Spiritual accompaniment IV
Today’s sharing is by Fr. Carlos Cheung, native from Macau, ordained in 2015, he works at Aberdeen Technical School in Hong Kong, China as the catechist for boarders and day students at the school. At the provincial level he is also responsible for promoting Salesian vocation.
As a young Salesian in the process of formation, you sought spiritual direction from Jesuits. Could you share with us such experience and the fruits?
The Spiritual Direction course I went through was based on the Spiritual Exercise, which Don Bosco would go through once a year in his annual retreat. The course was led by a Rector in cooperation with 3 lay mission partners at a Jesuit retreat house in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong. Although Salesians have their own spirituality, the Spiritual Exercise of St. Ignatius Loyola is one of the reference points in Don Bosco’s Spirituality (Giuseppe Buccellato, Alle Radici Della Spiriualita di San Giovanni Bosco).
The psycho-dynamic approach was adopted in the course. It made us aware of our emotions. In the Spiritual Exercise of St. Ignatius, one is invited to contemplate Jesus, and, through our emotions to cherish, taste and discover the inner world of ourselves and of Jesus. What are the inner dynamics of Jesus? What is his desire? What am I going to say to him?
In human relations, we are used to predict or be in touch with the thoughts of the others. Sometimes we care so much what people think of ourselves and whether we would be accepted or not. Are we being understood? From here we become aware of the dynamism of our emotions and such dynamics are the subject matter of spiritual direction, which shows us the way to realize and respond to the presence of God in our life experience of the past and the present.
As a young priest, do you feel confident to accompany others in their spiritual journey?
I myself am accompanied by my spiritual guide regularly, and was supervised during the practicum of the spiritual direction course. First and foremost, those who would be interested to offer the service of spiritual direction, should receive spiritual direction on a regular basis. If a spiritual director has never achieved his own spiritual growth, he would not be a competent guide in the spiritual journeys of the others. Therefore, young priests still need regular spiritual guidance for their spiritual maturity, which will be of help to the service of spiritual direction.
Secondly, in spiritual direction, one is to explore oneself in the mystery of God as this is a process of self-discovery. It is essential that we should have understand of our emotions. It is always through our own emotions to identify our motivation and beliefs, which might hinder us in our daily lives. If we are able to articulate our emotions, then there will be room for the spiritual journey of directing oneself and the others. Thus, I would suggest that confreres in initial formation should develop the sensitivity to our inner world. This will be very helpful to develop one’s capacity sufficiently for providing spiritual direction in future.
In a typical Salesian way the community and personal spiritual accompaniment go hand in hand?
In a typical Salesian environment, the community and personal spiritual direction can never be separated from each other. The community spiritual dimension, Faith Sharing and Lectio Divina in particular, enriches one’s personal and spiritual growth while the personal dimension includes the personal accompaniment, Friendly Talk, in which the directee can explore his journey of faith to recognize his talents and to identify his difficulties.
The community and personal spiritual direction can be mutually enriched for the same goal of experiencing the presence of God. In the life of Don Bosco, the watchword of Mamma Margaret,“God sees us”, becomes the reminder given to the Oratorians by our founder. Therefore, I believe only through the experience of the Oratory by sharing and openness towards the Lord and the others, we would be motivated to move towards the presence of God so as to make Don Bosco’s way of spiritual direction successful and youthful.
Recalling the experience of the monthly vocation camp for young people organized by “Vocation Office” (formed by Salesians in initial formation and Lay Mission Partners) it includes theme activity, faith sharing, personal spiritual accompaniment and community prayers, Eucharist and Soccer game, We came to realize a vocation camp that is promoting “Vocation Culture” to assist young people for making decision on their future; community activity and personal accompaniment should go together.
How is the passage from the formation house to the first full apostolic experience at the Aberdeen Technical School (=ATS) in Hong Kong?
Spiritual direction can never be separated from “Experience” in our Salesian context. Our vocation is a call to respond to the love of God through our daily experience with the young, and what I have been experiencing is living with 4 confreres, 5 aspirants and 120 boarders at ATS. Our boarding section was relaunched 4 years ago and a third of the students have Special Education Needs, including Autism, Learning difficulties and Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - a true periphery for God's mercy! After my priestly ordination, in obedience to my superior, I come to be the catechist for both boarders and day students, the assistant for the aspirants and the coordinator of Vocation Office in China province.
Compared with my past experience in the formation house, my current life pattern has changed. Besides my service of teaching and organizing catechism classes and various activities at the school, I take care of the boarders and the aspirants. In the meantime, our vocation office offers monthly vocation camp organised by young Salesians. My responsibility demands lots of energy and creativity and I find this a meaningful invitation to follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
Some advice to the young Salesians or the candidates to the Salesian consecrated life?
Entering a new stage of life from the period of initial formation, I remember the following reminders, which has been given to me when I was an aspirant:
Be Generous: Our Salesian vocation is a response to the love of God. This divine love urges us to respond to our Salesian vocation with generosity. The more generous we are, the more love of God we experience. I believe young people can be transformed when we always carry out our daily duties with generosity.
Be Open: Our Salesian vocation requires our openness to the Spirit to go on in our journey of faith, hope and love in our life. Openness makes us genuine and sincere to listen to the voice of the Spirit. This goal is also shared by our spiritual accompaniment. I suggest a candidate should have a steady spiritual director who would help him to open up to follow in Don Bosco’s footsteps.
Conversion: To preserve our Salesian vocation, we must begin the journey of conversion. We all need to be converted with regard to our relationship with the Lord, our fraternal community life and our service to the young. If we want to be the effective evangelizers of the young, our conversion is necessary.
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