men are. 21.. its. to. become. if. our. the kind of Jesuit our documents describe.. See Daniel J. Levinson, et al., The Seasons of a Man's Life (New York: Knopf, and Lillian B. Rubin, op. cit.. 1978),.

(35) JESUIT. II.. FORMATION TODAY. 25. THE STAGES OF FORMATION. We. can. formation to. now turn to a description of the various stages of see how these stages aim to foster the kinds of develop-. ment desired and. to. overcome the obstacles. to such development.. Acceptance into the novitiate. At the beginning of. this. paper. I. quoted from the statement on. entrance into the Society adopted by the JCCF.. criteria for. The statement then went. quotation described the goal of formation.. on. That. to describe criteria for entrance in the following paragraphs.. A. man may have. the potential to. a talent or charism that. is. make. the Exercises but have. too important to give up, yet one that. severely limits mobility and apostolic freedom,. a first-class voice. him go. who wants. a tenor with. a guarantee that the Society will. to the top of his profession. may have. e.g.,. whatever the. A. cost.. let. man. a physical disability that severely limits apostolic. need man may not have the. availability, e.g., the. for kidney dialysis three times a week.. A. intellectual capacity to. that the Society requires of all. its. e.g.,. a scholas-. who gives evidence that he cannot deal with issues when the Society demands a minimum. candidate. sophical. studies. members, whether they be. candidates for the priesthood or the brotherhood, tic. do the. philo-. of 36. hours of philosophy.. We. have been speaking of remote. criteria. and now turn. to. criteria that indicate readiness to enter the Society this year.. The man has that such a. One. sign. the potential to. man may be unready to is that the man himself. a vocation to the Society. it. a try.". God's. become. It. is. call to the. ly sure, test that. The. a place where. a Jesuit; are there signs. enter this year? is. not yet sure that he has. novitiate. men who. Society and about. whom. is. not a place to "give. are relatively sure of the Society. is. relative-. sureness and are tested.. The candidate must. also give promise of being able to take. end of two years. It is only by exception that vows are put off beyond a two-year period. If there are serious and. vows. at the.

(36) BARRY. 26. unresolved inner conflicts about authority, about financial and. emotional security, about sexuality and sexual. be. identity, these. can. man is not yet ready to enter. we come to the critical question of readiness for the The Jesuit novice is expected to make the full Exer-. signs that a Finally,. Exercises.. cises during his first year of novitiate.. man. acceptance, they affirm in the Exercises that soon.. Here the. If. examiners recommend. make. a readiness to. the. issues are the ability to notice. and to talk about them with another, the ability to be surprised by mystery, the desire to meet God intimately and the awareness that such a meeting is awesome. Prior to interior events. entrance, a. the. first. direction. man. should have experienced some of the graces of. week of. the Exercises through the help of spiritual. and a directed. that the thirty days will. retreat.. Otherwise there. grave risk. is. be spent mostly on remedial. spiritual. work.. On more. than one occasion. I. have heard Jesuits say that these. standards are too high and idealistic. tions. on the. Yet a reading of the Constitu-. issue of selecting candidates. wanted superiors. to. be very. would indicate. that Ignatius. selective.. Both he who has the authority to admit and his helper ought to know the Society's concerns and be zealous for its good progress, so that no other consideration will be so strong as to deter him from what he judges in our Lord to be more suitable for His divine service in this Society. Therefore he should be very moderate in his desire to admit. 22. High. ideals are. honored as much. But without such high. in the. breach as. ideals the Society will. be. in the observance.. in serious trouble.. ^. George E. Ganss, S.J. (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1970), 126. Later in the same work we read: "Much aid is given toward perpetuating the well-being of this whole body by what was said in Part I, Part II, and Part V about avoiding the admission of 22. St. Ignatius of Loyola,. The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus,. trans.. a crowd, or of persons unsuitable for our Institute, even to probation.. .. .. ." ibid.,. 335.. See Michael J. Buckley's insightful observations about the Ignatian use of the General Examen and a separate house of probation in "Freedom, Election, and SelfTranscendence: Some Reflections upon the Ignatian Development of a Life of 23..

