SDB annual retreats in Korea

By Br. Hilario Seo, SDB

Taean, Korea, 26 February 2018 - The 2018 Spiritual Exercises for Salesians are held in the January and February at the beautiful environment of the shore of the west coast of Korea, where the Noviciate is located. These retreats were divided into 4 batches, each time approximately with 20 Salesians. The theme of the retreat was "to cultivate the art of listening and accompaniment following in the footsteps of Jesus".

The retreat was conducted in such a way that, with the intention of making the effort to cultivate the art of listening and accompaniment, according to the Strenna 2018 of the Retor Major, the art of Jesus that are found in the biblical narrations were reflected upon in depth. The biblical sites of the episodes of the Gospel for each conference were: Ein Karem, Bethlehem, Judean Desert, Nazareth, Capernaum, Caesarea Philippi, Shechem, Jericho, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, Emmaus. These sites were presented first with some photo images. And then the art of listening and accompaniment were drawn from the reflection on the biblical story which is connected to the place were suggested.

"I think it was quite an interesting approach to search for the art of listening and accompaniment of Jesus by reflecting on the Gospel story of the different sites. We tried to learn in this retreat how Jesus had listened and accompanied the people of his time. It was a happy moment that deeply touched my heart" was the common comment from the participants.

The preacher, Bro. Hilario Seo had spent 6 months, from last June to December in the Holy Land, at Ratisbonne, the Salesian Monastery in Jerusalem and personally visited the above mentioned biblical sites and had taken photos of these places. Through this particular experience he had been able to devote himself to the preparation of the conferences of the retreat with the help of the confreres who live in the Ratisbonne community as well as some professors, experts in the bible field.

The Salesian community in Jerusalem is the campus of the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome; it is a salesian international theologate, where about 40 young seminarian confreres, coming from all over the world, prepare themselves for their priestly ordination. At the end of their 4 year theological studies the students can obtain a B.Th degree, a diploma in Biblical geography and archaeology as well as a diploma in inter-religious dialogue and ecumenism. The Ratisbonne Monastery community is planning a program that could be of interest to the Salesians of the world, the so-called 'the Jerusalem project' which will be a program, designed to give an opportunity for deepening the Holy Land experience during the summer holidays by taking advantage of the lodgings freed by the students, who would be away for three months for their holiday programmes.

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