Thursday, April 1, 2021

My “last” formal formation as a Jesuit!

(In this column, I hope to share with you my experiences of Tertianship in Srilanka. Tertianship or the second noviciate is considered as the last formal formation as Jesuit.)

No 1: The unexpected ‘Mission’ from the Provincial!

I was supposed to go for Tertianship in 2020. But the pandemic situation has changed the plan of my provincial. Instead, he missioned me to the formation cum retreat house as a residential staff. I began to enjoy every bit of my time there... In midst of other activities, I almost forgot about the Tertianship and began to immersed myself with other activities.

On January 29, I was going to make my annual retreat to another city. While travelling, I just happened to see a message from my provincial. It reads, “I gave your name for Tertianship which begins after Easter.” I just replied – “thanks” and waited for more instruction from the province curia.  

In middle of February, I had to send an official mail to the socius (assistant Provincial). While acknowledging my mail, he casually asked me, “have you got any news from Srilanka?” My immediate reply was “no” and I curiously asked him, “do I need to send any mail?” He suggested me to get in touch with the director.

Visa and the airport!

As an obedient Jesuit (?), I sent a mail to the director of Tertianship programme. There was a quick reply from him with the instruction to send my passport details. I sent him all the details and there was no reply from him. Suddenly on March 8, I received a mail from the director, asking me to send him my flight details and he asked me to book tickets for March 18. I booked the tickets and sent him the details. Again, there was no reply from him. I sent him a mail on March 15, just before cancelling my tickets as there was no sign of visa. He sent me reply immediately, asking me to do PCR test on March 16 as the visa will be sent to me on March 16. I did the test and the result came ‘negative’ but the visa arrived only on March 17 evening.

On March 18, I arrived at the airport. But I was barred to board as Ii didn’t have landing permission from the Srilankan’s Govt. I returned to the Jesuit community and began to collect all the documents. I rebooked the tickets for March 28, thinking that the ten days are good enough to collect all the necessary approvals. I obtained many approvals but could not obtain ‘Okay to board’ from the airways. However, I came to the airport on March 28 with certain amount of uncertainties. But everything went on very well at the airport...We began our journey (to be continued).

 

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