Sr. Norine, SMF

The following are the personal reflections of Sister Norine, SMF from Myanmar.   Sr. Norine is in the habit of writing a personal synthesis after every module; she does it mainly in order to eventually share them with her community upon returning to her country.

Shifting Paradigms: Culture, Mission and Church.

            I have come to realize from the Scripture that Jesus and the Pharisee have different interpretation of the law. I felt that I was like the Pharisees in understanding the law by looking really at it legalistically. This module has opened up my perspectives or world view by looking at reality in a new way or with new eyes. This module served as the key to a new understanding of what mission is today; it is important to remove boundaries in order to be able to reach out and cross frontiers.

Mary and Mission at the Church

Sr. Kathleen Coyle, the Resource Person on Mary and Mission at the Church

            As a woman missionary, it is heart warming to learn about the role of Mary in the Church. Mary is the mother of the incarnate word (Jesus) and a faithful disciple who accompanied Jesus all the way to the Cross and until the Pentecost. This inspired me to follow her and learn from her on how to become a faithful woman disciple. This has also challenged me to introduce Mary to other women so that they will appreciate their role as women in the church today.

Mission and Migration

            This module, “Mission and Migration”, brought back many memories of my past life. I recalled my experience as a migrant moving from one place to another. Since my childhood I experienced being always on the move adjusting from all kind of situations. This had created insecurities and fears because I was expected to accept the new and foreign environment.

Now I have come to appreciate the meaning of being a migrant and consider my encounter with other peoples and situations as moments of grace and growth. As a missionary, I want to share this understanding and that is that we are all migrants or pilgrims in this world.

Mission and Spirituality

            I want to confirm that the crisis of evangelization is really the crisis of the evangelizers. I found myself in that situation in the mission field because of lack of faith and trust in God. First of all, it is essential for a missionary to have faith. Now I was really delighted to be able to learn about “Mission and Spirituality”. I realized how what I learned in this module is greatly needed by my Institute to grow deeper in mission spirituality. It is a challenge for me to accept the invitation of Jesus with grace and joy in faith through ongoing conversion.

By Sr. Norine, SMF

The young church in Myanmar is in need of inculturation. This means that as a missionary I am challenged to really understand the meaning of the Gospel and the culture where I am being sent to minister to the people.

            It is also the requirement for a missionary to be sensitive to different cultural patterns of the people he serves and the local expression of their faith in God. It is good to be always aware of the risks involved in the process of inculturation especially in interpreting the Word of God and language and symbols of the local culture.

            As I return to my local context with new eyes I am urged to study in a deeper manner the culture of my people and the story of Jesus. Together with them we will strive to develop a process that will make sense to the Christian community in Myanmar.

By Sr. Sabina Gonzaga, OP

Basic Ecclesial Communities as I understand them are who gather together in a particular community and who are basically poor and in need of help.  This is the general problem, and so I move in to meet with them in order to discuss and find out what they really need to help themselves. Their needs are varied, but in general those needs are understood as spiritual, developmental and liberational.

group presentation on BEC module

I am a new comer to the area. First, I know I have to begin creating rapport, that is, meet with them, talking with them to find out about the problems and find out what they really want me to do.  Perhaps I would introduce them to the idea and ask their opinion about BEC, and ask them if they would like me to stay on and what they could do to help me in terms of food and shelter

Bp. Manny Cabajar, CSsR of Pagadian City, the Resource Person of BEC

In my first investigative visit, I will be informal about many problems, taking notes of them and then I would have to return to the base station to prepare myself and make a plan for myself to return to the village as a missionary, to stay in that village for some months or years depending on the situation.

Here is what I am going to do. First, I have to complete my preparation, by planning my work and study the resources I would need in terms of money, materials for the entire program. I have to work out how many missionaries I would need and how many villages I will be able to cover and for how long I shall be there, and what I shall do while I am with the people. When all the planning is done, then I have to organize for the manpower (missionaries) to be allotted in the different villages.

My main task would focus more on faith rather than developmental or liberation, but I will only direct people and help them to organize and attend to the problems they are facing so that when I leave the place they will continue with the things that we did together thus making them independent.

When all of this has been done, at the end of 6 months, I would plan an evaluation meeting to be sure that everything is functioning well and if not, then I would have to work out with them a way to change method and to bring about improvement.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

Fr. Vito del Prete the resource person.

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”. (Matthew 28:19-20).

 

Every year on the third Sunday of October the Catholic Church celebrates World Mission Sunday.

