(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).
No comments:
Post a Comment