Jesuits in formation are young Catholic men who are in training to become fully-formed Jesuit priests and brothers. Here you will meet some (who are being formed under the auspices of the British Province) talk about St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). To watch all the videos in this series, see link at the bottom of this page.

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Peter O'Sullivan SJ

Peter is studying Theology at The Centre Sèvres in Paris

At the start of his conversion process, Íñigo experienced God's motions within himself, but somehow they were all mixed up with his earthly plans and human desires. You could say that Inigo was bringing God into his own territory and thus redesigning his previous desires and intentions from the experience of God that he was feeling. When he realised all this, he gave it a name, the "second binary". This video tells us about this very normal reality of spiritual life. Click here >>

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Christopher Brolly SJ

Christopher is teaching at St Ignatius College, Enfield

One of the hardest things to do in life is to reconcile with one's own mistakes and sins. In fact, we are often more merciful to other people’s sin than to our own. We don’t seem capable of integrating our fragility and our sin into a life following Jesus Christ. Iñigo de Loyola suffered greatly because of this reality. After his conversion in Loyola, he couldn’t integrate all the evil he had done into his new life. It was only after he realised that what lifts us off the ground and makes us worthy before God is not our own strength, but his infinite love and mercy, that things began to change in his life. He discovered that rather than looking at himself too much, he should look to and trust in Jesus Christ, who came to call sinners. Click here >>

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John Bosco Noronha SJ

John is studying Philosophy at The Centre Sèvres in Paris

You’ve probably heard someone say that they believe in God but not in the Church, or that they can follow Jesus Christ without belonging to or identifying with any ecclesial community. As modern as this may sound, it is actually something very old and was already present in the time of St. Ignatius when many broke with the Church. However, it was clear to St. Ignatius that he could not follow Jesus Christ without the Church. Therefore, he took on the exciting challenge of reforming it from within. Click here >>

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Sam Dixon SJ

Sam is studying Philosophy at The Centre Sèvres in Paris

In the early days of their apostolate, some called the first companions "Ignatians". However, when they had to choose a name, they didn’t refer to Ignatius but chose to call themselves the ‘Society of Jesus’. Because it was clear to the first companions that it was God who had called them together to serve him, by following and serving his Son Jesus Christ, in the present world. Click here >>

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Luke Taylor SJ

Luke is teaching at Wimbledon College

To be a missionary without leaving home at a time when the internet didn’t exist seems extremely difficult, if not impossible. However, St. Ignatius lived the last years of his life in Rome and from there he was indeed a missionary. He understood that the mission he was serving was not his own, but the mission of Christ. And so it was not a matter of travelling thousands of kilometres or doing the great deeds he had imagined in his youth. Rather, it was about giving himself to Christ, letting him set the pace of his life. And so the end of this pilgrim's life was spent in a small room in Rome, writing the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, writing letters to thousands of people and thus helping to make the name of Jesus known and loved in the world. Click here >>

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Dunstan Rodriguez SJ

Dunstan is studying Philosophy at The Centre Sèvres in Paris

In his Autobiography, St. Ignatius of Loyola refers to himself as “the pilgrim.” With this title, he indicates that during his life he travelled an exterior and, above all, an interior path following in the footsteps of the Lord, seeking his presence in this world in the hope of meeting him after the threshold of death. In this pilgrimage, St. Ignatius learned that he had to follow the Holy Spirit, allowing himself to be inspired by him in his decisions, learning to read the signs that the Spirit gave him in the midst of the world, and, above all, not overtaking him, nor taking the initiative, but leaving everything in the Lord’s hands. Therefore, in the last stage of his pilgrimage, already in Rome, St. Ignatius wanted to apply this same method to govern the Society of Jesus and especially at the time of writing his Constitutions. These, not written in vain, should not only govern, but above all constitute the Jesuits as seekers of God in the midst of the world. Click here >>