(37) FORMATION TODAY. JESUIT. The. novitiate. Thus the men who enter the. some of. over, they have actualized. we. More-. described earlier.. this potential.. show. to. Most of the men. enter our novitiates in the United States have graduated from. college,. and many have worked with men who are twenty-two years. old and older. living. Now. the experiments of the novitiate as well as just. and working together. pared for. this. Jesuit novitiate. Even before entrance most. Spiritual Exercises.. director once a week,. the novitiate.. He. Many. in prayer. some emotional experiences, but. begins to see a spiritual. and. in the other aspects of. imaginatively.. their. God. They have had. predominant way of relating. Devotional prayer such as the rosary or novenas has. been the main way of praying charist their prayer.. already relate to. In the beginning they. begin with. need help. God.. to see. relationships with. how. way. novices. that.. to. Many,. self-awareness and in awareness of. product of past relationships,. the Eu-. intercessory prayer and especially. Directors take seriously the. God and. history as a history with. Some have made. for some.. Most know. intercession for others.. if. become aware of. their. own. not most, need to grow in. how. in particular,. their present self. is. the. with parents and siblings.. these past relationships color their present. God, with. become more aware, they. superiors,. and with peers.. As they. also can begin to identify themselves in. George P. Schner, ed., Ignatian Spirituality hi a Secular Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1984), 74-80.. Ministry," in. earnest. in. of our candidates tend to relate to. more than emotionally or. They begin. have been pre-. and the conversations with the director focus. on the experience of the novice. by thought.. will. of course, the. The preparation begins. almost as soon as the novice enters.. rationally. is,. experiment by making a directed retreat and engaging. in regular spiritual direction.. life in. even more.. will actualize the potentials. The major experiment of any. is. presumed. novitiate are. potential to develop in the three areas. who. 27. Age (Waterloo,.

(38) BARRY. 28. gcspel characters and thus develop their capacity for imaginative. contemplation. In this process they learn. and. how. to reveal themselves to the. notice inner experiences that reveal the Lord's attitudes. to. A. towards them.. spiritual. director. who. pays close attention to. experience and helps the novice to articulate. may be. Lord. in the beginning,. listening. however. it,. By. crucial for this learning.. is. difficult that. and respectful questioning he helps the novice. experience, to see. it. as the privileged place to. to value his. meet the Lord, and. Thus. begin to discern the chaff from the wheat.. his patient. this. to. dialogue pre-. pares for the thirty -day directed retreat which in the United States is. usually. made sometime. the end of that retreat. within the is. it. first six. hoped. months of entrance. By. come. that the novice has. to. experience Jesus as desiring his companionship and himself as wanting to follow Jesus as a companion.. The dialogue with superiors that. is. the spiritual director also fosters that trust in. so essential an element in the government of the. Society through the account of conscience. al director. another. of the novice. member. authority figure.. and. also the novice director; even. of the novitiate. Thus the. staff. spiritu-. when he. is. he has the mantle of the. staff,. of the novitiate have the challenge. responsibility of laying the foundation for a healthy attitude. toward authority. in the Society.. lent place, of necessity.. and. is. Often enough the. it is. The. Young men. novitiate. God. in a. new way;. a somewhat turbu-. are taking on a. a harrowing process no matter. are meeting. is. how mature. they are trying to. fit. a. new. man. identity, is.. They. themselves into. new community of men, not all of whom they like; they do not know whether they will be found acceptable. For these and many a. other reasons the novices' nerves and hearts and spirits will be. rubbed raw. can. live. The. novitiate staff. need. to. be the kind of people who. with relative comfort in the eye of the storm,. openness and honesty about. feelings, especially. who. unwanted. invite. feelings.. Grist for the mill of spiritual direction and the periodic accounts. of conscience with the novice director are the other experiences of.

