ISA Welcomes Youth, Mentors to 19th Spirituality Forum

Fr. Artemio Jusayan, O.Carm, Prior Provincial of the Philippine Carmelite Province of the Blessed Titus Brandsma and Chair of the Board of Trustees of ISA, said, “Rooted in the love of God, young people are blessed not because of gadgets, likers/followers in social media, travel, money and fame but more importantly because of the love of God, which completes and fulfills them. To become aware of this is to be in the love of God. To be in the love of God is to beat with God’s heart, or in the words of the young, to be WOKE – to spring into life out of determination because the Love, Power and Grace of God is REAL.”

A teaser-video presentation followed, as well as a welcome presentation for the 120 participants on Day 1 by Los Cantantes de Manila: the song Batong Buhay and Umawit ng may Kagalakan.

In his introduction to the 19^th Spirituality Forum, ISA’s Academic/Research and Publications Director Fr. Sheldon Tabile, O.Carm., said that ISA had retained the design of the Forum last year in a bid “to provide a space for real talk, real conversation.”

First speakers in the five sessions shared their views, experiences and reflections on their various engagements and contexts. A conversation among the speakers followed, facilitated by a key conversationalist who surfaced the spiritual dynamics and processes in their talks and who invited meaningful feedback from the participants through a backchannel (e.g., ISA’s Facebook account or Edmodo).

The speakers then reacted to the questions, clarifications, impressions and insights of the participants, after which the key conversationalist made a synthesis of the session and ended it. Serving as conversationalists were Ms. Ma. Angela Ureta, a.O.Carm, media strategist and consultant as well as former executive producer at ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs –and Fr. Sheldon Tabile, O. Carm., ISA Director for Academics/ Research and Publications .

Day 1 Sessions

The morning session on July 31 amplified the Forum theme of “Love, Power and Grace: Opening Conversation with the Young People on Spirituality” by asking the speakers to share their varied but rich experiences, their relational processes, their initiation into and awareness of the dynamics of their relationships, and their perceptions how love, power and grace work in their lives, affecting and perhaps transforming them.  

The first speaker was Via Antonio Ruiz, theater and television/film actress, singer, dancer, commercial model/influencer, program host, educator, Theater Arts major, graduate student in psychology and servant-leader of Inspire Church Metro together with her husband, a pastor.

The second speaker was Mela Franco Habijan, a transgender woman who headed the lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgenders (LGBT) organization of the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, where she graduated cum laude, major in Communication Arts.

The third speaker was Fr. Roseller Atilano, Jr, SJ, head of the Campus Ministry of the high school department of the Ateneo de Manila University. He entered the Society of Jesus in 2006 and was ordained in 2017.  He was assigned as Director of Jesuit Music Ministry (JMM) of the Jesuit Communications from 2015 to 2017 and as Assistant Chaplain of New Bilibid Prison in Muntinglupa from 2017 to 2018.

For the afternoon session of Day 1, the theme was “Loving, Serving and Growing Signposts for the Young People”, ISA asked young people who have travelled the path of loving, serving and growing to share with potential walkers on their path their insights gained along the way.

The first speaker was Toto Sorioso, sound engineer at Jesuit Communications (JESCOM), which he described as an apostolate of spreading God’s good news through multimedia and his learning site on how to record radio plays, voice-overs, choral recordings, theatre audio and other productions. He is also a singer, recording artist, guitar player and multi-awarded songwriter. 

The second speaker was Joan Sheela “Josh” Odan Naliw, lawyer and advocate and defender of indigenous peoples’ rights, and the Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) to the Sangguniang Bayan of her town of Mayoyao, Ifugao in Northern Philippines.

Naliw is a criminologist, former prison guard and presently a part-time educator at the Ifugao State University College of Criminal Justice and in review centers for the Criminology Licensure Examination. She is also the Parish Youth Minister of the Our Lady of the Assumption Mission Parish.

The third speaker for the afternoon was Fredyl Hernandez, senior artist-teacher member of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) on theatre for development. He also lectures at the School of Design and Arts, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, serves as consultant for Theater Arts o the Department of Education (DepEd) and is finishing his MA degree at the University of the Philippines, his alma mater for his AB Political Science degree.

Day 2 Sessions

The morning of Day 2 carried the theme “When God Embraces Us:  Stories of Healing and Grace among Young People”. Speakers were asked to share life-changing experiences on how God’s love provides healing and grace to a so-called `desert experience’.

The first speaker was Fr. Gilbert Billena, O.Carm, community organizer, pastoral worker and  parish priest of San Isidro Labrador in Bagong Silangan, an urban poor area.   Together with the Quezon City government and the Philippine National Police, he started the Balik Loob recovery program for drug dependents, now the pilot model for the Diocese of Novaliches. 

