In the afternoon of October 7, 2024, the five priest-elects, Lorie, John, Gilbert, Lloyd, and Joseph Bryan, started their five-day retreat in Bella Rosa Garden in Silang, Cavite, in preparation for their coming Priestly Ordination. The priest-elects spent their retreat in solitude, guided by the talks given by the confreres, Frs. John Lucas, RCJ, and Danny Montana, RCJ. Fr. John facilitated the spiritual journey from Monday to Wednesday morning, and Fr. Danny from Wednesday afternoon until Friday morning. They had their common adoration every night, personal and common rosary, and mass together with the priest-speaker.
During the retreat, the facilitators hammered on the vitality of the four core relationships and connectedness in the life of the priests: connected to God, to the Bishop/ Provincial Superior/ community superior, confreres/family, and lay faithful in the life of the priests. These four connections would help priests, especially the young ones, traverse their ministerial life in the church. Forgetting them is the prelude to separation, rupture, and alienation that would soon express itself in the different forms of crisis.
Amidst the weighty responsibilities that come with the priestly life, the presbyter is called to maintain a fundamental connection with God. This connection, upheld through prayer and spiritual life, should never be relegated to the sidelines, neglected, or forgotten. It is within this divine connection that the presbyter finds the sustenance and grace necessary for their ministry and mission.
Connection with the confreres and those responsible in the community one is assigned should also be deepened. That seemingly invisible connection and communion with the God who calls finds its human expression in the community. Humanly speaking, this community can be one’s avenue of support and identity. Through them, one finds ears that will listen, arms that will help, and minds that will help see things in a different and better light. To treasure their community and see them as their family whose extended arms will always be is a presbyter’s constant but rewarding challenge.
Connection to the lay faithful grounded one to his calling within the Ekklesia. In this connection, presbyters learn what it means to be faithful shepherds by listening to their cries, knowing their stories, guiding them to the green pastures, and protecting them from dangers - as Jesus did. Here, the presbyter slowly acknowledges and accepts that every ordination is always an entry into a life of service of the Word for God’s people. “Et dabo vobis pastores iuxta cor meum et pascent vos scientia et doctrina.’ (Jeremiah 3:15)
Ordination does not elevate one to the status of an angel. The ordained remains a human, with all the fragility and weakness that entails. However, this ordination also reignites the divine spark within the ordained, a testament to the transformative power of grace. This grace, at the core of their mission, will be the force that sustains them in their life and ministry, a beacon of hope in the face of human frailty.
In the end, as the priesthood is a gift, a grace from God, priesthood then is all about God, that loving communion that seeks to draw everything to Himself through the presbyter’s life and ministry.
Photo: Rev.John Dela Cruz, RCJ Provincial Rogate Center for Vocations - Digital Communications Ministry