Novice Directors of the different provinces of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) met at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Quezon City, Philippines from January 13 to 19 for our annual circle meeting. Such an occasion is always a source of consolation and mutual help for all the novice directors in their important work of forming Jesuit novices.
The participants included Fr Brendan Kelly SJ from Australia, Fr Fortunatus Parwoto SJ from Myanmar, Fr In-young Cho SJ from Korea, Fr Nano Setyodarmono SJ from Indonesia, Fr Shogo Sumita SJ from Japan, Fr Leonardus Dibyawiyata SJ from Timor-Leste, Fr Peter Hoang Nam SJ from Vietnam and myself as Novice Director of the Philippine Province and JCAP Convener of Novice Directors. The meeting was also attended by Fr Riyo Mursanto SJ, JCAP Delegate for Formation, and Fr Jose Cecilio Magadia SJ, Regional Assistant for Asia Pacific, who joined us on the last day of the meeting.
One common area that surfaced in our prayer and discernment in common was the possible inter-provincial collaboration of novitiates, in which common activities among novitiates may be pursued. While Sacred Heart Novitiate in the Philippines has become more “multi-cultural” with the coming together of novices from five different countries and cultures, making it more deliberately “intercultural” (ie incorporating cultures in the formation structure) remains a challenge in Jesuit novitiate formation.
Other highlights of the meeting were talks on “Giving the 30-Day Retreat to Novices” by Asia Pacific Co-tertian Instructor and former Novice Director Fr Ramon Bautista SJ; Psycho-Spiritual Accompaniment of Novices by Eva Galvey of Emmaus Center and Themes/Impact of General Congregations 31 to 36 by Fr Bienvenido Nebres SJ. These talks were received well by all the participants. Fr Magadia also shared with the group significant trends and present perspectives in Jesuit formation.
We ended the meeting with the common agreement to continue the discernment and discussion among us novice directors on the future work of inter-collaboration of novitiates.
Fr Christopher Dumadag SJ has served as Convener of JCAP’s Novice Directors Circle since 2018. He is based at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Quezon City, Philippines.