FIN Province’s Recollection & Fellowship

Community sharing

Br, James Gomez, SDB

The Savio Team

The Salesians of Don Bosco of the FIN Province took advantage of yesterday’s Heroes’ Day, a national holiday in the whole of the Philippine archipelago, to gather for their first quarterly recollection for the year.

The recollection was designed by the Commission on Formation by the FIN Province in keeping with the Province’s Implementation of the 27th General Chapter.

Former FIN Vice Provincial, Fr. Danny Torres, SDB, gave the conference on Group Spiritual Direction. As an output, the whole assembly was broken down into communities to apply the inputs.

The Mass which was held at the new chapel of DBTI, Jesus the Divine Mercy. Fr. Paul Bicomong, SDB, FIN Provincial Superior presided the Mass.

In his homily, he invited the confreres to look at “the heroic fidelity in confreres who are among us… And in a special way to our elderly confreres—this month of August, in particular, Fr. Pepe Reinoso on his 80^th birthday, and Fr. Andres Cervantes, on the 60^th anniversary of his religious profession.  We know that in their life, they have experienced this dependence on God before whom they bowed and knelt in humility.”

Fr. Pepe Reinoso, SDB

Fr. Andres Cervantes, SDB

In the afternoon, FIN District Games were held. Among the objectives set for this activity include the promotion of fraternity and bonding and to put in practice the 2016 Strenna.

Sporting events such as basketball, football, badminton, table tennis and table football were held.

The Magone Team, composed of the clustered Paranaque and Makati districts won over the Savio Team, which is composed by North and South districts. The two teams will face each other again come November in time for the Provincial Day.

 

 

A glance at the Sacred Heart

One time, I saw Fr. Andres in his wheel chair just outside the chapel. I asked him what he was doing there. He told me that he wanted to visit the Blessed Sacrament. He needs to be assisted to walk, and since no one was around, he could not go inside the chapel.

When I open the window for him to gaze at the tabernacle, he seems pleased. He then sheepishly smiles and tells me, “I wish to ask for another favor, but it seems that you are busy.” I reply, “It is okay, Fr. What is it?

He wanted to visit the Sacred Heart image on our stair case landing. I was running late for my retreat, but I cannot refuse him. I pushed his wheelchair en route to the staircase where the image is enshrined. This very image I come to realize bids goodbye to those who leave and welcome those who come with its arms opened.

I can see in Fr. Andres’s eyes the profuse thankfulness when I yielded to his request. And more so, when he finally touched the hand of the image, which must have welcomed him the first time he arrived in the community.

 

4 Tips to preserve the fire of priesthood

A Filipino Salesian missionary, Fr. Roel Soto is the Delegate of the Salesians in Cambodia since 2014.

Everyone goes through low moments in life.  This is a reality because of our weakness and other difficult situations we go through.  Yet despite this reality we have to go through how was I able to preserve and keep the fire of my priesthood?  Let me share you some points that will be helpful to any priest like me, just as they have helped me a lot.

1. A constant and intense prayer life.  This does not refer only to the regular scheduled community prayer that sometimes forces one to pray.  I refer here most especially to one’s personal “date” with the Lord at a particular time in a day that one has chosen as the most appropriate time.  This is a personal time of encountering the Lord personally and intimately as a fruit of one’s choice and decision.   The intensity of this encounter is not on the length and frequency, but on the intimacy of this daily personal encounter.  In truth, this could also be heightened by one’s consciousness or awareness of the Lord’s presence and promptings during the day.

2. A spiritual director. It is a blessing to have someone always to talk to and open one’s heart in moments of difficulties and trials or even crisis.  Let us face the reality – we can’t all handle our problems alone.  Having someone to listen and guide us and follow our spiritual director is already a big relief and assurance of support.

3. A community-centered life. With all the influences of technology that could possibly lead us to individualism and isolation, giving special priority to community life is the key to a happy life.  The community oriented priest finds solace and comfort in the loving and supportive presence of his community, be it his original family, his fellow priests or his religious community.  Community living gives a lot of experiences of solidarity, love, concern, understanding, warmth in relationship, forgiveness, trust etc. which are very important in moments of crisis and difficulties.

