Fr. James P. Kennedy, SJ

Entered Society of Jesus: 2014

As a Jesuit: Father Kennedy taught at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, and Marquette University High School in Milwaukee. He also served at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in New York City while studying at Fordham University.

Assignment Following Ordination: Father Kennedy will serve on the faculty at Marquette University High School.

Call to the Priesthood: When I first walked through the doors of the Jesuit novitiate in Saint Paul, Minnesota, I had only the vaguest sense of the journey I was beginning, and fear and doubts crept into my prayers that first night. Very quickly, however, those fears and doubts gave way to a profound sense of consolation and peace that, no matter how I felt in any given moment, Jesus had led me to the novitiate and would continue to lead me—if I let myself be led! In a journey that has taken me from Saint Paul to Omaha, Peru, New York, Milwaukee and Toronto, I have been filled with gratitude at the gracious love and merciful patience of the Lord. I am profoundly grateful to the Society of Jesus and its benefactors, who have made my life as a Jesuit possible.

The Lord has especially blessed me with wonderful guides and companions over the past decade, without whom I could not have persevered in this vocation. I have been blessed to undertake this journey with the love and support of my family. I am grateful for my Jesuit superiors and mentors like Frs. Greg Hyde, Joseph O’Keefe, Dexter Gray and Rick Abert, for sharing their wisdom and for modeling to me how to be a companion of Jesus; for Frs. Tim Lannon and Charlie Rodrigues for showing me both encouragement and remarkable patience during their times as formation delegates; for outstanding Jesuit teachers like Frs. Joseph Lienhard, Peter Bwanali, and Gordon Rixon, who taught me how to think with the mind and heart of the Church in the midst of the needs of the world; for patient mentors like Br. Jerry Peltz, SJ, and Fr. Michael McGourty of the Archdiocese of Toronto; and lastly, for friends, who have done more to show me what the love of God made flesh is like than anyone else.

Large photo by: Steve Donisch