Four Italians, two Romanians, a Maltese, a Slovenian … It is not a joke or the plot of the next Woody Allen film, but the team of the first year novices that, after a preliminary period of nearly two weeks (first probation), entered in full swing the novitiate life.

Begins for us a long way, defined the second probation, a formative period of about fifteen, sixteen years, in the footsteps of St. Ignatius to better meet, understand, love and serve the Lord.

It is not easy to take stock of these first two weeks, a baptism of Ignatian spirituality, an in-depth meeting with the Society of Jesus and a first experiment of the life and rhythm of the novitiate.

Many sensations are often conflicting.
As with any new venture, the pleasure of discovery is one of the positive emotions of this trip. It’s nice to get to know the “Team of the novitiate”, the second-year novices with their disarming hospitality and helpfulness, and the “freshmen” of the first year like me, roaming goggled for the house trying to grasp the essence of the new reality.
And then the new regular times punctuated by the sound of a deafproof bell, the time for reading, prayer, meditation and especially the appointment with the Lord, the focus of these early days and our future as Jesuits.

Switching from a busy and active life – in which the essential often slips into the background – to a calm life, where the time devoted to prayer and meditation is dilated, it is not always easy but it is often beautiful. This is the paradox of being able to enjoy the freedom with a capital L inside the walls of the novitiate and the joy of prayer; It is the time for us to enjoy the freshness of the Bible and to appreciate the insight that to live a fulfilling life you don’t need many things and the fruitful relationship with the Lord and with others is one of them.

However, not everything that is beautiful is also simple. One of the most difficult moments for me is the morning bell: like a cold shower every morning it awakens the awareness that the nice reality we were used to is now behind us. It is the instant in which the difficulty of detachment is stronger. Changing lives from day to day is not a breeze, but the novelty difficulties are compensated by the most beautiful and meaningful moments.

What else to say? The end of probation coincides with the beginning of a new journey, fascinating and challenging, the discovery of ourselves and our relationship with the Lord. The relationship of closeness and positive confrontation with the fellow travelers, the trust and support from the home team and the wise guidance of the novice master are fundamental in this context.

It is also important to mention many other small moments of everyday beauty, which help us to recognize the hand of the Lord in everyday life: a sudden smile, a gesture of unexpected generosity, a time of sharing, a prayer that comes from the heart contemplating the horizon and the magnificent view of the port of Genoa, one of the many graces of the house.
Despite initial optimism, in the absence of a crystal ball it is hard to know where this trip will take us. The only certainty is to be able to say one day “it was a nice walk, in tandem with the Lord.”

I conclude by thanking everyone for the warm welcome and by wishing Good Way and Good Life to all of us novices of the first year, and to the whole team of Via Chiodo!