Be a Jesuit - Be a Difference!

Jesuits today serve in 112 nations on six continents and number about 16,000 priests, brothers and seminarians worldwide. Jesuits discharge a wide variety of roles including that of retreat directors, teachers, doctors, poets, lawyers, social workers, writers, administrators, professors, pastors, scientists and artists. Jesuits are also engaged in missionary work, uplift of the poor, social justice activities, inter-religious dialogue and other ministries.
Becoming a Jesuit is a lifetime project, whose sole aim is to love and serve God. Pedro Arrupe, one of our last Superiors General said to a young man who wished to join the Society of Jesus:

“Stay at home if this idea makes you unsettled or nervous. Do not come to us if you love the Church like a stepmother rather than a mother. Do not come if you think that in so doing you will be doing the Society of Jesus a favour. Come if serving Christ is at the very centre of your life. Come if you have broad and sufficiently strong shoulders. Come if you have an open spirit, a reasonably open mind and a heart larger than the world. Come if you know how to tell a joke and can laugh with others and… on occasions you can laugh at yourself.”

Jesuits look for men who feel called by God and who also possess:

• A deep personal love for Jesus Christ
• A habit of prayer which develops into action
• Sufficient self-knowledge
• Good religious practice
• Sufficient intellectual capacity
• A sense of sociability and availability
• Some familiarity with Jesuits
• Good physical health
• A history of service and concern for the poor
• The joy to live a life of poverty, chastity, obedience
• A strong desire-zeal for becoming a Jesuit!