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St. Edmund Campion had a promising career ahead of him at Oxford University. So promising, in fact, that Queen Elizabeth herself took notice of the impressive 26-year-old scholar. But Campion was troubled. The more he studied to become a priest in the Anglican Church, the more he felt drawn to the Catholic faith. This was a problem because the year was 1569 and the Catholic Church was outlawed under the British Crown.
And so he fled to Ireland and then Belgium and eventually Rome. Along the way, he fully embraced Catholicism and ultimately found himself accepted as a member of the Society of Jesus. His newfound Jesuit life found him teaching in Prague, where he imagined he’d spend the rest of his days. After all, there was no Jesuit mission in the inhospitable land of England.
That is—until there was. In 1580, Fr. General Everard Mercurian sent Campion back to his homeland to minister to the beleaguered Catholic community there. In July of the following year, Campion and his companions were discovered by a priest-hunter and ultimately thrown into the Tower of London. Time and again, Campion and his companions refused to denounce their Catholic faith. They were ultimately martyred, going to their deaths singing the Te Deum.
We can only guess at what God was doing in the prayer life of St. Edmund Campion. What was the prayer of this would-be saint that God so inspired in him an embrace of truth and a rejection of worldly success? How powerful was the prayer that sustained Campion in his secretive mission, one he most likely knew would end in death? What final words did Campion offer to God as his earthly life ended?
A life of prayer is central to the Jesuit way of proceeding, grounded in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Exercises invite all to embrace a path of poverty, rejection and humility—a spiritual movement just as countercultural today as it was when St. Ignatius first put the words down on the page. From this experience of the Exercises, all Jesuits root their prayer and their ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ. They are attentive to Jesus’ constant invitation to labor with him under the banner of the cross for the good of all people, even at the risk of their own lives.
“Whoever wishes to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the name of Jesus, and to serve the Lord alone and his vicar on earth, should keep in mind that once he has made a solemn vow of perpetual chastity he is a member of a community founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine and for the propagation of the faith by the ministry of the word, by spiritual exercises and works of charity…”
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The USA East Province is one of the five provinces in the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, incorporating Eastern part of the United States from Maine to Georgia and the District of Columbia. Jesuits from the UEA Province also live and serve in Micronesia and Fiji. The province includes colleges & universities like the College of the Holy Cross and Georgetown University, high schools like Fordham Preparatory School and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, and a number of pre-secondary schools, parishes, retreat centers, and various other works.
Fr. Brendan Gottschall, SJ, is the vocation promoter for the UEA Province. That means that Fr. Gottschall is responsible for accompanying men who are discerning a life in the Society of Jesus. He joined the Jesuits in 2014, after having worked for two years after undergrad in the corporate world. He has ministered in prisons, campus ministries and hospitals, and spent almost a year working in China. He was just ordained a priest in June 2024.
To get in touch with Fr. Gottschall, please fill out the form at the top of the website or send him an email at [email protected] and he will get back to you ASAP.
Fr. Aaron Malnick, S.J. left a successful real estate career in the Chicagoland area to pursue religious life in the Society of Jesus. After novitiate, philosophy and theology studies took him to St. Louis University and Boston College respectively, which led to his ordination in 2021. Aaron has spent the last three years as a retreat director at DeMontreville Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo, MN. While having a fondness for snowshoeing and passion for Polish cooking, Aaron also enjoys reading and writing poetry, publishing his first book, Poems to Retreat By: Praying with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, in 2023.
Do you have a quick question? Text Fr. Eric (320) 433 – 3322 or send him an email.
Fr. Eric was ordained a priest in June of 2022, and his first assignment is working with the vocation team for the Midwest Province. A native of Green Bay, WI, Eric’s Jesuit life has taken him to Boston, Chicago, and St. Paul. He’s studied Education, Philosophy, and Theology at the graduate level, and is currently working toward a degree in Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, LA. In his free time, he enjoys exercise, reading and writing, playing the drums, singing, and watching sitcoms (especially Brooklyn 99, New Girl, and Parks & Recreation). In the past year, he picked up two new hobbies: Spikeball and squash.
Fr. Aaron and Fr. Eric accompany men considering a life in the Society of Jesus, serving across 12 states in the Midwest. They are passionate about sharing information on Jesuit life, answering questions, and accompanying people in discernment. Reach out, and they’ll get back to you ASAP.
The Midwest Province is one of the five provinces in the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. It comprises twelve states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Midwest Jesuits work at high schools, retreat centers, parishes, universities, and other ministries. If you watch March Madness, you probably recognize Midwest Jesuit universities like Creighton, Marquette, Xavier, and Loyola Chicago.
