Little Jesuit Boy

Going into Jesuit I was not very spiritual.  As far as church was concerned, I more or less did what I was told to do without really understanding or caring, for that matter.  I was raised Catholic, but it was latent Catholic at best.  I despised church and everything associated with it.  I think this repulsion towards church came from the fact that I was not able to question the things I did not understand.  Going to a private christian elementary school and catechism classes, I was simply told what I was to believe and why I had to believe it.  Things I did not understand were not topics that were open for discussion.  I think much of my love for Jesuit came from the fact that we were encouraged to ask questions instead of just blindly believing, and or questions were not just blown off.  The Jesuits would even explain to us how they ad questioned the same things in their younger days.  These men seemed to genuinely care about our thoughts and feelings.  We were not pushed to believe things, but rather their method of questioning and seeing God in our daily lives made me more of a believer than just being told to blindly believe.  The easy going nature of most of these men was something to be admired.  These men truly cared for each of us as an individual, for example one Jesuit would always track us down on our birthdays to make sure we got a very special happy birthday applause.  The fact that these men were all extremely learned and still humble was very appealing.  The Jesuits saw themselves as part of our student body instead of viewing students as below them.  This attitude merited or respect rather than forcing it down our throats.  I think this is why I respect the Society of Jesus more than any other religious body.