The
newly elected Student Council officers were inducted as well during the
Holy Spirit Mass. In his speech, General Beadle, Sem. Julius Teaño,
urged his fellow officers and the seminarians to work hand in hand for
the continuous development of the ICST. He challenged all the seminarians
to be cooperative in all the projects of the Seminary Council. He put emphasis
on collaboration between the formators and seminarians as necessary for
a meaningful seminary formation. After the Mass, the seminary community,
the Archbishop, the seminary formation team, and relatives and friends
of the newly installed Rector enjoyed a sumptuous dinner.
ICST formators
and professors generously accepting another year of responsibility for
the vocations of ICST seminarians
Archbishop
Salgado acknowledges the formators' generous contributions to formation
Seminarians’
Council officers promising their participation in leading the community.
Fr. Lain
Mayo, ICST Vice-Rector, presenting the new Seminarians Council officers
Archbishop Salgado urges the
community to be committed to seminary formation
Fr. Nick
Vaquilar, newly-installed ICST Rector, offers his message to the community
ICST launches
Jubilee Year of Priests; conducts seminar on Schoenstatt Spirituality
The 2nd year,
3rd year and 4th year seminarians of ICST joined in the launching of the
Jubilee Year of Priests during the Eucharistic celebration held at the
Vigan Cathedral.
Fr. Klaus
orients the community on Schoenstatt spirituality
Fr. Klaus of
the Schoenstatt Movement came to ICST and gave a conference on Shoenstatt
spirituality to the seminarians. Shoenstatt spirituality began
on October 18, 1914, when, together with some students, Fr. Joseph Kentenich
dared the first step in founding the Schoenstatt Movement. They sealed
a covenant, a covenant of love, with Mary in a small chapel in Schoenstatt,
Germany. The vision of the founding hour gradually became reality. Today,
the chapel in Schoenstatt is the place of origin of a worldwide movement
of men and women, children and youth, families and priests. Meanwhile there
are approximately 200 Schoenstatt Shrines in more than thirty countries
all over the world. Many people make pilgrimages there and ask Mary for
the grace to realize their Christian calling in the midst of all the challenges
of life in Church and society.
A priest of
the Schoenstatt Movement, Rev. Fr. Klaus Alender, visited the ICST seminary
to promote this kind of spirituality. Fr. Klaus said that this spirituality
encourages a deeper commitment to community life and devotion to Mary among
seminarians.
Seminarians
conduct social action apostolate seminar
Abra lay leaders
came to ICST in the morning of June 20 to orient the seminarians on Social
Action Apostolate. The seminar lasted for 2 hours. It was a short yet enriching
symposium.
An Abra
lay Church leader shares his experience on the Social Action Apostolate
Seminarians
listen to a presentation of the organizational chart of the Social Action
Apostolate of Abra
Julius
Teaño presents the certificate of gratitude from the community
1st Sem
Theolympics opens
The semestral
intramurals opened with fun and parlor games at the Aula Magna and basketball
court fronting it. Seminarians and formators enjoyed the whole morning
in celebration.
The community
promises to work for camaraderie, team cooperation, and fairness through
the pledge of sportsmanship
Is this
egg-catching or egg-hatching?
Well, it
only takes a smile to lift that barbell!
Seminarians
display arm strength in arm-wrestling competition
This is
sumo-wrestling, the ICST way
Have you
ever heard of wacky-walking? Seminarians show off their funny bones
ICST celebrates
Kapihan I
The seminarians
and formators of ICST festively celebrated Kapihan I last June 26, 2009
at the Aula Magna. The Kapihan is a quarterly gathering for the seminarians
and formators to take a break from their daily routine. The Ilocandia Formation
Community (IFC) sponsored the affair. As a theme, they chose the word Gameng
which means treasure to emphasize the need of preserving what we
have as Filipinos especially among the Ilocanos in the Ilocandia region.
The sponsors rendered an opening dance number to the tune of Pandanggo
sa Ilaw. The seminary personnel sang the Pamulinawen, an Ilocano
folk song. The other 3 formation communities also had their turn in presenting
their own cultural treasures through dances and songs. The seminary formators
wowed the community with their novel presentation. Rev. Fr. Clarence Carta,
the IFC director, explained the theme.
