The Salesian Secret

People are often amazed at how dynamic the atmosphere is in a Salesian setting. It appears that people seem to have put on braces around their lips that allows them to smile the whole day. Salesian schools resound with boisterous laughter from students who chase each other from one end of the school to the other. Youth groups generally are made up of upbeat youth. A man holding a broom, or covered in slick oil may not be your ordinary maintenance guy but a Salesian at work.

What is it with the Salesians? It's the family spirit - the hallmark of Don Bosco's legacy to young people. It's a total shame for a Salesian community that never exhibits the family spirit. Salesian schools and training centers have become more than places for learning, they have become secondary homes. People can't help but feel at home in Don Bosco.

This is the challenge for Salesians and those who wish to follow Don Bosco: to exemplify in their relationships especially with the young the welcoming and joyful spirit that brings hearts closer to home. Foxes have holes and birds have nest, but the sons and daughters of man has nowhere to lay down their heads. In an increasingly lonely world, Salesian settings are called to gather in as many souls as possible into the hearth of Don Bosco as the lively saint and Mama Margaret did when they first found their first boarder.

As I undergo the initial phases of formation into Salesian Life, I have always felt the need to make the seminary a place I can call home. The strong family spirit evident among the Salesians may well be one of the most effective promotion that has tagged me along well. This call is stronger in houses of formation as there could never be a formation without a relationship.

People especially young ones do not need the sense of independence and self-suffiency as much as the need for belongingness. We would rather belong to a group than be alone and we would rather be in a family than in a group. How, as ministers of the young, we touch the right chords in young people and attune ourselves into their colorful world is a deciding factor in establishing and imprisoning that heart into a loving familial embrace.

Every time I join celebrations that involve the different members of the Salesian Family, I never cease to be amazed at how small the world could be. It's amazing how people from different settings could easily interact and relate with each other by simply sharing Don Bosco among themselves. This is a tradition. This is a gift from our Founding Father. Our family spirit keeps his charism alive and relevant across the ages, still effective at sculpting our lips to smile the whole day.

Storms are a must

Unlike the Americans, most Filipinos are laid back when talk comes to

storms. After all, the Philippines is battered by an army of tropical storms each year. Our homes were built to last the winds and torrential rains these atmospheric disturbances pose. For the opposite side of the globe however, westerners are traumatized even with cyclones making landfall, talk about Hurricane Katrina and the billion worth of damage it has done to property in the United States. While the opposite side of the earth talk about the submerged houses they have and the loss of business, in Cebu as per

experience (mostly in Pasil), we talk about how people would scramble to gather as much GI sheets in the streets blown off from the roofings the night before and the fun while doing it.

Meteorologists claim that storms are a must for the whole global climate being able to stabilize the temperatures across the surface of the earth. Storms generally transfer the heat that gathered in the equatorial regions to the higher latitudes thus easing the global climate. There is a connection therefore between global warming and typhoon strength. The warmer the region, the stronger the storm. Global Warming anyone?

We are an embattled people and we are stronger because of that. Through these battles we have become more resilient to the challenges of the times and it has made us appreciate the passing vanities of the world. We as a people have learned to dance with the music played about by Nature. Our knees have grown stronger with each effort we take to stand up after falling face deep in mud. We are strong.

This is the ancient wisdom of storms. Storms, whether they be natural calamities or personal struggles, never fail to make you stronger. Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger. Isn't it common for us to say that storms no matter how strong doesn't last for very long? Were we not trained by experience, like bamboos in the midst of prevailing winds, dance with the blow? Could you still remember what happened to the trees that stood against the wind in the pride?

You are an embattled person. You have been facing storms all your life, why give up now? You know that these challenges would not last for long. You know how strong you are. Storms are a must for everyone. It is when you are stronger that stronger storms come to strengthen you more. It is when problems come in heat waves that we learn to balance our lives. The outside is but a reflection of the battle inside. Even nature mirrors the struggles we have.

We are still in September, the typhoon season. Stay strong.

Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen

We were all seated at the conference room. We were a band of brothers who spent months living and studying together. We consider ourselves a family, after all we are a community of Salesian aspirants.

"Not all of you will become priests here. Some of you may have to leave and build their own families. How I wish all of you will become Salesians but that is not the case, not all of you will become Salesians", Fr. Ronel frankly declared.

Such is the case of all religious communities. Many young people enter the seminary gates with much enthusiasm in their hearts. The same young people exit the seminary gates with bags full of experiences and their hearts full of enthusiasm for things other than religious life. With five years of college aspirancy behind me, I can attest to the truth that not everyone I see in a school year will last for the next. This is how fluid the community is. This is the test of one's detachment.

Many young people would come to say "yes" but could not keep that "yes". It's nobody's fault that most seminarians would eventually leave the seminary. It's a play between their true vocational calling, their psychological maturity, family background, and their generosity. Most, if not all, come with a very good intention of following Christ's call. However, formation to the religious life has been providentially designed to sift through vocations.

I, for example, came from a batch of a meager six aspirants. Now, I am the lone survivor of that batch in the postulancy. Most of my companions have to leave to further other dreams. The perseverance rate of religious life is low. The call of community life remains. This is the bittersweet reality of our life. We act like real brothers even with the possibility of departing from each other. We trust is the community as it is now.

There are many factors that affect vocations, but the most essential things are discernment, prayer, and personal commitment. Seminarians can have the most lucrative venue and amenities for formation, they can have the most talented, wise, understanding, and loving formators, but if they lack the capacity to commit, persevere, and surrender to God's Will it means a change of choice.