During his internship in Sweden, Achim Schwarz finds his way to the Jesuits. His probationary year begins on 15 September.
‘I couldn’t imagine studying straight away, but I wanted to grow in new tasks and enter into dialogue with others. These encounters are always very valuable in order to get an idea of what you actually want to do in life and what gives you strength and joy,’ says 21-year-old Achim Schwarz. Three years ago, he applied for the ‘Internship in the North’, the Bonifatiuswerk’s voluntary service programme. This year he is starting his novitiate with the Jesuits in Innsbruck.
Achim Schwarz is also learning more and more about the Jesuits and Ignatian spirituality through literature. He bought this book in a Catholic bookshop in Stockholm. Photo: Valon Krasniqi
A sense of arrival right from the start
The parish of St Eugenia in the centre of Stockholm was the place he wanted to work. After graduating from high school in Welzheim, Baden-Württemberg, he set off for Sweden with the Bonifatiuswerk in August 2021. He was involved in the Jesuit-run parish of St Eugenia and worked in the student group and the parish’s Catholic bookshop. At Caritas, he worked for a meeting point for people who are new to Sweden and need support to get started in a foreign country. The planned ten-month internship turned into a whole year for Achim Schwarz. ‘From the very first evening at a dinner with a Jesuit priest, I felt immediately welcomed and accepted.’ And this feeling of arrival was to become even stronger during his internship.
He had spiritual conversations with his mentor Father Dominik Terstriep, parish priest of St Eugenia, every month. He received the Jesuit Book of Hours in Swedish from him and bought more books on the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, co-founder of the Jesuit order, from the Catholic bookshop. ‘Seeking and finding God in all things was omnipresent in this community and among the Jesuits. That’s how I discovered Ignatian spirituality, became enthusiastic about contemplative contemplation of scripture and practised it.’ He already had this openness and interest in faith communities before his voluntary service in Sweden. Achim Schwarz, who has been studying Catholic theology since last year, was involved in the church from an early age. He was an altar boy, later led altar boy groups himself, worked as a lector and communion assistant and took on the role of sexton. ‘I’ve always been involved with it in my life. I’ve also always struggled with being a diocesan priest. I was never that happy about the issue of loneliness and couldn’t really imagine it.’ But the dedication to the Gospel and to people fascinates him.‘I have my time in Stockholm to thank for the fact that the Jesuits came into my personal field of vision.
Probationary membership of the order
On 15 September, the student starts his two-year novitiate at the Jesuit College in Innsbruck.It is a probationary membership of the order.A time that Achim Schwarz wants to use for personal reflection and an intensive exchange with Ignatian spirituality. However, before he changes his place of study from Berlin to Innsbruck, he will visit his ‘home fields’ in Sweden.‘It’s like coming home to Stockholm and I’m happy that I can go there again and again.’
(From: https://www.drs.de/ansicht/artikel/praktikant-wird-novize.html , 16/08/2024)