The other speaker was Dr. Randy Misael Sebastian Dellosa, a life coach, psychotherapist, clinical psychologist and psychiatrist. He is also a wellness physician, acupuncturist, quigong instructor, facilitator of mindfulness retreats as well as an ordained Daoist priest and monk. He shared insights about the spirituality of Generation Z, based on his personal and clinical experiences with the youth who see him without their parents and who are often already suicidal.

Both speakers shared the stage with colleagues who served as resource persons. Fr. Billena, with two former drug dependents and Dr. Dellosa, with psychiatrist Ms. Agnes Alcantara.

The speakers in the afternoon of Day 2 discussed the theme “With Power Comes Great Responsibility: Reflections on Character, Authority and Accountability” and shared how they were walked through this path and how they walk others, especially the young, through it.

The first speaker was Karla Sofia Llamas, an English Literature major at the University of the Philippines-Diliman with a cognate in Political Science focusing on International Relations.

She is an active member-delegate of the Model United Nations Organization of the university, Just four months before the 19^th Spirituality Forum, she represented the Republic of South Sudan at the prestigious New York Model United Nations conference in the UN Environmental Assembly. She sponsored a resolution on marine plastic litter and microplastics, was recognized for her collaboration with African nations, and received an honorable mention award. Back home, she has led the empower the youth of Sorsogon City through funded training in athletics.

The second speaker, Jude Liao, attended the Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment Post-Synod International Youth Forum in Rome (June 2019).  He is the youth minister and coordinator of the Diocese of Cubao and is also with the Youth Coordinating Council of the National Capital Region. He teaches at Xavier School, where he works with the Jesuits in their Basic Education Commission and in their Chinese -Filipino Apostolate.

The last speaker of Day 2 was writer, alternative educator, NU 107 and Jam 88.3 radio program host and civic-cultural worker Gang Badoy Capati. She is best known for founding RockEd Philippine, a creative collective with music and arts volunteers for programs and performances outside the classroom guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.   She is also an advocate for the Mindanao Peace Games, which was discussed in last year’s Spirituality Forum. In 2010 Ms.Capati received both The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) and the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awards.

Day 3 Sessions

 Organizers adopted the theme of the Year of the Youth – “Young People as Beloved, Empowered and Gifted” –for the last session of the 19^th Spirituality Forum. They invited speakers who would respond to such questions as “What does it mean to be beloved, empowered and gifted?” and “What is the source of these?” and “How do these happen to their lives, and what happens to the young?”

The speakers included  Christian Marx Rivero, the partner of last year’s speaker,  Mark Conrad Ravanzo,  in founding the much-awarded  I Am  Making a Difference (I Am MAD) youth organization.. 

A licensed teacher, he works at the Legislative Liaison Office of the Central Office of the Department of Education (DepEd). Its primary mandate is to recommend, coordinate, supervise and execute the legislative initiatives and the priority reforms of the DepEd with the two Houses of Congress. In his talk he presented some findings of a survey on millennials and Generation Z.

Another speaker was Br. Aikee Esmeli, fsc, a member of the Christian Brothers of La Salle for the past 11 years.  He has worked with students, teachers and administrators in its schools in Lipa, Batangas; Bagac, Bataan; Green Hills, Metro Manila and Kagoshima, Japan in the fields of spiritual formation, youth accompaniment, educational management and community development. He is currently part of the Formation Staff of the Scholasticate in the House of Studies of De La Salle University.

The last speaker was Charm Mercado, Child Life Assistant Coordinator of Kythe Foundation for children with cancer and other chronic illnesses. As a survivor and as a staff member of Kythe, he inspires children by being their Kuya (elder brother).

In 2008 at age 13 Charm was diagnosed with bone cancer; in the course of treatment, he met Ma. Eliza `Nina’ Sumpaico-Jose, a volunteer of Kythe Foundation and a speaker at the Forum.

One of the questions from the floor came through Facebook page of ISA. Fr. Albertus Magnus Herwanta, O.Carm, a member of the Board of Trustees of ISA, asked how the family can form the young in a continuously-changing world, and how urgent is the need for a spirituality of family for youth formation.

Mr. Rivero replied that what is most important is how children interpret what is happening in their families in terms of caring for and being concerned with them and with other people, the community and the country. He believes that parents are the foundation of every value that children have in choosing right or wrong.

In the case of Br. Esmeli, schools may teach students not to take drugs but they may be contravened by young parents who will encourage them to experiment. He believes that the church and its ministries should extend more presence and accompaniment to the family. In La Salle schools, there has been an increase of Family Days and Parent-Son Camps so as to make the school a family.

