Jesuit magazine (4-11).indd - The New Orleans Province of the ...

testing and experimenting:
A scientist who has an idea that he wants to test runs to
his laboratory. There he applies various tests to see whether
his initial idea was a sound one. Some people use the laboratory
analogy to try to explain the novitiate experience, and in
many ways a “lab” is an accurate analogy for this first stage in
Jesuit formation.
When a man enters the novitiate, he has a good idea that
God is calling him to become a Jesuit – he has discerned and
spent many hours in the application process being interviewed
by Jesuits, doctors and even a psychologist – but he has never
lived as a Jesuit; he has not yet tested his vocation. Likewise,
the Society of Jesus has a good idea that the man they have
admitted is a good fit, but it needs some real life experiences
with this man to know for sure. The novitiate is this time of
testing and discernment.
One of the reasons a laboratory is a good analogy for the
novitiate is because St. Ignatius designed the novitiate to have
specific tests which are called “experiments.” No, novices are
not asked to deliver electric shocks to one another, nor does
the novice master ring a bell before meals and measure salivation.
Instead, the various experiments, many conceived by
Ignatius himself, test whether a novice can do what Jesuits do
and live as Jesuits live.
The first experiment is arguably the most important – the
undertaking of the full 30 day Spiritual Exercises of St. Igna-
Second-year novice Penn Dawson
in the remote village of
Karasabai in Guyana
Life in the Novitiate
tius. In this powerful and moving experience, a novice moves
through the retreat, seeking to know and follow Christ more
closely and to more clearly hear His voice in his life. He will
draw on this experiment for the rest of his Jesuit life.
In our novitiate, the experiment that follows the Long
Retreat is the “Primi Class Experiment.” All of the first year
novices, called primi, go to Kansas City, Kansas, to work in a
variety of ministries and to work on building a stronger sense
of community. This year the primi worked in parishes, schools
and a hospital. In addition they worked with Burmese refugees
who have been granted asylum by the US government and
with the Turnaround Program, a program which seeks to help
recently released prisoners get their feet on the ground in their
new life.
Next, for the Pilgrimage Experiment, the novice master
hands each novice $5 and a one-way bus ticket to a destination,
different for each novice. Ignatius thought it was important
for all novices to understand the importance of begging
for what one needs – food, shelter, transportation – as he did
in his own life, going from his home in Spain to Jerusalem
shortly after his conversion. On pilgrimage, the novice “[puts]
all hope in the Creator and Lord and accept[s] sleeping poorly
and eating badly because it seems to us that the one who cannot
live and walk for a day without eating or sleeping poorly
cannot persevere long in our Society.”[*] The journey depends
The Southern Jesuit Spring 2011
9