ICST formators
serenading the community
Kapihan 1 also
served as a welcome party for the twenty seven freshmen, the regents, and
the new formators of ICST. The two new priests are Fr. Christian Jesse
Taliping from the Archdiocesse of Tuguegarao who is the spiritual director
of the CAVISA Formation Community, and Fr. Lester Plana from the Archdiocese
of Nueva Segovia who is also the spiritual director of the seminarians
in the Spiritual Formation Year. In their message, the two priests talked
about their response to the call to help in the seminary formation.
Fr. Jess
Taliping, on his acceptance of seminary assignment as Spiritual Director
of Cavisa Formation Community
Fr. Lester
shares his thoughts on his new assignment as Spiritual Director of the
SFYers
Fr. Nick
Vaquilar, the new ICST Rector, calls for greater commitment to unity and
brotherhood among seminarians as well as deeper collaboration between formators
and seminarians
Celebration
of the Year of St. Paul concludes
At nine o’clock
in the morning of June 29, members of the faithful in the entire Archdiocese
of Nueva Segovia as well as its neighboring dioceses gathered at Plaza
Burgos for the liturgical celebration closing the Year of St. Paul. The
youth of the archdiocese prepared a cultural presentation for the occasion,
which centered on the renewal of integral evangelization, the empowerment
of the Laity, and the promotion of charity, truth, social justice, and
peace. The people who attended the celebration were also awakened to the
bleak realities confronting our society.
Before the
mass, there was a Bible enthronement to emphasize the importance of the
Bible in the life of the Church. An ethnic dance by our brothers and sisters
from Abra followed. Afterwards, the choir with their angelic and vibrant
voice sang as the procession followed. The celebration of the Holy Eucharist
was presided over by our very own Archbishop Ernesto Salgado, DD, Archbishop
of Nueva Segovia, with other bishop-concelebrants: Bishop Orlando Quevedo,
Bishop Carlito Cenzon, Bishop Sergio Utleg, Bishop Rodolfo Beltran,
Archbishop-Emeritus Edmundo Abaya, and Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian. Members
of the clergy from the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia as well as guest-priests
joined in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. His Excellency, Most Rev.
Orlando Quevedo, a former Archbishop of Nueva Segovia, delivered a very
enlightening homily, which centered on the historical development of the
local church of Nueva Segovia.
A good
number of the bishops of Northern Luzon joins in the culmination ceremonies
A year
of celebrations in honor of St. Paul ends with a fitting ceremony
Seminarians
undergo campus ministry seminar
As part of
the Apostolate program of ICST, the 2nd Year theologians were assigned
to the Campus Ministry. In order to prepare for this unique apostolate
assignment, the said seminarians underwent the Seminar on Campus Ministry
facilitated by members of the Youth Apostolate of the Archdiocese of Nueva
Segovia.
The second
year class (ASINILAW Class) of ICST attended the seminar on July 4-5, 2009
at the Audio Visual Room of the seminary. The Rector, together with
the Class Apostolate Coordinator Rev. Fr. Christian Jesse Taliping, made
this seminar possible in cooperation with the Integral Youth Ministry (IYM)
of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia. The said seminar was a preparation
for the Class in their apostolate to the different schools of Vigan City.
Fr. Allen Villareal,
the IYM Director opened the seminar by giving an overview of what the seminar
is all about and how it helps in the formation of the seminarians. He presented
his team and their apostolate in the Archdiocese, which is that of catering
to the needs of the youth. He also admitted that it is a challenging and
a full time work.”
In the course
of the seminar, the Integral Youth Ministry presented beautifully the situation
of the youth of today and from that they drew the need and the importance
of having a campus ministry in the school. Miss Lyn Ducusin, the main speaker
of the seminar, gave some points in having an effective campus ministry,
being an effective campus minister, and the approaches, components and
strategies in a campus ministry. The seminar ended with the seminarians
planning for their apostolate places considering the situation and the
context of the school where they are assigned.
Seminarian
Vincent Siccuan, the apostolate coordinator of the Class, gave the thanksgiving
message to the IYM together with a plaque of appreciation and a token of
gratitude, saying, “Through this seminar we are now ready to take the responsibility
of catering to the needs of the youth as much as you do, knowing that we
have a partner in this endeavor, the IYM”.