This year the celebration coincided with our 5 days seminar on Mission Spirituality given by Rev. Fr. Vito del Prete, PIME,  the Secretary General of PMU, Vatican City, Rome, here in Euntes Mission Center last October 19-23, 2009.

On World Mission Sunday itself Fr. Vito celebrated Mass at the Transfiguration Parish in Sinunuc, Zamboanga City. In his homily he emphasized that all of us are missionaries by virtue of our Baptism. The celebration of the Mission Sunday deeply concerns all of us, for mission is the task given to all. The whole church is in mission. We want Christ to be brought to all peoples, that all may be united through Him, with him, in him. The Church will enrich the nations by giving them Christ and His Good News and they will enrich us with the gifts of their culture which they have received from the Lord.

It is our joy to share with you our own learnings and reflections about the Module on Mission Spirituality:

The module on Mission Spirituality leads me to deepen my understanding that a missionary is a man of prayer who makes the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ the absolute priority, free from all attachments, open, in touch with reality, compassionate, courageous, living a life of poverty in solidarity with poor; he lives a life in the continuous process of configuration to Christ and lives the evangelical demands of poverty, obedience and chastity.

- Joseph S. Briones

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The topic on Mission Spirituality was very interesting because it challenged me on how to become an effective and authentic missionary. A missionary is a man or woman of faith, hope and love and is ready to face martyrdom. As I understand Jesus Christ must have been rooted in his mission so that it is easy to be poor and to be with the poor. The main engines of mission are prayer, contemplation and meditation. It is not easy to become a missionary because you need to empty yourself and have to be ready to be configured to Jesus. What appears important in missionary means that one be committed to oneself, to God and being charitable to those who are in need especially the poor people.  The grace of God would only be possible if we have total trust in him and have faith in God in everything that I do wherever I go.

- Arthur Malabarbas

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I was inspired by Fr. Vito Del Prete, PIME, who shared his knowledge about the spirituality of a Missionary and about how to become an effective and authentic missionary.

According to him, a missionary should be a man or a woman of Faith, Hope and Charity,  ready to face martyrdom and endowed with Christian virtues like love, compassion, courage, understanding, justice, prudence and temperance.

The missionary should live a life of poverty in solidarity with the poor, with openness, respect of other cultures and other living faith in harmonious relationships for the realization of the Kingdom of God.

- Lloyd Dangdang 

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The module on Mission Spirituality widened our horizon of what we are ought to be as Church, linked not only to our sister churches in other parts of the world, especially the poorest, but also to that large part of the world that does not yet know Christ or having heard of him, fails to accept him and his gospel. His Good News is to be shared, for it is meant for everyone.

The three of us, Joseph, Arturo and Lloyd are PIME candidates and participants of the Euntes course. We know that God is always there to help us and guide us to continue moving on and experiencing His presence as we journey in Him, with Him, and through Him. We pray that God will sustain us to continue in our desire to become a PIME missionary priest (ad vitam, ad gentes, ad extra, and together) and consecrating our entire selves for the Kingdom of God, ready to serve Him and the human family.

  By Ms. Elizabeth Solis of Emmaus, Zamboanga City – Philippines

  This reaffirms the centrality of God and God’s dialogical presence in    humanity that can transform people and society. God takes the initiative to dialogue with us and in turn we response to His call through our specific vocation and mission. Listening to the talk of Fr. D”Ambra, the founder of

Fr. D'Ambra, PIME with the two Ustadz of Zamboanga City spoke on Dialogue

Silsilah Dialogue Movement, gives me a new insight that dialogue is not strategy; it is a style of life and at a deeper level it is spirituality and an experience of life. There can be no true dialogue if there is no authenticity of heart as dialoguer. With this we can be an agent of peace to ourselves, family, and society.  “Padayon” ‘Move On”.

Sr. Ester

Leadership is about behavior.  It is an attempt to influence others to formulate their common goals and to seek means to accomplish it. There are styles of leadership, and each type is dependent on the readiness of the people involved.

            Leadership in the church is a call to participate in the Missio Dei. Leadership in the

Fr. Madya Utama, SJ - the speaker on Mission of Leadership

church is greatly modeled after that of Christ. Reading through the Gospel, we can detect the manner of leadership Jesus has had when He dealt with the apostles and especially with the poor, the lonely, and the marginalized.

            Leadership starts with knowing one’s strong and weak points. It also involves skills in conflict management. The whole point is to lead people to be active participants in the building of the Kingdom of God here and now.

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Sr. Lucy

            The module on “Mission of Leadership in Participatory Church” encouraged me to be a good leader. I learned about many kinds of Leadership Styles. In my experience as a leader, I tried to apply the servant leadership.

