Insights from the joint meeting of Vocation Promoters and Young Adult Ministry delegates

European Jesuit vocation promoters and young adult ministry co-ordinators met in Rome last week for our annual meeting. Like all good Jesuit meetings, it started with prayer and what followed was a fruitful blend of business and pleasure. 

Small groups and plenary sessions allowed for good sharing of best practices, i.e. “we tried this and it worked!” Charlie and Fonfo presented the fruits of several years of investment by the Spanish Province in vocation promotion. Their vocations website www.serjesuita.es is an exemplar of how to communicate with young men who have vocational questions. The three sections, Know, Discern and Choose provide the information and resources that enquirers need at every step of the journey, and the website also makes communication with the vocation promoters easy. The website is already serving as a template that other Provinces are following. The dynamic Iberian duo are also certain that having two Jesuits working together as a team multiplies their creativity and fruitfulness. 

We had an excellent sharing on the ministry of the Spiritual Exercises with young people. Jesuits are being very creative in this ministry, packaging the Spiritual Exercises in various ways that also meet other pastoral needs such as catechesis, personal development, and contact with nature. Some Provinces want to make the Exercises available to more young people while others, like St. Ignatius, are trying to be more discerning and selective about who they give the Exercises to and for what reason. 

We all agreed that it makes sense for vocation promoters and young adult ministers to meet together. Many of us are actively involved in both fields and there is a lot of overlap in our work. During the meeting it became apparent that we also benefit from talking about the shared context of our work. Young people are simultaneously living in two realities: the physical world and the digital world. For them, growing up in the eras of liquid modernity or liquid post-modernity, has meant growing up in societies which are increasingly unmoored from the natural world, from dependable family and social ties, and from faith communities. Understandably, many young people now experience significant personal insecurities and doubts. We Jesuits want to help them find the human, spiritual and religious foundations and points of reference which, for the longest time, most people have taken for granted. 

UAP 2 has set the Society of Jesus on a course of creating a hope-filled future for young people. I sensed a lot of hope in this group – a generative and energetic hope which keeps us moving outward and forward. Let us continue to have great hopes for our young people and great Hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Niall Leahy