Annual Retreat and Claretian Discerning Leadership Program

BENLUTU, Timor Tengah Selatan – Indonesia. In responding to the call of the XXVI General Chapter to exercise the gift of the service of authority in the various roles and responsibilities entrusted by the community (cf. QC 57c, 62), and after the workshop on Claretian Discerning Leadership held in Karukutty, Kerala – India from 1 to 14 February 2023, the Independent Delegation of Indonesia-Timor Leste hold its first group of annual retreat with the specific theme of Claretian Discerning Leadership at Wisma Claretian – Retreat House of Benlutu. This annual retreat and leadership training is divided into three different groups starting from 28 July 2023 to 30 August 2023. Each group lasts nine days and consists of twenty-eight participants.

Frs. Valens Agino, Nikolaus Ilan and Yoseph Ferdinandus Melo, CMFF, accompanied the group with different modules on Claretian discerning leadership through reflections and presentations, personal reflection and group sharing. The whole reflection helps the participants to recognize the role of leaders with the capacity to discern the will of God in different decisions and plans in their respective mission and responsibilities. It is undeniable that we live in a world with its complexities that sometimes lead us to uncertainty and therefore this context of the world needs someone who can discern and lead as well as pave the way to find something authentic in life.

The participants also had the opportunity to deepen some of the points of reflection given by Father General, Fr. Mathew Vattamattam, CMF, using the Zoom platform. In his reflection, Father General shared about “Learning to lead like Jesus.” and asked the participants to create a mystic of leadership in style of Jesus who has a capacity to see and discern the realities of our world today, where people are yearning for authenticity. It is precisely the role of leaders and of each one of us to strive for this authenticity, at least in our own community and first and foremost from our own very life. *

Decennium Program of Indonesia-Timor Leste Independent Delegation

Claretian House, Kupang. Formation is a lifelong process. It rises from the very beginning of one’s life within the womb of a mother and ends up to the tomb. It is a long as well as endless journey in one’s life. No one could claim that formation is a single process in one’s life. It takes an entire life. Responding as well as growing into this process, the Decennium Program of Indonesia – Timor Leste Independent Delegation takes place. Reflecting on the general theme, “Towards a Transformative Missionaries,” the program attempts to bring all the participants to immerse in a profound transformative experience within these ten days program. This year this program is organized in three different regions: Timor Leste Region on May 5-14, 2019; West Indonesia Region on June 1-10, 2019 and East Indonesia Region on June 26 to July 5, 2019. At least 44 young missionaries in these three regions under ten years of their priesthood or perpetual profession for brothers participate in this spiritual-academic renewal. Councils of the Delegation, under the Prefect of Formation of the Delegation, Fr. Nikolaus Ilan, cmf and the Prefect of Spirituality of the Delegation, Fr. Emanuel L. Talok, cmf, organize this program in a spiritual-academic atmosphere where some Claretian Missionaries among the groups are requested to give input aside from the key note speakers Fr. Jovito do Rego de Jesus for Timor Leste Region and West Indonesia Region and Fr. Oktovianus Naif for East Indonesia Region. All the participants are grateful with this endless transformative process and return to their mission fields, bringing with them big dreams and project of self-renewal.