Schola Affectus

Ten Jesuit tertians from around the world are starting the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius today in Portland, Ore. This four-week retreat is an important component of tertianship, a part of the Jesuit formation process.

Tertianship is usually made ten to fifteen years after the novitiate and at the end of a Jesuit’s professional training. St. Ignatius called it a “school of the heart” because it’s a time when the tertian deepens his own commitment to the Society of Jesus. “The retreat of the Spiritual Exercises is perhaps the key moment of tertianship. After years of living his life as a Jesuit, the tertian once again engages in this month-long program of intense prayer and reflection and brings his lived experience as a Jesuit before our loving God,” explains Jesuit Father Dave Godleski

Link (here) to Jesuit.org

Manilla Jesuit On The Dead, Dwarves, Kything, Hypnotism And Synchronicity

Fr. Jaime "Fr. Bu"  Bulatao, SJ

Fr. Jaime Bulatao, S.J., the founder of the Department of Psychology in Ateneo de Manilla University can communicate with creatures that are normally invisible such as the dead and the dwarves. In one of his experiences, he asked a favor from a dwarf named “Anilaida” to help fix a diamond ring for a family. “As soon as the [Vargas family] got [home], they put the ring and the diamond in the middle table. Within ten minutes, [the ring and the diamond] disappeared. [When] they came back from lunch, they went up, and on top of the pillow, there was the ring and the diamond put into it, so you can be sure that there were energies at work. And furthermore, there was intelligence. [Anilaida] understood English,” he says. The psychology professor doesn’t keep his gift to himself. In fact, he allows many of his students to explore the workings of the normally invisible entities to either help them develop their sixth sense or satisfy their curiosity for a bizarre experience.

One of the many things that he taught was kything or the ability to send one’s presence somewhere where he is not physically present. Another would be the experience to communicate with someone without the use of direct words whether that person is physically present or not. It works in such a way that both you and the person you want to communicate with end up thinking about each other, allowing you both to communicate even with the absence of concrete words. 

Lisa, one of the students who Fr. Bulatao had taught, narrated her spiritual encounter with her mom. “Father, in a way, hypnotized me. He made me think of my mom, and she already passed away. At that moment, I really felt she was there, so in a way, I was able to communicate with her,” she says. In all of these things, Fr. Bulatao talks of the positive energies working around people. These are what make the illusionary occurrences a reality, such as the bending of the fork done only through rubbing its surface. In the same way, these positive energies are capable of telling one about the future or an answer to a yes-or-no question. “There’s… something else besides us. In the West, they talk of cause and effect. In the East, they talk of synchronicity. I discovered it by accident,” he says. “I was in Meralco Theatre [when] the people had asked me to do an illustration of hypnosis. While I was there, I hypnotized the whole group. I said, ‘Go up into the ceiling.’ Sure enough, when they were already near the ceiling, I shouted, ‘Be careful of the lights.’ The light [bulb] right then and there burst. So, I call that synchronicity… meaningful events that join together at the same time. Simultaneous,” he adds.

Link (here) to read the full story at The Guidon 

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On Winning Basketball Games And St. Ignatius

July 31 is the feast of our Patron Saint Ignatius of Loyola, who is the founder of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. Obviously, it's a school holiday. In the past years when we have games during his feast day, we emerge victorious. I woke up this morning with a heavy feeling for some weird reason. But of course I had to exercise my mind to stay positive and I played really hard during the game even if  Ionly scored 7 points, my lowest output this season. I have to give credit to their tight defense, which they mixed up well too, but I also felt that I settled too much from the 3-point line.

 

Link (here) to the former Philippino college basketball star, playing for  Ateneo University, Chris Tui. Chris' blog is called AMDG. Chris is currently playing pro basketball for Smart Gilas and a TV personality.

The Ateneo Dollhouse

From the keen and astute Jesuit observer in the Philippines, The Monks Hobbit lets the world in on what is happening at Ateneo University in the Philippines.

His latest post is about the sliding away from the Jesuit practices of just a few years ago in to a more "Pop Culture" atmosphere.

(Here) is an excerpt from his blog post.

I think Ateneo de Manila is trying to catch up with Georgetown University, another Jesuit University, who already has a Gay Campus Centre with a Homosexual Director.

The Dollhouse is not still an official center in the Ateneo, but they have claimed a patch of land in Ateneo to be their own and the Administration is not minding them.

But the Gay lobby in Ateneo is making its presence felt in the Ateneo. You see this in the books published in the Ateneo de Manila University Press, such as Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in Diaspora (Philippine Edition). The English and Filipino classes are also permeated with gay and lesbian themes. This is not surprising, since Danton Remoto, an English professor in Ateneo, is the chairman of Ladlad, the national organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Filipinos. He is running for Senator of the Republic of the Philippines this 2010 elections.

The Dead Jesuits Society: Sodality, Rosary, and Angelus

The dead Jesuits must be turning in their graves–or rather, they look down from the heavens and gaze with sadness at what Ateneo de Manila had become.

Ateneo de Manila, the foremost Jesuit University in the Philippines, was once the bastion of Catholic Faith before the World War II. It is said that at that time no one can run as the school’s student council president unless he is a member of the Sodality of Our Lady. But the devotion to our Lady is dying at the Ateneo.

The rosary is now rarely said here: in all my years here in the Ateneo, I can count with my fingers the masses that I have seen that started with a rosary.