Jesuit

(n.) A sinner loved and called by God.

My membership in the Society of Jesus —a Catholic religious order of Priests and brothers—shapes the man I am and the man I am becoming. I am in the process of formation to become a Catholic Priest. That journey has involved 30 days of silence, 3 months living in the interior of Guyana, studying philosophy, teaching high school, and more miraculous stories than I could recount. The SJ in Bishop SJ comes from my belonging to this companionship of sinners loved by God. We add the SJ suffix to indicate our place in this community laboring with Christ.

So that they may know they are loved.

When someone asks me, “So, why are you a Jesuit?”, I respond bluntly: “The Holy Spirit.” And I mean it. God made his invitation abundantly clear to me on a retreat during my Junior year of high school. That first call, that profoundly intimate connection with God, continues to draw me deeper into life as a disciple all these years later. However, over the years I’ve stumbled on a personal slogan of sorts that captures my desire to be a Jesuit: “So that they may know they are loved.” In other words, if my life is well-lived, it will be spent laboring so that whoever is placed before me by God comes to know that they are loved by Him.

The same goes for my music. I labor at this craft so that you may know you are loved. I hope it helps you discover God’s closeness to you on the many twists and turns of the journey.