The USA West Province is one of the five provinces in the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. It comprises ten states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Jesuits in the west are a diverse group of men who serve Christ and his Church in 19 educational institutions, 9 parishes, 2 retreat centers, and other social and pastoral ministries like Homeboy Industries, Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative (JRJI), Kino Border Initiative (KBI), Native American Missions, and Christus Ministries for young adults, to name a few.
Fr. Dan Nevares, SJ, currently serves as the assistant director and vocation promoter for the US West Province, responsible for accompanying men who are discerning life within the Society of Jesus. He was ordained a priest in June 2022 and has been a Jesuit for over fourteen years. Over the course of that time, he has apostolically served in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, Pine Ridge, SD and Spokane, WA; studied in Saint Louis, MO & Berkeley, CA and traveled with Jesuits in Latin America & Spain. Most recently, he served as a parochial vicar of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish in Spokane, WA.
Fr. Dan is here to answer your questions about Jesuit life! Submit your information, and he will get back to you as soon as possible.
Fr. Juan Ruiz, SJ, was born in Baltimore, MD, to a Dominican mother and a Cuban-American father. As the proud child of two Hispanic parents he grew up in Memphis, TN, speaking Spanish at home and visiting family abroad in the summers. He came to know the Jesuits through an uncle in Dominican Republic who was himself a Jesuit priest. Juan graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration from Saint Louis University and worked for one year as an IT Consultant in Saint Louis, MO, before entering the Society of Jesus. After taking first vows in 2013, he completed a Masters in Social Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago while teaching middle school religion on the side. For regency, he spent three years teaching Spanish at Cristo Rey Jesuit in Houston, TX. He was missioned to study theology at Regis College in Toronto and completed an M.Div. in three years. He was ordained a priest the summer of 2022 and spent the subsequent year working as an assistant pastor at Gesú Church in Miami, FL. He joined the vocation promotion team in 2023. Fr. Juan loves that people are people. He enjoys all sorts of ministry. In his downtime, he enjoys exercising, reading, movies, and spending time with friends.
Fr. Michael Wegenka, SJ, was born in Midland, Michigan, lived briefly in Carmel, Indiana, and grew up in Katy, Texas. He attended Strake Jesuit College Preparatory school and entered the Society of Jesus when he was 18. He received a B.A. in Philosophy and English Literature from Fordham University in 2011. He taught British Literature and Sacred Scripture to sophomores at Regis Jesuit High School in Centennial, Colorado for three years and then received an M.Div. from Boston College in 2017. He completed an S.T.L. in Historical/Systematic Theology at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and was ordained a priest in 2018. After spending a year as an associate pastor at St. Charles Borromeo parish in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, he served for three years as the Pastoral Director at his alma mater, Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston. He became a vocation promoter in 2022 and now lives in Denver. He enjoys reading and discussing a Catholic novel, skiing, beating his older brother’s time in half-marathons, and spending as much time as possible near the Great Lakes or the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming.
They are ready to answer your questions about Jesuit life. Submit your information, and Fr. Ruiz, Fr. Hill and Fr. Wegenka will get back to you as soon as possible.
The U.S. Central and Southern Province is one of five provinces in the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. The province encompasses 13 states from Florida to Colorado, the territory of Puerto Rico and the nation of Belize. We serve the people of God in seven retreat and spirituality centers and 14 parishes. We carry on the tradition of Jesuit education in six institutions of higher education, 12 secondary schools, a middle school and a social research institute.
The Province of Canada is one of the five Jesuit provinces in the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, incorporating all ten Canadian provinces and three territories. It includes Campion College in Regina, Loyola High School in Montreal, Manresa Jesuit Spiritual Renewal Centre in Pickering, and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Toronto.
Fr. Edmund Lo, SJ, is the vocations director for the Jesuits of Canada, meaning that he is responsible for accompanying men who are discerning a life in the Society of Jesus. He has been a Jesuit priest since 2018. Over the course of that time he has been directing retreats for young adults and giving workshops on Ignatian spirituality, particularly on St. Ignatius’ rules for discernment of spirits. He has also been a part of the formation team of the Jesuit novitiate (the 1st and 2nd years of Jesuit formation) in Canada.
Fr. Edmund is here to answer your questions about Jesuit life. Submit your question and he’ll get back to you ASAP.
And if you’re inquiring from Haiti, you’ll get a response from Fr. Gerard Myriam Paul, SJ ([email protected]).
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