austraLasia #2401

Unexpectedly - out of the depths of the land of the unexpected

PORT MOREBSY: 27th April 2009 -- Jim Bersola is a 47 year old alumnus of DBTI Makati (FIN) from around the 1979 batch. There would possibly be some reading this news item who would know him. Eventually, in his post-school years and after working in industry, he approached the Salesians and went to PNG as a lay missionary - where he has remained. He now lectures there in a technical college.
    What is interesting is that Jim has not only reflected, as any adult human being will do, but as we hope a past pupil of Salesian education will also do - on life, faith, hope, the vagaries of human existence, the challenges facing the world, his native country and the country now of his adoption; not only reflected on all this but attempted to put it into some kind of literary form that begs for 'translation' into yet another form.  One notes that he has sent it to austraLasia in html format, which would suggest that it could be presented via the Web.
    In its current form, the reflection is a very long and as yet unfinished poem, with something like 130 stanzas but divided into a dozen or so sections. While thankfully it doesn't have the 10,000 verses of the Iliad, these 130 might still need quite some work - one wouldn't exactly describe them as being in heroic pentameter or the like. But, the effort is still an epic one.
    This reader found Jim's effort of considerable interest for a number of reasons, one of them being that it does not take much linguistic analysis to see that it contains substantial reflection on faith and life and Salesian education, amongst other things.  At a recent meeting of Social Communication Delegates in Seoul, Korea, for the EAO Region, a decision was reached to try to gather a whole range of stories of faith lived in a Salesian context, and after collating them to disseminate them around the Region.  There has been much impetus given even by the Rector Major, on 'telling the story' of our Salesian vocation lived out in its many manifestations, and the delegates wanted to respond to this insight in some concrete and useful way.
    And here, without any knowledge of that decision, and to that extent then, 'out of the blue', comes precisely the kind of thing the delegates were thinking of.  It might still need some work done to it, but we don't look gift horses in the mouth, do we! 

    SC Delegates reading this news item might also take it as a subtle reminder for them to do what they promised - send Fr Fidel Orendain some examples of such stories (they don't have to be in poetry!) in the short rather than the longer term.  At least one has been sent to him, and that I can vouch for (jbf).

Click here to comment on this item, or here to assist with Glossary. You will need to enter 20eao02 when asked for a password.
  _________________
 AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific.  It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome.  For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there.  Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org

Title: australasia 2401
Subject and key words: EAO General: PNG faith lived in Salesian context
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2401