Fr. Tabile described the family as part of the formation of the student, to which Mr. Mendoza added the community, like his aunt who had influenced him to be religious like her, after his parents separated, he was lucky to have a second family who showed how a complete family can focus on caring for children and guiding them on the right path.

Mr. Mendoza’s colleague, Ms. Sumpaico, stressed that everyone needs to lead the youth in a life-giving direction, and to be more open and attuned to the different permutations of a nuclear family. Mr. Rivera agreed, as volunteers see the need to belong to a family, which they consider MAD to be. 

Sharing

The 19^th Spirituality Forum ended with an afternoon with the International Academic Advisory Board (IAAB) of ISA, whose members shared their reflections on the experiences, thoughts and points raised by the speakers, the key conversationalists and the participants.

And as always, Fr. Eliseo Mercado, Jr., OMI, Ph.D. updated the participants on Islam, including the significance of Eid-ul Adha (Feast or Festival of the Sacrifice) as the Philippines prepared to mark this public holiday, 10 days after the 19^th Spirituality Forum.

According to Fr. Mercado, Eid-ud-Adha commemorates the Prophet Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his son Ihsmael. Such obedience was noted by the Lord, who sent an angel to stop him. When Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket, he sacrificed it instead.

In his talk proper Fr. Mercado focused on the morning of Day 2 of the 19^th Spirituality Forum and its theme “When God Embraces Us: Stories of Healing and Graces among Young People.” 

He stressed that loneliness, pains, wounded-ness, poverty, despair and deaths are not dead ends because, as in the parable of the snake and the monk who is called to help and save lives, Fr. Billena had heard the anguish and the cry – and felt the fear – of mothers and widows of victims of the anti-drugs war of the Duterte administration.

Fr. Mercado ended by sharing a second parable, this time on the young monk and the old monk. His lesson: Wrestling with God is way far more difficult than wrestling with the devil.  It is not something to be understood but something that is revealed to us through our experiences.

Just as Fr. Mercado had focused on Day 2, another IAAB member, Dr. Anne Marie Bos, O.Carm, focused on Day 1, especially the morning where Ms Via Ruiz showed how she struggled to become a good daughter and later on, a good mother.

Dr. Bos also praised Ms. Mela Habijan for being strong, intelligent, confident and aware inwardly that she is a woman, and recalled how Fr. Atilano spoke of life and poverty after his father had died early.

Based on these three stories, Dr. Bos offered three reflections on the theme of Love Power and Grace and on Blessed Titus Brandsma in the Philippine context.

First, we have to find God in all things and in all of creation, and honor God in every human being. Blessed Titus found God in all the colors of the rainbow.

Second, as Ms. Habijan had said, we will not always get what we want. She shared her experience of escaping responsibility and then coming back to reality. Titus Brandsma said that nothing is ever more beautiful than reality and asked us not to live in an elusive world but instead to look at reality and see God in it.    

Third, on power: firstly, Titus Brandsma wrote that power is an illusion because things may seem strong but are actually weak. Therefore, we must show power in our own goodness.

And on strength:  True strength comes from God. Titus loved the idea of the flower and the sun, of drinking the light and the power of the sun, the power of God which gives us the strength to live,   grow and bear fruit.

Third, there is strength in suffering. Titus was physically weak but had the strongest mindset, said Dr. Bos in ending her talk.

 In his sharing entitled La Miracles de la Racontre.  (The Miracles of the Encounter) Dr. Alfredo Co endorsed the structure of the 19^th Spirituality Forum in terms of the aims of each session but left it to his co-IAAB members to analyze their contents.

Instead, he highlighted what he called the mysterious ways in which humanity encountered God and God encountered humanity. He reviewed how miracles happened after Christ died and his disciples started to spread Christianity, and what sort of encounters they had to have before God was implanted in them and they started to spread the message to Rome.

According to Dr. Co, Christian persecution prevailed in Roman life, until some more insightful approach dawned upon the early Church Fathers – that of advancing Christianity as a philosophy, a thought, an idea providing inspiration about the story of the world’s origin, a notion of a Creator, an idea of Salvation, the thought of a redeemer. Their new approach was received well, and persecutions ended.

 Dr. Co said that today, the true miracle of the encounter comes when God embraces us into his fold, and we see the light and are thus reborn. He ended by pointing out that just as the early Christian martyrs had not been deprived of miracles of encounters, “so have our young pilgrims just shared with us their own miraculous encounters in this year’s spirituality forum”

Another IAAB member, Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario, CM, offered his insights in the form of   slides entitled Keywords:   rebellion and exploration; pains and questions; love and commitment. From the stories of the speakers he drew stories illustrating these words, and then flashed quotations on the youth in Pope Francis’ Christus Vivit.

