“EXPERIENCE OF BEING A SALESIAN BROTHER”

Br. Eduard Villordon, FIS

I met the Salesians when I was 11 years old. I was a new student in Don Bosco Technology Center – Cebu, when I had a first encounter of a salesian in the person of Fr. Vit Buenaventura. He was the principal then that time. A few days after classes started, he was going around the classrooms when he called my attention. He saw me with some of my classmates getting in and out the classroom through the windows. The door was locked and we were supposed to get some things for the workshop. Initially I felt afraid but he gently asked me why I was going through the window and not through the door. After explaining to him, he told us that next time we should call the class custodian to open the door. Then he sent us to the workshop.

In the following days and weeks I met more salesians. I saw them in every place around the school and we can see them as we arrive in the morning till we leave in the afternoon. They were in the classroom, in the lobby, in the playground, in the canteen, in the chapel, in the workshops other places where the students were. I began to get to know some of them and their manner of relating with us got my attention.

I noticed some salesians were different from those wearing the cassock or the clerical. They were addressed as brothers. There was Bro. Nick, our lively and active English teacher. Bro. Mario who was great in the woodworking shop as well as in playing football with the boys every lunch break. There were the two brothers taking charge of the electrical and mechanical workshops: Brothers Stephen and Silvano. I started to be interested with these salesians.

Furthermore, I had some classmates and schoolmates who were different from the other students. They were friendly with others. They were diligent in their school work and were very lively when they were together. They were staying in a place just inside the school campus and they were being taken cared by the salesians. I came to know they were aspirants of the Salesian Brothers Seminary.

The salesians and the aspirants had an attraction that i could not resist. It did not take long for me to decide. The following year I became an aspirant of the Salesian Brothers Seminary.

Continuing my studies and living in the seminary I began to know more about Don Bosco and the Salesians. However the figure of the salesian brother was prominent. I encountered more salesian brothers in the following years. They were assisting us, giving us conferences, chatting with us, teaching us in our class, instructing us in the workshops. I was able to read some materials about the salesian brother. I had memorable experiences together with the aspirants of the Salesian Brother Seminary.

When I was in fourth year high school in 1984-85 there were more than sixty aspirants in the salesian brothers seminary. After graduation ten of us continued our formation in Canlubang. At the end of our Novitiate, of the seventeen professandi, we were five salesian brothers.

The Salesian Brother Seminary in Boys’ Town, I would say, was a statement of a strong commitment for the promotion of the Salesian Brother Vocation in the Province. It is known that its relevance was debated in more than one Provincial Chapters. Unfortunately, it was closed down in 1995 for some reasons I am not aware. Hopeful, that even without such structure there would still be that strong commitment for the promotion of the Salesian Brother Vocation.

Formation in Canlubang during the years 1985 to 1990 was very favorable. There was a good number of candidates to the salesian brotherhood in the Pre-Novitiate and professed salesian brothers in the Post-Novitiate. There were two or three Brothers who were part of the Formation Community. We had monthly assemblies for inputs and interaction together with our brother formators. As a professed salesian brother in the post-novitiate and practical training, participation in the yearly assembly of all salesian brothers in the Province was very much appreciated. Formation was very efficient and effective until the next stage.

We were in our Specific Formation Program when we were more engaged with our formators about the many things in the salesian brother formation that needs to be addressed. That time the two-year program for the specific formation of the Salesian Brother was still in place. At one point while discussing the same problems, one formator threw back the challenge to us. He said, “You are aware of the problems in the formation of the Salesian Brother so why don’t you help in solving these problems yourselves?”. His point was clear enough: the Brothers themselves should also be involved in the formation.

The idea struck me so much and made me reflect. Sometime after, I approached my rector (then Fr. Francesco Panfilo, now a bishop in Papua New Guinea). I presented to him a growing interest in me to help in the formation ministry but shared with him that I was not competent to do such kind of ministry.

He encouraged me to pursue the desire and not to worry about my competence.

Then I had a chance to talk to the Provincial (who at that time was Fr. Peter Zago). He was so enthusiastic (by the way, he was and he is always enthusiastic). He encouraged me. When I was given my new assignment after my Perpetual Profession in 1995 he assigned me a formator to start the Don Bosco Formation Center for our college aspirants. That was how I was involved in formation even up to the present.

