Steps in discerning religious vocation

We all have our dreams for ourselves: good career, ideal family, sleek car, comfortable house. But is this what God dreams for us?

If you are serious in finding what God wants for you, consider the following steps:

1. Review your life history

See how God has been journeying in your life: the family situation, friends, desires, temperament, talents one possesses, future dreams and life goals, even interests, motivations to enter.

2. Pray for enlightenment

Consider that God calls, we merely respond. It is therefore necessary to keep in mind that we pray in order to know what He wants us to do. The question “Lord, what do you want me to do with my life?” could be used in your personal prayers.

3.  Inquire

Ask priest, brothers, sisters on their vocation stories could offer some insightful help.  This will provide you a close encounter with individuals who have said “yes” to God’s invitation to follow Him closely through the consecrated life. You may also read literatures about religious life through brochures, vocation posters, vocation websites, you could also send SMS to the Salesian vocations hotline (0906) 466- 9286.

4. Discern

Ask for spiritual guidance from individuals—priests, brothers, sisters, or even lay people—who may be of help to co-discern with him interpreting where God is calling him. This begins a journey of prayer, reflection, and an in-depth inquiry of the movement of Spirit in your life.

5. Decide

After a while, you may already move towards a specific path. Talk with your spiritual director about it. Keep in touch as well with the vocation directory as regards the time frame you have in mind. Continue to discern by maintaining a consistent prayerful stance.  

On Savio and Namuncura

Namuncura and Savio have got some things in common.

One is that the church recognized their sanctity. The latter was canonized, while the former was beatified.

Aside from this, they were both bosconians.  

And your guess is as good as mine: They would have been splendid Salesians if God permitted them to live longer. But as we know it, they lived only a short life. Savio met the Creator when he was just barely 15 years old. Namuncura, however, smiled goodbye when he was about my age: 19 years old.

When he entered the Salesian school, it was not a walk in the park. He found it difficult to fall in line and to be obedient to the sound of the bell.

Picking up Savio as his model, Namuncura's companions could no longer distinguish the former from the latter. He became a wonderful copy of him.

When a companion slighted him with the question "how does a human flesh taste like" inferring that he was a cannibal since he was an Indian, he responded with just a big tear.

The life of Zefferino is a parable of scarcely 19 years, but it was a life filled with lessons.

Fr. Chavez said that "A saint is never like a meteorite that unexpectedly flashes across the sky of humanity, but is rather the fruit of a long and silent gestation in a family.”

Saints inspire others to be saints. Let us learn from their examples.

Some musings on Don Bosco’s coming

Fr. Joe, our catechist, mumbled some unrecognizable words when I told him that I would be off to the provincial house. I thought that he was almost complaining that I’d be out again of the community to go to the provincial house.

The seminarians may be puzzled as well, why I would, once in a while, head to the provincial house. A number of them have asked me what’s my business in the provincial house.

Just so to set the record straight, I am there for the commission on social communications (CSC) meetings.

The commission is composed of five individuals, we have Fr. Bong as our head, Frs. Vester and Drans are also commission members.

I think it’s in order to update you with some endeavors of the commission.

The webpage of the province is still being updated which will hopefully be web 2.0 compliant, that is, it’ll be more interactive and up-to-date.

This year, the CSC penetrates the airwaves via Langit sa Lupa. The talk show airs in Radio Inquirer on Saturday evenings. We met the station manager last Monday and we got the go signal to have an additional 30 minutes by next year which we plan to use for a segment that will cater to the young people.

Fr. Bong asked me to tap seminarians here who could be anchormen for that segment. If we cannot be there on a weekly basis, perhaps, one Sunday every month, we could take charge.

On top of the regular issues of the Salesian Bulletin, the CSC added two more special issues that will coincide with the visit of the relic of Don Bosco. We’ve seen the first one featuring Don Bosco as the cover. The second one will hit the ‘newsstands,’ so to say, once the relic is already here.

Advent season is about coming, I am certain that it’s been a general knowledge. And coming means we are to prepare.

This year, this season of advent means doubly special for we are preparing for the Christmas season, and more than a week after, we brace ourselves for the coming of Don Bosco in flesh, metaphorically and literally. We’ll be able to see a part of him.

I hope that we’ll not be drowned with the pomp and pageantry and noise of his coming, for I believe that his visit is meant to strengthen us spiritually.

Don Bosco’s coming is a meeting with the person of Don Bosco. And I’d like to believe that he has got some special message for each of us.

I’ve read a couple of episodes in the Biographical Memoirs when Don Bosco would do oratory hopping to visit his salesians, the novices, the young people, and the preparations are simply remarkable. They would assign someone to deliver the speech. They would intensify their practices of piety. They would offer their communion and confessions so that the visit of Don Bosco to their house will be a tremendous success.

I wish that we’ll also do the same.

That as we busy ourselves in thinking about what exhibits could be set up, what else will catch the fancy of our guests, what will make the event more special, we may not lose the grasp of the essential.