4. A proper care of oneself. Many times we tend to focus on the spiritual aspect of our life, forgetting that our physical aspect needs also attention and proper care.  “A sound mind in a sound body.”  I would also say a healthy spirit in a healthy body.  Proper care of the body must be observed by having enough time for rest and physical exercise, and the right and moderate food intake to prevent abuses, imbalance and excesses.  Proper care of the body will contribute moderation, balance, and discipline to spiritual life.  With this in right perspective we will be able to keep #1 – intense prayer life.

With all these four points followed, the fire of our priesthood will be kept and the passion for the mission entrusted by the Lord to us priests will be done with dedication and zeal.

 

60 Years a Salesian: Fr Andres Cervantes Shines more than a Diamond!

“My vocation was to be a priest–not to get married!”

Fr. Andres uttered these words to me as a matter of factly. His eyes searched for mine to convey his sincerity. He said this to himself as soon as he had realized that he wanted to become a Salesian priest. He was just in his early twenties back then. But he was already convinced of this.

This conviction would lead him to risk his future in the Salesian seminary in Mexico. This year, come 16 August, he marks his 60th year as a Salesian of Don Bosco.

One of the first things he did when the call to become a Salesian had become clear for him was to bid goodbye to Sofia, a beautiful Mexican lass, whom he was seeing for some time. He described his relationship with her this way, “We become one for the other.”

When I pressed him to give me more pieces of information about Sofia, he admitted that he pursued her because he was obedient to his erstwhile Jesuit novice master.

That time, he recalls, he just left the Jesuit novitiate house after staying there for more than two years. The Jesuit novitiate formation lasts for two years. His novice master told him that he could continue to stay in the novitiate, but as long as he is the novice master, he could not allow him to profess as a Jesuit. Fr. Andres did not know the reason why he could not become one.

His novice master was rather straight forward in telling him that he did not have any vocation to the religious life. Fr. Andres recounts that he was told to go home and get married, to live a normal life, this is insofar as there are more ways than one to reach heaven. And so, he obeyed his novice master–until he met Sofia. But then again, he met the Salesians soon after. And once again, he gave his religious vocation a chance. However, at that time, he was “perfectly sure” that he wanted to become a Salesian.

Fr. Cervantes joined the Salesians at the age of 22. He made his First Religious Profession in August 16, 1956. He studied at Crocetta from 1959 to 1963. He was ordained in 1963 in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin in a cold morning of February 11. He was supposed to be sent to Korea and Japan. But the superiors changed these obediences. He was sent to Thailand as a missionary. He worked in Thailand for only three years. The provincial of Thailand would send him back to Mexico, seeing that Thailand was not ready for the missionary activity.

When I ask him how he knew it, he casually tells me, “It is a mystery. But I never doubted that I will become a Salesian priest.” He adds, “I am very happy to be a Salesian.”

I asked him what is the most inspiring thing in being a Salesian, he responded that it is not a thing, but a person, “Don Bosco!” Fr. Andres emphasizes that as soon as he got to know Don Bosco, he instantly decided to become a Salesian.

One of the most unforgettable assignments he has had in the Philippines is his being a confessor in Bacolor, Pampanga, a task he shared with the late Fr. Peter Garbero. His eyes lit up when he brought up the news to me that he read about the re-opening of Bacolor.

Aside from the Philippines, he was also sent to East Timor and Thailand to do mission work for a good number of years before being asked to return to the Philippines in 2008.

Because of his old age and weak physical condition, Fr. Andres is currently staying at the Zatti Clinic inside the Don Bosco Technical Institute, Makati compound.

When I asked him about the secret he keeps on how he has remained faithful through the years, he motions with his fingers and utters, “I have two.” “First, have a great devotion to the Blessed Mother… Mary Help of Christians! The Redemptorists in Baclaran got it right. Mary is not just our help. She is our perpetual help!” “And the second?” I prompted him for his second secret. He casually said, “Love for Don Bosco.”

Fr. Andres Cervantes is 60 years a Salesian. But more than what the pop song says, he does not merely shine “bright like a diamond.” His rays glisten far more than this, because he is a shining example of what a Salesian is: A sign and bearer of God’s love to the young!

A Postscript to #DB200

The March-May 2016 issue of The St. John Bosco Today, the Salesian Family Magazine of the two Philippine Provinces, wraps up with the Philippine celebration of Don Bosco’s 200th birth anniversary. The pages of that issue contain a splendid comprehensive coverage of the festivities which had begun on August 16, 2014 held at Don Bosco Caritas up to the conclusion of the celebration at the Ynares Coliseum in Pasig City exactly a year after.

