Fr Claudiu Jani Miklós SJ from the Independent Region of Romania was one of six tertians in the recently concluded 2015 to 2016 Asia Pacific Tertianship in the Philippines. Before tertianship, Fr Miklós was Spiritual Director of the Diocesan Roman Catholic High School Hám János of Satu Mare for four years. He shares with us a reflection on his tertianship experience.
Fr George Aschenbrenner SJ in the Consciousness Examen says that “we become what we contemplate”. There are two ways of contemplation; one is that in which we are spectators and the other is that in which we are participating with all our feelings. We can call these two ways in our experiences exposed and immersed. However, in order to be immersed, one needs to be exposed. There are no formation centres in Romania so I have been studying and working abroad for 14 years. It is usually hard during the first months as a foreigner but here I felt welcome from the beginning. One consolation I have here in the Philippines is working with those in the peripheries, with the poor families in Navotas and indigenous people in Mindanao and Culion. They taught me how to stay with each other, to smile more and to respect the work. Our Jesuit life is very busy and sometimes we forget to appreciate simple things like this – just being with the poor, not doing anything special, just being with them. It is amazing how much it means to them and how much it changes the way we think about the values of the Society. One memorable experience of this is working together for a common mission with the novices, Jesuit Volunteers of the Philippines and Xavier University students in Mindanao.
There is a saying that the Spiritual Exercises make us Ignatian, but the Constitutions make us Jesuit. Reading again the Constitutions, every word made sense and covered our being Jesuit and our way of proceeding. I bring home with me wonderful experiences with people, places and the Constitutions of our Jesuit life that formed my heart. I am touched by the kindness of people and the way they take care of each other, and even of the dead. In many places in Europe, people want to be free from the pain of death and the dead are buried within three days, but here especially in Ifugao Province, in Mayoyao, the family want to keep the dead for one week, some of them even bury them in the house. This is so beautiful, even though it may look strange to some foreigners.Tertianship seemed to all of us tertians to be too short. When you truly love what you do, it is never enough, and being exposed and immersed in different realities of Filipino culture is a unique, dynamic and colourful experience. Also unique was the experience of the 30-day retreat in Novaliches, with novices, sisters, priests and lay people, where everyone was immersed in prayer under the spiritual direction of our instructors, Fathers Priyono Marwan SJ and Ramon Bautista SJ. This will feed us spiritually for the new apostolic work we will receive or have already received.
We come to know a culture when we are truly immersed. Therefore I appreciated the experiments of novices living for one week in a farmhouse, working, eating and sleeping like one of the farmhands. And I admired my companions Non Yamauchi who was in Timor-Leste and in New Bilibid Prison, Giangiacomo who worked in Philippine General Hospital, Marjan in the hospital of the Sisters of St Paul in Cebu, Rumanto in a parish in Cebu, and Richard in Culion.
As my tertianship ends, more and more I cling to the words of André de Jaer SJ in “Together for Mission”. He said, “Tertianship is one of those times when we begin anew, starting from God and a breaking through, to what is actually real in any situation. I cannot be a Jesuit except by starting off again today, starting from God. Every day I begin.”
Tertianship is the final stage of formal Jesuit formation. During tertianship, which typically lasts for about six months, the tertians engage in ministries such as working in prisons, orphanages, parishes, high schools and hospitals, and with migrants and indigenous peoples. They also make the 30-day Spiritual Exercises again.
The Asia Pacific Tertianship is an International Work of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, and draws Jesuits from all over the world each year. The tertians in the 2015 to 2016 programme were from Italy, Romania, Slovenia, the United States (Oregon), Indonesia, and Japan. The 2016 to 2017 Asia Pacific Tertianship will begin on September 4, 2016.
Photo caption: Photo caption: The 2015 to 2016 Asia Pacific Tertians and their instructors. Front row (L-R): Giangiacomo Ghiglia (Italy), Tertian master Augustinus Priyono Marwan, Richard Paul Magner (United States), and Claudiu Jani Miklos (Romania).
Back row (L-R): Yustinus Rumanto (Indonesia), Assistant to the Tertian Master Ramon Bautista, Marjan Kokalj (Slovenia) and Yasunori Yamauchi (Japan).