“OPENING RESIDENCY”

I was wrong.

I expected I would have ample free time to subject myself to reading, reflection, and writing while my wife embodying a calming but beaming presence would be immersed in CenterQuest (CQ) Asia School of Spiritual Direction (CQ Asia-SSD) inaugural cohort’s Opening Residency. After a day, I am glad my initial expectation was off kilter.

The setting is a beautiful (did I say beautiful) Mirador Jesuit Villa Retreat House, looking down the entire impressive mountain city of Baguio. At one point during our first afternoon, we were looking down at the white cumulous cloud. During sunset, it seemed that even the crimson sun stood below us as if bowed to retire. Reminiscent of the So. Cal weather we left behind, Baguio boasts cooler and relatively dry weather all year round (70s high and 50s low) and thus is known for resorts, especially during summer, and filled with university and younger students. The city is young and clean in addition to being a safer city. One of our traveling companions observed right away that people here seem to be happier and more relaxed than the already laid-back Filipinos.

Upon our arrival, we were promptly led to our room on the top second floor and I immediately gasped at the most perfect room (see below) I could have imagined spending the next several days. I fell in love with the room as it features 8 wide contiguous windows, facing the east and south. The bright happy sun greets me every morning and warms up the room to start the day. Essentially, we get a 180-degree view of the valley below as well as the labyrinth on the retreat ground right below us. The corner room is adorned with simple, clean, and yet tasteful and thoughtful furniture with two desks overlooking the valley and the labyrinth, a love sofa, and two twin beds side by side. I learned later through my wife, CQ Asia had given us the best room in the entire retreat house. I uttered my thankfulness to God and channeled my heart to receive the room as God’s opening gift to us in Asia. With or without the room that was assigned to us, my soul knew right away that we are at the right place at the right time, assuring me of God’s faithful guidance. My soul cannot think of anything that is more comforting and assuring than the sense of being at the right place at the right time—the Kairos moment. Kairos happens when God’s divine time and human’s earthly time meet in perfect synchronicity. Often Kairos can be better understood in retrospect, but rarely as it happens. This was one of those rare moments.  

There are 34 CQ Asia-SSD participants with mentors, instructors, and other administrative staff to 67 total. I was introduced as Grace’s husband, Chong, which I proudly and immensely enjoyed. When I come across puzzled looks on some people’s faces looking at me, I tell them I am Grace’s husband. The puzzled looks are quickly replaced with warm acknowledgment. I met people my wife had shared with me and I finally put faces to names. Among them was Wil Hernandez, founder, and director of CQ Asia. He thanked me for coming and I thanked him for letting me come. As a mature Enneagram 1, no detail escapes his attention, being perfect but has learned to hold it lightly. As such, he thoughtfully highlighted certain sections in the schedule where I could attend. Basically, it includes all the morning sessions which revolve around Henri Nouwen’s teachings centered around what Wil calls, “Communion Trilogy: solitude, identity, and presence” which I have found deep resonance with. Four daily prayer services were also encouraged including the evening programs. My vision of doing my own retreat quickly went out the door and I pivoted and was extremely glad that I could attend the sessions. Clearly, God had a different agenda than what I anticipated.

Then there are the meal hours. As one who has attended too many conferences to name and count, I know experientially the meal hours often are the most meaningful times in the entire program. Opening Residency is no exception. The participants are roughly divided into half Catholic, comprised of lay, nuns including superior general, fathers, and a Friar, and half Protestants from various streams and traditions which was intentional on CQ Asia’s part. As an ecumenical community, its common language is contemplation, solitude, true self, companioning, etc to name just a few. Participants mostly are from Southeast Asian nations including one Chinese and two Koreans. (The story of how the Chinese lady came to CQ Asia’s Opening Residency is a miraculous testimony in itself.) During the opening night’s introduction and expectation sharing times, some of the phrases I heard were: “I want to fall in love with God in me and God in others.” “I’m learning to let God love me.” “I want to be seen by God and I want to see God.” “I am chosen by God, and I choose God.” “My heart and God’s heart are one.” “I want to capture the carpe diem of my heart.” “I want to discover my God.” Moved by the genuineness of sharing, my heart knows this is my tribe, further cementing Grace’s involvement with CQ Asia and that we are moving in the same direction.

All are involved in some sort of activism and action-driven “ministries.” I don’t think there is anybody in this group who would be considered a “hermit” as all have distinctive ministry outlets and services. I was not prepared to meet anybody from the Protestant missions world. I should not have been surprised but I met several missionaries from evangelical mission organizations and held deep and honest conversations. During the first evening, one Filipino worker came up to me and told me he had met me at Asia Society for Frontier Mission meetings in the past. Sure enough, I recognized him right away. He had been serving among the Muslims in southern Thailand for many years and moved back to the Philippines to do the work of mobilization. His story as well as other workers’ stories are similar in that they are convinced about the critical importance of formation and the current missions is woefully lacking in depth and breadth of spiritual formation. They have been deeply concerned enough that they had to risk and forge their own path and now finding themselves trying to help others along the way. In my heart, I found myself saluting and encouraging them.

Meet Inigo, his pseudonym. He stood out because he is a tall younger Portuguese among the shorter majority Asians. He is in touch with his soul and knows how to articulate exceptionally well. Even his English accent was enthralling music to my ears. Having pursued more than 10 years of “cross-cultural work” in Asia including China with the Order of Society of Jesus (Jesuit) and close to being a priest, he found himself at a crossroads a few years ago, he shared with me. He saw a vision (my choice of word) of the Trinity members standing at a door, saying to each other, “You first, you first, and you first” out of reverence for one another to enter. Then he saw himself right in front of the door and, as a good Jesuit, asked God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, “What do you want me to do? What can I do for you?” Their response in unison? “Inigo, what do you want to do?” “What can we do for you?” After the initial befuddlement settled, he received the response as a deeper way to discover himself which led to searching his heart’s deepest desires. He further realized that God does not have one correct way for us to follow (and to see if we get it right) but many “open doors.” “God wants us to choose based on our desire and freedom. God loves us freely and wants us to follow God with freedom,” he followed. “Love requires freedom,” after a brief silence adding to the weightiness of the statement. As a result, Inigo decided to go back to his country (Portugal) and engage in “smaller” and seemingly less significant work among Europe’s spiritual desolates. He chose CQ Asia because he is married to a Filipino wife (not to mention his years in Asia) and God gifted him and his wife a two-year-old daughter. He and his family now reside in a small, picturesque town called Évora, east of Lisbon known for wheatfield, olive, and cork trees in addition to some of the best preserved Roman, Gothic, and Baroque architecture. He told me with a big smile I and my wife now have a friend to visit in Portugal. I told him, “Don’t be surprised to see us!” I would love to break bread, taste olives, drink wine, and have fellowship.