I was thinking it might be interesting to write a piece about each of the vows that Jesuits take: poverty, chastity and obedience. They’re always the first thing people wonder about (especially chastity). And the living of them is maybe a little different than people might expect.
I’m going to start today with poverty. Enjoy!
$30 and a One Way Bus Ticket
The summer before I entered the Jesuits in 1992, everyone entering was sent a packet of information detailing among other things what we should bring, and what we shouldn’t. Laptops were not around back then, but desktop computers were not to be brought. Neither were TVs or portable stereo systems like boom boxes.
In general, beyond bringing clothes for very cold weather—our seminary was in St. Paul, Minnesota—we were encouraged to bring only what we absolutely needed and leave the rest. As members of a vowed religious community we were to live simply and trust in our community to provide for anything we needed.
During those two years, each novice was given $75 a month for all of their expenses. Movies, a dinner out, clothes, gifts—it was all meant to come from that $75. (At one point in our two years we also did a 5 week pilgrimage where we were given $30 and a one way bus ticket to anywhere in the world, and told to trust in God and the people of God to provide for us. It was wild.)
If you needed more than that $75 some month, you had to go the man known as the minister and lay out your case. I can remember needing a new pair of running shoes, and having to ask for the money to buy them.
If you were lucky, your minister was someone who appreciated that it was more than a little bit humiliating to have to ask for money like this, particularly for things that were obviously necessary, and did his job with a light touch. But sometimes a minister would be scrupulous about money, cheapskates or honestly relished a little bit of that humiliation. Ours were not like that, thankfully. But older Jesuits almost always had stories of different things they had been denied on the basis of the vow of poverty. Some were pretty terrible, too, like the guys who had been denied permission to go to a family wedding or funeral.
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