The Jesuits in Timor-Leste with their lay and religious partners, parents and students celebrated the inauguration of a new chapel dedicated to the Madonna della Strada. The chapel marks an important step in the implementation of Projeto Educação Jesuíta, the Jesuit education project in rural Kasait, about an hour’s drive from the capital, Dili.
The chapel located on the campus of the Jesuit secondary school, Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola (CSIL), will serve the students of CSIL and Instituto São João de Brito (ISJB), the Jesuit teacher education institute located next to CSIL.
Timor-Leste Regional Superior Fr Joaquim Sarmento SJ led the ribbon cutting ceremony and blessing of the chapel before presiding at the Mass held on December 3.
“We decided to name this chapel Madonna della Strada because it means Our Lady of the Way. She is the Lady of our journey. The process of education is a journey”, said Fr Sarmento.
“One day”, he told the students, “you will come to a crossroad and you will have to choose. So, you will have to have wisdom, not only intelligence. Wisdom has a deeper meaning, it means love and intelligence… Always choose for the better and care for others because they are your companions in your journey.”
The students’ smiles revealed their joy at the opening of their chapel.
“It is really a blessing that we have this new chapel today where all of us can come and express our spiritual needs”, said CSIL student Nivio Soares.
Year 12 student Celidotisia de Araújo dos Santos thanked the benefactors on behalf of the students. “This chapel will be a place to also enrich our Catholic faith through the Ignatian spirit”, she said.
Singaporean friends and donors couldn’t make it to the occasion as they were visiting the Jesuit mission in Myanmar but they sent their message, which was read by CSIL Director Fr Robert Boholst SJ.
In their message, the benefactors recalled the words of former Timor-Leste Regional Superior and now Myanmar Mission Superior Fr Mark Raper SJ, who appealed for support for the chapel, referring to it as “the spiritual and sacramental heart of Projeto Educação Jesuíta Timor-Leste”.
“We were motivated in particular by the thought that young students of the school will grow not just in the education of their minds and intellects but especially in the depth, richness and awareness of their individual spirits and sense of community over the years they will be at the Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola and Instituto São João de Brito”, they wrote.
The teachers and parents, too, were very happy that their students and children now have a facility to nurture their spiritual life.
“This new sacred space will provide students with joy and willingness to cultivate their faith as students and as Catholics, and bring them closer to God to serve others in their lives”, shared CSIL teacher Maria de Jesus Filomena dos Santos.
“I would like to say that this inauguration manifests an important element in the integrity of the formation of our children”, said Juvinal Rui Morais, President of the Council of Parents. “Our children will not just have a good education but also good moral and spiritual formation.”