A great weekend retreat in rainy Tagaytay

Last Thursday afternoon, I flew to Manila and drove directly to Tagaytay Conference Center for the annual Invitational Retreat for Professional Men by Opus Dei to mark the ending of the Year of Faith. The theme for this year was “Faith and Fidelity to the Church in our Work for Economic Development and Social Progress.” Those invited were 30 Filipino professionals and businessmen and four of us came from Cebu. I was the only media personality there and I could only wish we had a media retreat in that place.

The eminent Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao was director and person-in-charge for the Retreat and personally emailed my invitation, which is why I could not refuse his invitation. Rev. Fr. Edgar F. (Fr. Garry) Soria was our priest and speaker and between them from Thursday evening to Sunday lunch we got food for our malnourished souls. Yes, I exhort all Catholics to find time to go to an annual retreat. If we go on vacation to rest our tired bodies, you must realize that we are both flesh and spirit and our spirit also needs spiritual nourishment that only a full-blown retreat can give us.

If I’m writing about this retreat, it is due to the fact that we were literally incommunicado with no newspapers or TV available… and the Wi-Fi was down until Friday afternoon. The weather didn’t help either, it was raining hard when I arrived last Thursday and with no let up, it was still raining hard last Sunday afternoon when I boarded my plane back to Cebu. By early evening of Sunday… I was back on dry land. It didn’t rain in Cebu.

However that retreat was a pleasant surprise for me because everyone knows that Dr. Estanislao is the Guru of Good Governance. Since I took the Good Governance course at the Institute of Corporate Governance (ICD) in the year 2010 also handled by Dr. Estanislao, I figured that I’d get a hefty dosage of good governance with a smattering of theology. But I was wrong, Dr. Estanislao gave us three full lectures on Faith… and nearly nothing on good governance because he said, it you have the faith of a Christian and therefore you have fear of God, then good governance naturally comes along.

Dr. Jess Estanislao said, “Faith is the life coming from the past. Hope is the life coming into the future. We must be thinking beyond the ‘Now’ this should be your personal mission.” Dr. Estanislao’s talks were based on three pamphlets than were given to those who joined the retreat. The first was dubbed “Personal Core Values and Faith.” The next was entitled “An Ordinary Person’s Reading of the Encyclical on Faith” and last was entitled “Hope and Personal Mission.” I really don’t have enough space to discuss all these teachings… but if you want to get a copy, I guess you can contact the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) and secure one.

You’re wondering why I was having a retreat with the Opus Dei? First, this is my second retreat with them. The first one was in Bukidnon with Dr. Bernie Villegas and I really found that it uplifted my spirit… and to think both Bernie and Jess are our nation’s foremost economists. But with the ending of The Year of Faith, I thought that it was a good idea to seek my spiritual direction from Opus Dei. Of course, my favorite author on faith books is the eminent Dr. Scott Hahn who also joined Opus Dei after he converted to Catholicism. I have five of Scott Hahn’s books.

But Dr. Estanislao was not the only big surprise among our speakers. The retreat secretary was Leon P. Peckson who holds a Masters’ Degree in Humanities. A 31-year old “yuppie” who teaches on poets like Homer, Dante Alighieri and Shakespeare in UA&P. With the attendees mostly above 40 and beyond, you’d not expect much from a youngster like Leon, especially on matters of the faith and I guess I didn’t expect much from a poet.

But his spiritual perspective in climbing to the top of Mt. Pulag Luzon’s highest peak was unique. Because he parallels it to our spiritual life, where we work and search hard and finally reach to the top to enjoy the view. And in a most dramatic fashion… he just said… “After a few minutes it got boring! It took so many hours to reach the top… and in just a few minutes you are already bored.

This is just akin to life itself, where we all work hard and when we are at the top… it’s boring and even though we get rich we still feel empty inside. That’s because of man’s inherent longing for his creator. Nice touch Leon, you are indeed a great hope for the youth of this nation.

That retreat also had me getting some books that I wanted to read. I got St. Thomas Moor’s “A Dialogue on Conscience”, then Jose Luis Olaizola’s “The Loves of Teresa of Avila” then Dr. Estanislao’s book, “Bridging the Gap: An experience on personal governance” and lastly, “Mending a Broken Society: What happens when we forget who we are?” By Fr. Henry Bocala. Though I’m four books behind my reading. I will be quoting excerpts from these books as soon as I’m finished reading them.

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