Personal Introduction

Welcome! My name is John Roselle, SJ, and I took lifelong ("perpetual") vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a Jesuit on August 13th, 2011 after a two-year novitiate. I am now a Jesuit Scholastic for the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus. I will study philosophy and theology for the next three years at Loyola University in Chicago. At the same time, I will do part-time ministry in some capacity with the poor. After that, I will likely teach for three years before finishing three more years of theology. Then, God willing, I will be ordained a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest! It's a long road, but a blessed, fun, and enriching one. This blog exists as a resource for friends, family, and others who are interested in my progress through the Jesuit process of formation. Every day is its own adventure, and I am happy to have you along with me to share in this. This blog contains my own personal thoughts and should not be taken to speak for the entire Society of Jesus. Feel free to contact me. God bless you!















Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Addresses Needed for Vow Invites

Dear Friends,

Peace of Christ!  I hope you are well.  Thanks for all of your warm wishes following my news last week.  I am back safe and sound in Oklahoma for a week.  During this week, in addition to down-time and fun with friends/family, I need to collect the addresses for the invites to the vow ceremony.  

If you would like an invitation (regardless of whether you are coming), please send me your address in the next 2-3 days.  Please email those promptly at johnroselle@gmail.com

Also, due to the nature of the vow of poverty we will be taking, the Jesuits request that there not be any gifts given.  However, if you would still like to give a gift, let me know, and I will suggest a couple of favorite charities :)

I understand that there is a great likelihood that many of you will not be able to make it (since it is up in St. Paul, MN), but if you any of you are willing and able to be there, it would be a great joy.  The Jesuit vow ceremony is quite dramatic and moving.  There will also be a number of opportunities for meeting my Jesuit brothers/friends/family, and for celebration.  If there is anything I can do to help make the trip more convenient for you (i.e., arranging pick-ups and drop-offs from the airport, carpool, etc.), please don't hesitate to let me know.  Below are links for two hotels from which my brothers and I are pursuing a group rate discount (soon to be established).  They are both nice and less than two miles away from the where the ceremony will be.  

Holiday Inn Express

Best Western

Finally, here is the schedule for the weekend.  If you can only make a part of it, that is fine too!  Thanks and God bless!

August 12th:
4p-7p: cook-out dinner for guests on lawn of novitiate
8p: vow vigil service

August 13th:
9am: Vow Mass
10:30: reception

5p: Italian dinner hosted by Roselle family

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Big News!!!

The First Jesuits

This past Wednesday, I met with my Jesuit provincial, Fr. Tom Krettek, and he let me know that I have been approved to take perpetual (lifelong) vows in the Society of Jesus this August 13th!  This was a true JOY, and I am excited to be able to take this step.  It has been a long-time-in-the-making, and it is of course only the beginning.  In fact, I will report to Chicago for 3 years of philosophy/theology this August.

So, why am I doing this?  Well, the short answer is: Jesus Christ.  Since falling in loving with Jesus (and desiring to follow Him) my sophomore year in college, I have been drawn to this way of life, as a way of responding to and sharing God's love and salvation with the world in a radical way.  Naturally, at times I was conflicted and confused as to what I was called to do in life.  I have finally surrendered and admitted to myself that although marriage is quite attractive, what seems to deeply satisfy and fulfill me is a life of spiritual fatherhood, dedicated to the Bride of Christ, the Church.  It is to the Church (and the world at large) that I want to make what Blessed John Paul II called "a sincere gift of self," through a life in the Society of Jesus. This life--like marriage--should be one full of love, joy, and sacrifice, as is any true vocation.

Despite these dark days of scandal, division, and disillusionment (during which I too have been shocked and appalled), I still believe 100% in the Catholic Church (which is the people of God guided by the Pope and bishops), the holy Catholic priesthood, all Catholic teachings, and the universal call to holiness.  The 8 other Jesuit novice-brothers with whom I will take vows are first-class, committed, funny, faithful guys.  They are a great hope to me and to anyone who meet them.  Please pray for all of us as we prepare to take vows!

Below is the schedule for the ceremony.  It is a beautiful liturgy, and I would love it if you could make it.  Please send me your address at johnroselle@gmail.com if you would like an invite!

August 12th:
4p-7p: cook-out dinner for guests on lawn of novitiate
8p: vow vigil service

August 13th:
9am: Vow Mass
10:30: reception
5p: Italian dinner hosted by Roselle family

Finally, I would like to share a few paragraphs from my 5 page, single-spaced letter to the Provincial requesting vows.  It should help flesh out more why I am doing this.  Thanks for your support!


"Peace of Christ!  It is with joy that I am writing to you, my Provincial, to request your permission to pronounce First Vows in the Society of Jesus.  The novitiate has been a place of profound growth for me as a man of faith, companionship, and service.  If I had to narrow my experience of the novitiate down to one word, I would say that this time has been about “acceptance.”  Paul Tillich suggested that faith involves the “courage to accept acceptance.”  Indeed, I have received graces of accepting myself and my fellow Jesuits as “loved sinners” who are called to be disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ.  The past year and a half in the novitiate has also prepared me to answer for myself the following question: am I, at the deepest core of myself, a Jesuit?  I believe that the answer is “yes,” and so I will explain how I have arrived at and accepted this conclusion, which I hope is really the commencement of the rest of my Jesuit life.

My sense of calling to the Society of Jesus is rooted in my experience of community, through what I call the grace of the First Companions, who were devoted to God, souls, and one another.  All of my life I have been blessed with marvelous friends, yet God truly outdid Himself when He gave me the brothers that I have been given in the novitiate and in the wider Society.  Early into the novitiate I noticed that I loved my brothers, whom I truly admired, trusted, and cherished.  Indeed, our class seemed to have a special spirit of mature mutuality in the midst of our diversity.  In addition to our common sharing of faith and mission, we have had so much fun together.  I perhaps have never laughed as much as in those first months of being with them!  I have also been able to enter into spiritual depths with my brothers.  After nearly a year together I could say that if they were all priests, there is not one of them to whom I would not go to Confession.  I could never have asked for the quality of brothers I have had in the novitiate...It is with these men that I want to live and die in the Society of Jesus.