That magazine’s issue coincides with the month I was ordained as a Salesian priest, as if to indicate that a gift of a Salesian priestly vocation tops all the festivities to honor the 200^th birth anniversary of St. John Bosco.  After all, for the Salesians, vocation is the crowning glory of the youth ministry.

I write this reflection nearly three months after that special commemorative issue was released, and after the date of my ordination which fell on May 14, Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle.

Initially, I wanted to be ordained on April 2.  I chose the date since it is the liturgical feast of St. Pedro Calungsod, a young Filipino saint who was canonized some four years ago.  Although liturgical law would prevent me to celebrate his feast on that day since the day fell within the Easter Octave this year, I wanted a date that has an importance for me, not just any random date chosen out of convenience.

But when I proposed this to Fr. Paul Bicomong, SDB, my Provincial Superior, he did not approve of it. He reasoned out that the time to prepare for the ordination would be limited, and he did not want the ordination to be haphazardly organized. I did not merely obey him, I agreed with him for I only had a month left if I would push through with that date.

The next thing I caught myself doing was to scan again the calendar. I realized that I was back to square one. A seminary companion helped me look for the next possible date. It was then that we considered May 14.  But more than just being a feast of St. Matthias, our research led us to appreciate its value inasmuch as the life of the Salesian congregation is concerned.

Apparently, on that day in 1862, Don Bosco received the vows of the first members of the Salesian congregation which was at its budding stage.

Likewise, we look back into that same day, too, when Don Bosco, through his dream, received a vision, about the two pillars, on which the Salesian congregation anchors its most important devotions on—the Blessed Mother and the Holy Eucharist.

In retrospect, that day when I was ordained a priest, though a celebration of the Church, is at its finest, a deeply Salesian event.

My prayer is that the grace I received through my priesthood may give birth to another Don Bosco.

[Video] A Day with a Young Salesian

Are you curious what is a typical day for young Salesians? This is for you!

Kudos to our young Salesians in the Postnovitiate community for preparing this video.

FIN Concludes its Provincial Chapter

The Provincial Chapter concluded with the celebration of the Holy Mass today invoking the intercession of St. Dominic Savio whose feast we commemorate today.

In his homily, Fr. Paul Bicomong asked the chapter members to recall their very first experience in the Salesian house and their encounter with the first Salesians they met. He related this to the first encounter of Dominic Savio and Don Bosco and pointed out how Don Bosco wove a beautiful fabric for the Lord in Dominic. He challenged them to do the same in the young people they encounter.

He congratulated the capitulars for their work and asked them to continue praying so that the Provincial Chapter may bear fruit.

After the homily, the chapter members affixed their signatures as an expression of their approval for the final documents, a concrete output of their five days of prayer, reflection and deliberations.

All chapters members voted for the final documents which will be submitted to the Generalate.

One of the distinctive marks of this chapter is that it is almost paperless. Most of the chapter members accessed the digital form of the documents deliberated on. Online technology allowed them to comment and revise on the document all at the same time.

The recently concluded Provincial Chapter accomplished three outputs: (1) The FIN Implementation of the GC 27, (2) the revision of the Provincial Directory, and the (3) Reshaping the Salesian Presence of the Province.

Fr. Umijun explains his point in the plenary. 

 

“Inangkin kita” [A Vocation Story]

Novice John Joseph Aguila will profess as a Salesian Don Bosco on May 6. Here is his vocation story. 

 

When I was 5 years old, our home was very fortunate to receive Mama Mary through the efforts of a Salesian priest, Fr. John Andreu, through a block rosary. It was the start of a very good journey with the Lord. It encouraged me to attend Sunday Masses regularly in St. Dominic Savio Parish. In regularly attending the Mass, I found out that the priests are very welcoming, and that their homilies are both practical and inspiring.

It was my first time to feel that I belong to a bigger community because my parents would not usually allow me to go outside our compound. The celebrations are so captivating that I found myself attending Mass even without my parents; most of the time with my friends and on several occasions, just by myself.

As I mature, I decided to join the youth center under the group of the young catechists. Actually, I had no deeper motivations in joining the group aside from the fact that I really felt at home with their company and that I was attracted to a young lady who happened to be a member of that group.

