Timorese Jesuit Fr Venancio Pereira recently completed his tertianship in Sri Lanka, and shares how his tertianship experience has made him a “professional Jesuit”.

First of all, I would like to thank Fr Mark Raper SJ, my superior for sending me to do my tertianship in Sri Lanka. It was a special grace that I received personally from the Lord, the owner of my vocation and life.

After 12 years of being ordained a Jesuit priest and 23 years in the Society of Jesus, the society of love where I began learning and loving, my tertianship program became a time of “total and full integration.” It was a time of going back to the womb of the Society that nurtured and formed me; it was also a time to see once again how much God loves me. For this, I offer my deep gratitude to the Lord who has called me, and who has been continually calling me to be a Jesuit, a part of the Society of Jesus. In my years as a Jesuit, I have always felt that I am in the process of purification, of growing and of becoming. This process is a grace-filled process and truly contains some of the best experiences in my life.

I am the first Timorese Jesuit who went to do his tertianship in the South Asia Conference. I was with nine other tertians – four from India, two from Korea, and one each from Germany, France and Italy – with Fr Baylon Perera SJ from Sri Lanka as our Instructor.

I joined the Society of Jesus together with nine other novices from Indonesia in Girisonta-Semarang in Central Java on July 6, 1991, when I was 21. I was ordained deacon at the Oratory of St Ignatius of Loyola at Loyola House of Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University on September 7, 2002. After that, I went to Macau and Taiwan for my “diaconate service”. Three months later, on December 8, I was ordained a priest in Dili Cathedral in East Timor.

I had witnessed a lot of suffering in East Timor when I was young, and I consider that time of my life a process of purification and growing. Those experiences have had a great bearing on who I have become.

I have always believed that God knows what is best for each and every one of us and that God knows me and God loves me! This was a pivotal experience in my tertianship which I call “a time of integration“, a time when I went back to the womb of this minima Society to return and to savour that feeling that can be likened to the warm womb of a mother who always teaches me how to love, and to follow what God wills in my life.

An experience of consolation

After attending our final integration formation for six months in Kandy, I humbly recognize that from the beginning until the end of my tertianship program, I received many special graces that made me feel more free and full of energy and inner joy to serve the Lord. In the end, it is not a matter of having high standards in life or in my vocation, but rather that I wholeheartedly love and serve the Lord as a Jesuit. Now I can truly consider myself a “professional Jesuit.”

During my long retreat, I was blessed with an experience of consolation. I felt that I went back to an experience of a “personal encounter with the Lord”. I realized that I had been changed by His love and compassion. I became more a man of desire, ready to love and to serve others through Him. My personal encounter with the Lord during my long retreat brought me back to reconsider and to recognize with solid faith and personal conviction that the Lord has called me and that he has never abandoned me. For this reason, I have to say that the Society of Jesus for me is indeed a “society of love”.

I vividly experienced the call by which I consider the Society a “society of love”, the call from the Lord of love, the owner of my life story and history. This experience consoled me with so much joy.  It made me see myself as “a book that needs to be re-read and shared”, but also at the same time, “an empty book that still needs to be written in”. This has brought more meaning to my life because I know that my life now is a life that needs to be shared by bringing joy to others and celebrating joy with others in the Lord.

My feelings at the current time.

Having gone through a powerful experience of consolation and joy in the Lord, I cannot help but feel so much gratitude in Him and for the interior freedom to serve him. I am like a fresh pail of water that had just come out from the well – full, wanting to share who and what I am in the Lord. Now I know the Lord more clearly and I love him more dearly. I also hope to follow him closely – this is the grace that I continuously ask with my open heart. I believe with renewed grace and fervour that the Lord meets me in whatever situation I am in, and He is with me in whatever mission I do in my life as a professional Jesuit! I take the lines from a song, “Only this I want – but to know the Lord.”

Amar y servir para Maior a Gloria de Deus!

The Sri Lanka tertianship was held from August 27, 2014 to February 27, 2015.  It is offered by the Jesuit Conference of South Asia with support from the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.  Three Jesuits from our Conference – Fr Venancio Pereira and two Koreans – were among the 10 tertians in this year’s programme.