Meet the tertians

(Part three of a four-part series on the tertians of the 2018-2019 Asia Pacific Tertianship programme)

From all over the world, eight Jesuits have gathered in the Philippines for the Asia Pacific Tertianship from September 2018 to March 2019. Please pray for the tertians as they take this “exercise of obtaining love”.

Fr Michael Porcia (Philippines)

From the Philippine Province, Fr Michael Porcia entered the Society of Jesus in 2000 and was ordained in 2012. He was assigned to Specific Apostolic Formation at the Institute of Psychology, Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from 2014 to 2018. He did his apprenticeship at Our Lady of Peace Guidance Center, Quezon City, Philippines.

“I look forward to a deepened felt-knowledge of self, God and the Society of Jesus as a Jesuit priest. Apart from the primary, long-term goal of tertianship, which is incorporation to the universal Society of Jesus, I also see it as an opportunity to re-integrate myself into my own Province-of-origin and the Asia Pacific Conference after having been away from the Philippines for some years,” Fr Porcia shared.

He added: “I hope to bring with me graced-filled memories shared with my co-tertians coming from different cultures in the Conference, Africa, Europe and Central America. Though we come from different cultures, we share a common experience of the Spiritual Exercises in our Jesuit formation.”

Fr James Ayaga (Kenya)

From the Eastern Africa Province, Fr James Ayaga entered the Society of Jesus in 1999 and was ordained in 2012. From 2012 to 2018, he was the principal of St Peter Claver High School in Dodoma, Tanzania.

Fr Ayaga is looking forward to “growing in my personal relationship with Christ, to know the Society better through reading our documents such as The Constitutions, and to gain a deeper knowledge of our Spiritual Exercises and how to give them to others.”

After the tertianship, he hopes to bring with him “a sense of growth and maturity in faith… and in the love for our Lord Jesus”.