The Jesuit formation aims to elicit great desires from those who respond to the call, enflame them with a spirit to find God in all things and everything in Him, to set alight all things with the love of God. It facilitates a growth in the ideals of our vocation. It prepares us for a life of service with a spirituality rooted in Jesus. Those who come forward responding to God’s call to the Society of Jesus, already possess great gifts and talents. Many have academic and professional qualifications. All of these are to be placed at the disposal of the Society in the service of the church. The formation process helps to integrate these gifts with the individual’s growing sense of mission as a man for others. It is a dynamic and progressive process geared towards an integrated growth of the human, affective, communitarian, intellectual, spiritual and apostolic dimensions of a Jesuit life.

Regency: Regency has a special role in the overall formation of a Jesuit. Even if the apostolic dimension of Jesuit life has been present since the novitiate, regency is the first period in which a Jesuit in formation is missioned to a long term assignment in an apostolic work of the Society. Regency aims to deepen the spiritual integration and the human maturation of the Jesuit in all its aspects through serious and responsible commitment to apostolic activity, with its objective demands of organisation, regularity, adequate evaluation of time and means used, of collaboration and service to others.

Theology: After regency, the Jesuit scholastic begins an intensive four-year study/doing of theology which leads to priestly ordination.  The Jesuit in this stage of formation is to cultivate a faith-vision of the whole reality, beginning with a reflection on his experience as human being related to God, and on the divine mystery revealed in Christ and made known in Scripture and Tradition, and through the magisterium and life of the church.