Outdoor vow day photos

St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church is the Jesuit parish serving Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Here the parish is seen from the Jesuit cemetary in the rear.

Grand Coteau is home to several Jesuit communities: 1. The parish; 2. St. Charles College, which houses the novitiate and Jesuit Spirituality Center that offers directed retreats; and 3. Our Lady of the Oaks Retreat House, which specializes in preached and couples' retreats.

Matthew Rarey, Wabash class of 2000, says a prayer in the Jesuit cemetary beside the tombstone of Fr. Tom Sherman, SJ, son of General William Tecumsah Sherman. The Yankee general's wife was a Catholic; Father Sherman is buried next to another Jesuit priest whose uncle was the Confederate Secretary of State during the US Civil War.

The front of St. Charles College and a statue of its patron, Cardinal Charles Borromeo, who was not a Jesuit although he was connected with many Jesuits. The cardinal gave first communion to St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a Jesuit seminarian and patron of youths who died ministering to plague victims in Rome.

Our Lady of the Way shrine, Grand Coteau. The Society administers the titular church of Our Lady of the Way in Rome; "the Way" is how the early Christians referred to themselves. Jesuits refer to Our Lady of the Way more often than to Saint Christopher when traveling.

Sacred Heart statue, Grand Coteau novitiate.

These are all shots of the grounds and other environs of St. Charles College, the Jesuit novitiate in Grand Coteau, Louisiana.

Official photos of this year's actual vow day ceremony can be viewed on the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) website: http://www.norprov.org/news/novicestakevows.htm