I was assigned in the hospital as a Human Resources Department manager for 12 years. We had more or less 300 employees. I tried to build good relationship with all of them and be close to them and their families. To those who were married, I always ask them about their husband or their wife and their children. We were just like a family.

Their children liked me very much and I was close to them. I love children.  Sometimes the other staff director or my sisters in my community teased me because I was close to all of the families of our employees. Sometimes I visited their houses. But some of them were afraid of me because of my position as a HRD manager; I could give them punishment or administrative sanctions.

As a leader, I didn’t build walls or barriers to the employees, but I tried being their friend. I knew when I had to be in an assertive attitude and when I should not be. 

             In the exercise about Leadership Style I discovered that I have been implementing the Selling and Participating Style. I thank God because I was able to define my leadership style and improve it. Through this module I came to understand more about many kinds of leadership styles. My challenge is to improve my leadership. I know I need to develop others styles like the Shepherd Leadership as Jesus himself gave example to us. I know I should also learn more about Steward Leadership.

            To apply this theory I should know more how about the readiness of the people whom I lead. Readiness means the ability and the willingness the people have. I must know them as a shepherd knows his sheep. I should really love those whom I lead; I should know them personally, deeply and closely.  I should be ready to really sacrifice my life (my knowledge, my talent, my ability, etc) for them. In this way, the people whom I lead will grow becoming fully human beings and full members of the society where they live.

            As a leader I should have vision – mission to embody in my life and to share it to others. I should have both institutional vision – mission and a personal vision – mission.  I really need to be aware of my own personal vision – mission.

My challenge is how to keep my personal vision – mission growing and flowering. I should always be in contact with my deepest desires. My vision is “I am the lowly servant of the Lord”.

That’s why if and when I should be put again in a position of leadership, I would prefer to use the servant leadership style. However, I am aware that I should also learn other styles of leadership especially the Shepherd Leadership on the example given me by Jesus.          

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Sr. Prema

In this module, “Mission of Leadership in Participatory Church, I was very happy because I have learned about different styles of leadership and was able to assess myself as to which type of leadership I should employ or might use in the course of time.

            A leader should be very conscious about his/her followers. This means that he/she must be fair when giving directions or when exercising his/her role as a leader.

            His/her important task is to facilitate for the followers to have the chance to be responsible persons and to be focused in order to achieve the goal.

            There are negative aspects of being a leader too. We were able to identify them through various exercises we have done in class. These exercises were good because they helped us to be aware of our conduct as leaders.

            We hope to model our lives on the person of Jesus as a leader who laid down his life for the good of his followers.

Fr. Agus Sugiarto’s reflection

Opening of the Retreat

I would like to share my own reflection during 5 days of my retreat.  Jesus is  the Lord, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man.

Evening adoration

He was born as a weak baby, poor, powerless, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. The manger is a place for animal food, dirty, smelly, and people don’t want to be close to it. This tells us that Jesus was born for the people that were considered “dirty”, sinners, marginalized, and not thought as neighbors.     Jesus came to the world to give love and attention to them so that their human dignity be restored.

In doing my ministry as a priest, I am reminded by Jesus’ example and thus I should empty myself from the desire to be honored, escape from selfishness, and be humble. Moreover, I should pay more attention to the poor and sinners, the people who are avoided as “rubbish” by many in order that they can experience God’s love and discover themselves as holistic persons.

In His mission, Jesus taught that He came not to be served, but to serve and to be the servant for all of human beings. Even as a servant, He is willing to surrender his soul on the cross. Jesus did all of these things because of his love for humankind and his obedience to God’s will. Jesus’ obedience to God the Father was very different from a soldier’s obedience to his commandant.  The obedience of a soldier to his commandant often does not come from the heart, but because of being afraid of doing wrong and being punished or not being promoted. Soldiers do their task because they must and have no choice. Jesus’ obedience, however, is obedience together with his love to God the Father and human beings. His obedience comes freely from the deep of His heart.

Jesus gives example to the disciples and me too, how to be great and a leader who is to be a servant. The authority that I have should be used not to dominate, but to serve all of mankind. Just serving people as neighbors, I can be both great and a leader. Jesus teaches me so that I can be more obedient to the leader (bishop) and do my ministry that he entrusted to me, wherever I am assigned, accompanied with love to God and to the people that I serve.

Lord Jesus, You taught me to be a servant to your people. Enable me to be a pure servant wherever I am, so that everybody may know You through my ministry. Amen.

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Fr. Paul Than’s reflection.

