Provincial Chapter

Our Provincial chapter convened in the student wing of our Monastery in San Antonio on Monday evening, May 26^th. Fr. Provincial led us in Evening Prayer, after which Fr. Gregory Ross was installed for his second consecutive triennium as our Provincial. He had been elected by the popular vote of the solemnly professed members of our province this spring. After supper we gathered in the old student recreation room for our first business session of the chapter. The schedule, chapter Acts 05, Ratio, Policies, and other miscellaneous documents were distributed. This was the first chapter of our province’s history in which all solemnly professed members of the province had been invited to participate due to the small number of personnel in our province. With the recent death of Fr. Mary Philip, we have only 23 professed. Two of these are in nursing homes, one in Rome and one in simple vows. So we had19 chapter friars present. The first order of business was to appoint a secretary. Fr. Provincial asked for volunteers, at which time all observed strict custody of the eyes. Fr. John Michael volunteered with the condition that he be given an assistant. Fr. Gregory then read our Fr. General’s letter to the chapter and delivered his state of the province address. He also gave us the sad news that Fr. Augustine Kizhakkedam will be returning to India. Father has been a wonderful help to us this triennium.

Tuesday was a day of Recollection which began with Fr. Provincial’s Mass homily inspired by Pope Benedict’s quote:

How does the Spirit operate? First of all, by bestowing remembrance, a remembrance in which the particular is joined to the whole, which in turn endows the particular, which hitherto had not been understood, with its genuine meaning. A further characteristic of the Spirit is listening; he does not speak in his own name, he listens, and teaches how to listen. In other words, he does not add anything but rather acts as a guide into the heart of the Word, which becomes light in the act of listening. The Spirit’s …method is simply to allow what stands before me as an other to express itself and to enter into me. This already enables an additional element: the Spirit effects a space of listening and remembering, a “we,” which in the Johannine writings defines the Church as the locus of knowledge. Understanding can take place only within this “we” constituted by participation in the origin. Indeed, all comprehension depends on [this] participation…

That evening we elected our new Provincial Council [left to right]: 2^nd Councillor Ralph Reyes, 1^st Councillor Luis Joaquin Castañeda, Provincial Gregory Ross, 4^th Councillor Br. Joseph Le and 3^rd Councillor Sam Morello. Fr. Luis Gerardo Belmonte was elected our delegate to accompany Fr. Provincial to the General chapter in Fatima next April. Fr. Henry Bordeaux [right] was elected socius, a fancy name for the spare in case the designated one is unable to go.