During the day, the Chapter Fathers have gone onboard the vocational situation in Asia and the Nuclei about the ‘Piarist that We Need’ and ‘Communal Life’. There was an exposition during the last session about one of the most recent Piarist Missions: Burkina Faso.
An intense day of work began with the celebration of the Eucharist with lauds, this time it was organized by our piarist brothers from Slovakia. The Fr Provincial Juraj Ďurnek, evoking the Gospel, has reminded us that ‘we shall not be afraid’. ‘Jesus comes close to the impures, we can come next to Him no matter what our personal situation is’, he said during the Homily.
The morning session was completely dedicated to go deep into the situation of the Pastoral Vocational in the new presences in asian countries. Fr Roberto Dalusung, who is in charge of this project, has described the work that has been done throughout these last few years since the first meeting of the responsible team took place, back in November, 2017. Fr Dalusung has shared with the Assembly the journey through the different asian countries where the Vocational team has been present: Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, South Korea…
With great precision and emotion, Fr Dalsung gave his testimony of the labor that has been carried out during all this time: ‘pray for your works before doing them’, said quoting Fr Guillén. During his exposition, he explained that the methodology, the research made about the countries, the development of diplomacy, the first exploratory trips and the contact with other people, religious, laymen or organization, etc., are essential elements to carry out the missionary action. ‘And all of this without losing the passion for the mission’, Fr Roberto remarked when he remembered a meeting with Cardinal Tagle, ‘when we work for vocations, it is not us who are working, we are just a channel, since it is the Holy Spirit who is actually working’.
Facing the strugglings to work for the vocations in places where the Piarist are not known -in fact, Fr Roberto says that the use to stay in convents and friends’ houses-, he highlights the surprise that means the possibility that Calasanz offers to lots of youngmen: being a priest and a teacher. This means also, ‘a gigantic novelty, since the value of education gets acknowledged and appreciated, and the first thing that young people think about is helping their fellow men, so being a teacher becomes a great opportunity to do so’. Fr Roberto also shared some challenges that are still pending, like the unstable situation of many of these countries, the language issues or the cultural differences that set new challenges at the time to concrete and capture the Pastoral Actions.
After lunch time, the Chapter Nuclei work continued by going onboard of ‘The Piarist that We Need’ and the ‘Communal life’ in which the Chapter Fathers together with the representatives of the fraternity have participated and the importance of the Formation and Accompaniment have become apparent.
The last session was dedicated to the mission in Burkina Faso, which was explained by the Fr Provincial Christian Ehemba, responsible for this demarcation in the Western Africa. ‘The house -Fr Provincial said- in the community is a place for reunion, there is a television to watch football, there is always electricity… a place where the younglings can study and the brothers can give them support’. The project revealed all of the work that is being carried out by women in many of the missions that have been exposed to the Assembly in these last few days.
