When Jesuits decide to leave the Society, as a result, it can be an extremely jarring moment for us when we hear the news. This past year, we saw many men in our company who chose to leave their lives as Jesuits. We ask the question ‘why?’ and wonder what events transpired that led to such a decision. There is that feeling that a member of our spiritual family who has been with us for so much time has decided to leave us. These departures inevitably challenge the vocations of us who continue on with this life as we ask ourselves why we stay. This vocational challenge, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. About a month ago, while I was taking my day off from my work in LA, I was relaxing at our LA villa house near Redondo Beach when I received a phone call. I was excited to see that it was from John and very much looked forward to sharing our summer experiences and how it was going so far. John first asked about how my summer was, and I shared a little bit about what I was doing at Dolores Mission and Homeboy Industries. After I was done sharing, John went on to remark: “So Ryan, I’ve made my decision…”
Go (here) to read the touching and heartfelt post at the blog entitled, Living My Jesuit Call by Ryan Rallenka, S.J.
2 comments:
Is it true that there are now more former Jesuits in the United States than remain in the Society? If a Jesuit discerns that he has no vocation he should go. The problem is that many others who ought to follow the same path have to stay because there are not other options available in the world. They are trapped by circumstances and both they and their communities suffer. Its a soul-rotting situation.
A Jesuit priest wistfully said to a family friend not too long ago: "who said the Society would last forever"? The Society as many of us knew it is long, long gone...
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