Experience of Salesian Brother Vocation Promotion and Care
Br. Raymond Callo, FIN
This year I am starting my second year experience as delegate for vocation animation. This is also the first time after many years that we are having a Salesian brother as vocation animator. I will be sharing with you my experiences in this regard.
I hope the sharing will be able to do three things:
1. encourage us all to work for Salesian brother vocation promotion and care;
2. strengthen vocation animation in your respective provinces particularly for Salesian brother vocations:
a. what works for us (tried and tested) may also work for you.
b. stimulate you to explore other possibilities or to greater creativity in vocation promotion and care
3. lead to greater sharing because I also have something to learn from your experiences.
I was very much encouraged with our recent meetings in the province about its vision-mission, strategic directions and lines of action specifically on vocation ministry because it is one of the identified priorities of our province.
And it calls for:
1. the Salesian explicitly invites prospective candidates to experience the Salesian community life and pastoral activities.
2. the Salesian community pray daily for Salesian vocations and for the perseverance of confreres.
3. the formation of a vocation team (2 full time, and one part time) and their formation to this ministry.
4. the formulation and implementation of a provincial plan for vocations.
Vocation ministry is a ministry of:
Prayer
Proposal or promotion
Orientation
Accompaniment: discernment, decision, confirmation/verification
Identification with
Prayer
Prayer is the most important thing we have to do. It is the Lord who will send laborers to gather the harvest. Pray to the Lord of the harvest.
1. Ask the powerful intercession of Blessed Artemide Zatti. In the FIN we have set aside every 15th of the month as his commemoration.
2. Every day our communities pray for an increase in vocations specifically for Salesian brother vocations.
3. Furthermore, we pray for each community, for the province, the region and the congregation. We pray for each confrere: birthdays, feast days, anniversaries of profession and ordination, sick and in difficulty.
Promotion and care of Salesian brother vocations does not end with the proposal, the accompaniment nor the identification with the vocation. That is the first part. There is the second part which is the care. This topic has been discussed the previous days.
Proposal or promotion:
Initial encounter, proposal, promotion happens in two realities:
a. explicit proposal thru vocation promotion materials; website; personal contact with a Salesian; involvement in Salesian youth groups. This reality is specifically true of our students who grew up with us.
b. personal experience of the person wherein he desires something more in life, that life has something more to offer; experience of being called by God; desire to do God’s will. This reality is specifically true for college graduates and young professionals.
Orientation:
Orientation is given to those who would like to search in. Orientation is very important because it gives a candidate a better idea of what is vocation, religious life and priesthood. In the province there are many initiatives. It could last for a day or an overnight.
Vocation overnight model (which starts 1pm of the first day till 1pm of the next day):
Self-awareness
Awareness of God
Definition of Vocation in the context of a God who calls and I who responds
Prayer
Sharing
Parish model (wherein the young men are invited to join the community):
Morning prayers and meditation with the community
Mass in the parish with the people of God
Breakfast together
School model (after school hours, they join the community for):
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Dinner
Rosary
Good night talk
Accompaniment: discernment, decision, confirmation/verification
Accompaniment happens in three different ways:
For high school students (15-16 years old)
1. vocation overnight
2. follow up in the school done by the rector or the catechist
In one school, they asked the candidates to get one of the Salesians in the community as a guide so all the Salesians in the community are accompanying the young person who is discerning.
3. Three day testing, interview, evaluation at the pre-novitiate
to give the candidate an experience of life in the seminary and to evaluate his suitability
4. vocation camp (5 days)
a. discernment in prayer (prayer meditation, group spiritual direction, sharing)
b.discernment of calling to Salesian life by having a deeper knowledge and appreciation of Don Bosco’s life and mission (spiritual reading, sharing, prayer)
c.experience of community living (provide opportunities to interact, relate and work with each other in the spirit of co-responsibility)
5. Aspirancy (4 years of college in Carreno Formation House)
6. Postulancy (Pre-Novitiate proper, last year of college)
For young professionals and adults (20-35 years old)
1. Vocation Orientation (One day)
2. Retreat in daily life (discernment process)
The focus is vocational discernment…if in the process of vocational discernment the candidate sees himself called to become a Salesian, he goes to the next stage of formation which is the aspirancy program. On the other hand, if he feels called to another kind of life, the vocation animator refers him to that which he has discerned.
The duration of the discernment process can be as short as 8 days if done in an individually directed retreat, it could be as long as 10-14 weeks or even 8 months for the retreat done in daily life depending on the availability of the person.
Two important things need to be kept in mind:
a. the person is desirous of knowing God’s will hence he commits himself to pray everyday and to seek spiritual direction once a week
b. the person lives what has been discerned.
The process:
1). Experience of God’s presence in my life
2). Experience of my need for God in my life.
