Retreats in Daily Life for Loyola Schools Faculty, Professionals, and Administrators

RETREATS IN DAILY LIFE
for Loyola Schools Faculty, Professionals & Administrators

Many Christians today have that yearning for God and interpret this yearning as an invitation to deeper prayer. This invitation can be realized through the “RETREAT IN DAILY LIFE” based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

From his own life experience, Ignatius created a way for women and men to deepen their relationship with God in the context of their daily lives.

The retreat offers opportunities for the on-going integration of the Gospel with daily life. It provides a wonderful, effective way of discovering God in all things.

A Retreat in Daily Life (RDL) is a way to give yourself some space in your busy life. It is an opportunity to experience:

• deeper companionship with God
• personal guidance in your spirituality
• the transforming power of the Gospel.

SIGN UP BEGINS 18 TO 30 JUNE 2012.

We are offering two (2) forms of RDL.

A. TEN WEEKS OF RETREAT IN DAILY LIFE

After registering for the retreat, a person agrees…

1. to attend the Opening and Closing Session of the retreat
2. to pray using Scripture for 20-40 minutes a day
3. to do brief journal writing about their experience of prayer
4. to meet for half an hour once a week with your prayer guide (for individually directed) or meet for 45 minutes to 1 hour with the group for faith sharing and direction (for group RDL). The meetings with your prayer guide and/or group focuses on what is happening in your daily prayer.

The role of the prayer guide is to listen to you and help you decide how you might spend your prayer time the next days/weeks.

TEN WEEKS PROGRAM BEGINS WEEK OF 9 JULY AND ENDS WEEK OF 17 SEPTEMBER.

B. WEEK OF DIRECTED PRAYER

After registering for the retreat, a person agrees…

1. to attend the Opening and Closing Session of the retreat
2. to pray using Scripture for 15-30 minutes a day
3. to do brief journal writing about their experience of prayer
4. to meet privately for 30 minutes each day with the prayer guide assigned to you.

The daily meeting with your prayer guide focuses on what is happening in your daily prayer.

The role of the prayer guide is to listen to you and help you decide how you might want to spend your prayer time the next day.

WEEK OF DIRECTED PRAYER:  16 TO 23 JULY 2012 /  13 TO 20 AUGUST 2012

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SILENT IGNATIAN RETREATS

A time of rest, silence, listening and prayer. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius is used as the framework for the retreat.

THREE-DAY SILENT RETREAT: 15-18 October 2012
FIVE-DAY SILENT RETREAT: 21-26 October 2012

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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION/ACCOMPANIMENT

A spiritual director is a person with whom you can talk about your experience of God, both in prayer and in the rest of your daily life.
With spiritual direction, it is hoped that you will become more conscious of how truly active God is in your life and how you might better cooperate with God’s gift of grace.

The Office of Campus Ministry can arrange spiritual direction for you with a Jesuit, religious sister or lay person trained for this ministry.

For inquiries, please contact:
Sr. Reylie de Guzman, rc
LS Office of Campus Ministry
MVP-CSL Center, Room 109
426-6001 local 5161
rdeguzman@ateneo.edu

RH Bill deception: anti-reproduction, anti-women, anti-prosperity

Birth control pills

Reproductive Health Bill is a deception: it is not for reproduction but for contraception. A woman is sexually healthy if she can conceive a child. This is a simple, objective definition, so I don’t know why the RH Bill wishes to muddle this by adding the woman’s psychological and social well-being. Is pregnancy a sickness that must be cured or the hope of our nation that must be supported? Is pregnancy a privilege only of the rich and not of the poor? Is pregnancy an invention of man and not a gift to be thanked for? Many women who cannot conceive turn to IVF treatment costing fortunes but with low chances of success, resulting to many fertilized embryos dying or remaining frozen in test tubes. Many women who are rich do not wish to have children because this will divide their wealth and double their figure. And many women who wished to stop pregnancy with pills suffered breast cancer.

The RH Bill claims that it is pro-women, but it is actually anti-women. Contraceptives makes sex-before-marriage easier: the woman is not anymore assured of being married by the man, for there is no more pregnancy that shall act as witness to the promises of love made in the heat of the night. Contraceptives makes sex-outside-marriage easier: the wife is not anymore assured that his husband is faithful, because there is no pregnancy that shall cry out scandal in the entire neighborhood. Where does men enter into the picture in the RH Bill? Nowhere. RH Bill assumes that men are weak: they not strong enough to control their passions. RH Bill assumes that men are dumb: they can’t understand the mathematics of the woman’s fertility cycle. And RH Bill assumes that men don’t earn enough: they can’t support a family of eight. This is an insult to men in general and husbands in particular.

