Profiles of second year novices 09-10
Samuel Overloop, 28, Belgium
Born in Kenya of Belgian parents in 1981 and the oldest of four children, I experienced, at a young age, the love of Christ and his Mother for me. At school, I grew conscious of Christ’s claim on my entire life and the example of the saints fostered a desire within me to imitate them.
This desire was deepened and came to maturation in Rome where I spent some years in a house of discernment. There I discovered the life and figure of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
Knowing Jesus to be the measure of all things, he lived out in his life a unity of tension between heaven and earth, between the heavenly plan for creation and the daily reality we live in. This tension; lived out in love for the poor is what makes me want to become a ‘companion of Jesus’ in this ‘least Society of Jesus’.
Shane Daly, 36, Ireland
I grew up in co. Kildare. After university I spent ten years teaching young offenders and 'At-Risk' children. This experience brought me into contact with the reality of social exclusion.
Following hospitalisation, I reengaged with my faith and received spiritual direction to understand how I was being called by God to live my life and from which arose a sense of call to religious life.
It was the Jesuit commitment to education and social justice and the interplay of both that resonated with me and attracted me to the Society.
Mick O'Connor, 52, Britain
I am fifty-two, from Birmingham. Before joining the Jesuits I worked with the local council as well as heavy goods transport, and served in the Royal Marines.
Lapsed for many years, I drifted back to church after a series of illnesses. On my journey, I encountered the Jesuits on a prayer guide course. The spirituality of finding God in all things and working with the marginalised had an influence on my discernment.
Two years later, I entered the novitiate, and am near the end of the first year. I’m not so much of a late vocation as an extra-time one.