After all, that’s what his motto is all about: Give me souls, take away the rest.

Salesian brothers

Yesterday, we quietly marked the first day of the triduum in honor of Blessed Artemide Zatti.

I note that there was nothing special in the community schedule, no colorful fanfare, no ballyhoo at all; such a characteristic of Salesian brothers who usually opt for the sidelines, shunning away the publicity and attention.

I think it was in the library of the novitiate where my knowledge and fascination about the Salesian brothers grew more. There’s this booklet in the library entitled “Life Sketches of the First Coadjutors.” It details the life stories of Salesian brothers who helped Don Bosco when the congregation was just starting.

Among the names listed there, there were:

Marcello Rossi, a porter for 48 years.

Dominic Palestrino, sacristan.

Peter Enria, music master and in charge of stage, cook, painter

Camilo Quirino, a polyglot

Maestro Dogliani, a music genius

Andrew Pelazza, director of the press

Peter Cenci, head tailor

Joseph Gambino, head of the Salesian library

Joseph Rossi, General Economer of the Salesian Society

Among the list, my favorite is Joseph Buzzetti. He was just nine years old when he came to Turin to work as a brick layer. He donned the clerical habit in 1851. But a pistol shot wounded one of his finger so that it had to be amputated. This accident discouraged him to become a priest. However, he loved Don Bosco that much that his preoccupation was to make himself useful in the Oratory and soon he became the factotum of the house. He would teach catechism, he was in charge of music and of the choir until 1860 when Don Cagliero took over.

When Don Bosco had some important business at hand and did not know to whom he could entrust it, he would say: “Call Buzzetti!”

If there is one idea that will neatly package and synthesize that book with that of the life of Br. Zatti, it is this: They all loved Don Bosco: that even in the littlest, humblest, lowliest task they carried out, they did it with the greatest love.

I heard from someone that the greatest form of devotion is imitation. Let us do likewise. Let us live as the first lay brothers and Br. Zatti did.

Ten reasons why Salesian lay brothers are cool

I realized that studying could only be enjoyable to a certain extent. This is especially true in studying philosophy. I tell you, it is not a walk in the park. Immersing myself into esoteric subjects such as rational psychology and rational theology over the past semester has greatly exhausted my powers.

And as the cliché goes, I felt the need to reinvigorate my tired body and worn out spirit.

Hence, even before our final examinations, I carefully mulled over the possible means to relax: read books, update my blog, make my presence felt in theFacebooking world, watch movies, make rosaries. My list for possible recreation was legion!

But even before I cast my eye into any of these, one of the aspirants asked me to contribute an article to a publication they are preparing on Salesian lay brothers. No specific topic on the lay brother was given.

And so, it made me reflect on the advantages of being a lay brother.

1. It is cool to be a religious sans a habit. There is nothing extraordinary with a priest who is kind, generous and leads an upright life. After all, he is a priest. The community expects nothing less from him. It is different, however, with a Salesian lay brother who may not be distinguished as a religious at all since we don't have a way to recognize him. A lay brother becomes a shining Christian witness by presenting himself to the world as a 'lay person' like any ordinary Joe who struggles to lead a holy life.

2. A Salesian lay brother has relatively more time to spend with the young. This is because priests are generally tied up celebrating the sacraments and carrying out other priestly ministries. I've experienced this reality a number of times. Priests suddenly vanish due to various circumstances. And most likely, lay brothers get to remain behind to look after and care for the young people.

3. Lay brothers are outnumbered. The 2008-2009 SDB directory reveals that there are only 17 perpetually lay brothers as opposed to 150 priests. To push more my argument, see again my second reason.

4. A Salesian lay brother vocation is not for the faint-hearted. It is even not attractive to individuals with strong narcissistic tendencies since it asks for more profound selfless sacrifices. For starters, a cleric who distinguishes himself to be "a priest in the future" has better chances of earning pogi points from a crowd than a low profile lay brother who would never ever become a priest.

5. A Salesian lay brother does not have to wash (and iron) any cassock. Not to mention the fact that the Philippines, having a tropical climate, is a lot friendlier to Salesian lay brothers. Yes, I know, this may not be a noble reason, but for the pragmatists out there, practicality prevails.

6. There are more out-of-town seminars for lay brothers than for the clerics. Luzon Association of Religious Brothers, an organization composed of lay brothers from various religious congregations in the northern region of the country, religiously holds seminars and conferences in various parts of the country. Do you want to see the whole of the Philippines? Then, be a lay brother.

7. The young people need a big-brother figure who will lead them closer to Bro. Enough said.

8. A lay brother is given more opportunities to put his brain where his heart is. This is already given. A priest may have limited options if he desires to specialize on another other than the realm of theology. For lay brothers, it's anything under the sun.

9. Interesting ministries await the lay brother wannabe's. The ministry in saving the souls of the young is becoming more interesting in the field of the lay brothers. I know of one who happens to be a tour guide to the catacombs in Italy, one is a computer geek, and another one a published researcher.

