Every week through Lent, a writer will reflect on how a time of challenge brought unexpected grace

I love being a Jesuit. And I’m never sure where to start when I describe the reasons why. Certainly my life as a priest, my ministry as a writer and Jesuit spirituality are all things for which I will never be able to thank God adequately. But the most surprising blessings of Jesuit life have been my Jesuit brothers. The Society of Jesus can’t promise this in its vocational literature, but I had no idea that religious life would mean knowing so many people I consider not only friends but as close to brothers as I can ­imagine.

Life in a religious order, however, is not perfect – and members of those orders will be the first to tell you that. Yet even that lack of perfection has turned out to be the source of grace for me.