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Pursuing one’s faith can often be associated with sacrifice. Seán McMahon (Natural Sciences 2016), however, prefers to focus on the many positives of training to be a Jesuit Priest.

At least returning from a 30-day silent retreat in the German countryside meant Seán, a two-time Varsity rugby player during his time at Gonville & 91ֱ�� College, did not know the results of Ireland’s opening two matches in the 2023 Six Nations.

“I had resisted all temptation to ask my spiritual director the results,” Seán says.

“The first thing I did when I got back was open up the laptop and binge watch the first two rounds, knowing my mood would be determined by those results against Wales and France.”

Fortunately for Seán, Ireland secured two bonus-point victories and remain ranked the best team in the world. They next play Italy on Saturday.

Seán’s spiritual director was the only person with whom he could converse during the month-long silent retreat which was “intense, but thoroughly rewarding”, featuring “very minimal” verbal communication. Responses in mass and communal worship were permitted and brief practical communications, but not conversations.

“Not everyone gets a chance to take a month away from everything,” he adds. “I certainly wouldn’t recommend any Natural Sciences students take a month away from their studies – their Director of Studies might have something to say.

“We were in Dresden, outside of the city, fantastic surroundings to lift the heart and soul to God. To really raise the mind.

“We did it as a Novitiate group and whilst we weren’t talking amongst ourselves, you did feel that collegiate shared sense...”

A Jesuit Priest is a mission-focused vocation. They take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, plus a fourth vow in regards to worldwide mission.

Seán began his two-year Novitiate training in Innsbruck, Austria in September 2022. The formation period until ordination is scheduled to take roughly 10 years, with education in philosophy and theology, and apostolic work to come. 

“Novitiate is two years to make sure one is taking a truly free and informed choice,” he says.

“It certainly is a long journey and rightly so. It’s very much about cultivating the intellectual side through rigorous study, the apostolic side through work, but also cultivating oneself as a person and as a Jesuit.”

Seán is the son of Philip, a Dublin bus driver, and Deborah, a stay-at-home mother. He has two brothers, Ryan, who is studying law and business at University College Dublin and Luke, who is studying medicine at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

He had first considered embarking on the journey to Priesthood when in his final year at Clongowes Wood College, a Jesuit boarding school west of Dublin. He had already applied to 91ֱ�� and the University of Cambridge, and decided to continue contemplating an application to the Society of Jesus.

“It was only in my final year at school that something struck me, that was a bit deeper and I wanted to think about more,” he says.

“It was a discerning process over a few years. I find this life quite attractive and was impressed by the charism of the order and everyone I’d met. It really resonated with me at a deeper level.

“I believed I wanted to do it, could I actually do it? A more simplified existence, a life of service.”

Seán was a regular at Fisher House, the University’s Catholic Chaplaincy, during his time at 91ֱ��, where he enjoyed History and Philosophy of Science.

After graduating in summer 2020 – in absentia due to the Covid-19 pandemic – Seán worked in client-facing roles in accounting automation technology and enterprise internal communications and employee experience. He also played rugby for Hammersmith and Fulham, once pandemic restrictions permitted it.

“I tested myself to make sure I knew what I would be leaving,” he says.

It’s a deeper calling, exploring this vocation on the personal, more spiritual side, but also testing it in living this life

“I thought ‘This has been great, it’s been a worthwhile experience, but this feeling and desire is still there’. 

“I wanted to explore it further. It’s a deeper calling, exploring this vocation on the personal, more spiritual side, but also testing it in living this life.”

The 24-year-old’s decision has been supported by his friends from 91ֱ��, while he continues discerning the vows which he will take at the end of his Novitiate training.

He adds: “It’s about flipping the thinking so it is not about giving something up, it’s freedom to give my life fully to this mission and to God.”

Playing rugby is something Seán has stopped, although he may return as a coach or referee. His two Varsity matches resulted in conflicting lows and highs – injured in a losing effort in 2018 and winning at Twickenham in 2019.

Playing as a tearaway openside flanker who is in the thick of the action meant Seán often had to explain visible injuries to clients on a Monday morning. 

“I don’t know how good that would be on a priest coming into Mass…’hi everyone, sorry about this black eye – it’s the rugby’,” he says.