William Paul and Albino with members of the Talaandi Tribe.
To develop a sensus christi through sharing lives with the local people and to strengthen the apostolic spirit through the concrete experiences of a mission trial, the first year juniors underwent a Summer Exposure Program. Last April 14, eight juniors traveled by ship to Mindanao.
By the end of the second semester of the school year 2007-2008, some scholastics immediately prepared for their Foreign Mission Exposure Program (FMEP). The main purpose of this program is to help the scholastic develop the Jesuit character of being available "to be sent anywhere in the world." The program allows a kind of "dreaming experience" where one experiences what it feels like to be sent to a place with a different culture, language, political situation, and to work with other Jesuits and their colleagues.
The school had only a few boys (and no girls) when it started in 1952 at an old bombarded Japanese Communication Centre in Chuuk State; but for its 2007-2008 academic year, it had 142 girls and boys, among the best students of Micronesia. Under the remarkable leadership of the school’s Director, Fr Arthur Leger, the school community had long prepared for and looked forward to important events which took place in and around the school’s new chapel Maria della Strada.
There will be a consultation of youth/young adult workers during the MAGiS08 in Sydney, Australia.
The Third Edition of the East Asian Theological Encounter Program will begin on July 27 until August 26. It will be held at the Seven Fountains Spirituality Center, Chiangmai, Thailand. It is under the directorship of Fr John Shea (NYK), with Fr Michael Amaladoss (MDU), Director of the DiNobili Institute in Chennai, as the major Tutor.
Six theologians, Jeevaraj Thangarasa (SRI), Imran John (SRI), Kiarie Muruga (AOR), Kituyi Ambrose (AOR), Peter Wang (CHN), John Tang (CHN), had their Arrupe Month from March 25 – April 26.
Novice Master Fr. Joaquim Sarmento (right) with first three novices to enter Manresa Jesuit Novitiate in Dili, East Timor, Armando Smith, Luis Pereira and Gemito de Jesus.
The Independent Region of East Timor opened Manresa Jesuit Novitiate on April 22, Feast of Mary, Queen of the Society of Jesus. Fr Superior John Mace concelebrated with Frs Novice Master Joaquim Sarmento and Joao Felgueiras, with most of the Jesuits of the Region in attendance together with the parents of pioneer Novices Luis Pereira, Gemito do Carmo Amaral de Jesus and Januario Armando Smith who entered the same day.
The scholastics have just finished one month experiment. They were divided into group two or three, and went to rural parishes of the North, Center and South of Vietnam. After each academic year, they have one-month experiment. This is an opportunity for them to experience the lives of the poor, to live with and serve the poor in teaching catechism and social service.
The common tertianship ends March 8. Fr Bill McGarry (MIC) will leave the Philippines on March 13, in time to join the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Pohnpei.
The month of December was a month of celebrations, having parties with friends, sharing gifts and joys with others, especially with the poor and needy. It was a month of enormous blessings for each one of us.
On December 3 some scholastics went to St. Francis Xavier School together with Fr Bill Currie (JPN) to celebrate the feast of Francis Xavier.
We all have some difficulty to believe it but the fact is that we are nearing the end of the present Tertianship program. After the Ministries of the Christmas Season, spent by all ten tertians in the mountains of the Cordillera, in the Vicariates of the Mountain Province and of Kalinga-Apayao, January has been dedicated to an intense but still “sapiential” and “spiritual” reading and study of the Constitutions.