President Hendrickson Professes Final Vows as a Jesuit
Creighton President the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD, professes his Final Vows as a Jesuit during a private Mass at St. John’s Church on Wednesday, April 10, led by the Society’s Superior General, the Most Rev. Arturo Sosa, SJ, and members of the Jesuit Community.
On Wednesday, April 10, Creighton University’s president, the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD, joined representatives from the Society of Jesus and Creighton University to profess his Final Vows as a Jesuit.
The ceremony, which included a private Mass at St. John’s Church led by the Society’s Superior General, the Most Rev. Arturo Sosa, SJ, marked the conclusion of what is known as Tertianship: the final stage of Jesuit formation that also serves as a time of personal and spiritual renewal.
The Rev. Jim Clifton, SJ, associate dean for mission and ministry in Creighton University’s School of Medicine, who also was part of Fr. Hendrickson’s Tertianship group, says that Tertianship, as the fifth and final stage of a Jesuit’s journey into the Society of Jesus, is a mirror image of sorts to the Novitiate, which begins the process.
“When you are in the Novitiate, you are committing yourself to the teachings of St. Ignatius and being a member of the Society of Jesus,” Fr. Clifton says. “In completing Tertianship, the Society of Jesus, in turn, is committing itself to supporting you by accepting you.”
Members of the Society of Jesus stand outside of St. John's Church in Omaha to celebrate the final Final Vows of the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD, outside of St. John's Church. The fifth and final stage of a Jesuit’s journey into the Society of Jesus, known as Tertianship, is a mirror image of sorts to Novitiate, which begins the process.
Entering his Tertianship while serving as Creighton’s president has served to link the many milestones of his Jesuit journey, including time as a student of the Jesuit Humanities Program in the mid-1990s, an adjunct professor in the early 2000s, being ordained as a priest at St. John’s Church in 2006, and joining Creighton as a member of the Board of Trustees in 2013. In taking his Final Vows, Fr. Hendrickson reaches a milestone not only in his personal life but in his leadership of Creighton.
Becoming a Jesuit requires a rigorous spiritual and academic series of benchmarks. In the Novitiate, the first stage of formation, a Jesuit proclaims First Vows following a two-year process of learning and personal reflection; experiences of ministry and community; and formation in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola through a 30-day silent retreat. At the conclusion of the Novitiate, Jesuits take their First Vows, which are more accurately described as the first profession of what will serve as perpetual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
"In describing the path for becoming a Jesuit, St. Ignatius [the founder of the Society of Jesus, i.e. “Jesuits”] wanted to form a community of individuals who brought their different gifts and personalities but did so in an environment built on shared experiences,” Fr. Clifton says. “Because of this, the Novitiate is the deepest period at the beginning of our training – being immersed in our Jesuit life and what the Jesuit community is like.”
Following the Novitiate, Jesuits engage in First Studies, which moves from spiritual formation into academic formation. This tends to take three years and involves completing a master’s degree, most often in philosophy. After this, Jesuits enter Regency, where they apply their spiritual and academic formation to date in an apostolic ministry; this also typically lasts for three years. The last stage before Tertianship is Theology Studies, during which Jesuits return to the academic setting and, at its conclusion, allows members to take on their first assignments as priests or serve as brothers of the order.
Throughout the formation process, Jesuits move back and forth between the spiritual and academic worlds; this includes many years in service to the Society of Jesus following Second Studies but before pursuing Tertianship. Once a Jesuit begins Tertianship, they engage in reflection of their journey and repeat the formative steps they took as Novices. This includes a second 30-day silent retreat that all Jesuits make in their formation and a nine-month reintroduction to Ignatian spirituality and the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. Once Tertianship is completed, at the invitation of the Society of Jesus, Jesuits take their Final Vows, which reaffirm the promise they made upon entering the Novitiate.
“There is just a myriad of things that come from the Tertianship experience,” Fr. Clifton says. “When you’re a Novice, you are very conscious of your life before entering the Novitiate. However, part of the experience of Tertianship is recognizing that there is no before being a Jesuit — you just are a Jesuit.”
The Most Rev. Arturo Sosa, SJ, the Society of Jesus' Superior General, blesses Creighton Jesuits and the new Jérôme Nadal, SJ, Jesuit Residence along 24th Street, behind Creighton Hall and near the Jesuit Gardens.
