Fr Norbert, a religious from Papua New Guinea, recalls a time when he was stuck in a bad place in his life. He drank a little too much and wasn’t quite “there” for his parishioners. “I guess I was not really prepared. I received my ordination as a ritual and had not fully embraced my vocation,” he says. It is hard to see our priests vulnerable to vices in both the religious and secular spheres of their lives. Yet it is a reality, and one that has to be confronted sooner rather than later.
Pope Francis says that the way of the church is “the way of encounter, of listening, of sharing”. This is what a place like the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) offers to pastoral workers from everywhere in the church who themselves need healing, renewal and rest.
EAPI located on the campus of Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines runs residential programmes where priests and sisters, lay men and women from different nations in Asia and the Pacific and even Africa are formed together for mission during the four or six months that they live and study at EAPI. The Pastoral Leadership and Management for Mission programme teaches the participants to be critically reflective and creative in responding to the demands of the contemporary church. The programme emphasises a pastoral approach to leadership and management but also leadership ethics for pastoral care. As Pope Francis would say: “Shepherds yes, executives no!”
The other programme, Pastoral Renewal for Discipleship, offers a re-encounter with Christ within the wealth of the Vatican II tradition, within the participants’ own pastoral experiences and within other religions and cultures, especially among the poor and those who suffer. Often, we reach out to the poor intending to help them, but as Sr Marianna, a Korean Franciscan missionary in Macau, realised during an EAPI exposure trip to the poverty-stricken neighbourhood of Payatas, we, too, can be helped by the poor. Like the outer tug of grace that pulled at the soul of St Francis of Assisi to dine with and even live as a beggar, Sr Marianna experienced that inner prompting of the Spirit that compelled her to ask, “God, what are you doing to me now?” and to allow the poor to change her. Like St Francis, she asks: “Are they just beggars? No, they are my friends. I am their sister.”
Participants often cite the eight-day Ignatian retreat at EAPI as a profound experience of God. The directed retreat through the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola takes them into a deeper understanding of themselves, of God, and the call and way of Jesus. The prayer periods, liturgy, reflections and meetings with the spiritual director leaves a lasting impression. They are never the same afterwards. “I felt a deep communion with God. I felt his healing and merciful forgiveness,” says Fr Hyginus from Myanmar.
While in prayer during his retreat, Fr Norbert saw himself as a child embracing the crucified Christ bathed in blood. He saw Jesus handing him his clerical vestments and telling him, “Embrace your priesthood. Love it and serve.” It was the day before the 10th anniversary of his ordination as a priest and while before he sensed that he had not fully embraced his vocation and received his ordination as a ritual, he now felt the dignity of his priesthood restored. “I felt the deep jubilation of receiving the gift of my real ordination,” he says. In that moment of grace all he could do was weep.
Experiences like these make EAPI a truly remarkable place for pastoral workers. “I don’t think we can see so many pastoral institutes in Asia Pacific that give this kind of service,” says Fr Tony Moreno SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, which runs EAPI. The multicultural residential environment enables the participants to form a community, learn the modules together and accompany each other spiritually. For many of them, this is the first time they have crossed the borders of gender, culture, race and spirituality, and it is clear from their response how EAPI’s multicultural environment has enriched them.
For the hundred or so participants that arrive each year, many come to EAPI simply to seek for rest, but nonetheless find that they have been spiritually, physically and intellectually transformed.
“I don’t know how much we are trained to listen to our own feelings and bodies that often have a way of telling us to stop and rest,” says Sr Lancia from India who was part of the Sabbatical Renewal Experience programme in 2018. The modules underscore psycho-spiritual integration, spiritual maturity and pastoral renewal. The participants are guided in understanding their own personal histories, giftedness and unique personalities so they can become more at peace with inner tensions, personal wounds and vulnerabilities. In true Ignatian fashion, they are directed on the path of discernment and contemplation towards attaining an enduring openness to finding God in all things.
At the EAPI dining room, there is a picture of the crucified Christ gazing on a crucified world. “It is for me an invitation to welcome God’s gaze into the very human, broken, beautiful part of me,” says Sr Lancia. But she knows, too, that it is a gaze inviting her to do something for the world: for the Rohingyas seeking shelter, the people in the war zones looking for safety, the victims of human trafficking. “I carry that gaze with me knowing that we all have a role to play,” she says. “This is the kind of inspiration EAPI has for me.”
EAPI’s residential programmes are offered throughout the year. The Pastoral Leadership and Management for Mission programme runs from January to June, while the Pastoral Renewal for Discipleship programme runs from August to November. The Sabbatical Renewal Experience programme is offered twice a year, from January to May and from August to November.
If you would like to know more about EAPI’s programmes and how you can be a part of them, please visit www.eapi.org.ph or download this brochure.