The sisters who are directly involved in the pastoral work for vocations in the Philippine-Malaysia-Papua New Guinea-Thailand province had their annual seminar at the Paulines Communication Center in Pasay City on October 22-24, 2013.
It was themed “We Believe and So We Speak” (2 Cor.4:13), in consonance with our recently concluded 10th General Chapter. Sr. Reajoy San Luis, FSP, one of the speakers, gave some interesting points on “How to Make Effective Vocation Presentations”. “Be well prepared, be kind to yourself, respect and look kindly on your audience, get to know some of your audience, draw out confidence in humility and sincerity, relax, practice flexibility in contingency, creativity, and dress up properly” (Ref. Dr. James Wolford Ulrich and Dr. Patricia Carr).
Moreover, she guided the participants to know their fears. These are “monsters” deep within which often block one’s effectivity in speaking before an audience. She also taught how to go out of this situation by thinking about the kindest person one has met in life, who accepts us, no matter what happens.
Furthermore, this encounter gave an opportunity for the sisters to know each other’s capabilities, through a group dynamics. They discovered the many gifted sisters in the group which is essential in building team work and pooling their resources for vocation promotion activities.
Sr. Rose Agtarap, FSP, shared the Language of the Youth Today and the proposed vocation pages on the new paulines.ph website. According to her reliable research, social media is the number one activity of the young. The participants looked deeply into this scenario and were challenged to make use of this tool to guide young people, bring them closer to God, and heed the call to follow Jesus in religious life.
Sr. Rose stressed that being visible is very important. There is a need for vocation animators to participate in youth gatherings, to pray with them, to connect with them using the various tools for communications, in particular the cell phones and the internet. Through this they will be able to respond to the appeal of Pope Francis to adopt “new ways to go out” and meet young people.
This seminar was realized through the efforts of the members of the FSP Vocation Team: Sisters Maricar Andamon, Amelyn Paglinawan, Cristina Madrigallos, and Maria Jose Lorilla. They were assisted by our two Provincial Councilors, Sisters Aida Adriano and Catherine Bacay.
