“Learn to Love”

Jan 21

I was recently honored to be invited to visit our Indian Region of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. It was a truly life-giving experience. As part of the visit, I spent time at DeSales Academy, our school in Bangalore. Before the school was built, this same site was home to our Novitiate.

*Fr. Joe Newman joins DeSales Academy School Principal Fr. Bijesh Thomas in the DeSales Fiesta parade.*

The Novitiate is a yearlong retreat that marks an initial phase of formation for an Oblate. Our Constitutions describe its purpose clearly:

The novice will discover that he has a unique opportunity to intensify his prayer and to live in a constant and familiar way in the company of the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. His personal communion with God by means of prayer will serve to unify his life in love.

In short, the Novitiate is the foundation of our lives as Oblates. It is where we learn to love.

Today, on the site of that former Novitiate stands DeSales Academy, whose motto is “Learn to Love.” How fitting that the mission first cultivated in the Novitiate now serves as the guiding principle for the education of young people.

*Fr. Shabin, OSFS, offers gifts to Fr. Michael Newman, OSFS at the DeSales Fiesta.*

As I mentioned in a previous reflection, I am writing short prayers this year to guide my Direction of Intention. The first was, “Breathe the Oblate Air.” I now add a second: “Learn to Love.” I add this not because I have mastered the lesson, but precisely because I have not. I still need it!

Our teachers in learning to love are the people we encounter each day: students and colleagues, confreres and friends, the patient and the difficult alike. I often find myself focusing on the difficult ones, because it is there that love is formed, stretched, and transformed.

And there is a humbling smile that comes with the realization that I, too, am difficult for others. At times, we are sandpaper for one another, slowly shaping hearts through friction. There is a mutuality in learning to love.

Learn to Love!

May God be Praised!