The Office of the ADNU Graduate School (GS) in coordination with the ADNU Office of Mission and Identity (OMI) successfully conducted the 2-day Ignatian Retreat with the theme “Finding God in this Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) World”, on November 11-12, 2023 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the Ateneo de Naga University.
A total of 108 Graduate students, Catholic and non-Catholic, attended the spiritual activity. They were held in three (3) separate groups in Face-to-face, Live Out modality inside the ADNU main campus: Arrupe Convention Hall (17), Instructional Media Center (43), and Alingal Multipurpose Hall (48).
Ms. Janet Badong-Badilla and Fr. Celerinio Ignacio Reyes, SJ of the ADNU Office of Mission and Identity, and Fr. Harvey Mateo, SJ of the ADNU Chaplaincy Office served as Retreat Directors. They individually designed their assigned retreat groups to four (4) sessions and a reflection/prayer period for the student participants. There were Spiritual Conversations in Small Groups each lead by one (1) facilitator, and followed by a Plenary Sharing. The three (3) retreat groups were successfully concluded by a Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharistic Celebration.
The Office of the Graduate School offered this retreat activity every first semester of the school year as a student requirement of the subjects offered: Ignatian Philosophy in Education, Ignatian Philosophy of Business and Leadership, and Characteristics of Jesuit Education. These are requisite courses for graduate students of the institution on the early Jesuit history and the spiritual vision on which the characteristics of Jesuit education are based. Students are introduced to the life, works, and spiritual vision of St. Ignatius of Loyola and its application to education and business in light of the needs of the modern world today.
Other interested Atenean graduate students joined as well for it applies one’s affirmation of faith in God and the role of spirituality in one’s life and profession by attending/experiencing Ignatian Spirituality in prayer/recollection. This activity is offered in these Ignatian courses as it highlights the spirituality aspect of the academic program for our students. It deepens the retreatants’ understanding of the Spiritual Exercises and its relevance in daily life, particularly in one’s practice of profession, through brief inputs from the Retreat Director, silent prayer, reflection, and faith sharing.
The Graduate School hopes that, through this retreat, students would be able to experience and become exposed to Ignatian Spirituality in prayer and recollection. Moreover, it introduces graduate students to the Ignatian tradition and culture of ADNU as a Jesuit university.
–Christaine Mae Bael, Administrative Assistant-Graduate School
