A number of people have asked me about Jesuit formation, particularly the nomenclature, and the way that Jesuits refer to one another at various stages. So here goes. 

Here was an average man without much prior interest in religious observance, assuming that he could emulate two of the greatest saints in the Christian tradition.

There are so many mistaken notions about St. John of the Cross (1542-91) that we might do well to clarify some of them.