The RH Bill promises a prosperous future with only one or two children per family. But without children, there would be no laborers in the fields, workers in the factories, soldiers to defend our country, and priests to offer masses. There are only schools without children, industries without workers, barracks without soldiers, and seminaries without priests. Two children work hard to feed a family of six, which includes their parents and grand parents. The pension system collapses, and the government will be forced to raise the retirement age to 70 or 80 or even 90. It’s a bleak future: the collapse of the Western civilization due to its cultural suicide of not having babies. As Rachel cried out to Jacob: “Give me children or I shall die!” (Gen 30:1)

Thus says the LORD:
In Ramah is heard the sound of sobbing,
bitter weeping!
Rachel mourns for her children,
she refuses to be consoled
for her children—they are no more. (Jer 31:15)

First American Jesuit Juniors in the Philippines: Hogan, Duchesneau, and Costigan

Right after first vows in St. Andrews on Hudson novitiate in New York, Walter Hogan, Gaston Duchesneau and Hugh Costigan were sent to the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches for juniorate studies with Filipino counterparts.  Hogan and Duchesneau in 1933 and Costigan (a cousin of Jim Meehan) in 1934.  The Philippines passed from the Aragon province to the Maryland province in 1927.  The juniorate building was inaugurated in 1933.

After ordination Costigan went to the Caroline Marshalls mission in 1947. In 1965 he founded the Ponape Agricultural and Trade School (PATS), much needed in that region.  Academic high schools were not enough.

Hogan and Duchesneau were the founders of the Institute of Social Order (ISO), a research and organizing group to implement the Social Encylicals.

Hogan was instrumental in the formation of unions, in the empowering of the oppressed.  This displeased civil and ecclesiastical authorities.  For all his troubles he was banished from the Philippines.  He went to Hong Kong and there spread the virus to a larger population.  But it was too late.  The torch has been passed.  His associates Jerry Montemayor organized farmer unions into the federation of free farmers (FFF) while Johnny Tan organized factory unions into the federation of free workers (FFW).  Not only did this magnify the strength of unions but this was also to counter communist unions and management unions. Montemayor gave his inherited land to his tenants while class valedictorian Tan gave up a life of success in the business world. Duchesneau in the meantime quietly and successfully organized and energized various kinds of cooperatives, in urban and rural places: consumer, producer, credit, etc.  This would help them out of poverty and the clutches of usurers.

Their immediate inspiration were Fr Joseph Mulry of the Ateneo and superiors.  Fr John Delaney’s first love was laborers.  From dealing with them he realized that material strength was not enough.  They needed spirituality, concretely the love and living of the Eucharist and of conjugal spirituality.  He started with the ISO in the US, then founded the Cana Conference and then the apostolate of the Mass.  All three reinforce and specify each other.

The Spanish provinces send to the distant Philippines reached by slow boats regents but no philosophers, much less juniors.   It seems no others followed  the first three missioned for juniorate studies in a foreign land.  Sending these first three was a bold and successful stroke.  It was inculturation and indigenization  when it counted most.

–
blog:  pedrocalungsod.blogspot.com
God bless you and all your efforts.  Victor Badillo SJ

Catechesis on the Mass and the New Translation of the Roman Missal on DVD

AVAILABLE SOON!

Upon completion of the 3rd Typical Edition of the Roman Missal and the
approval of the Holy See in 2010, English-speaking countries began its
implementation the following year. The Catholic Bishops Conference of
the Philippines (CBCP) voted to implement the new translation in the
Philippines on the first Sunday of Advent 2012.

JESUIT COMMUNICATIONS in collaboration with the CBCP Episcopal
Commission on Liturgy produced a series of catechetical videos aimed to
help Filipino-Catholics in refreshing their knowledge of the Mass and to
prepare them for the new missal. The 2 DVD album entitled “The
Eucharist” includes brief explanations from His Excellency Luis
Antonio G. Tagle, Archbishop of Manila.

For inquiries and pre-orders, please call 426-5971 local 113 or 112.
The pre-order form can be downloaded from

http://www.jescom.ph/sites/default/files/order_form.doc.

