Report Oasis Encounter 15^th of September, 2017: “Fruitful Intensif Commitment”.

We opened the day with a morning prayer at 07.15. The theme was “The Glory of New Covenant.”  In his introduction, Bro. Theodorus Suwariyanto invited us to think of or reflect on the “New Covenant.” The New Covenant reveals the heart of God: Love and forgiveness. May God help each of us to follow Jesus Christ closely and do what he has done for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Today also marks 25 years of the religious profession of Brothers Raphael Besigrinee and Severious B. Sentu. We asked God to continue to bless and guide them on their journey of life as FIC Brothers, so that they can grow toward Jesus and serve the people entrusted to them with the love of God and based on the spirit of our founders. After morning prayer we continued with breakfast as usual.

At 9 am we came together in the chapel for a simple yet solemn celebration of “Profession of covenant”. We began with a reading from Ezekiel 36:24-28. This reading is closely linked to the theme of the week: "I will take you away; I will sprinkle clean water over you...; I will give you a new heart...and a new spirit...; and I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes". One by one all the participants professed their own covenant before our General Superior in the presence of other participants and staff of the OASIS. Bro. Martin Handoko, our General Superior received and signed the covenant of each participant. In between the profession of the covenants we sang a number of songs, one of which is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.

At the end of the exercise Bro. Martin Handoko gave some remarks and encouragements to the participants. He fully supported and encouraged them in their desire to grow towards Jesus. He advised them not to give up in spite of the struggles in life. We should make efforts in "being good and doing good" in our daily life. Our dream as religious is to become like Jesus, and as St. Paul says: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”. Furthermore, he reminded us to support one another in living out the spirit of our founders for the sake of the Kingdom of God and for the happiness of our fellow beings.

After this we had our “written evaluation”. The participants made their written evaluation and submitted to Bro. Guido Sukarman before lunch time.

In the afternoon after some practical things and rehearsals for Closing Eucharist, Bro. Guido led the session of “oral evaluation” by asking each participant to express their feelings, remarks and gratitude. The following are some of them: 1) I experienced a moment of reconciliation with God, myself and others; 2) I learned a lot about creating or preparing many forms of prayer service; 3) I experienced a kind of cross cultural relationship, it makes me think widely and openly; 4) I experienced that I can create an encounter with myself in deeper sense; 5) We were all serious and committed during the Oasis; the venue is a sacred place for growth; 6) This OASIS encounter was very helpful to me; Haven gone through the pilgrimage to FIC-historical places especially in the Church of Saint Servatius, the former house of Mgr. Rutten's family, and in the cemetery of the brothers, I feel closer to our founders; the encounter is a great support to continue growing as FIC.

The theme of our closing Eucharist was “Fruitful Intensive Commitment”. Fr. Koos Jansen led the Eucharistic celebration assisted by Bro. Frans Wils as a coordinator. Some of our brothers in the Religious House Netherlands came to witness the occasion. We all said the concluding prayer together at the end of the Eucharist, thus “Loving God, we are grateful to you for ALL your gifts, especially the gift of each other. Today we thank you in particular for the blessings of this OASIS meeting and for your light and help to choose valuable goals for our life. We pray that your spirit may continue to guide us to pursue our goals and honour all our commitments in this life.”

During the Eucharist, the General Superior gave his closing remarks. He emphasized: “As religious we believe that consecrated life is in itself a spiritual journey. Only those nurturing spiritual life are able to enjoy it and to be happy with it. During these four weeks’ encounter we have had enough time to nurture our spiritual hunger by reflecting on our lives and journeying into our inner- selves. With the help of facilitators and fellow participants we have discovered or rediscovered a lot of precious treasures in our lives. At the same time we might also have seen things in our lives which need to be improved or be carried out in different ways for the sake of our ideals. OASIS gives us the opportunity to see our lives more clearly and passionately. I hope we are able to take maximum benefit of this exercise for our own growth, so that we will be growing to the fullest as a human person and as a religious”.

Even though the  OASIS encounter has ended, the real effort to enrich our spiritual and apostolate life is just beginning. Let us always pray and support one another. Have a nice trip to your respective provinces and fraternally greetings to our fellow brothers.

Theodorus Suwariyanto