family stories.

I am humbled.

(And - before some snarky ha-ha retort slips into your brainpan - it actually does happen to me from time to time, thank you very much.)

So, to continue...

A most remarkable first few weeks here in Manila for tertianship. After the first weeks of acclimating, adjusting & getting over jetlag, weeks Two and Three have been onward & upward. In addition to the Five R's (see last post), these past two weeks have also included the sharing of our journeys to this point, thru the lens of a graced personal history. That is to say, to share one's journey not simply in terms of chronology & events, but to mindfully reflect on one's life... and how God has been working thru/with us... and how we've responded (and, as always, missed the boat from time to time).

Amazing... humbling... and ever-so consoling. As previously mentioned here, we're a diverse lot, coming from throughout Asia, Europe, North America. And our life experiences are ever-so more diverse - journeys through war as well as peace, supreme joys and heart-wrenching struggle & suffering, death & birth. Yet what emerged in the telling of our tales has been, quite honestly, first-hand narratives of the Principle & Foundation. Recall the concluding assertion, in which Ignatius states that

...we should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God.

It's that final sentence that continues to unfold for me again & again - that everything, absolutely everything in life holds the capacity for eliciting within us a response to God. Not to inundate with Ignatianspeak, but that truly is what finding God in all things is all about. And what is so wondrous about each of our accounts is that each (in the midst of such incredible variance) is rooted in the same simple (but so profound) grace:

Gratitude. Plain & simple.

And so it has been these past weeks with our shared stories... family stories. For these twelve stories - from childhoods to entrance to the Society, thru to the various stages of Jesuit formation, up to this point at which the twelve of us have converged - these chronicles are added to the countless others, the famous, the infamous, the forgotten (by human history, that is) that make up the Society of Jesus.

Egide van Broekhoven, SJ

And therein has been yet another unexpected grace - the placement of our twelve graced tales within the context of the larger family story of the Society of Jesus. As previously mentioned, part of these first weeks has been spending time revisiting our larger family history - rereading Ignatius' Autobiography, the histories of the founding of the Society. Personally, I've returned to some of my favorite family stories - both famous (Don Pedro) and not-so well know (Egide van Broekhoven). To place our stories in the same canon with them and so many others is... well, where I started this all off. Humbling.

Lest ye think that tertianship is all reading & reflection, tomorrow we're off to Navotas for the first of our tertianship "experiments" - our Filipino Life Experience. I'll surely have much more to say upon returning, but a brief word as to its purpose. Again, this comes from Ignatius and his companions' experience in Venice & Vicenza from 1535-1537 where they lived & worked amongst the people. This is precisely what we'll be doing for the next week or so. I'll be living with two families over the course of that time... in the words of our tertian director,

You are going to those people... not as teachers or preachers.  Let the people minister to you and not you minister to them. It is their life you wish to share, not your life that you want them to share.

Wise words, to be sure. To just be with people... and to be ministered to. Humbling, yet again.

Surely more new graced tales to tell in a week's time. Until then, keep us in your thoughts & prayers - and be assured of ours for you. Until then - PAX.

wild orchids... growing like dandelions here!