(39) JESUIT. FORMATION TODAY. 29. the novitiate, especially reactions to living and working with fellow novices.. The "experiment". of humble works around the house not. only faces the novice with doing for himself what others. done. for. him before but. him cheek by jowl with the other. also puts. members of the community. Washing and bathrooms, raking ties. which people do. may have. pots and pans, cleaning house. snow. leaves, shoveling. —. these are. all activi-. at different speeds, with different expectations,. The honeymoon. and with differing competencies.. is. quickly over. when men engage together in such activities. Novices also do apostolic work together and can be both attracted by and appalled at the attitudes. and. activities they see in. their peers congenial, others hard to take.. the talents of. some and wonder whether. They may. the Society. to other Jesuits in the versa.. house. some of. find. feel jealous at. made. All of their reactions to fellow novices, to. in taking others.. Lord and vice. They. one another.. a mistake staff,. will affect their relationship with the. In the process they are learning from experi-. ence what companionship with Jesus and with other Jesuits In novitiates also learn to. how. where. learn, this. faith sharing. Neither of these. and directors need. to. process of trusting other. men. men. entails.. a regular feature, the novices. one another and how. abilities. is. to listen. particularly easy to. be patient and encouraging.. countercultural in the extreme.. groups where. is. to reveal themselves to. one another.. and. After. all,. with one's real inner experience. While. it. is. true that there are. share feelings and weaknesses rather. example, encounter groups, growth groups,. AA. groups,. is. many. easily, for. Al-Anon. groups, such groups most often are not groups which also socialize together, let alone. The. live, eat,. work, and recreate together.. novices also participate together in regular conferences on. the vows, religious. life,. the Spiritual Exercises and Constitutions and. other documents that describe our way of readings and lectures, these conferences also. come. to grips personally with the material.. life.. While there are. demand. that the novices. Here again they. learn. about one another and also how to talk about the bedrock values of their lives with. one another..

(40) BARRY. 30. The ordinary them. touch with people. in. who. are sick, poor, on the dole, on the. Such contacts challenge. street.. dices,. work undertaken by the novices puts. apostolic. and discussions of. and preju-. their cultural stereotypes. their experiences in reflection groups again. help them to entrust themselves to one another and to learn from experience.. The. hospital "experiment" brings. them. in. touch with. their. own. need. to entrust themselves. tiates. have some variation of the pilgrimage "experiment*'. helplessness in the face of sickness and death and their. and. their patients to. God.. Most. novi-. which. in. the novices are asked to test their "alleged trust in God," to use a. Often these variations put the novices. phrase of C. G. Jung.. different cultural environments. where they can face the challenges. and anxieties of unfamiliar customs, endemic poverty, and. work. All of this apostolic. injustice.. tion with non-Jesuits.. In at least. work. some. and. closely with non-Jesuits. contribute to a. common. enterprise.. At some period during the. social. involves the novices in collabora-. instances they are supervised. by non-Jesuits. Such collaboration helps them to develop their to. in. to learn. ability. from them as well as to. 24. novitiate novices. apostolic house of the Society, usually in the. spend time. home. in. an. Thus. province.. they have a chance to live and. work with. what apostolic houses are. These periods are often very impor-. like.. Jesuits. and get a. taste of. tant times for the novice's decision to apply to. pronounce. Here he. community and asks. sees the reality of Jesuit apostolic. he. wants to join for. Of. himself. if. "trial,". and some members of the community. ment on. still. his suitability for vows.. that the Society in trial still. as well.. When. find that the. its. life.. course, he will. first. is. be asked. But we cannot lose. also to. Lord wants. in. his. our everyday. on. com-. sight of the fact. incarnation in this particular community. he sees us. vows.. reality, will the. is. on. novice. companionship with him (the Lord). to find expression in the Society of Jesus?. 24. Provinces might want to look more closely at the long-term advantages of involving our novices in intercongregational novitiate programs. Corporate aloofness and pride can begin early..

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