This program begins on the last Sunday of September and covers 30 weeks. English is the common language of communication. Personal spiritual guidance can be offered in French if needed.

THE PROGRAM

First phase First phase
Second phase Second phase
Third phase Third phase
Fourth phase Fourth phase

First phase

My graced story

7 weeks

It begins with community building among the participants.

The group reading of the Autobiography of Saint Ignatius will be the starting point of a reflection on one’s own life and experience of God. Over the next seven weeks, while exploring different aspects of Jesuit identity (community life, the vows, apostolic availability, etc.), each participant will find help writing his own autobiography. Short workshops on communication, affectivity and sexuality, leadership and administration, forgiveness and reconciliation are scheduled. The exploration of Lebanon will offer the occasion to discover multiple sides of the Middle East, including Islam, Oriental Christianity, issues of social justice and conflict management, etc.

 

Second phase

The Spiritual Exercises

7 weeks

After seven weeks into the program, the tertians go through the Spiritual Exercises for about thirty days. After which they are offered workshops on discernment, on the ministry of the Spiritual Exercises, and on the ministry of reconciliation as a horizon to Jesuit life and mission.

Third phase

Dispersion

7 weeks

The next step is made of different experiments in different places over seven weeks. The choice of experiments is the object of a serious discernment between the tertian and the director. What we are looking for in those experiments is growth in the ability to find God in everything. The tertian will prefer being sent to experiments that are new or pose a challenge to him, because they can widen his apostolic availability.

Fourth phase

Our Institute being a way to God

9 weeks

When the experiments are over, tertians are invited to reflect on their different experiences and share about them, both with the group and with the instructor. This reflection is a prelude to read the Constitutions and the Complementary Norms and discuss the profile of the Jesuit called for final vows. An exploration of the history of the Society of Jesus follows. During this period different workshops on communal discernment and apostolic planning are offered together with some encounters with Jesuits and non Jesuits will help understand the place of the Society in the Church today and put flesh on the Universal Apostolic Preferences. Governance, Formation and other Jesuit themes show the responsibility that every professed Jesuit bears in communion with the whole body. The program concludes with a 5-days retreat and a global assessment of the experience of tertianship.