But God had different plans for me; things never materialized for the two of us. True, I fell for her but I also fell for Him and for them. It was a very confusing situation for me. I cannot think clearly until I find myself committing myself to everyone.

In those days, I also became close with the Salesians, with their pastoral works and with the young. I fell in love with Jesus and with the youth. I enjoyed every second I was with them – the kwentuhans (story telling), the laughters, the tambayans (standbys); practically all their activities.

It was Fr. Ben Borja, SDB, who first invited me to try the “Orientation.” I had no clue about it but I said yes. Little did I know that it was vocation orientation and I was completely caught off guard. Surprisingly, I liked the experience and it opened me to an enlarged horizon. Unfortunately, he had to leave for Pampanga for his new obedience and things never materialized as I expected them to be.

Fr. Dante Valero, SDB, took over. He asked me if I was still willing to pursue and I said YES, then we started the admission process to the seminary. Fortunately, I was admitted but not yet in the Pre-Novitiate Seminary in Canlubang. Since I was a college graduate, then Fr. Provincial (Fr. Eli Cruz, SDB) asked me to stay with the Salesian Community of Don Bosco Technical College (DBTC) and had my aspirantate there.

However, things became rough for me. I was in the adjustment process. Homesickness struck very hard and the feelings for that same lady I was attracted to years ago, resurfaced. I lost my focus and I left DBTC in just three days after I entered without even talking about it with my spiritual director. In fact, I was so confused that I did not even bother consulting him about my decision.

After leaving, I told myself not to get any closer with the Salesians or the youth, not even to our parish grounds. I lost my will to pray. I completely felt that I was lost. But God had different things in mind. Fr. Edwin Soliva, SDB, our parish priest offered me to head a pastoral work. For reasons I could not understand, I just could not say “No” to him.

Surprisingly, I became closer with the Salesians and the whole parish community again, but not with God. I felt ashamed of what I have done and lost my will to pray. Ironically, I was serving the parish but without a relationship with Jesus; it was merely functionalism. For some reasons, people around me were not aware of it. I believe this was the primary reason why Fr. Abner Santos kept on insisting that I should go back to my formation – to the seminary.

For the next two years, I just smiled about it.

However, on September 26, 2012, I felt like praying. Unconsciously, my feet drag me to a very familiar place – the Adoration Chapel. For almost half an hour, I was just there in front of the Blessed Sacrament, thinking of how I lived my life in the last 25 years.

Then I felt that familiar call. I knew plenty of things were running through my head and I supposed that it could just be a sudden burst of emotion, so I ignored it. But it was persistent. So I informed my Salesian friends about it and they told me to pray and to seek a Spiritual Direction. With that plan, God brought me to Bro. Mon Callo, who guided me through it until came the part that I finally decided that I want a second chance – I will enter the seminary again. And the rest is history.

If I were to summarize my vocation, it would be God’s Faithfulness. He had been faithful in giving me friends – lay and Salesians – who never got tired of me when I seemed to lose it all. It only shows that He never gave up on me though I gave up on Him on several occasions.

During my discernment retreat for the application for first profession last January 2016, I felt that the Lord has sealed His call. I was actually reflecting of the passage of the Prophet Isaiah when the Lord said “I have called you by name, you are mine” and I felt so much consolation and joyfulness from it. I even translated it in Filipino “Inangkin na kita!” (Literally: I have owned you) because it gave me a deeper meaning and deeper sense towards my vocation.

Thanks to His goodness and mercy, I will be professing the vows as Salesian this coming May 6, 2016 – the Feast of St. Dominic Savio, the patron saint of my home parish, the place where it all began for me.

A Soldier for Christ [A Vocation Story]

Novice Lorenzo Estralla will profess as a Salesian Don Bosco on May 6. Here is his vocation story. 

“Do not be afraid; do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.” –St. John Paul II, Cristo es Liberazione (Christ is Liberation)

It was sometime in second grade, around 2002, when I first heard the abovementioned song. At that time, like most kids of my age, I was neither very aware nor paid much attention to the priesthood, let alone the vocation to the religious life. However, my mind never let go of that song since then, not knowing that this would play a part in leading me to the life that I am about to embrace.

