The Musical Priest

Yesterday, I encouraged a renewed sense of charity by citing Saint Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises . I'd like to take my own advice and "help a brother out" this morning. My brother in the Lord over at Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit - Joseph Fromm - sometimes forgets to include the entirety of a quote he puts up on his blog. Quoting from another, Fromm quotes an exchange between the original author of the story and the venerable Father Hardon, SJ: When my high school friend (not I) expressed an interest in the priesthood, Father Hardon offered advice: "I wish that I could recommend you apply to the Society of Jesus," he said in his careful way. "I love the order, and wish it could be saved. But I cannot in good conscience send any young man into its seminaries." This quote has elicited several comments to the effect that many Jesuits cannot/will not encourage vocations because it will endanger the faith of young men (while these Jesuits, who so ...

At long last, I reach the 10th and final "Principle for Vocation Promotion." I thought I'd manage to knock these out in the course of a few days. Alas, life gets in the way! So, without further ado: Principle #10: Do Unto Others Earlier this year, I was invited to write an ex officio letter to Father Adolfo Nicolas, the General Superior of the Society of Jesus. One of the two points I was asked to address was how we might help to promote vocations to the Jesuits I wrote, writing of my experience as a Jesuit Regent, If the question “What does God want for me?” rests at the heart of Ignatian discernment, and if this is a question that we encourage our students and collaborators to confront, then our lives must attest that our joy has been found as Companions of Jesus. So here any vocational initiative must address directly what I see as the greatest corporate threat to vocation promotion: pessimism and cynicism. How many of our students have Jesuit teachers who seem tired,...

Principle #9: Pray One of the privileges of my mission to help promote vocations is that I get to know various candidates in a profoundly intimate way. One practice that I have adopted and have found tremendously helpful is to pray for the man both before and after our meetings. I pray before that I be open to him, that I be attentive, reverent, and devoted , that I be a good representative of the Society of Jesus to him. I pray also that he be open, honest, and comfortable with me. After our conversation, I always pray for the man that God continue to stir his heart and help to know better just how he is being called to live out his discipleship. It is one thing to pray for vocations "in general." I think, however, it is something else entirely to pray for a man in particular. I do not mean to suggest that you start picking men out at random and praying that they heed God's call to the priesthood. Rather, I should think that if you know of a man who is in discernmen...

Principle #4: Openly Share Your Ideals There can be, at times, a reticence to share what it is in life that excites us. Just this morning, as I prefected the Atrium before school, one of my freshman came in carrying a large box. When I inquired as to its contents, a gleam sprang into his eye and he opened the box to reveal a brilliant array of origami pieces he had done. As it turns out, he and his brother are both accomplished origami artists and he had to give a "demonstration speech" for class and wanted to share with his classmates his art. I joked with him that I didn't have an artistic bone in my body...I can't even draw a stick figure. He smiled broadly and said, "Mr. Duns, I'm going to have to come and show you how to do origami so that you can't say anymore that you aren't artistic." There was a visible change in him as he offered to share his gift with me and he grew excited in showing me some of the things he had made. I mention this b...

Principle #3: Keep in Contact Something that I have found terrifically helpful in working with candidates to the Society of Jesus is something we take for granted: the cell phone. Actually, not the phone so much as the text message. When I'm at basketball games, or football games, or soccer, hockey, bowling or swimming, I can seize the few moments between plays/quarters/periods/heats to send a quick text message to one or more candidates. This can be as simple as, "Hey there, how're things?" or "Just a quick note to let you know that I'm praying for you." When I lived in New York, some of the best evenings I spent with college students were the result of spontaneous texts that said, "Hey, want to grab a slice of pizza?" or "Want to grab a beer?" Very often, I don't have to say, "How's discernment going." I simply need to make myself present, to let that person who is discerning know that I am out there, that I am thi...

If you are interested in helping to promote vocations to the Jesuits, or to religious life, here's a second principle to follow: 2. Ask the Question This goes along with my operative maxim that "if you see something, say something." I think many young men are embarrassed to admit that they feel the stirring of a call to priesthood or religious life...given the scandal of sex abuse, I can hardly blame them. Nevertheless, I sincerely think a lot of guys do kick the idea around but they are petrified at the prospect of expressing this nagging feeling to anyone. Isn't this a shame? If someone had all the gifts and talents to be a great author, or athlete, or artist, wouldn't you be effusive with your praise? If you noticed a person with phenomenal talent for drawing who was pursuing a career as a greeter at a local store, don't you think that you might be inclined to say, "Hey, haven't you ever thought of being an artist?" You'd fear that she wa...