In the beginning of my retreat, I felt a little bored because I    was not        accustomed to the way suggested by Fr. Sergio Fossati, PIME, our Retreat Master. Later on, however, I came to know that in order to hear the Word of

Fr. Sergio Fossati, PIME - the Retreat Master

God, silence is very important. So I came to better understand the meaning the Word of God in silence.

The mystery of God is in silence. I was already familiar with the method of Lectio Divina; it helped me a lot in my whole retreat. It is one of the best retreats in my life because I was able to spend time with Jesus in the Word of God, in the Eucharist and in the community. I can honestly say that this retreat was fruitful and successful for my life.

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Sr. Norine’s reflection

From the retreat I am surely aware that God granted me the grace to have the courage to embrace the cross.    I accepted the invitation of Jesus with great joy to be like him in his missionary endeavor, embracing all and fulfilling my mission enthusiastically through humble service, reaching out especially to the margins.

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Sr. Lota’s reflection

I am very thankful to God for being here at Euntes and to have been able to  participate in the one week retreat. This retreat, unlike other retreats I have attended earlier, drew my attention to the passion of Jesus in his life, his life of humility, love and service and his pain, suffering and death and later his resurrection.

I am very much touched by the prayer method of Lectio Divina. It helped me discover the person I am and what I should do to live a better and prayerful life.

Jesus loved sinners not because of what they are but because of what they will become. Moreover, I like this verse:  “The cross without resurrection is meaningless, just as the resurrection without the cross is meaningless”

Mar Alicaway

MARINO ‘Mar’ REYES ALICAWAY is the IRD Project Director of OND-HESED Foundation, Inc. in General Santos City. He attended as an Auditor the module on Mission of Peacemaking offered at the Euntes Mission Center by Ms Ida Guiguiento of the Mindanao Peace Institute the week of September 21 to 25. What follow is Marino’s personal reflection.

The advances in Science and Technology and the leveling of frontiers and boundaries have all contributed to a greater awareness of the pluralism of faiths, culture and peoples not only in the world but also in our own community.

Yes, we live amid many and diverse faiths, cultures and peoples. Though many and different, we need not be hostile or indifferent to each other. In fact, these diversities invite us to make a shift in our paradigm from hostility to partnership; from indifference to involvement; and from being closed to being opened to one another.

Ms Ida Guiguiento

This relational paradigm teaches us that notwithstanding our differences and diversities we all live on this earth, in fact, on this piece of land. The bottom line is the affirmation that we are together in the journey through life. For better or worse, we are neighbors and we hope and believe that as neighbors, we can be partners in building not only of a better world but more so of a friendlier community where you and I, and our children live as brothers and sisters.

- The first step is to take our pluralism seriously. We need to discover each other in our diversities… and discover, too, our kindredness amid our differences.

· Second is to be open to meet each other with respect… learning not only from each other but more so to be able live with each other in tolerance. Yes, our willingness to accept, to trust and to live together.

· Third, is our commitment to our common humanity… recognizing and respecting the rights and dignity of every person regardless of faith, gender, culture and color within our society/community.

The basis of this commitment is our belief that all peoples even though they belong to different religions, nations and ethnic tribes – all form ONE human family, created by the ONE and same God, living in the same world/community, and destined for a common end.

In inter-religious relations there is one WORD that can describe our efforts and endeavors – TRUST! Trust is NOT a universal element in human relations. It has to be slowly, patiently and sometimes painfully built through time.

For emphasis, I take a portion of JP II’s address at Casablanca Morocco on 18 August 1985.

“People do not accept their differences.
They do not know each other sufficiently.
They reject those who have not the same civilization.
They refuse to help each other.
They are unable to free themselves from egoism and from self-conceit.
But God created all equal in dignity,
Though different with regard to gifts and talents,
Mankind is a whole where each one has his/her part to play.
The worth of the various peoples and of the diverse cultures must be
recognized.
The world is as it were a living organism.
Each one has something to receive from the others and has something
to give to them.”

The promotion of inter-religious dialogues is now being undertaken everywhere, precisely to promote, advocate and “school” people and communities to the basic concept of religious tolerance and partnership in our diverse world.

Blessed John Mazzucconi was born on March 1, 1826 at Rancio di Lecco in the diocese of Milan, Italy.