Other Printed Materials are AVAILABLE ON SALE at /Tanging Yaman/
Stores – Sonolux Building and SM Mega Mall Building B.

1. The Roman Missal (Philippine Edition)
2. Meditations on the Mass– P 120.00
3. Participation Guide to the Responses – P5.00

Archbishop Chito Tagle to receive the pallium in Rome as the new Archbishop of Manila

Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle

22 June 2012

Memo to    :    The University Community

Subject    :    University OIC

______

I leave Manila on 23 June 2012 to give a conference talk titled “Climate
Change and Agricultural Life” at the Fourth World Congress on Rural
Life.  The World Congress is being organized in Rome by the Pontifical
Council for Justice and Peace, and the International Catholic Rural
Association.  After the conference, I shall be at the Jesuit Curia to be
with my Jesuit brothers there and to attend the Pope’s bestowal of the
pallium* upon Abp Chito Tagle (ADMU Class 1977), the new archbishop of
Manila.

Fr Jose M Cruz SJ, Vice President for University and Global Relations,
will be Officer-in-Charge from 23 June to 3 July 2012.

My office has my coordinates while I am in Rome.

Your prayers please for safe and restful travels.  Thank you.

Jose Ramon T Villarin SJ
President

Low Mass on 21 June 2012, 6 pm at the Oratory of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Ateneo Latin Mass Society poster for Low Mass on 21 June 2012

Catholic movie review: Prometheus and the Christian God

Prometheus movie

Prometheus provides an alternative mythology to Genesis.  And there are some references to Christian theology.  Notice the Christmas tree and the Crucifix.  And the Crucifix is seen again and again in the movie as a sign of faith or its loss.

Let us focus on Prometheus and Christ.  Prometheus gave up his life so that the evolution of man can start.  Christ, on the other hand, gave up his life to save mankind from sin, and on the side of Christ flowed the water of life and his life-giving blood.  Prometheus  (it need not be the same person)  slept in a tomb and was resurrected from sleep by the humans.  Christ was buried in a tomb and rose from the dead by his own power.  Prometheus has human DNA.  And so is Christ.  But the similarities ends here.

Even though the whole ship is filled with runes of the ancient tongue, Prometheus can’t talk.  And he refused to talk to reveal himself.  He could have said, “Why did you open the Stargate?” Or “Remove the sandals from your feet because the place you are standing is holy.”  The humans attempted to communicate with him, but he just killed them.  That was disappointing: a god who can’t reveal himself.  Just like the idols of Israel: they have mouths but do not speak.  But the Christian God reveals Himself: “I AM WHO I AM”.  He gave the Ten Commandments.  He sends prophets who proclaim: “This is the word of the Lord!”  And in the fullness of time He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, the Word Made Flesh.

God is our Father.  If God is an alien, then the bond uniting the whole human family breaks down.  Heaven becomes harsh inhospitable planet for the human crew that seeks to finally meet its creator.  Sexual intercourse becomes sterile.  The child in the womb becomes an alien that should be aborted.  The only way to conceive a new life is to destroy the old one.  And even in human relationships,  father becomes emotionally distant from his daughter, the automaton becomes valued as a son, and compassion is dulled even in sight of a bloodied and suffering woman.

But God is a loving Father and that is what the Parable of the Prodigal Son teaches us.  Jesus promised us that He will prepare a place for us in heaven.  And in heaven, God awaits for the homecoming of his beloved sons and daughters.  And when He sees us from a distance, He will run towards us, and embraces us as His long lost children.  He will give us robes to wear, put rings in our fingers, put sandals on our feet, and announce a feast. As Jesus promised, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.  A society built on the vision of God as a Father results to families and communities bound by love.  The swords will be beat into plowshares.  The lion will lie down with a lamb.  And death would lose its sting: it would be true immortality when the soul reunites with the body in the Resurrection of the Dead.

Prometheus is a bleak movie for Atheistic Materialism and Scientific Darwinism.  Is Prometheus the God atheists and Darwinists longed for?  David, the android, says it best:

David: Why do you think your people made me.

Charlie Holloway: We made ya ’cause we could.

David: Can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you to hear the same thing from your creator?

Like David, humanity without God will be humans without souls.  And even if humans attain eternal life, it would be one long and dreary life of a disembodied head watching the sands and stars.