Rachel De Souza’s gratitude to and acknowledgement of the benefits of a Jesuit education (The Tablet, 22 May) brought my own deep and enduring admiration for the Society to mind. I have often said that their influence and training have been the bedrock which I have built my adult life upon. I recall at the end of my second year at Osterley – the Jesuit run pre-seminary training course for late vocations in Isleworth – a conversation with one of my Jesuit teachers. “You came here a boy (I was 22 years old) full of childish ways. We have pulled you apart and put you together again. Now you are ready to go”. Everything had been stripped back to the bone; faith, personality, intellect, emotions, in this deconstruction process. I was taught how to read, to think, to pray and, most significantly, how to be myself. The full significance of this encounter – and the two years at Osterley - did not, like most lessons taught by the Jesuits, hit me until many years after. Now, I find that I draw on these experiences continually and in all situations. Ad Majorem dei gloriam!
D J Kearney, Northwich, Cheshire
Loading ...
