Midwest Jesuit Province 2024 Novices
(From left) Wilson Lombard, Noah Bock, Samuel Newton, Paul Hosle, Robert Van Dyke and Christian Goedel.
Noah Bock
Temperance, Michigan
Noah attended the University of Michigan, where he met the Jesuits for the first time at the St. Mary Student Parish & Newman Center. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public policy and a minor in economics. Active in campus ministry, he led the men’s group, coordinated liturgies, brought the Eucharist to hospital patients and worked in the parish office. In his free time, Noah enjoys running, playing board games, reading the news and listening to classical music.
Christian Goedel
Sebewaing, Michigan
Christian graduated from Grand Valley State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in Spanish. He has worked in customer service, account management, logistics and, most recently, education. Christian is a convert and first became interested in religious life during RCIA. He discerned his call to the Society of Jesus while teaching and volunteering as a missionary in North Dakota. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, spending time with friends, learning languages and lifting weights.
Paul Hosle
South Bend, Indiana
Paul received his bachelor’s degree from Oxford University, where he studied classics and Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew. He then completed a master’s degree at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he focused on early Christianity, followed by a second master’s in Chinese philosophy and culture at Fudan University in Shanghai. During his time in China, Paul researched and translated the writings of Jesuit missionaries and Chinese Catholic converts from the 16th and 17th centuries. He enjoys reading, writing and studying foreign languages.
Wilson Lombard
New Baltimore, Michigan
Wilson attended Loyola University Chicago as a freshman and then transferred to Oakland University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy. While at Loyola, he was introduced to Ignatian spirituality and was inspired to discern religious life by the example of his Jesuit professors. After graduating in the spring of 2023, he worked in insurance sales. In his free time, Wilson enjoys golfing, boxing, and spending time with family and friends.
Samuel Newton
White Lake, Michigan
Samuel received a bachelor’s degree in music from Oakland University. He then completed a year of service, working as a pharmacy technician and patient advocate for the St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy in Cincinnati. Most recently, he served as a donné—one who lives and works with Jesuits to get a sense of Jesuit life—for The Welsh Academy at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, where he taught choir to middle school boys. Samuel enjoys hand embroidery, playing the ukulele and baking.
Robert Van Dyke
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Robert was born in the Philippines and raised in Fort Wayne. He spent 10 years in car wash operations management, which led to his relocation to Cincinnati. There, he was inspired by the Jesuits and the faith communities at Bellarmine Chapel and St. Xavier Church. He attended the University of Cincinnati for three years, studying communications. In his spare time, Robert enjoys traveling, attending live theater performances, and spending time with friends and family.
What is a Jesuit Novice?
A man enters the Society of Jesus as a novice. Novices spend two years living in community while taking classes, making the 30-day retreat of the Spiritual Exercises and engaging in a variety of ministries.
At the end of that time, they pronounce perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, as either a brother or a scholastic, with the primary difference being that scholastics intend to be ordained to the priesthood while the brothers do not.
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Photo: Marrisa Linden