The following year, I joined the Knights of the Altar sodality in Don Bosco Makati. While I was fascinated with what they did—being close to the altar and assisting the priest, what completely caught my attention was the white cassock they wore, which made them distinct from all others attending the Mass and at the same time made them look like the priest. Thus, two playful thoughts began to form in my mind: first, would the day come that I would be the one being attended to by these servers? Second, would the day come wherein I would be the one presiding Holy Mass?

In the fifth grade, I met two young Salesians- Fr. Glenn Protacio (Fr. Tutti), who was then a cleric undergoing practical training and Fr. Armando Cortez (Fr. Ding), then a new priest assigned as Pastoral Animator for the Elementary department. Seeing them among the young: Cl. Tutti assisting the students during lunchtime while wearing his cassock, or playing of the violin during institutional masses; and Fr. Ding with his ever-open office full of students during break times, his cheerful disposition and his lively homilies, I could not help but be attracted to become like one of them primarily because they were truly happy with what they were doing.

A year later, in the sixth grade, Fr. Ding started an initiative for a junior vocation team which he called the J-Team (Jesus Team). I was one of the thirty or so students who showed interest in the vocation to the priestly and religious life. There, we were given inputs and exhortations on the nature of this vocation, and even got the chance to witness a presbyteral ordination in the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians in Paranaque.

I started showed more than just a passing interest in entering the seminary after graduation. In fact, I showed a strong desire to become a priest, to the delight of my parents, my teachers and even Fr. Luisito Castañeda, then Rector of Don Bosco Makati- who was very proud that for the first time in a very long time, the school had finally produced a junior seminarian.

However, since the Salesians no longer had a high school seminary, since the Don Bosco Juniorate in Bacolor, Pampanga was flooded with lahar in 1996, I was advised to enter the Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary ran by the Archdiocese of Manila.

Armed with youthful enthusiasm, I passed through the entrance examination and the oral interview with ease, but the three-day orientation exposed me to factors I had not carefully considered: living away from my family, living with people I do not know and whose personalities and characters were quite different from me, and leaving behind the comforts of home that I have grown accustomed to.

I found myself completely unprepared to face these. In a moment of panic, I quickly turned my back on the idea of becoming a seminarian that not even the arrival of the letter on May 2006 confirming my acceptance to seminary, the requirements and things needed and basically their anticipation of me being there changed my mind.

Looking back at it today, I realized that I was probably too naïve and had unrealistic expectations of seminary and seminary life, mistaking it to be a monastery populated with angels and saints. But above all, it was my great fear and reluctance to leave all and let go of my attachments– my family, my home and the comforts I have grown accustomed to—in order to follow Christ.

So I went back to Don Bosco Makati for my secondary studies, to the probable disappointment of the expectant priests. High school life for me—the juggling of studies, social life and various personal issues- became a confusing paradox: I was trying to assert myself as someone trying to go against the flow, to be a cut above the rest and to be above normal; while at the same time, I was also trying too hard to fit in and conform to the secular image of an ‘average’ adolescent.

By the time I was in my senior year, that was in 2009, I finally understood the meaning of the song “In Him Alone.” I found myself asking: “Can the world ever satisfy the emptiness in our hearts?” And the answer was simple yet striking: “In vain, we deny.” Thus, the call which I had turned my back on four years before returned once more. This time, wised up and tempered by experience, I felt more capable and willing to respond to the challenges of this call.

On June 1, 2010, I entered the Don Bosco Pre-novitiate Seminary in Canlubang, Laguna to begin the aspirantate stage of formation—four years of college education along with the holistic seminary formation. Although I still had some doubts and fears whether I could make it, I surrendered them all to the Lord who called me.

In 2014, I took the next step in answering the call of The Self-Giving Lord of All by applying for Postulancy. While it was not very easy, I realized in the end that I was doing this because I was responding gratefully to the God who has loved me in the first place.

I finally put out into the deep on April 30, 2015, when I was accepted to the Novitiate. And the next milestone in this wonderful and colorful journey to and with Christ is on May 6, 2016, when I and nine of my brother novices would be making the first religious profession.

Allow me to conclude with an interesting detail, something which I had dutifully kept track of since I entered the seminary: it has been more than two thousand one hundred forty days since the day I first answered him; and I can honestly say that I have no regrets in doing so.

