Years of academic studies can help a person grow intellectually but they also need corresponding growth at the heart level for his holistic development. For Jesuits, the programme dedicated specifically to the latter purpose is called the School of Heart and also the Third Probation or simply, the Tertianship.
It is a treasured time of mostly positive experiences which can have lasting effects on them even for decades to come. A few paragraphs of written texts may not be able to describe such impactful experiences sufficiently but, for the sake of conciseness or brevity, the word “affectivity” is used here to synthesise the eight-month-long tertianship programme. In the Directives on Tertianship, Fr Peter Hans Kolvenbach, the late Jesuit Superior General, says that the “Tertianship aims at touching the Jesuit in the depth of his affectivity.”
Though many of the discussion topics and activities have already been covered during the past years of formation, they are now meant to be re-experienced at a deeper level. While doing a sapiential reading of the Autobiography of St Ignatius of Loyola, the tertians reflect upon their lives and write their own stories in a structured format. A better awareness of themselves in such manner and a described knowledge of their relationship with Jesus have proved to be very conducive to doing the 30-day Spiritual Exercises, which are probably the most impactful activities of the whole programme. The spiritual fruits of the Exercises are then put into practice through humble service among some of the needy people in various countries (ie, Armenia, Egypt, France, Lebanon, and Syria) within about six weeks of time. In the last part of the programme, the tertians deepen their knowledge and love of the Society by doing a close reading and discussion of the Constitutions and the Complementary Norms for a proper way of proceeding in the service of the universal Church.
The fact that all Jesuits belong to the universal Society and not merely to their own local communities is most evident with the Tertionship programme in Lebanon of the Jesuit Near East Province, which includes other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries, such as Syria, Jordan, Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Turkey. The countries of origin for the staff and the participants of the programme are as follows – while the tertian director is from Lebanon, the assistant is from Ireland, the house superior is from Syria, and the Major Superior is a French citizen with an office in Belgium, the seven participants come from Belgium, Myanmar, India, Poland, Portugal, and Rwanda. Acknowledging and appreciating the diverse cultures with their own unique values in regions around the world, they continue to march forward as members of the same Society of Jesus with aims to strive for the salvation of both themselves and their neighbours in the service of God’s greater glory.
Wilbert Mireh SJ participated in the Lebanon-Bikfaya Tertianship Programme of the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials from 25 September 2022 to 21 May 2023.