Feb 15, 2013
Middle Religious Gathered
Ongoing formation in the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament is given importance. This aims at taking care of the formation of those who have already made their perpetual profession of vows and ordination to the priesthood. To facilitate its coordination and more importantly to enter into the relevance of the formation, they are grouped into years of profession for perpetually professed brothers and of priestly ordination. This formation happens every year. The following are the groupings: Young Religious for the newly perpetually professed brother or ordained priest to 5 years of ministry, Junior Religious for 6-10 years of ministry, Middle Religious for 11-15 years, Senior Religious for 16-20, Jubilarian for those who are 20 years and above.
For this, the Middle Religious gathered last January 2-5 in Cagayan de Oro. Msgr. Florencio Salvador Jr., SSJV, SLD, the Vicar General of the Arrchdiocese of Cagayan de Oro gave them an input on the Story of the Liturgical Reforms brought about by the Second Vatican Council. This was given at the St. Francis Xavier Chaplaincy, Pueblo de Oro where Msgr. Boy is assigned. Then, the group which is composed of Fr. Lito Hitosis, SSS, Fr. Joseph Matitu, SSS, Fr. Edgard Bugna, SSS, Fr. Melchor Catañeda, SSS and Fr. Joel Lasutaz, SSS spent the rest of the days Rest House of Msgr. Boy in Dahilayan, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. The next day January 3, they went to the Dahilayan Forest Park and enjoyed the day with adventure rides on top of the mountain. See some pictures here. In the evening of January 4, Friday, the SSS Local Community dined with the group at Centrio. Fr. Robin Custodio, SSS was not able to join for some valid reasons.
This was for me a truly formative experience with my brothers in the ministry. We were given an updating. We had time to share our learnings and our pastoral experiences enriching each other for the ministry. We had a day of rest that helped us conquer our fear of height and speed. In short, these days of formation gave us a time to treasure God’s grace of ministry. We went back to our respective assignments on Saturday, January 5, refreshed and revitalized for our Eucharistic Mission.