A word that has been echoing around Pope Francis in recent times is “hospitality”. And in one illumination of the vibrant dimensions of this word, he spoke of the “willingness to listen to others, paying attention to their personal stories of faith and to the history of their community”.
This willingness to listen and pay attention congeals amicably with the mutual receiving and giving of selves, which is the Ignatian impulse that culminates the Spiritual Exercises and sends us out into the core of our world.
Such an experience of hospitality synergised our spirits during the gathering of novice directors in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, from 9 to 13 January. It was our first face-to-face reconnection after two years of going online due to the global pandemic, which provoked attention to our humanity by disrupting our presumptuous convictions and unquestioned self-determinations.
Not only did we receive each other with warm excitement and embrace, but also felt ourselves being divinely led into the deep reservoir of hospitality from our brothers in the Vietnamese Province. We were received generously by Fr Pham Minh Thang and his talented crew, which consisted of fellow formators and the entire group of novices under his accompaniment.
The hospitality that graced us went beyond the mere sharing of resources. We were given opportunities to connect with the basic impulses of life that in their simplicity and clarity open us to God. We saw such impulses in the daily routine and life in the novitiate, which included gardening, backyard farming, and preparing meals. We were the recipients of the young men’s culinary gifts as they laboured so generously during the entirety of our stay there.
What is cause for greater gratitude is their self-gift shown in how they received us unhesitatingly. We felt truly in the midst of brothers and companions, as we learnt more about the works of the Vietnamese Jesuits and the larger ecclesiastical and social milieus and histories, for the sake of which the Vietnamese Province exists in God’s hands.
Such a context of primordial hospitality not only sustained but also nurtured the hospitality we experienced in sharing our very presence with one another, the stories that we each had to tell with burning hearts, and the eagerness we felt in responding to our needs and challenges, transgressing the mere show of empathy into expressions of concrete solidarity for the concerns of our specific mission for the Society and the Church.
The mutual exchanges of our joys and sorrows, challenges and hopes was nourished by the resource persons who joined us online, namely, Fr Roger Champoux who assisted us in reflecting on the significance of “Adverse Childhood Experiences” for our work in formation, Fr Mark Ravizza who shared thoughts and resources with us as Father General’s Delegate for Formation, and Fr Tony Moreno SJ who took time to share and listen to us while being in another place with a different time zone.
We ended our gathering of hospitality with a personal prayer and spiritual conversation, in which together and before each other we collected the outpouring of God’s hospitality to each one of us and the group during the previous days. We also took the opportunity to welcome Fr Hoa Dinh who is joining the group for the first time, and Fr Toshihiro Yanagida who is returning to the fold, while bidding farewell to Fathers Renato Zecchin and Shogo Sumita who are moving on to other areas of our common universal mission. Fr Paulini has left the group since his move to Hong Kong as the Formation Delegate of the Chinese Province. His replacement, Fr David was not able to join us this time around.
Fr Ravi Michael Louis SJ from the Malaysia-Singapore Jesuit Region is currently involved in the formation of Jesuits, teaching, and retreat giving. He spent a large part of his apostolic ministry accompanying youth and young adults.