An Evening with the Jesuits

I suspect that it is a little known fact that there is a Jesuit Novitiate right here in St. Paul. This is the place where young men preparing to enter the Society of Jesus begin their preparations. I suspect that it is also little known that these Jesuit novices occasionally borrow teaching faculty from St. Paul Seminary.

They live just a few blocks up Summit Avenue from us, but unfortunately, in the past, there has been little contact between the Jesuit novices and the diocesan seminarians here at SPS. However, in the last year or so, much has been done to begin to develop a friendly relationship between our two houses of formation. Occasionally, they even audit classes with the seminarians here. They come to some of our social events (this year they were present for Rectors' Bowl, the Borromeo Weekend Forty Hours Devotion, our Halloween Party and they often attend Cor Jesu). In return they invite us to attend some of their events. Seminarians from SPS attended their All Saints Day prayer vigil. Tonight, a number of us joined them for their Christmas Social.

In a way, this contact between their men and ours represents something much larger than ourselves. Even the Church has had her experiences of partisanship. The Jesuits have done their thing, the Dominicans theirs, and diocesan priests still another, as though we were all ministers of separate churches. Tonight, however, one of the novices said a beautiful thing. "It is good that you are here. We are all preparing to minister in the same Church."

It was, indeed, good to be there.