Sharing
a light moment during a brainstorming session
Learning
some means of engaging students in campus ministry
Seminarians
engrossed in a deepening activity
Enjoying
a bit of fun during a session
Seminarians
presenting the fruit of their brainstorming session
The seminar
ends, the mission begins
Let's GLOW
Project relaunched
Last July 06,
2009, the community of the Immaculate Conception School of Theology celebrated
the renewal of the pledge of commitment of the Let’s GLOW (Guard and Love
Our World) Program. It is an annual renewal of the Pledge of Commitment,
which aims to make seminarians continuously aware and actively involved
in addressing the global problem on ecological degradation— a problem that
calls for immediate attention.
Two days after
the renewal of Pledge of Commitment, the seminary community had their film
viewing related to the Let’s GLOW program. The movie was entitled “The
Day the Earth Stood Still.” It was all about the earth’s ability to exist
even without human beings while the incapability of human beings to exist
without the world. The main point of the movie is for everybody to realize
that in order to protect and make the world a better place, people need
to change themselves first. It calls to mind the famous adage: “You cannot
give what you don’t have.” One cannot protect and change the world if he
himself does not know how to protect and change himself.
In its 3rd
year, the Let’s GLOW (Guard and Love Our World) Project was re-launched
at the Main Dining Hall. Through this activity, ICST commits to another
year of caring for the world God has blessed us with through waste segregation,
information drives, and conservation of energy.
Seminarians
and formators listening attentively to possible answers to Global Warming
Resource
speaker informs the community of the dangers that the future holds in store
and challenges the community to make a stand
SemNet representatives
gather together for quarterly meet
On the evening
of July 10, seminarians from the different theology seminaries from all
over Luzon arrived in ICST to begin a day of discussion for the programs
of the organization SemNet (Seminarian’s Network of the Philippines). Twelve
(12) seminaries sent representatives. Sem. Dexter Z. Cariño and
Sem. Joseph Fernandez represented ICST in the meetings. The guest-seminarians
were treated to a tour of Vigan City in the afternoon of July 11. In the
short program held at the seminary dining hall that same evening, Fr. Nick
Vaquilar, ICST Rector, reminded the need for truly working as one brotherhood
of seminarians despite the different cultural backgrounds that seminarians
come from. Testimonies from the visiting seminarians were also delivered
sincerely as they thanked the ICST community and formators for the very
warm welcome.
A vision
of formation: Being in the hands of the Divine Potter
ICST community
welcomes SemNet representatives
SemNet
representatives enjoying the warm hospitality of the ICST community
Diverse
in charism but one in Vision and Mission
SemNet
representatives visit one of the province's treasures— the Bantay Church
and tower
SemNet
representatives invade Baluarte
Formation
directors conduct conference
On July 14,
the 4 formation directors talked with their respective seminarians to encourage
their participation in formation. They also reminded their seminarians
about seminary programs and other concerns.
Recollection-giving
continues
During Saturdays,
the 2nd Year seminarians engage in the Apostolate of Recollection-Giving.
Through this apostolate assignment, seminarians make use of their creativity
and passion to incite the recollection participants to live authentic Christian
lives. They challenge them to be ready to respond to God’s call for them
to be holy.
A seminarian
leads the recollection participants in a de-freezing activity
Another
de-freezing activity led by a seminarian
The recollection
facilitators enjoying a moment with the participants
UNP students
culminate their recollection with the Eucharistic celebration in the seminary
chapel
To discuss some changes in the different aspects of seminary formation
and for the effective participation and response among seminarians, a community
workshop was facilitated by the seminary formators in the afternoon of
the school enrolment days. The workshop was held at the ICST Dining Hall
from June 5-6, with General Beadle Julius Teaño leading the community
in the opening prayer. The activity helped the seminarians especially the
freshmen in becoming accustomed with the schedules, academic system, and
the structure of the paradigm shift of formation. Fr. Jesus Bala also facilitated
a seminar on the making of Personal Vision-Mission in the afternoon of
Saturday, June 6. He challenged the community to be true to the goals of
UPPPF by making their own personal vision and goals.