3). Experience of an ongoing relationship between me and God
- autobiography (my – HIS – story)
- vocation story (my – GOD – story)
- talk about giftedness of person
4) Experience of God’s presence/seeming absence in my dark moments…
- healing of my weaknesses
- forgiveness of my sins
- call to greater freedom
- talk about poverty of person
5) Experience of Jesus invitation to go beyond myself
6) Experience of Jesus inviting me to be his intimate disciple
- 4 columns method
7) Experience of discipleship with Jesus
- public ministry of Jesus
- advise to a friend
8) Experience of the conditions of discipleship
- death bed experience
9) Experience of paschal mystery (Passion, death and resurrection)
10) Conclusion
3. Aspirancy proper: one year experience of living in our communities
a. experience of Salesian life
b. commitment: given tasks in the community
c. discernment
d. monthly meeting for:
1. Youth – pastoral formation
2. Salesian life
3. Prayer (group prayer experiences, group spiritual direction, sharing)
4. Postulancy (Pre-novitiate proper, 1 year)
Aspirancy lived out (in college, another course, coming over weekends for formation…)
This I think is the experience of Vietnam…to be observed how it is done…
Pre and Post Novices: talk/encounter
Every two months the delegate for the Salesian Brothers together with the Commission on Formation organizes a conference for the aspirants and pre-novices to give a direct proposal by way of formation about the Salesian brother and related topics. For the post novices who attend the conference it becomes part of their appreciation of the common Salesian vocation. The topics discussed are the following:
a. Zatti: proposal as a way to holiness
b. Beginnings of the Salesian Brother: a historical perspective
c. Conferences of Don Bosco and Don Chavez at San Benigno Canavese: Consecration and Mission
d. Salesian Brother: Vocational Discernment
e. Salesian Brother: Care and Promotion of Vocation AGC 382
f. Profile of Salesian Brothers: a way to holiness
Confirmation or verification happens in varying degrees at different stages of the discernment process from initial proposal to the novitiate. However in the novitiate there is another step taken which is more definitive. And it is identification with the Salesian way of life by professing as a Salesian brother or cleric.
Networking
In the Philippine religious and church context we have different associations with regard to Brother vocation promotion and care:
DVP (Directors and Directresses of Vocations in the Philippines)
There is the association of Directors and Directresses of Vocations in the Philippines. The members are vocation animators from different dioceses of the country and different congregations, orders and societies. The association provides a venue for three things:
vocation promotion in different dioceses and schools
formation of vocation animators
realistic assessment of vocation animation in Philippine church
2. NFRBP (National Federation of Religious Brothers in the Philippines)
There is also the association of Religious Brothers in the Philippines. All Brothers are members of this association. There are three regional groups namely:
Luzon Association of Religious Brothers (LARB)
VISAYAS ASSOCIATION OF RELIGIOUS BROTHERS (VARB) with Bro. Carlo Bacalla, SDB as vice-chairman
Association of Mindanao-Sulu Religious Brothers (AMSRB)
The aim of the association is:
the promotion of the vocation to religious brotherhood
on-going formation of the brothers in their religious, professional and apostolic life
greater understanding and appreciation of our religious life as brothers and grow deeper in it.
Providing an official organization that will speak in our name as a whole to express our brotherly concern and solidarity with one another, the church and society in general.
Last October of 2005, our brothers attended the national convention and it was a very positive experience for the young brothers as well as for the non-filipino brothers to be able to share their being Salesian brothers to brothers from different congregations. There were about 165 of us gathered together in one place for formation, prayer, community living, and sharing of experiences.
This is one initiative we can start for the good of the local church and the promotion and care of brother vocations.
Besides all these initiatives that have already been happening, there are still some more I would like to share with regard to what is being done to promote and care for Salesian brother vocations.
What is being done for the brothers vocation:
1. A Salesian brother was assigned to be vocation director. This is very important in a clericalized society like the Philippines. The initial encounter with a brother is significant in terms of vocation proposal since when the aspirant becomes a novice and considers this vocation, he will recall his first encounter with a Salesian: who is the vocation the director and a Salesian brother.
The strategic presence of Salesian brothers where it matters most:
in the field of youth ministry as vocation animator or youth minister
in formation houses – presence of brothers a formation guides as ideal models and realistic models
Challenges in Salesian brother vocation promotion and care:
1. greater visibility of brothers in our settings…not only in the shops but also in animation of our presences such as giving good morning talks, direct teaching – not only administrative roles, openness to variety of doing ministries like retreat giving, sports animation, pastoral team heads. That is, let us not stereotype ourselves nor allow ourselves to be stereotyped by others.
2. formation of Salesian family members particularly during formative gatherings: let the Salesian brother speak about his Salesian charismatic identity. Formation should start within the family.
3. Brothers in technical training centers. The brothers never proposed their vocation because of the mentality that the boys attending our schools are poor and hence the family needs their help. That is true, but there is also the danger that we might be the one hindering God’s call for this young person. If God is truly calling the person, He will provide the means to make it a reality…who are we to discourage or decide for the boy?
4. Direct proposal of the Salesian brother vocation is a must. Good example is not enough. Many of our young people are attracted to our lifestyle but they never pursue because no one invited them. This conclusion was based on a recent survey done by the Social Communications delegate in the FIS among our past pupils. It is also true for FIN. Is it also true for the other provinces of the region?
5. Local vocation teams. The work for Salesian brother vocations is not the work alone of the vocation animator. It is the work of all. teacher, guidance counselor, the rector, the catechist, the parents, the members of the Salesian family. All should be involved because that is the purpose of our educational project – that the young person finds his/her vocation in life.
Let us continue to ask the intercession of Blessed Artemide Zatti for more Salesian brother vocations.