An SDB Brother in the Making [A Vocation Story]

Novice John Coral will profess as a Salesian Don Bosco on May 6. Here is his vocation story. 

When   I   was   a   child,   I   dreamt   of   becoming   a   priest.      My   grandmother   was   my   first  vocation  promoter.  She  gave  me  bits  and  tidbits  of  information  about  the  priesthood  and  as  well  as  inspirations  about  this  wonderful  vocation.    My  young  mind  became  inclined  towards  the  church,  the  lives  of  the Saints  and  the  idea  of  becoming  a  priest  all  because  of  my  grandmother.

As  I  grew  older,  my  attention  however  was  diverted  to  some  other  things.    I  became  more  inclined  with  my  friends,  with  playing,  with  studies  and  other  distractions.    I  set  aside  my  dream  of  becoming  a  priest  and  instead  aspired  to  become  a  doctor,  scientist  or  a  businessman.

When  I  was  in  high  school,  I  became  involved  in  our  parish  commission  youth.    I  was  an  active  member  of  our  choir  as  an  instrumentalist.    It  was  during  this  time  that  I  came  to  know  a  little   bit   about   Don   Bosco   and   the   works   of   the   Salesian   through   one   of   the   parish   youth  leaders.

One  day  during  my  senior  year  in  high  school,  there  was  a  group  of  Dominican  friars  who  went  to  our  school  to  promote  vocation.    We were invited to go for a  vocation  search-­in  experience.    It  was  during  this  time  that  I  have  come  to  think  again  about  my  vocation.    I  shared  this  to  my  high  school  principal  who  happened  to  be  a  religious  sister.    She  advised  me  to  take  a  bachelor’s  degree  first,  look  for  a  job  and  experience  living  in  the  corporate  world.    If  by  that  time  I  feel  that  am  still  being  called  to  priesthood,  then  I  can  go  ahead  and  pursue  with  my  vocation.

Without  really  taking  the  good  sister’s  advice  seriously,  that  actually  became  the  route  that  I  took.    I  finished  my  bachelor’s  degree,  worked  in  the  corporate  world  and  experienced  living  independently.    It  was  during  this  time  of  living  by  myself  that  I  come  to  reconsider  about  my  vocation.    I  realized  that  even  I  have  the  money,  a  stable  job  and  comfortable  life,  there  is  still  something  lacking  in  my  life.    I  felt  that  I  was  not  completely  happy  in  that  kind  of  life.    I  disclosed   this   to   my   spiritual   director   and   he   helped   me   in   the   process   of   my   vocation  discernment.    I  pondered  on  where  would  I  find  meaning  and  the  plan  of  God  in  my  life.    I  went  for  some  personal  silent  retreats  to  really  think  and  discern  my  vocation.  It  was  during  these  time  of  solitude  and  prayer  when  I  realized  that  I  want  to  dedicate  my  life  to  the  Lord  in  the  service   of   the   young   people.

It   was   also   during   these   time   that   prayed   about   my   Salesian  vocation.

When  the  right  time  came,  I  decided  to  enter  the  Salesian  seminary.    It  was  not  an  easy  transition   for   me.      After   living   for   some   years   independently,   here   I   am   in   the   Seminary  following  a  set  of  schedules  and  rules  and  obeying  my  superiors  and  brother  assistant.

There  were  a  lot  of  adjustments  in  my  part  but  I  was  able  to  overcome  the  difficulties.    I  thought  I  have  already  learned  a  lot  from  living  outside  but  my  seminary  formation  has  enriched  more  my   experiences.     I   have   slowly   come   to   find   meaning   and   happiness   as   I   submit   myself   in  docility  to  the  formation  process.

During  the  year  of  the  novitiate,  I  learned  more  about  the  religious  life  and  its  beauty.    I  have  also  come  to  understand  deeper  the  life  of  Don  Bosco,  his  charism  and  the  life  of  the  Salesians.      This   has   opened   me   the   richness   of   the   Salesian   vocation.   This   has   led   me   to  appreciate   the   two   vocations   in   the   Salesian   congregation   –   the   priesthood   and   the   lay  brotherhood  vocation.    After  an  intense  prayerful  discernment,  I  discovered  that  God  is  calling  me  for  the  lay  brotherhood.    I  am  now  looking  forward  to  take  the  next  phase  of  my  life.