25 September
Brothers
Last week an alumnus (Manny) of La Salle Greenhills, Manila and his wife, joined us for lunch at the Casa Generalizia. In the course of conversation vocations to the Brothers’ life came up. Manny quite openly stated that he hoped that one of his two sons would consider becoming a La Salle Brother. It was pleasing to hear a parent speak so positively, and express an openness to one of his family becoming a Brother. It crossed my mind that as people working in Vocations Ministry perhaps we need to be more proactive in promoting our way of life to parents, challenging them to put the question of Church vocations to their children.
BR PHILIP WRITES FROM MYANMAR;
This is a short note of the completed Program of Come & See and Aspirancy in Kalaw.
The Come and See and Aspirancy Program was completed and some of the candidates dispersed for their University exams while some went back to their families. Brothers Lawrence, Joseph A., and Anthony met with all the candidates on 25th to 31 August, 2008. They interviewed them individually and made an evaluation on each one of them.
Among the eight aspirants five decided to join the Pre-Postulancy in Yangon which will be opened on 15th December 2008. All the five boys from the Come and See Program expressed their desire to continue as Aspirants which will be opened in Maymyo (Pin Oo Lwin) on 10th
January 2009. Brothers Lawrence and Joseph will go recruiting in October and November in parishes for the next Come and See Programme.
FROM NEWSLETTER DELEGATION OF PAKISTAN
FORMATION (MIGUEL HOUSE):Ten new aspirants have joined the Miguel House and have commenced the Orientation Program in the House. The five first years have started their college to do 2nd part of their F.A studies. The four who have passed their F.A have commenced their Pre-Postulancy program in the House.
Two of our Postulants, Shashi Abrar and Naeem Muneer have joined the Postulancy Programme in Wattala, Sri Lanka which is for nine months. They were officially accepted into the Postulancy on 8th of September on the Feast of the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary Let us be grateful to the Lord for His blessings on the Delegation with fine young potential vocations.
TEAM TALK (VOCATIONS NEWSLETTER) AUSTRALIA REPORTS:
Good news!8 applications for the Challenge Programs have been requested and from that group 1 has returned an application, 4 are undecided and the other 3 seek other forms of contact with us.
This week, we are conducting 3 focus groups with Catholic males aged 18–35yrs at Australian Catholic University, Strathfield and Notre Dame University, Broadway. The aim of this research is to gather information to assist in the planning of new activities and programs and to determine suitable advertising channels. Now that the campaign has launched and generated some media awareness, it’s time to get our great material in spaces which reach our target group. Through this research we will also be exploring possible University avenues for the Brothers to engage with males, 18+yrs.
Next up!The challenge going forward for vocations lies in what we have to offer our target group in terms of work, community life, projects, stories, activities, etc.
The challenge, as highlighted by the Lab’s research and PR, is the current visibility and nature of the Brothers work in Aus and NZ. Our target group need high impact work outside the classroom and alternative styles of community living. This challenge calls for some creative solutions and changes
Having drawn 8 men to our way of life through the campaign, our job now is to ensure we keep these prospective Brothers on the path of seriously considering this life. We need to acknowledge their needs and address them to ultimately inspire them and others to ensure the future of the Brothers in this District.
VIRTUAL VOCATIONS PROMOTION…..BR ARIAN PHILIPPINES
The Brothers in the Philippines have set up virtual homes on the World Wide Web. One of the social networking sites that we've enrolled in is Multiply.com (lasallebro.multiply.com). It has proven to be a good way of reaching out and communicating to a wider base of students given the limited number of Brothers. One of the more active topics of discussion is, inevitably, the never-ending battle between La Salle and the Jesuit university, Ateneo de Manila. We've also floated the question on Lasallian identity and we've gotten some interesting definitions from our students.
Individual Brothers have also set up camp in Multiply and other social networking sites and have their respective students interacting with them on a regular basis. Links to their pages are on the Multiply site. The official site of the Brothers is currently being revamped and will soon be online.
FINAL VOWS PREPARATIONS
Five Brothers (Vinnoly, Nester, Inego Amalan, Jeyaraj, Britto Pinto) in the Delegation of India have commenced a programme in preparation for Final Vows on 18 October and one in Pakistan (Waseem) who will be professed on 12 October. Let’s keep the six Brothers in our prayers.
44th GENERAL CHAPTER REMINDS US
“That we open our communities to young people who wish to deepen their spiritual life, discern their vocation and better understand our mission by offering them the opportunity to pursue this discernment and know better who we are as Brothers.” (Circular 455, Section 5; 1.3.1)
May God bless you in your ministry.
David Hawke FSC
General Councillor for PARC Region
