austraLasia #3045
Stories and Spirituality for Young Adults
MANILA -- Holy (Maundy) Thursday seems an excellent opportunity to present this very fine series of booklets, authored by Fr Eli Cruz, Provincial of FIN, but with plenty of thanks, too, to Frs Noel (Bong) Osial and Nesty Impelido, Bro Jerome Quinto, and mission partners John Paul Sorilla, Early Macabales, Maria Geraldine (Ghe) Miranda.
Salesian hagiography has long been begging for something along these lines, something that fearlessly presents Salesian figures of holiness in a way that today's younger generation can immediately feel attracted to. Fr Eli hints at this need in his preface to the first in the series (All for Love) when he says: "This is a retelling of the stories of Salesian Saints; a restudy of the situations that surrounded them...a refocusing of their spirituality for the young adults of our times". At the same time, Fr Eli does not abandon nor disdain the rich heritage already contained in Salesian hagiography, again something he makes very clear from the outset when he cites the efforts and a poem by Fr Pasquale Liberatore, a long-time and himself holy Salesian Procurator for the Causes of Sainthood. It is a poem which Fr Liebratore dedicated to his novice master, Fr Alfred Cogliandro.
It is a tricky task, holding postmodern fragmentation and the eternal attractiveness of holiness together, and perhaps even more technically challenging to present this eternal attractiveness in an equally attractive postmodern layout! Eli and his team manage to do it! Each volume, just short of hundred pages, despite the linear nature of text and bound pages, has been given a hypertextual feel, partly if not largely through the use of web-like icons for 'navigating' one's way through the text, but also for the infobox-like summaries, and the additional material that form the 'restudy of the situations that surround" the saints chosen, the tweet-like comments that accompany the presentation. Now don't get me wrong: there is nothing superficial or even brief about these presentations. They are in-depth. That's why one is likely to find just two, at most three individuals (or group, or representative of a group) dealt with per volume. The postmodern and contextualising touch allows us to find Albert Marvelli yoked together with Helen Hirsch, Federico Fellini, Benito Mussolini, Dominic Savio and Pius XI, all somewhere represented between 'The Godless Years', 'The Godly Story', 'The Soul's Diary', 'The Compelling Lessons'. Each saint's life story concludes with a Scriptural reflection and a prayer.
The first booklet deals with the early stage of young adulthood, and the shift from identity to intimacy. But it is also addressed to those who minister to youth, to teach them how to reach out to them, shepherd them. The second booklet focuses attention on the search and struggle of young adults to find their place in this world. The third raises the question: why be a moral person? And Eli's answer runs along these lines, as he carefully chooses his characters for the booklet: "The world is unfair and unrestrained. It is dangerous and screwed up. What do moral visionaries like the Five from Potznan and Alexandrina of Balasar get? They get either a bullet or a burden and well, yes, a beatification....we are born for greater things, and therefore, we must choose the bigger things".
I have a feeling this series will 'work' wherever. It is not culturally bound (a terrible temptation of some hagiography), but culturally sensitive so, well done, Fr Eli Cruz and team! And let me say that these work even with 'older' adults!
Stories and Spirituality for Young Adults
Salesian hagiography has long been begging for something along these lines, something that fearlessly presents Salesian figures of holiness in a way that today's younger generation can immediately feel attracted to. Fr Eli hints at this need in his preface to the first in the series (All for Love) when he says: "This is a retelling of the stories of Salesian Saints; a restudy of the situations that surrounded them...a refocusing of their spirituality for the young adults of our times". At the same time, Fr Eli does not abandon nor disdain the rich heritage already contained in Salesian hagiography, again something he makes very clear from the outset when he cites the efforts and a poem by Fr Pasquale Liberatore, a long-time and himself holy Salesian Procurator for the Causes of Sainthood. It is a poem which Fr Liebratore dedicated to his novice master, Fr Alfred Cogliandro.
It is a tricky task, holding postmodern fragmentation and the eternal attractiveness of holiness together, and perhaps even more technically challenging to present this eternal attractiveness in an equally attractive postmodern layout! Eli and his team manage to do it! Each volume, just short of hundred pages, despite the linear nature of text and bound pages, has been given a hypertextual feel, partly if not largely through the use of web-like icons for 'navigating' one's way through the text, but also for the infobox-like summaries, and the additional material that form the 'restudy of the situations that surround" the saints chosen, the tweet-like comments that accompany the presentation. Now don't get me wrong: there is nothing superficial or even brief about these presentations. They are in-depth. That's why one is likely to find just two, at most three individuals (or group, or representative of a group) dealt with per volume. The postmodern and contextualising touch allows us to find Albert Marvelli yoked together with Helen Hirsch, Federico Fellini, Benito Mussolini, Dominic Savio and Pius XI, all somewhere represented between 'The Godless Years', 'The Godly Story', 'The Soul's Diary', 'The Compelling Lessons'. Each saint's life story concludes with a Scriptural reflection and a prayer.
The first booklet deals with the early stage of young adulthood, and the shift from identity to intimacy. But it is also addressed to those who minister to youth, to teach them how to reach out to them, shepherd them. The second booklet focuses attention on the search and struggle of young adults to find their place in this world. The third raises the question: why be a moral person? And Eli's answer runs along these lines, as he carefully chooses his characters for the booklet: "The world is unfair and unrestrained. It is dangerous and screwed up. What do moral visionaries like the Five from Potznan and Alexandrina of Balasar get? They get either a bullet or a burden and well, yes, a beatification....we are born for greater things, and therefore, we must choose the bigger things".
I have a feeling this series will 'work' wherever. It is not culturally bound (a terrible temptation of some hagiography), but culturally sensitive so, well done, Fr Eli Cruz and team! And let me say that these work even with 'older' adults!
