Jesuit Volunteering is about the volunteer as well as the work done. It asks for a commitment to reflecting on experience. In the stories of Jesus’ life, he intersperses the activities of healing, teaching and explaining with times of solitude and quiet reflection. In the sixteenth century, Jesuits were asked to be contemplatives in action. In the twenty-first century, Jesuit Volunteers are asked to keep this frame of mind too. Jesuit Volunteering is about the integration of action and contemplation, as each is impoverished without the other.

A volunteer is changed by working with people who are disadvantaged, or marginalised from mainstream society, or suffering from the effects of poverty. JV volunteers have structured opportunities to reflect on the impacts of their experience on their values and convictions, their career choices, and their faith.