News from the Novitiate:
Life as a Jesuit Novice
Eric T. Styles, nSJ
Sunday, August 29, 2004

It has now been a week since I entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and life is good. There are twenty-eight people in our community: fourteen Primi (1 st year novices), eight Secundi (2 nd year novices), three priests, one brother, one layman and one religious sister who lives in another house with members of her own order. Primi vary in age from 22 to 49. At 27, I’m older than at least half.

This first stage of formation is called novitiate. It took a lot of discernment, prayer, interviews and paperwork just to get here. So for each of us, the clear intent is already to spend the rest of our lives in “this least Society.” As a Jesuit Novice I will live, pray, learn, work, and play in/with this community for the next two years. God willing and the creek don’t rise, I will take perpetual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and begin the next step of formation, first studies.

So what is it like at the novitiate?

Well we haven’t moved into our regular routine, yet. We have Mass every day. Daily mass is quite different from what Catholics do on Sunday. I would call it “Mass Concentrate,” like drinking a can of concentrated juice before adding water: thirty minutes of pure ritual can be quite potent. On Fridays we will have music and on most Sundays we will be free to go to a regular parish for worship. Mass (or Eucharist) is really the heart of Catholic religion and we do it often. Soon the weekdays will also include Morning Prayer at 7am and Evening Prayer on Tuesdays. Each of us is expected to spend about another hour in prayer (including ‘spiritual’ reading) each day.

We also eat dinner together during the week. We have a cook, Jennifer, who prepares this meal which follows five o’clock Mass. For dinner on the weekend, each of us will be expected to cook for the community.

Regular classes will begin after next weekend. Right now we are in what’s called first probation. No one is at risk of being booted out! It’s just a period of adjustment and orientation to this new way of life.

What are the other fellas like?

Different! Every last one of them. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with the quality of men that are here for the same thing, life as a Jesuit brother or priest. We have a professional social worker, a campus minister and former journalist, a comedian, a former assistant prosecutor, a youth minister, a recent law school graduate student, a construction engineer, two teachers, and a couple of recent college graduates with degrees in philosophy and chemistry. And that’s not everybody in my class, let alone the second year novices. These guys are thoughtful, down to earth, and open. We’ve jus begun to get to know one another and build community, so the primi won’t be having visitors until the Friday after Thanksgiving Day.

What is the house like?

Loyola House is a comfortable U-shaped building just outside of Detroit, Michigan. The facility is a former convent owned by the church across the street. We have already spent multiple fun-filled and exhausting afternoons playing ultimate frisbee in our huge backyard. I haven’t had such a good cardiovascular workout since … never.

Why is Eric there?

I am here because I feel called to a life as a Jesuit priest. That’s it in a nutshell. I’m here because the call to do priestly work – to preach the word of God, preside at the sacraments, and be a gateway to the divine – is the strongest call I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine a better way for me to be a Catholic priest than within this brotherhood of men sometimes infamously called the Jesuits. I’m here to confirm that call and take vows on August 15, 2006.

In January of 2005, my brother novices and I will travel to Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, MA for our thirty-day silent retreat. This is how St. Ignatius of Loyola, our founder, wanted each novice to experience his Spiritual Exercises. For a whole month, we will quiet down the constant chatter of our lives and try to listen in a most profound way to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Each of us hopes to come away with even more clarity about our own deepest desires and God’s dreams for us.

Ignatian spirituality is for anyone. It places a huge emphasis on God speaking directly to each of us through our life experiences: “finding God in all things.” The Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius’ method of prayer and discernment, can be experienced in various forms. Each of us has a vocation that is much more than a career and a state of life as single, married, religious or ordained. Our vocation is the detailed and particular way in which each person is called to live the life of Christ in this world.

When do you get to be called Father?

The Jesuits probably have the longest formation program in the Catholic Church. It will take about 11 years to reach ordination to the priesthood. However, it is important to remember that for this religious community, the first priority is forming its members as Jesuits. In two years, I will take vows. Everything I do will be as a Jesuit. I look forward to those many full and exiting years of study and work. Good things come to those who wait!

Eric T. Styles, nSJ , a novice of the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), lives in Berkley, MI. A native Chicagoan, he is formally the liturgy coordinator of St. Benedict the African (East) Parish and house manager at the DePaul University’s Merle Reskin Theatre. Eric was a very active lay minister in the Black Catholic community of Chicago and Charis Ministries: Ignatian Spirituality for Young Adults. He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with a BFA in Electronic Media.

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