FP Philippines: Annual Retreat 2009

The Pauline Family Annual retreat was held on July 5-10 at the Carmelite Missionaries Center of Spirituality in Tagaytay City, Cavite.  It was facilitated by Sr. Elena Bosetti, SJBP, an Italian biblical scholar likewise lecturing at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.   The first of the two batches of Pauline retreatants this year was represented by 22 SSP's (including Fr. Pete Barisoro and Fr. Romy Hitosis who this year celebrate their 46th Sacerdotal Anniversary), 7 FSP’s, 5 IOLA’s, 10 Pastorelle Sisters, and 10 PDDM’s.   The theme of the retreat was Galatians 4:19: “My Children, With Whom I am Again in Labor Until Christ is Formed in You".

Sr. Elena made a bridge between the Pauline Year and the Sacerdotal Year so that in praying for priests and recognizing the importance of their vocation and mission in the Church, a better understanding of the priesthood of all the baptized can be made.  Reflecting on the whole letter of Paul to the Galatians, she went into the heart of both the pastoral ministry of St. Paul and the pastoral mission of the Pauline Family.  Paulines are called to communicate Jesus Christ in a "pastoral / maternal" way … in labor until HE is formed in everyone.

The retreat was a week of Spiritual and Fraternal encounter,  family bonding, sharing, and praying together.  It was a week of Pauline confessions starting with confessio laudis (praise and thanksgiving),  then confessio vitae (life), then confessio fidei, spei and amoris (faith, hope and love), and finally confessio pastoralis.

PHOTO GALLERY (Sr. Ding Paloma, FSP): Sessions | Worship | Fellowship | Banquet | SSP | FSP | PDDM | SJBP | IOLA