Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Jess Briones SVD – (USA)
Tuesday 23rd Week of Ordinary Time
I had a short but wonderful vacation in the Philippines. In addition to the yearly Escalona Family Reunion, I had the rare opportunity of meeting my childhood neighbors with whom I grew up, my Holy Spirit and Don Bosco classmates and those who were with me at Christ the King Minor Seminary.
A number of those whom I met I hadn’t seen for more than 50 years. Instead of inviting guest speakers, we decided to just give each and everyone the chance to share mainly on what we learned in our younger years of formation that has influenced our lives and continue to do so.
On my part I can say that meeting classmates from different parts of the Philippines widened my horizon. At the beginning it was not that easy for me to get along well with those from the Visayas and Mindanao as I was born in the small town of Tarlac in Luzon. I speak an entirely different language.
In many ways, the seminary provided the atmosphere for us to cope with diversity of cultures. We had German, American, Indonesian, Indian and of course Filipino teachers. I learned to become open-minded.
In my many years as a missionary in Argentina, South America and in other parts of the world, I found the “skills” that I learned during my early years of formation very helpful. It was not difficult for me to deal with all kinds of people (pakikisama).
But it was not to my surprise that a big number shared how prayer has been and is still an important part of their lives. One even reminded us what we often heard in the reading before meals that says: “More prayer, more grace. Little prayer, little grace. No prayer, no grace.”
