IHF USA: Triduum 2018

The Triduum 2018 of the Holy Family Institute was held at the Shrine of our Lady of Lebanon in North Jackson OH from 21st to 23rd September 2018, and it was a real time of grace. About 60 members of the Institute were present, coming from all the United States, Fr. Matthew Roehrig (HFI Delegate(, Fr. Tony Bautista (Delegate of the Superior General for the United States) and several members of the Staten Island and Canfield communities.

The retreat was preached by the Italian Pauline Fr. Angelo Colacrai, an expert on St. Paul and on the Bible. The speaker touched on several Pauline topics, such as John 14:6 (Jesus Way Truth and Life), the family of Paul (according to Paul) and the Pauline Family. Then he presented an entire vocabulary (i.e. over 30 Greek words, with phonetics, occurrences in the 13 letters, a selected verse as an example for each word, with cross references). He dealt, specifically with: The house – household, how to build and rebuild a house, home; The couple, man and woman, one for the other (togetherness); Parents and Children; Father(s) and Mother(s); Brothers and Sisters (people belonging to the same domestic Church); The women of Paul, one by one, as, Prisca (with Aquila), Apphia, Julia, Claudia… Phoebe, Damaris; Kinsman; Separation and Divorce. He ended the Triduum by suggesting some Pauline Perspectives, starting with quotations from Amoris Laetitia (by Francis), on “fulfilment”, “completeness”, “dialogue”, the “media education”, “virginity”. Another (secondary) topic was the Lectio divina in 10 steps (lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio, contritio, consolatio, discretio, deliberatio, actio apostolica, oblatio). The end was about a Pauline Pyramid – hierarchy according to Paul, exploring the relationship (sometimes tense) between Paul and Peter (Cephas) and Apollos in the church of Corinth and in Galatians. Fr. Colacrai ended the meeting brandishing his mobile phone and suggesting: “Being like Paul or like Peter or Apollos? What really matters to the Pauline Family is to unify a nowadays divided Church, due to the differences in doctrines, languages, politics, costumes, religions (so many claiming to be true) by using the most modern media of communication, by co-working with others, by creating new communities in the net and in this today so global wired world we live in, and belong to”.

During the Triduum, we joyfully witnessed several renewals and perpetual professions as well as the entry into the novitiate of the Annunciationist Tahlia Fernandez.

Books and objects exhibits, were held by Br. Peter Lyne SSP, Sr. Mary Peter Martin DSP, Dee Primavera and Jacquie De Alvarez HFI.