Two Province Observances
On Saturday, February 4, two province observances occurred at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw, N.Y. The 1st was the annual celebration of Province Day, moved up from its customary date in May in order to accommodate the 2d occurrence, one of 4 province meetings aimed at helping the Rector Major discern the appointment of a new provincial.
Fr. Hugo Orozco, the general councilor for our Interamerica Region, presided at both Mass in the Shrine chapel and the assembly of the confreres in Fr. Tae-Seok Lee Hall. Confreres from the New York metro area and Boston took part.
The Eucharistic celebration was a votive Mass of Mary Help of Christians with the weekday readings. It began on time at 9:00 a.m. and lasted just 40 minutes. The congregation included 34 concelebrating priests, 2 deacons, 19 brothers, a prenovice, 4 candidates from Orange, and 2 other priests—a total of 52 confreres.
Fr.
Hugo gave what was probably the shortest homily in the history of our provincial
feastdays. The gospel reading (Mark 6:30-34) called our attention to Jesus’
compassion for the crowds who had come to him. Fr. Hugo urged the confreres to
strive to be like Jesus, to have compassionate hearts.
After a coffee break, Fr. Hugo initiated the discernment process by explaining the steps to be followed. Later he also explained the process that the Rector Major and general council would follow, probably in July, in selecting the confrere who will lead the province for the next 6 years, based in large part on the consultation of the province.
After
praying, the Salesians and candidates, sitting at 10 or 12 tables, discussed
strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of the province; some of these were voiced
for everyone to hear. Then Fr. Hugo asked the professed participants to write 3
names on slips of paper and pass these to him. Two brothers helped him compile
a list of all the names put forward—about 20 of them—which were projected
without any indication of the number of times they were listed.
Next, the confreres were asked to fill out an online form, partly about themselves (in order to weigh the relative value of the suggestions) and partly with 1st, 2d, and 3d choices for a provincial and their reasons for those choices. This information constitutes the heart of what Fr. Hugo will take back to Turin from this Marian Shrine assembly as well as from parallel assemblies in Tampa, Etobicoke (Ont.), and Surrey (B.C). (The general council has been meeting at the Motherhouse in Turin while Sacro Cuore in Rome undergoes renovation.)
This consultation process took 2½ hours. By 12:30 p.m. everyone was ready to eat and did justice to the hors d’oeuvres and the buffet luncheon. Fr. Tim Zak presented a film clip about what the Salesians are doing for the suffering people in Ukraine, who will be the beneficiaries again this year of the communities’ gifts for Province Day. The confreres from Orange, under the leadership of Bro. Sal Sammarco, sang two hymns that Bro. Sal had composed. There was a surfeit of leftovers for confreres to take home; and thus closed the day’s festivities.
Photos of province day Mass and gathering: https://link.shutterfly.com/vWp9gbgW9wb
Photos of the consultation for provincial: https://link.shutterfly.com/wFTahV5V9wb
No comments:
Post a Comment