By:  Joseph, Arthur, Lloyd & Lucy

The decree Ad Gentes on the mission activity of the church stresses the following:

“Divinely sent to the nations of the world to be unto them “a universal sacrament of salvation,” the Church, driven by the inner necessity of her own catholicity, and obeying the mandate of her Founder (cf. Mark 16:16), strives ever to proclaim the Gospel to all men and women. The Apostles themselves, on whom the Church was founded, following in the footsteps of Christ, “preached the word of truth and begot churches.” It is the duty of their successors to make this task endure “so that the word of God may run and be glorified (2 Thess. 3:1) and the kingdom of God be proclaimed and established throughout the world”. (AG 1)

With this opening  statement of the decree Ad Gentes on the mission activity of the Church, Rev. Fr. Philadelfo ‘Phil’ Estrella, OMI came to the Euntes community last September 15 to give a five-day lecture on Mission and the Sacraments to help us deepen the understanding of our sacramental vocation.

On his opening salvo, he said that the sacraments are for us not for God, and that the sacraments are to be understood in the context of our faith community because sacraments flow from our belief in the Incarnation.

In this module we were awakened to the fact that the sacraments are not only rituals; a sacrament is everything in this world as  feeding the poor, giving hope to the hopeless, being concerned about the environment, etc…

In our traditional understanding we know that there are only seven sacraments but in reality there are many more than that. Some people still don’t know what a sacrament is really all about. We are so blessed to have had the opportunity to know more and deepen our point of view about the sacraments.

Our challenge now is to share what we have learned in this course so that people understand more deeply what the essence of sacraments in their own lives is. It is our primary task to go and reach out and let the people of God discover and realize their sacramental vocation.

Our sacramental vocation is to reveal, manifest, and proclaim the face of God in everything we do, in our own little ways such as helping our brothers and sisters in the community we live in, and let people feel the presence of God through our good example, in words and deeds.

We have also learned the importance of the liturgy in our lives. Liturgy is a celebration that acknowledges the grace and meaning of events, by remembering and making the past present. We have come to realize that to have a meaningful and fruitful liturgical celebration we need to consider the different components such as preparation, gathering, encounter-conversation, food, symbols and gestures.

We know now that the liturgy is about celebrating life, about celebrating our communitarian and personal relationship with God and with one another. This is the reason why the community gathers together and is encouraged to keep the community together.

There is a call for us to reflect, meditate, and contemplate on the essence of liturgy. The encyclical Mediator Dei, no 25, defines liturgy as “the public worship which our Redeemer as head of the Church renders to the Father, as well as the worship which the community of the faithful renders to its Founder, and through him to the heavenly Father. In short, it is the worship rendered by the Mystical Body of Christ in the entirety of its head and members”. Therefore liturgy is God’s story and our story. We cannot celebrate one without the other.

The most significant learning that we received from the seminar is about our discussion on the Eucharist. Here, we were led to experience and understand the Eucharistic presence as total listening, total availability, and total sharing. 

Jesus present in the Eucharist is a Jesus who is totally attentive, totally available and totally broken for the nourishment and healing of others. Since we have come from different countries in Asia and the Pacific our response for this is living the Eucharist as the Bishops gathered for the 9^th FABC Congress held recently in Manila have stressed in their final message.

Allow us to share with you our reflection about the Eucharist that we have adapted from Fr. Ruben Villote, SJ who writes about the Eucharistic presence as total listening, total availability and total sharing.

“Listening alone is allowing God to reveal himself in the silence of our heart.  It is asking:  “What is God telling me through this particular person, or through this particular event or situation we find myself here and now?”  “Where does God want to lead me?

Listening with others is allowing God to reveal himself in the silence within-and-among ourselves.  It is no longer asking:  “What is God telling me individually or where is God leading me individually?” but “What is God telling us, where does God want to lead us as a community (as friends, or as a people/nation, or as Church)?”  Listening with others requires a continuous listening to one another’s “little stories” of faith, and accepting them as parts of the Big Story of God’s continuing self-revelation in history.

Being available to oneself is simply identifying and accepting what is most personal, intimate and unique in oneself (one’s sexuality, woundedness, memories, doubts, fears), and owning them.  It is only after feeling comfortable with oneself can one become truly available to others because only then can he offer himself as a source of recognition and healing for others.  When Jesus exposed his wounds to his disciples, saying:  “Come and touch!” his disciples saw their own wounds in his, and from that moment they were embarrassed and afraid no longer. We can then begin to become like Jesus who continues to be totally available to us in the Eucharist precisely because he sees in our woundedness his own wounds which he then offers to us for our healing”.

As the Euntes community we do our best to respond to the mission of the Church by deepening the awareness of our sacramental vocation and putting it into practice, willing to die and willing to give our whole selves for the sake of the kingdom of God so that others may have life and have it in abundance.