For the key words of rebellion and exploration, Fr. Pilario included a yellowing picture of his father and labeled it “Vocation as Rebellion” because he became a priest and not a teacher like his father who could not sustain 11 children on his meager pay. But on his first month at the seminary, he wrote him a letter when he saw a priest who looked like him.

“That was the first letter I ever made for my father and his reply was the only letter that he has written until now, “recalled Fr. Pilario. “He invited me to go on fishing, and it was the sweetest moment with him.  believe it is impossible for us to grow unless we have strong roots.

Rebellion comes from our roots.”

And for the key words of love and commitment, Fr. Pilario showed a fading picture of his mother, who would always ask him and his siblings back from school, “Have you eaten?”

When she developed thyroid cancer, Fr. Pilario was told by the doctor that treating it would crush her esophagus. He took care of her for a week, during which she asked, “What is your Ph.D. for if you could not help these people?”

She woke up at 10 o’clock, looked at her family and asked, “Have you eaten? Go out and eat.”

Commitment comes from the love of someone, said Fr. Pilario amidst tears from a number of participants. He concluded his sharing with an exhortation from Pope Francis: “Dear young people, please do not be bystanders in life. Get involved. Jesus was not a bystander. Above all, in one way or another, fight for the common good, serve the people, be protagonists of the revolution of charity and stay capable of resisting the pathologies of consumerism and individualism.”

The last IAAB member, Sr. Ma. Anicia Co, RVM, shared her thoughts on the 19^th Spirituality Forum through the acronyms ICA (Inspiration, Creative and Authentic) and ACI (Affirmation, Challenges and Invitations) 

Sr. Co affirmed the sharing of the speakers who, she said, shared with sincerity and candor and who continue on their journey despite already accomplishing much.

She also characterized power as responding to the call of God; trust as empowerment; and change by saying, “If you change the word, the meaning also changes”.

As for challenges, Sr. Co referred to the challenge of constructing/conceptualizing the definition of youth, which has evolved through different periods of time.

And as for invitations, Sr.  Co stated that self-care requires awareness of our inner self and also the acceptance of our body self. She stressed the importance of acknowledging and accepting differences, which the elderly need to do.

Lastly, Sr. Co called for creating a culture of appreciation through the theme of the 19^th Spirituality Forum: Love, Power and Grace.

“The sharing from yesterday,” she said, “seemed to show that the speakers may lack appreciation for their gifts and talents. But sharing our story is hearing the stories of the young, listening to them, and sharing our faith even if it is not always understood. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy shows a tendency that we might forget our cultural roots even when what is happening at present has a continuity. To know history is to know self. No history, no self.”

Sr. Co ended by saying that Love, Power and Grace is establishing a culture of appreciation, finding God in all things so that one can recharge, and living in the presence of God, where there  is always love, power and grace.

Closing

The IAAB members and the Board of Trustees honored each of the speakers with a plaque of appreciation as well as a portrait of Blessed Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) commissioned from Bro. Christopher Villanueva, OFM as Carmelites look forward to his canonization. 

Day 3 ended with words of thanks and appreciation from Fr. Rico Ponce, O.Carm,  ISA Executive Director, to all the participants of the 19^th Spirituality Forum.

As always, ISA launched a publication on the Forum.  On Day 2, it invited Fr. Yohanis Masneno,SVD, one of the authors of papers presented at the 18^th  Spirituality Forum on August 1-3, 2018, to speak for his sixteen co-authors of Conversations 1.0: Listening to the Youth, Discerning the Spirit.

“This is an international book,” said Fr. Masneno about the anthology which has the works of fellow Indonesians as well as Filipino, American and Dutch paper presenters. 

He added, “This book is about years of struggling for and with the youth, together with the youth themselves. “Reading it will give positive and negative energy. In our activities with the youth, we will always have our ups and downs. “

ISA again hosted an exhibit-sale of its books as well of as those from the Jesuit Communications, Claretian Publications and SVD Logos Books. But the 19^th Spirituality Forum had a first: a T-shirt sale which aims to furnish the rented office-cum-reception center of the Gabay sa Pulang Laso, the newly-established HIV-AID Ministry of the Philippine Province of the Carmelites and named after the red ribbon, the international symbol for HIV-AIDS.

Encouraged by the words of Blessed Titus, the artists-staff of Gabay hand-made solid colored shirts bearing his stylized profile and his words: Do not yield to hatred. We are here in a dark tunnel. But we have to go on. At the end, an eternal light is SHINING FOR US. 

Perla Aragon-Choudhury