To PCHS

A TIMELY RECOLLECTION

To PCHS teachers, Admin, and staff:

The matter for our quarterly recollection this SY 2024-2025 is St. Ignatius and his Spirituality.

For material, we shall use Chosen in Christ, Called to Companionship with Christ (CTC for short), the online retreat I gave to SHS-ADC teachers, Admin, and Staff in 2020 while I was the chaplain there. 

While the retreat (material) was made with the particular audience at that time, I believe its main points, the prayer suggestions, and its spirit can certainly be adapted to us here at PCHS. If we open our hearts to God in our recollection, there is no doubt in me, as in St. Ignatius, that God will speak to our hearts. 

There are three events that tell me that CTC is such a timely theme for us.

1. For the first time in our school history, we were officially welcomed just last month to a JBEC meeting. JBEC is a network of Jesuit schools whose apostolate is the education and formation of students in the Basic Ed. We wouldn't have been welcomed if we were not considered a Jesuit school. So, we can now say that PCHS is a Jesuit school, a Jesuit apostolate. And this fact comes with it certain commitments. Thus, it is timely to consider its significance and implications to us as teachers, Admin, and staff of PCHS. And what could be a better way to do this than to use CTC, that is, to pray to God in the spirit of St. Ignatius. 

2. In 2019, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, presented the 4 Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs) as guide to all the Jesuits and lay partners for the next decade, namely:

• To walk with those who are poor, marginalized, or have had their dignity violated.

• To work together to care for the earth and create alternative models of life that are sustainable.

• To accompany young people in building a hope-filled future.

• To show the way to God through discernment and the Spiritual Exercises.

How can we respond to this mission, how can we be the Jesuit educators and formators we are called to be, if we ourselves don’t have the spirit that God gave Ignatius? I’m convinced that we won’t be part of the Jesuit family if God doesn’t also offer us the charism we need to carry out the task we are called to do. Again, there is no better way to imbibe this Ignatian spirituality than to learn how to pray like Ignatius. This charism is at the heart of everything that a person called to such a family does. 

3. On the 21st of January 2024, Pope Francis announced: Today we begin the year of Prayer...a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world.  This year of prayer is our preparation for the celebration of the great Jubilee of Hope next year 2025. So, it’s timely that we get a little serious about our prayer life this year. If we do, there is no doubt that it would open us up to graces that God has prepared for this great Jubilee. 

Through Ignatius, our patron saint, may this SY be a year of great fervor in prayer and desires for God, a season of grace for us and for our school.  

+ AMDG

Fr. Alex Badiola, SJ, PCHS Chaplain, October 2, 2024