QUEZON CITY (PHILIPPINES)
Wayback Machine Internet Archive [San Francisco CA]
November 6, 2011
November 4-6, 2011 – Quezon City, Philippines – Mission was the centrepiece of the 4th Augustinian Seminarians’ Spirituality Congress which was held at and hosted by San Agustin Center of Studies Community. The three-day formands’ forum was held on November 4-6, 2011 with the theme: Transfor-Mission: A Renewed Commitment for Evangelization. It was attended by the three formation communities of the Province of Sto. Niño de Cebu: The Collegium and Professorium departments of San Agustin Center of Studies; the Professional Seminarians of San Agustin Seminary and the Novices of Augustinian Novitiate and Prayer House.
The first day commenced in the afternoon with the arrival and registration of the participants. In the formal opening of the program, the perspective setting was set by the chairman of the Initial Formation of the Province, Rev. Fr. Andrew Batayola, OSA. Batayola is also the Master of the Simple Professed. Then, it was followed by the first of the tripartite plan of the congress – the Congress followed the See-Judge-Act Method of theologizing. The see part facilitated with a sort of a panel discussion ushered with the presence of four representatives from Augustinian congregations working in mission: Rev. Fr. Gilles Bloin, AA (Augustinians of the Assumption); Rev. Fr. Apolinario Mejorada, OSA (Augustinians of the Province of Cebu); Rev. Sr. Cecilia Bayona, AMP (Augustinian Missionaries of the Philippines) and Rev. Sr. Cresteta Grana, OSA (Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation). The four panellists shared their missionary experiences, related their ups and downs, exhorted the formands to work for mission and lastly aspired for a greater missionary endeavour in and out the Church.
The second day was a whole day judge-part. The morning slot was taken by Rev. Fr. James Kroeger, MM, a Marist Missionary. He theologized on the missionary endeavour of the Church by lifting principles and thoughts from the very biblical root of mission: the Pauline and other New Testament Epistles. Fr. Kroeger mentioned also a different view of mission in the Church as it is the result of the constant reforming of the Church and of the updating of herself on how to relate the ever new message of Christ to the fast changing society. The afternoon session was the turn of Fr. Peter Casiño, OSA, an Augustinian of the Vicariate of the Orient and a missionary to Africa. He conveyed mission in the Augustinian context. Here he imparted ideas, principles and thoughts on Augustinian mission from his close-to-experiences inferences.
The last day was the act-part when the seminarians visited and had a half-day immersion in Payatas, Quezon City. They were grouped into small teams and assigned at different chapels spending the whole morning relating, listening and sharing with the urban poor in the outskirts of the city. In the afternoon, the brothers went back to SACS spending the whole afternoon relating their experiences and sharing their insights and concrete experiences on mission to the poor. After which, the reading of the acts was done and a video presentation allowed the seminarians to profoundly situate mission as the heart of Augustinian service.
Moroever, the three-day serious-to-business congress was pierced also with light moments and activities in the evening with showcasing of talents. Yet, talents that showed relation to mission and the like motifs.
Markedly, this congress is the last of the mapped four-year plan of the Province in annually gathering the seminarians to dwell in the spirit of renewal in specific spirituality of the Order. 2008 had seen the renewal of the Order initiated in formation; 2009 tried to ruminate over interiority and its appendage on affectivity; 2010 meditated on community and this 2011 capped with mission and service to the Church. Yet, as the words of the Chair of Initial Formation in his perspective setting, Fr. Batayola that it may be ending here, it is his hope that it will be continued “depending to the next administrators of the Province.”
At the closing mass on November 6, 2011, a symbolic sending off of the two fourth year simple professed friars was done to relate that their final stage in the initial formation sends them to the missionary vineyard of the Province and of the Order. The Congress ended with the dinner program, after the Closing Mass, where everybody enjoyed the Augustinian camaraderie among the formands of the Province.