10. A lay brother is a Salesian of Don Bosco. And as a Salesian Don Bosco offers his life for the welfare of the young people. Now, isn't that reason alone cool enough?

Don Bosco's Manifesto on Pastoral Charity

This year, as we celebrate the 150^th year of the death of St. John Vianney and the 150^thyear of the founding of our congregation, we also mark the quasquicentennial of the Letter from Rome.

On May 6, 1884, exactly one hundred twenty five years ago, St. John Bosco who was in Rome dictated a letter to his secretary, Fr. John Lemoyne. The letter neither contained empty pleasantries nor some sporadic housekeeping procedures the recipients ought to take note of. That important correspondence, as we know it now, is a synthesis of how Don Bosco desired his Salesians to deal with the young people.

This letter was mailed four day's letter. But Fr. Michael Rua did not think that it should be read out in its entirety in public, and so he requested that a copy be sent to him that was suitable for the pupils.

The letter from Rome is rightly called as such because it is precisely that—Don Bosco wrote it from Rome. But probably, it is more appropriate to call it "the letter from the heart," because every single thought contained in the letter is unmistakably an expression of Don Bosco's love for his Salesians and the young people of his oratories.

Fr. Peter Braido, one of the foremost experts in the field of the Preventive System, would say that "the eleven short pages constitute the clearest and most essential document of the pedagogy of Don Bosco, which is, in itself, one of the most meaningful in the whole of Christian pedagogy.

The letter touched on the subject of his deteriorating physical health—frail body, and his poor eyesight. But amidst all these, he never failed to mention how he delights to write to them, and how he looks forward to hear from them.

The first paragraphs of the letters, using the standard of our young people, sounded cheesy. He could not contain his emotions probably because he would always wear his heart on his sleeve, especially when he was composing that letter. He emphasized the brand of loving kindness which he hopes to be known for in his institute: patience, gentleness, and no humiliating remarks. He challenged the recipients, to exercise only these in the realm of the Oratory, and "the boys should not only be loved, but realize that they are loved."

To speak of an authentic love of a Salesian is to make a distinction. Here, let me ask the help of Pope Benedict.

"Love," the Holy Father said, "in the true sense, is not always a matter of giving way, being soft, and just acting nice. In that sense, a sugar-coated Jesus or a God who agrees to everything and is never anything but nice and friendly is no more than a caricature of real love. Because God loves us, because he wants us to grow into truth, he must necessarily make demands on us and must also correct us."

Don Bosco, perhaps relying on the filial affection of his boys, openly speaks about what delights him: the practice of virtues, regularity in confessions and communion, which ultimately leads to the salvation of souls.

I first read that letter on the latter part of my novitiate. I thought that we would not tackle it since we seldom give attention to the appendix part of any textbook. After all, there is a reason why appendix is found at the last few pages of any publication if in case its author decides to come up with one. It is merely a supplement, something that can be dispensed with. We would not miss anything important if we skip that part. Things remain to be valid even without reading that section. But there is also a sufficient reason why there is an appendix. And why that letter has been part of our constitutions.

One hundred twenty five years after the letter was written, read and reflected on, have we managed to remain faithful to Don Bosco's challenges to his Salesians? Will there be a need to write another letter?

The initial reaction was for me to see my locale vis-à-vis the setting when that letter was composed. With the ugly depiction the oratory morphed to be against the backdrop of the golden age of the glorious oratory, I saw the relevance of coming up with such a letter. There was a need for it. A reminder was in order.

Six months from now, I will be in practical training. I am not denying it; whether it is Cebu, Mandaluyong, Pampanga or Guam—I am excited—regardless of wherever I would be assigned. I will be able to flex my own Salesian muscles and live first hand a life of a son of Don Bosco immersed in the active apostolate. By then, I don't expect to be with Br. Joji or any other brother assistant to remind me of my duties. I will also free myself from the 'nagging love' of Fr. Bobby or any other prefect of discipline to instantly offer corrections.

But I know that I am also gripped by fear when as I inch towards that time.

As a young Salesian, I cringe whenever I am reminded that I ought to be a sign and bearer of God's love for the young. This is such a tall order. But I am sure, it can be done. With God's grace, I know that it is possible.

Again, this letter will only continue to be relevant if the message it articulates remains to be valid to the lives of those people concerned. After all, people and events which are worth celebrating are moments which continue to remain relevant to our lives.

Don Bosco did not write a treatise on pastoral charity. Instead, he composed a letter, ordering and begging his Salesians then—and especially now—to make themselves be present in the midst of the young.

This year, we celebrate Don Bosco's 121^st death anniversary. Year after year, we go farther and farther from him. Nobody is left among his boys who encountered him in the flesh, but he left us a legacy which documents the pedagogy he wished to live and carried out by his sons. His letter from Rome speaks eloquently of this paternal legacy we ought to treasure most.

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