By Therese Fink Meyerhoff
Will Hayes, nSJ, will pronounce first vows in the Society of Jesus on August 10, 2024, at the St. John Francis Regis Chapel on the campus of Regis University in Denver.
The Mass will begin at 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time and will be livestreamed on the Regis University livestream site.
The profession of first vows follows two years of novitiate training, when a novice focuses on prayer, learning the Jesuit charism and serving alongside Jesuits throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Central America. Will entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Stanislaus Kostka, in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Near the end of his first year, the novitiate was moved temporarily to Culver City, California, where Jesuits of the USA Central and Southern Province joined the Jesuits of the USA West Province in order to deepen the call to serve the universal Church and to enjoy the benefits of a larger cohort of novices. This move provided Will an even broader range of apostolic experiences than many Jesuit novices enjoy. The path to his vows has been marked by a series of formative experiences that have shaped his understanding of service, community and faith.
Will found his two-week novitiate pilgrimage in December 2023 to be especially transformative. He had been working at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri, when he was sent to Spokane, Washington. He left on a 42-hour bus ride with nothing but his bus ticket and $5. No cell phone, no luggage.
“I showed up in Spokane, and it was 17 degrees, and I had to figure out where am I going to sleep tonight?” Will said. He later traveled from Spokane to Portland, Oregon, then to Fresno, California, and ended up back in Los Angeles and the novitiate in Culver City.
“It was such a grace-filled time, to come to understand a little bit better what it means to be poor – to be poor like Christ – and to be in this kind of foreign place, not knowing anyone and then to meet Christ in the people there,” Will said. “And God showed up, again and again!”
It was, he said, a time out of time. There was nowhere he had to be but precisely where he was, with the people he was with. As he journeyed, people took him in, fed him, bought his next bus ticket. And when he could, he made sandwiches to share with others he encountered who were without food or shelter. He heard some tragic stories and offered a listening ear and an open heart. He learned anew the importance of hope.
“It was just really powerful to see the great hope that they had,” he said, citing an oft-heard belief that God has saved them for a reason.
The same message was brought home when he stayed with some Claretian priests who ministered at a campesino in Fresno, where ranch owners provide barracks-type housing for migrant workers. “It’s lonely there for the men, away from their families,” Will said. “But they know they are doing something that will help their families, that they’re doing this for a bigger purpose. And that gives so much meaning to their lives. That was just a hope-filled, faithful witness.”
Even his stay at the campesino was the work of providence. He had arrived in Fresno with no contacts and no plans, so he found a bookstore and asked the clerk for help in locating a church or shelter where he could stay. A customer overheard and wanted to help. Between the cashier and the kind stranger, they found the Claretians who ministered to the men at the campesinos. Since Will had arrived in December, just before the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the workers were celebrating with parties and vigils and novenas, each with its own flavor, reflecting the home country of the migrants. Mass was celebrated in the barracks on a simple table; afterward they would feast on food the Claretians brought. Will was accepted with open arms by all.
“It was a really sacred space to be in,” he says. “Just to hear their stories and get to know them, it gives me a face and a name to pray for.”
As a novice, Will also worked at Samaritan House in Denver, a homeless shelter with 300 beds serving the unhoused and immigrants from Central and South America. In his conversations with the guests, he gained deeper understanding of the realities of migration in this part of the world, as families described their arduous and dangerous journeys. Their faith in God and resilience left a lasting impression on him.
His work at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles introduced him to former gang members who shared their stories of transformation and healing. The unconditional love and community at Homeboy Industries taught Will the power of sharing one’s story and the joy that comes from unburdening oneself in the sharing.
Most recently, Will completed a long experiment – an apostolic placement of several months – in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There he engaged in campus ministry at both Colegio San Ignacio, the Jesuit high school, and at the University of Puerto Rico.
As Will says, all of these experiences are rooted in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, which all Jesuit novices experience in their first year of novitiate. “That’s the linchpin where all these other experiments stem from, where we’ve encountered Christ over the four weeks of the Spiritual Exercises. And then we encounter him again in these experiments and in the poor,” he said.
“If we say that we’re going to find God in all things, we’re really going to find God in all things. They’re a kind of bridge between these two worlds: the ethereal heavenly Kingdom and this kind of earthy, gritty, sometimes ugly, reality. They help us to bridge and reconcile these two and bring them together.
“That’s been the work of the novitiate: expanding my heart and being able to see that I am encountering Christ – in prayer and in the work.”
Following his first vows, Will is missioned to Ciszek Hall at Fordham University for first studies. He entered the Society of Jesus with undergraduate degrees in English and pastoral ministry, master’s work in theology and a law degree. In addition to his philosophy studies, he looks forward to the variety of ministerial opportunities and the rich cultural experiences that await him in New York City. He’s also eager to continue to hone his Spanish language skills when he goes to Guadalajara, Mexico, next year.
As Will prepares to take the perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, he reports that he is feeling a profound sense of peace and joy. And he is grateful, he says, for the support of his fellow Jesuits, many of whom have been checking in on him. “I’ve felt cared for and valued by the other guys and that is very consoling.”
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