As Vocations Week approaches,
newly-vowed Jesuit Kieran Gill describes how becoming a Jesuit was ‘living
proof that nothing is impossible for God'.
I was born in
East Melbourne in 1983 - almost one year to the day after my parents were
married at Newman College. I guess that makes me a product of Newman College!
I lived in
Melbourne until I entered the noviceship at Canisius College, Pymble, in 2008.
As a child and adolescent I had a pretty normal life for someone of my
generation. I would have thought that you were totally nuts if you had told me
that I would one day be a Jesuit. I think that people who knew me would have
thought the same. As far as I was concerned, there would have been more chance
of me going to the moon than joining the Society of Jesus. The idea never
entered my consciousness.
When I was
studying at university, I used to volunteer at the Asylum Seeker Project in
North Melbourne. My involvement with asylum seekers truly gave me a new perspective
on life. For this I am grateful.
It was also
through the Asylum Seeker Project that I met Andy Hamilton and Sacha
Bermudez-Goldman. They introduced me to a number of Jesuits who were living in
Parkville and from time to time I visited JTC.
Towards the
end of my third year at university I began to feel a desire to join the
Society. I think I was impressed by the Jesuits at Parkville, and by what I
learned about the Society's availability to serve wherever the need is
greatest.
In my final
years at university the desire to join the Society continued to deepen. It was
in that time that my prayer life also began to grow, under the guidance of
Jesuit spiritual directors. I found (and continue to find) the examen prayer to be a vital part of my
daily life. It helps me to become more fully alive and more open to God's
presence in the activity of each day.
I was
involved in what was then called the Young Adult Ignatian Ministry. I lived in
a Pallottine parish and I have been strongly influenced by Pallottine
spirituality, but I felt attracted to the Jesuit vocation. I finished my course
in 2007 and I was accepted to enter the Society.
I think that
I entered the Society with a very idealistic view of Jesuit life. I am grateful
that I found the noviceship to be a time of growth and transformation.
Now that I
have moved to Parkville I sometimes find myself looking back on my life in
Melbourne before I joined the Society. I ask myself, ‘How is it that I am now a
Jesuit?' What can I say? I think that I am living proof that ‘nothing is
impossible to God' (Luke 1:37). It truly is a mystery. I feel wonder and
amazement at God's generosity and faithfulness to me.
I am
particularly struck by General Congregation 32's statement of what it is to be
a Jesuit. I have come to recognize more clearly that God loves me in my own
weakness and brokenness. I believe that I am a sinner called to be a companion
of Jesus. I felt a deep awareness of this through the Spiritual Exercises and
in the time since our retreat at Sevenhill. The experience of pronouncing first
vows was humbling and overwhelming.
I think that
my vocation involves falling in love. It is both surprising and unsurprising
that I have come to fall more and more in love with the God of the Gospels. So
I pray, in the words of Fr Arrupe, that we may all ‘fall in love, stay in love
and it will decide everything.'
Kieran Gill SJ took
vows on February 2, 2010.
National Vocations
Awareness Week runs from 8 - 15 August. For more information about becoming a
Jesuit, go to www.jesuitvocation.org.au.