It has been a privilege to journey with the candidates in our formation houses as well as with the confreres in initial and on-going formation over the past eleven years. I was fortunate to be given sufficient preparation to render such service for the Province. Furthermore, my service has also given me a chance to continue my formation.

There was a number vocational challenges that I have encountered in my life as a salesian brother. Almost all of them have been learning experiences for me.

Before and immediately after my perpetual profession I had to deal with the exodus of a number of perpetually professed brothers and a few in temporary vows. All of those who left, one way or another, had an influence on me.

From 1995 to 1999, I was in a community where in a span of four years three perpetually professed brothers left.

The closest and one that had affected me most was when my close companion in the ministry left in 1998. We worked together in a department. Many times we share our struggles and difficulties. After one year of perpetual vows he expressed his intentions to ask for dispensation… On the second year he left.

Before leaving he talked with some of the confreres in the community. He approached me… it was a conversation I would never forget. He explained to me some reasons why he decided to leave. I was deeply struck when he said: “One of the reasons I am leaving is that I could no longer see the difference between our lay mission partners and myself. They are working for the young as well as myself. They are very competent in their work but I am not. I lack professional preparation.”

I was taken aback I didn’t know what to say…His question also made me as myself that question. After a moment something surfaced in my awareness: “I see a difference” I told him “the difference between me and our lay mission partner is my relationship with God. That is unique to me and that makes me different.” I don’t know if it made sense to him…it has made sense to me …even until now.

Another challenge I continuously face is to meet different kinds of people who keep asking me: “so when are you becoming a priest?”….”why remain a brother and not become a priest?”…”You should become a priest…it is a great privilege to be the instrument to turn bread and wine into his body and blood” These I hear when I meet relatives, friends, new acquaintances and sometimes even to some members of the salesian family. I am used to be asked these kind of questions and I answer them as patiently and as clearly as I can.

But four years ago, I was asked by someone the same question but this time I was greatly surprised and sad. I was having a conversation when a confrere who has been ordained for many years that time. He said to me: “You Brother Ed, you have good potentials and talents, why not become a priest.” I was shocked, I was not even able to comment on what he said. What could have been in his mind that time? What made him say such a statement?

On the other hand, I had a some consolations in my life as a brother. Let me share with you three instances then I conclude my sharing with the third.

It was during the retreat of the Employees of our Production Department in 2001. I had been in charge of that department for three years. I was one of the facilitators that time. During one of the sessions the employees had the chance to disclose something to the facilitators. When it was my turn, an employee came up to me and said: “I appreciate you because I feel your closeness to us. You are one of us. There is no gap between us unlike what we experience with the priests.”

I felt so good with that affirmation. That made me appreciate the lay dimension in me. To have our lay mission partner recognize and acknowledge that closeness with them, most likely, brought about by the lay dimension of the Salesian Brother.

The second time was when I was undergoing a formation process with a group of religious priests and sisters and a few diocesan priests. We were participating in a course where there were moments of sharing and group counseling and spiritual direction.

We use to share a lot about our experiences, our struggles and everything worthwhile to share. After many group sessions where I shared also about my experiences, our mentor told me something i never was aware of. She said, “you know brother ed… there is something very peculiar in you that could not be perceived from the other religious men in this group. When they share, they reveal more about their ministry and their pastoral services. Their priestly character is more obvious in them. Where as for you, your sharing reveals something else, you manifest your experiences and journey as a religious.”

She continued to explain her observation and I was able to see a new insight in my vocation. I started to appreciate in me how I was living my religious identity as a brother.

The third is one of the best if not the best consolation I have received as a salesian brother. It was given to me during my 30-day directed in 1999. God had given an intense religious experience that will never shake my trust that Jesus called me to become a salesian brother. With the guidance of my Director during those prayerful moments, He manifested to me that I was his brother. The intensity of his presence and the depth of the experience took root within me: he calls me to be his brother. I wish that each one of us will also be given that great grace of being able to have a religious experience that confirms one’s religious vocational identity.

Dear confreres, the care and promotion of the vocation the salesian brother is a great need and a challenge as well for each one of us. We continue to deepen our appreciation of his identity, we commit to the quality ofhis formation, we spare to effort to make him visible to young people and to work hard to inspire more young people to follow the salesian brother vocation. But I suppose, like Don Bosco, it is his deep and lively spirituality that will sustain his vocational vitality and attract more vocations.

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