My interview with Benno.

As an assignment for one of my novitiate classes (more on these later), I conducted an interview today with Father Benno Kornely, a local Jesuit engaged in spiritual direction and retreat ministry at Manresa Jesuit Retreat House. As one just beginning what I hope will be a lifelong journey in the Jesuits, I found great inspiration listening to Benno talk about his life in the Society. In his fifty-eight years as a Jesuit, Benno has served in a diverse array of apostolates: teaching at the former Campion Jesuit High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, serving as a chaplain to Native Americans students at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas (now known as Haskell Indian Nations University), high school teaching and administration at St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, and over thirty years as a retreat leader and spiritual director. Speaking with Benno affirmed my sense of vocation, offering a reminder of the many different ways in which each individual Jesuit may serve God and others over the course of his life. All in all, a great meeting with a great Jesuit. AMDG.