“I love the spirituality of the Jesuits as given to us by St. Ignatius. It is facilitating an intimacy with Christ I didn’t know was possible before I did the Spiritual Exercises. It has been key for preparing me for important spiritual experiences.”
Will serve as associate pastor at St. Aloysius Parish in Spokane, Washington.
Peter Berger, SJ, was born in Sunnyside, Washington, in 1983 to Deacon Duane and Carol Berger, the fifth of seven children. He graduated high school in 2002 and did several years of full-time volunteer work with Reach Youth Ministries, a traveling retreat ministry for mostly high school-aged youth. These were very formative years of active ministry, prayer and community life for him. It was also when Peter began to discern the possibility of a vocation to the priesthood. Before and between volunteer years, he worked and put himself through community college in Yakima, Washington. In the fall of 2008, he began seminary formation for the Diocese of Yakima and studied at Mount Angel Seminary near Portland, Oregon. After completing the undergraduate portion of the seminary formation, Peter withdrew from the seminary. During a couple quiet years of prayer and discernment, he did the Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life, which inspired his discernment with the Jesuits.
Peter entered the Novitiate of the Three Companions in 2014 in Culver City, California, and took first vows in 2016 at the Chapel of the Sacred Heart at Loyola Marymount University. He then completed a master’s degree in philosophy at Saint Louis University. In 2019, he did regency at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, where he taught religion and Christian ethics to sophomores and juniors. In 2022, Peter moved to Toronto for theology studies at Regis College, where he completed a Master of Divinity degree. After ordination, he will serve as associate pastor at St. Aloysius Parish in Spokane, Washington.
Associate degree, Yakima Valley Community College; Bachelor’s degree, philosophy, Mount Angel Seminary; Master’s degree, philosophy, Saint Louis University; Master of Divinity, Regis College, University of Toronto
It is difficult to choose a favorite saint, but my time in Ontario, Canada, has been a cool opportunity to more personally connect with the Jesuit North American Martyrs who established missions in what is now Ontario in the 1600s. (Although I must give a nod to Canada and acknowledge they call them the Canadian Martyrs.) One reason why I admire St. Jean de Brébeuf and companions is that they embodied the Spiritual Exercises in their willingness to follow Jesus anywhere on his gospel mission.
They showed tremendous courage going to what was to them an unknown land and people, for whom Brébeuf developed admiration. Brébeuf and the Jesuits in those missions at the time also stayed with the Huron (Wendat) people, even amidst their conflict with a rival tribe, which ultimately led to Brébeuf’s martyrdom.
My time in Ontario has made it possible to spend time in the places of the earliest Jesuit presence in the northern part of the North American continent. In particular, the Martyrs’ Shrine outside of Midland, Ontario, has been a really inspiring place to visit. It is the sight of a pilgrimage that commemorates the historic village built by the Huron (Wendat) people and the Jesuits. It was one of the series of missions built a day’s travel from each other.
In the last several decades, it has become a place of pilgrimage for many cultures from all over the world, each with shrines that commemorate devotions of their particular cultures. But perhaps most striking is the relic of the skull of St. Jean de Brébeuf. At first it was jarring to see a human skull on display. But that surprise quickly turned to gratitude and inspiration for such a tangible representation of the courage and love displayed by Brébeuf and companions in their mission to and with the Huron (Wendat) people.
I love the spirituality of the Jesuits as given to us by St. Ignatius. It has had a huge impact on me and continues to. It is facilitating an intimacy with Christ I didn’t know was possible before I did the Spiritual Exercises. It has been key for preparing me for important spiritual experiences, such as what I’ve come to call my “vow grace.”
As a novice, I was meditating on the prayer we say when we take vows, and I got the image in my mind that Jesus was going to use poverty, chastity and obedience (the three vows Jesuits take after completing the novitiate) as three strings or chords to slowly pull my heart towards his until our hearts made contact. It was not until later that I encountered Hosea 11:4 which uses similar tender imagery. Also, I later found out the historic role Jesuits have played in promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. These experiences were all made possible, I think, by the awareness of God’s work in my life that Jesuit/Ignatian spirituality has fostered.
