Happy Holidays from the Jesuit Novitiate in California

Holiday Greetings from the Jesuit Novitiate in California...

Last time I wrote it was late October and I mentioned that during the month of November, we would be doing the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. Our 30-Day silent retreat ended on December 1 and I am happy to say that we all made it through OK. I am only now beginning to look back on my retreat experience, so it is difficult to put it into words. I can definitely say that it confirmed my calling to be a Jesuit and allows me to more fully understand what an older Jesuit once told me: "The hard part of the exercises is 'meeting yourself'...encountering God, that's easy."
What exactly do we do during the exercises and how does one meet himself, you may ask? The bulk of the exercises is focused on Ignatian contemplation, that is, inserting yourself into a gospel story. Take, for example, the trial of Jesus. One doing a contemplation is asked to picture the scence. Who is there? What do they look like? What does the atmosphere look like? Above all, what are you, the person doing the contemplation, doing and why are you doing it? How do you feel? In doing such contemplation through a variety of different gospel passages, each person's personality and desires come to surface.
After the retreat, we were off to Tijuana, Mexico, to help build houses for the poor. The houses we built were simple two-bedroom houses that nontheless required a lot of sawing, hammering, installing windows and doors, and working with cement. Us novices finished 3 houses in a little over 3 days of work, and returned to the novitiate completely and utterly exhausted. After that experience, I can say that none of us will be taking up carpentry as a career.

Back here, we will return to our apostolates for a couple of days, attend the first vows of a novice whose vows were delayed for several months because of a family emergency, celebrate Christmas with the second-year novices, and prepare for the arrival of the novices from the Oregon Province on January 3. They will be here during the month of January for a series of classes. I'll tell you more about that in my next email.
I wish you all, then...

Merry Christmas...
Feliz Natal...
Feliz Navidad...
Joyeux Noel...

and all the best in 2007!

Peace,