Jesuit who lived in New Zealand makes final vows

Fr Glyn and Fr Jamie Calder made their final vows on August 10 at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Newman College, at the University of Melbourne. Writing about that experience, Fr Glyn said that the Society of Jesus was the first institute in the Church to take two sets of vows.

“While our first vows are permanent and mark a commitment on our part to the Society, our final vows are a completion of the process,” he wrote.

“By them, the bonds are strengthened and made mutual. The Society of Jesus recognises that we are now full members – having been tested over more than a decade of spiritual growth, study, companionship and pastoral work and we, for our part, renounce all title to any property or option of life outside the Society. (At our first vows, we relinquished control over our assets but not legal title.)”

Fr Glyn was born in Namibia and emigrated with his family to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1998. He worked as a barrister and solicitor in Auckland and completed a doctorate in international human rights law. While in Auckland, he was a parishioner at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Howick. He was born with very limited vision. He has nystagmus, so his eyes cannot focus, and the world appears as a blur.

Fr Glyn was ordained at the Cathedral of St Patrick and St Joseph in 2016. He is now general counsel for the Australian Province of the Society of Jesus.

Speaking about the so-called “fourth vow” taken by Jesuits, Fr Glyn said that this is a promise of “radical availability”.

“The fourth vow has sometimes been called a vow of obedience to the Pope, reinforcing a popular stereotype of Jesuits as a sort of papal Praetorian Guard. The truth is much more nuanced – and interesting. All religious are obedient to the Pope, but all express that in very different ways.

“Some are contemplative (spending a life in silent prayer) and some are apostolic (combining their prayer with work in the world in various ways). The better comparison to the fourth vow is the Benedictine vow of stability – to remain in place for the glory of God. Our vow is the flipside. It is a vow of obedience to the Pope in matters of mission. In other words, it is a vow to go wherever we are needed – as and when. These days, while the Pope is certainly able to call on us directly, mostly the call comes through our Jesuit superiors.” 

FULL STORY

Two Jesuits take final vows in Melbourne (Australian Jesuits/Facebook)

A new horizon of service (Jesuits Australia)

An Interview with Father Justin Glyn, SJ (Profiles in Catholicism)

Fr Justin Glyn SJ ordained in Auckland (Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific)