Portrait of a Canadian Jesuit
Mom, Monks, Mass:
The roots of a vocation by Fannie Dionne
Photo: Ivar Hiort of Fotoreflection
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fter discovering the first signs of his religious vocation at a young age when he attended Mass with his mother, Fr. John O’Brien, SJ, joined the Society of Jesus in 2008. Having held various roles with young people (teacher, school principal, spiritual director), he is now the Vocations Director for the Jesuits in Canada. Drawing on all this experience, he comments in this interview on what young people are looking for today, why they are disengaging and what Jesuits have to offer.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST SIGNS THAT A VOCATION TO RELIGIOUS LIFE WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPY? WHAT DID YOU FEEL BACK THEN? I grew up in Mission, British Columbia, a small city in the Fraser Valley near Vancouver. Our home was quite close to a Benedictine monastery that ran a seminary, a retreat house and a farm. My mother used to wake me up early in the morning and we would attend the 6 a.m. Mass there.
24 CANADIAN JESUITS
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Though it was inarticulate, I think I can trace my earliest perceptions of the beauty of a religious vocation to those moments with my mother, the monks and the Mass.
