JESUIT TERTIANSHIP IN THE PHILIPPINES: November 2007

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Fr. John Delaney, SJ: One of Dad's Greatest Inspirations

Long before I even considered a vocation to the Society of Jesus, Dad spoke of him, with great fondness and affection. "Fr. Delaney was one of the most holy, inspiring people I've ever met. I'll never forget him and all he did to strengthen my faith in God." To this day, the mention of Fr. John Delaney's name brings on heart-felt encomiums, from Jesuits and laypeople alike, who were deeply touched by this extraordinarily charismatic Jesuit.

In the backyard of the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Novaliches (where I spent the last 30 days on retreat)is a cemetery where lie the remains of dozens of deceased Jesuits. One morning, early in the retreat, I walked the short distance from the retreat house to the cemetery and began reading the names engraved on the wall of burial niches. While I noticed that most of the more recently deceased are Filipino Jesuits, many of the longer deceased Jesuits had German and Irish surnames. As I mentioned in my previous posting above, the Society of Jesus in the Philippines began in the early part of the last century with the efforts of Jesuit missionaries from the New York Province.

And when I came across the name "John Delaney, SJ," I thought to myself, this must be the Jesuit whom Dad talks about so fondly from his days as an undergraduate student at the University of the Philippines. I felt a lump in my throat as I reached out to touch the letters of his name, the years of his birth (1906), his entrance into the Society of Jesus, and his death (1956). I looked around the small cemetery and tried to imagine the literally thousands of mourners who came to the funeral. And I realized that Dad himself was here, back in January 1956, just finishing his sophomore year at the University of the Philippines, honored to serve as pall bearer, and to lay this great man to his eternal rest.

I don't yet know too much about Fr. Delaney's work here in the Philippines, except that Dad knew him as a campus minister at the University. According to Dad (and affirmed by a number of Jesuits whom I've consulted here), Fr. Delaney was a highly gifted preacher and retreat director, winning the admiration and loyalty of countless students and faculty at the University of the Philippines. To this day, dozens of Fr. Delaney's devotees meet here in Manila to remember and celebrate his memory. Theologically, he was a very forward-thinking Jesuit, as exemplified by his modern design of the UP chapel, which was built soon after his death and still stands in the university campus as a legacy to his years of devoted service and clear vision of faith. He was also apparently a prolific writer, specializing in spirituality.

I only wish I could have personally met Fr. John Delaney, SJ (he died young, at the age of 50), and I only hope that I might be half the Jesuit that he was to so many. It was a wonderful consolation during my retreat to know that Dad was once here in Novaliches, at the grave of his mentor and friend, where 50 years later, I found myself offering many a Hail Mary in his memory.

Fr. Delaney --may he continue to rest in Christ's peace!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The Long Retreat: Coming to Know, Love, and Serve Christ

“So, how was it?” you ask, no doubt curious to know how the 30-day retreat went for me. No easy way to answer that question, certainly not in one word. Suffice it to say that the retreat was an intense spiritual experience that defies facile description. Not to put too fine a point on it, but how does one begin describe what it’s like when for 30 days, you share your heart with God and He shares His with you?

You may be thinking, “How did Ray (or any of the other retreatants) manage to keep silence for 30 days, with no conversation, no phones, no internet, no newspapers? Hard to believe, I know, but Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the man who devised this retreat, had a lot of wisdom when he insisted that to hear God speak to our hearts absolutely requires the absence of any and all competing voices. I got used to it quickly, and have even come to savor the silence. When there’s literally nothing else competing for our attention, it’s amazing to listen to how much God has to say to us!

We tertians were joined by 63 other retreatants: 7 Jesuit novices (first-year members of the Society of Jesus) and 56 religious and lay people. Each retreatant met individually with an assigned retreat director once each day for a 40-minute reflection session. We tertians were directed by our tertian instructor, Fr. Roger Champoux, SJ. Each day, we kept a routine of five prayer periods, each lasting 50-60 minutes, following the method layed out by Saint Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises (see the side bar posting entitled “The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola). Daily mass was celebrated each evening at 6:15pm. Plenty of time throughout the day for personal reflection, rest and relaxation (we all took afternoon siestas very seriously), spiritual reading, exercise, and long walks.

