Dear Friends,

I write to you in this Lenten season with a heart full of hope for the graces this penitential time will bring, and with the hope that your own Lenten journey brings you closer to Christ.

I am especially pleased to share with you this issue of Jesuits magazine, filled with stories from Jesuit life and missions around the world. These pieces invite us to examine our own lives in preparation for Easter. Approach the stories slowly, letting them stir your imagination, prompting your examen: Where is Christ calling me to greater service? To mercy? To ethical discernment in our modern world?

Our cover story (page 14) considers Jesuits who hunt. As they pursue their vocations, balancing their passion for nature and wildlife with religious life, they also show great care for our common home.

The religious life of priests necessarily entails preparation for weekly homilies. We visited with three Jesuits (page 8) for an insightful look at the labor of preaching, discernment and proclaiming the Gospel amid contemporary struggles.

It was the struggles of Jesuits 100 years ago that brought me to reflect on my recent visit to the Patna Province in India (page 10) and our province’s continuing relationship with it. As a companion piece, Fr. Owen Chourappa, SJ, provides an overview of his work with tea garden workers and their need for legal help in the Kohima Jesuit Region of India (page 12).

Here at home, we’re addressing artificial intelligence in our Jesuit schools (page 18), avoiding potential pitfalls while harnessing AI’s advantages in the classroom—a timely observation on ethical discernment, technology and education in service to faith and justice.

Finally, we remember that not every Jesuit was born into the Catholic tradition. We looked at some Midwest Jesuits who grew up in different traditions before converting to Catholicism and entering the Society of Jesus (page 20)—a beautiful testament to God’s call across boundaries, echoing Lent’s theme of repentance and new beginnings.

There’s much more inside, but before I close, be assured of my prayers for you during these sacred days. I ask also for your prayers, that we both may emerge from this Lent more conformed to the image of Christ crucified and risen.

In Him, and with affection,