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Rev. David Vincent Meconi, SJ

Looking back, I must admit that there is a certain irony meeting my first Jesuit as the professor of THE HISTORY OF ATHEISM course at Marquette University. However, little did I know at the time that what he taught us about Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche would in many ways frame how I have come to understand the Jesuit mission: to help others discover God in a world whose values are oftentimes dismissive of Him. While at Marquette I came to see how the work of the Jesuits there meant training young people in the service of the truth: introducing such a diverse student body to the richness of the Catholic way of thinking and to a God who loves each of us so perfect and infinitely. From Milwaukee I went to Rome and to the Gregorian University where God once again put great Jesuits into my life. During the school year a young Jesuit priest gave me the Spiritual Exercises. That year was a real turning point, in that I began to pray regularly and began to ask God to help me know how and where I should live my life. I entered the Novitiate in Detroit a year later!

After 2 years of Novitiate, a time to deepen that sense of prayer as well as combine it with a sense of apostolic work, I went to Loyola University in Chicago to study philosophy and classics as well as work in the RCIA program at our local parish. Next came a few years of regency teaching philosophy and classics at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Currently I am in my last few months of theology studies here at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. This is truly an international experience of the Jesuit way of life: on my hall alone there are men from Poland, Mexico, Hungary, Korea, and India.

In the fall of 2002, I was ordained a deacon along with 11 others and, since then, I have very much enjoyed preaching and baptizing. Ordination to the priesthood was in June 2003: including myself along with two other Chicago Province men. I spent that summer doing parish work and then on to Campion Hall at Oxford University to pursue the doctorate in Christian Doctrine. During doctoral studies I hope to be able to combine pastoral work with a rich life of studies, and as the Rector of Campion Hall reminded us all during his Ignatius Day homily last summer: "Our only job as Jesuits at Oxford University is to ensure that what is here called 'truth' is always on the side of Christ's Gospel."

So, what does it mean to be a Jesuit today? To me, it means loving Christ above all else and loving all else in Him. It means being with people where they are at and sharing intimately in their lives. People trust us, they trust us to listen and support and challenge where need be. Being a Jesuit means constant inner-striving to praise God in all that I do and think and am: giving God not only my strengths but, maybe more importantly, admitting and allowing Him to use all my weaknesses as well. Hardly a day goes by in which I don't burst with gratitude for this vocation!

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