The venue for the retreat was the Sacred Heart Novitiate and Retreat Center, located in Novaliches, in a northern section of Manila. The retreat house, which resembles in design a classic Spanish hacienda, was built by the Jesuits back to the 1930s as the novitiate for the Society of Jesus in the Philippines, which at that time was growing by leaps and bounds. While Jesuit vocations are still relatively high here in the Philippines (averaging 7-10 men entering each year), the numbers are not nearly what they once were, so only one wing of the house still operates as the novitiate. The rest is used as a retreat house and conference center. Plenty of lush vegetation around, plus a nice swimming pool in which I swam almost every day – what I liked to call my time of “aquatic meditation!” There are some sheep and goats that roam the property, and even a lone Filipino caribou (water buffalo). Three meals a day are served (featuring a lot of fish and plenty of fresh tropical fruit), which we all ate in silence – awkward at first, but we got used to it. CD recordings of sacred instrumental music played softly in the background to accompany the sound of silverware clinking against plates. Even dining was a prayerful experience!

So, what did I get out of it, besides catching up on a lot of rest? Well, at the risk of sounding terribly pious (and those of you who know me well know that I’m not terribly pious!), the Long Retreat has left me with the grace I asked for each and every day – that I might know Christ more intimately, love Him more deeply, and follow him more faithfully, wherever He may call me. Seems fundamental, I know. But that’s largely what Jesuit tertianship is all about: going back to the fundamentals that led us (and still lead us) to live our whole lives in the Society that bears His name. And going back to fundamentals, years after we took the first step, affords us the luxury of prayerfully clarifying and deepening our commitment to our vocation of serving God and His people.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam -- “To the greater honor and glory of God”

The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola

The Spiritual Exercises are a time-honored method of prayerful discernment developed by Saint Ignatius Loyola in the 16^th century. It consists of a series of meditations and contemplations, most based on the gospels. In its classic form, the Spiritual Exercises are administered in a 30-day silent retreat, which is divided into four segments, or “weeks.” In Week I, the focus of prayer is on the loving mercy of God; in Week II, the focus is on the incarnation, birth, and ministry of Jesus; Week III focuses on the passion and death of Jesus; and Week IV focuses on the resurrection of Jesus. The aim of the Spiritual Exercises is to help the retreatant come to a level of spiritual freedom from inordinate desires such that one can prayerfully discern the will of God and align one’s life to it. Saint Ignatius Loyola based his Spiritual Exercises on his own experiences of prayer and his amazingly sharp intuitions about human nature. It’s worth noting that Ignatius came up with the Spiritual Exercises when he was a layman, long before his formal studies in philosophy and theology, and long before he even thought of establishing the religious order known as the Society of Jesus.

In addition to the classic 30-day retreat format, the Spiritual Exercises can also be experienced in the (condensed) form of an 8-day retreat, which is commonly offered by retreat houses and spirituality centers. The Exercises are also offered in a form called “The Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life.” This is a format devised by Saint Ignatius himself when he realized that most people do not have the freedom to devote 30 days of their lives to a silent retreat. So he devised this 30-week form of his Spiritual Exercises in which the retreatant devotes one hour each day to prayer and meets weekly with a spiritual director to reflect on each week of prayer. No condensed version here, as all of the meditations and contemplations of the Exercises are engaged, just over a protracted period of 30 weeks. Many retreat and spirituality centers, as well as some parishes are now offering the Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life.

The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius have been hailed as one of the greatest and most effective tools available to Christian men and women (not just Jesuits) who long to know and live the will of God in their lives. The Spiritual Exercises thus stand as one of the greatest legacies of Saint Ignatius Loyola.

What is Jesuit Tertianship?

Lots of people ask me, "What exactly are you going to the Philippines for?" My answer to them is, "I'll be doing my Jesuit Tertianship there." And after scratching their heads, they go ahead and ask, "What's Jesuit tertianship?" Here's a simple explanation.

Jesuit tertianship is the final phase of training for a Jesuit. It is a program that usually lasts seven to nine months, and it is a requirement for all Jesuits (priests and brothers) prior to pronouncing final vows in the Society of Jesus. There are currently about 27 Jesuit tertianship programs all over the world for Jesuits who are invited to this final phase of training. While a few tertianship programs exist in the U.S., I very much wanted to take this opportunity to do my tertianship in the land of my Filipino origins, for reasons which I will explain in various postings on this blog.

For us Jesuits, tertianship is a time of intensive reflection and renewal on our lives as a members of the Society of Jesus -- a kind of "spiritual sabbatical." The centerpiece of any Jesuit tertianship program is the Spiritual Exercises, otherwise known as the 30-day retreat. This will take place in the month of November in my tertianship program. Other activities include studying the various foundational documents of the Society of Jesus, as well as the rich history of the Society of Jesus. We also do various ministerial projects during tertianship -- a total of three projects in this particular program, including work with the poor and marginalized and spiritual and sacramental ministry.

I'll be sure to detail my experiences in the postings on this blog. Thanks for your interest in my progress, and most of all, thanks for your prayers on my behalf! Be assured of my own for you!

JESUIT TERTIANSHIP IN THE PHILIPPINES