It has been a long time since our last communiqué (February) and a lot has happened in the intervening time. In March, Ron preached a retreat during Holy Week in Baguio on the Paschal Mystery as reflected in the Scripture readings of Holy Week. Connections were made to the spirituality of St. John Eudes. The retreat was attended by Good Shepherd Sisters as well as our seminarian Serge and our potential candidate Edwin. After Easter, Ron went to the United States for a visit.

Pierre decided he wanted to see more of the Philippines before he left, so he took tours of Ilocos, Cebu, Bohol, Palawan and other beautiful places in the Philippines. When Ron returned from the USA, he left almost immediately to give retreats to Good Shepherd Sisters in Taiwan and Korea. Ron returned on June 16 and Pierre left for France the same day. During Ron’s absence, Pierre and Serge kept the ship afloat. From the time Pierre left until Fr. Francois Jourdan arrived, Ron and Serge did the same. Those were difficult months as we struggled with being understaffed.

On August 14, we welcomed a new candidate, Faisal Siega. He is from the southern region of Mindanao. He already completed his theology as a diocesan seminarian and was admitted to Eudist probation on September 14, 2008. Fai has been offering sessions on spirituality for the college seminarians as well as Bible study for the young children at Maryridge.

Fr. Francois Jourdan of the province of France arrived on September 3. He is a welcome addition to our community. He was able to begin immediately to say Mass and preach in English. Francois is now beginning to prepare conferences to give to the seminarians as well. He was quick to share with our community, the Sisters and the seminarians his interest in and knowledge of Islam. This is a very relevant topic in the Philippines.

In addition to teaching at Divine Word Seminary and coordinating the Masters in Pastoral Ministry program, Ron has been working at the St. John Mary Vianney Galilee Center. It is a center for the renewal of priests operated by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Philippines (CBCP). Ron has been offering spiritual direction for the priests, giving some sessions, and training new staff members. Cardinal Rosales has expressed a desire for more involvement by the Eudists in this important ministry to priests.

Serge has successfully completed another semester at Divine Word Seminary. He is in his third year of theology. As you might recall, Serge already has a Masters degree in guidance and counselling. This year he was able to get his professional license as a counsellor. Mabuhay, Serge! Since Pierre left, he has also taken on the responsibility of bookkeeping for the community.

Since we are enjoying a three week semester break right now, we have been taking some time to explore the area together as a community. We recently spent a day travelling around the neighboring province of Batangas. We will also visit some places in our own province as well as historic sites in Manila. These days give us a chance to learn more about this beautiful country as well as to strengthen our bonds as a community.

With little effort on our part, many potential candidates have approached us to inquire about our congregation. It is too soon to tell how many will actually be accepted but it is both a joyful and very time consuming effort to follow up on them all. Please continue to pray that the Lord of the Harvest will continue to send us good Eudist candidates.

We eagerly await the arrival of another member of our community. Fr. Martin Solano is from the Eudist province of Venezuela. At the beginning of September he moved to Nova Scotia (Canada) to work on perfecting his English. We expect him to arrive in the Philippines at the end of November.

Our house is already full, so we received permission to expand it a bit. Right now the noise of construction fills the house! We are adding three more bedrooms and a bathroom. You can see in the pictures that this addition to the house is over the garage. It will give us room for Martin as well as potential candidates and other visitors. The contractor estimates that the work will be done by mid November.

We are still formulating our plans for a “special time of Eudist formation” which we propose for the next school year (June 2009-March 2010). We are awaiting the arrival of Martin before we finalize our plans and make a formal proposal to the Provincial Council. We foresee our current candidates and perhaps some additional candidates participating in this program. In addition to our own personnel, we hope to invite Eudists from other countries to serve as resource persons.

Along with this communiqué, you are receiving a number of pictures that show some of our life together. Please continue to keep our fledgling mission in your prayers.

 

The Eudist Community of Ave Cor
75 Smokey Hill Drive
Maharlika East
4120 Tagaytay, Cavité (Philippines).

Ron Bagley – rmbagley@yahoo.com
François Jourdan – jourdan_francois@yahoo.fr
Serge Kabamalan – cskabamalan@gmail.com
Faisal Siega – john_siega@yahoo.com