I have been in Singapore for a regency assignment since April.
For this assignment, I work with the Singapore Archdiocese Commission for Catholic Schools (ACCS) to conceptualize a module on "God" for the new Religious Education Programme. My work includes drafting the curriculum for this module, as well as teaching it to teachers of religious education in our Catholic secondary schools so that they can implement the module for their students. I do these in collaboration with the Religious Education team of the ACCS, working in their office from Mondays to Fridays.
This module will be called “Being” in the Religious Education Programme and uses Philosophy as its basis. It seeks to present to students the possibility of finding God in all things. Through this module, we hope they will come to understand that they are always in a relationship with God, even if they are questioning their religious experiences, and in this way, come to know God and themselves better in the realities they inhabit. To plan this module, I use the Philosophy of Religion course that I had taught in the Ateneo de Manila as a framework and my studies in Philosophy there as resource.
These months here have been an extremely challenging and immensely enriching time.
I’ve enjoyed the interactions with the religious education team at the ACCS and the teachers who have attended my course, as I’ve also learnt much from all of them, especially, their dreams of helping young people experience God more meaningfully in their lives.
Being in the classroom with the teachers and at the public seminar on God that I facilitated last weekend has been stimulating: indeed, it is very good to be in class again teaching Philosophy! My experience of being in the classroom this time is far more humbling than in the Ateneo as I teach teachers who are in their own right competent and inspiring. They have been wonderfully sporting in grappling with the philosophical content and trying out several of the activities we are suggesting they can do in the classroom to help the youth experience God through Philosophy.
Initially, I was hesitant to be a part of this endeavour; I felt that I’d very little to offer that would be constructive. Yet, I now see how all that has been in my past has prepared me for this present mission. Besides bringing to this work my years of studying and teaching Philosophy, I also bring my previous experiences as a teacher in Singapore schools and a Jesuit formatter.
Truthfully, I had never envisioned myself doing the present work. Two months on, I am thankful, humbled and happy that I have been given this opportunity by both the Archdiocese and the Society of Jesus to share the knowledge and insights I have garnered from the philosophical discussion I’ve been engaged in these past four years on the existence and nature of God and the human person who is always seeking to know more about the God in our lives.
When I was a novice, I read an interview a British Jesuit gave on Jesuits and mission, wherein he said that God always prepares a Jesuit for ministry.
God, he observed, prepares the Jesuit sufficiently and ably throughout his previous experiences for the mission at hand. Though the Jesuit may feel incompetent and unsure of his abilities, God has enough faith that the good work he entrusts to the Jesuit will be completed because all that is needed God has provided: the Jesuit on mission has been formed through time for the apostolate at that moment in time. All the Jesuit needs to do is to surrender himself fully to the mission and to trust that God is indeed laboring with him for the good of God’s people.
This Jesuit’s words express the truly wonderful summer regency assignment I have had and through which I find myself growing even more for the future.
For this assignment, I work with the Singapore Archdiocese Commission for Catholic Schools (ACCS) to conceptualize a module on "God" for the new Religious Education Programme. My work includes drafting the curriculum for this module, as well as teaching it to teachers of religious education in our Catholic secondary schools so that they can implement the module for their students. I do these in collaboration with the Religious Education team of the ACCS, working in their office from Mondays to Fridays.
This module will be called “Being” in the Religious Education Programme and uses Philosophy as its basis. It seeks to present to students the possibility of finding God in all things. Through this module, we hope they will come to understand that they are always in a relationship with God, even if they are questioning their religious experiences, and in this way, come to know God and themselves better in the realities they inhabit. To plan this module, I use the Philosophy of Religion course that I had taught in the Ateneo de Manila as a framework and my studies in Philosophy there as resource.
These months here have been an extremely challenging and immensely enriching time.
I’ve enjoyed the interactions with the religious education team at the ACCS and the teachers who have attended my course, as I’ve also learnt much from all of them, especially, their dreams of helping young people experience God more meaningfully in their lives.
Being in the classroom with the teachers and at the public seminar on God that I facilitated last weekend has been stimulating: indeed, it is very good to be in class again teaching Philosophy! My experience of being in the classroom this time is far more humbling than in the Ateneo as I teach teachers who are in their own right competent and inspiring. They have been wonderfully sporting in grappling with the philosophical content and trying out several of the activities we are suggesting they can do in the classroom to help the youth experience God through Philosophy.
Initially, I was hesitant to be a part of this endeavour; I felt that I’d very little to offer that would be constructive. Yet, I now see how all that has been in my past has prepared me for this present mission. Besides bringing to this work my years of studying and teaching Philosophy, I also bring my previous experiences as a teacher in Singapore schools and a Jesuit formatter.
Truthfully, I had never envisioned myself doing the present work. Two months on, I am thankful, humbled and happy that I have been given this opportunity by both the Archdiocese and the Society of Jesus to share the knowledge and insights I have garnered from the philosophical discussion I’ve been engaged in these past four years on the existence and nature of God and the human person who is always seeking to know more about the God in our lives.
When I was a novice, I read an interview a British Jesuit gave on Jesuits and mission, wherein he said that God always prepares a Jesuit for ministry.
God, he observed, prepares the Jesuit sufficiently and ably throughout his previous experiences for the mission at hand. Though the Jesuit may feel incompetent and unsure of his abilities, God has enough faith that the good work he entrusts to the Jesuit will be completed because all that is needed God has provided: the Jesuit on mission has been formed through time for the apostolate at that moment in time. All the Jesuit needs to do is to surrender himself fully to the mission and to trust that God is indeed laboring with him for the good of God’s people.
This Jesuit’s words express the truly wonderful summer regency assignment I have had and through which I find myself growing even more for the future.
His words now give voice to my feelings as I prepare to take up the new assignment I’ve been entrusted with for my second year of regency—to stay in Singapore and assist the Archdiocese in her works in Catholic education.
Please keep me and my new mission in your prayers. Thank you.
photo of giant Kapok tree in the Botanical Garden of Singapore by chamaeleon618
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