Sacred Hearts of Jesus and MaryUnited States Province

JOURNEYSSS.CC. Novitiate Newsletter

Inside this IssueLife & Leisure:Marc RoqueVegetable Garden:Sepulona LuteluPrayer Life:Gaberieli SaunivaluCommunity Life:Tavite UluilakebaA Day In the Life:Charlie Martinez

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Life and LeisureBy: Marc Roque

One of my favorite songs that I like to listento everyday is “Dynamite” by the KoreanPop (K-Pop) band, BTS. One of the phrasesin the song that always catches my attentionis “Life is Dynamite”. What does that phrasemean to me? Well, everyday, since the startof our Novitiate, our Novice Master remindsmy brothers and me to appreciate the lifethat God gives us and to not waste a singleminute of it. Time is precious, because eachhuman being on this planet is not promised atomorrow, we will never know the exacttime or location when God will call us backto Him. It is important to remind ourselvesthat we should always live each day to thefullest and to never worry about the nextday. Because tomorrow can worry aboutitself (Matthew 6:34), we are all created toenjoy each day of our lives…because “life isdynamite” our lives are meant to be exciting,fun, enjoyable, and beautiful. Therefore,take some time out of each day to relax andappreciate the life and the love that Godconstantly gives you…because eventuallyyou will realize that life is indeed“Dynamite”

The brothers after Mass at Holy Trinity Church in Ladera Ranch, California.

Having a cookout in Lake Arrowhead, California.

Meeting Holy Name of Mary Parishioners in San Dimas, California.

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Enjoying and relaxing in the pool.

Sepu and Marc at the Rim of the World Highway in Lake Arrowhead,California.

Vegetable GardenBy: Sepulona Lutelu

“And whatever you do, in word or deed,do everything in the name of the LordJesus, giving thanks to God the Fatherthrough him.” Colossians 3:17.

Talofa again, this is your son SepulonaLutelu a.k.a. Sepu. This little piece ofwriting is an update of our work and choreactivities, something that our Polynesianpeople call Adam N Eve faults.

From Monday to Thursday, we have onehour of work from 2pm to 3pm. Friday isour Desert Day, so work is optional. OnSaturday, we have one hour of work in themorning from 10am -11am and another hourin the afternoon if needed. Sunday, ofcourse, is a rest day. This is our work routineand sometimes we readjust our scheduleswhen something comes up. Everyday, wemeet with Fr Jerry, have a little rousingdiscussion, and then we disperse to whateverwork assignment that is required to do.

The work here is nothing compared to hardlabor. When my dad asked me about work,and I explained to him he told me those arelady’s jobs. Our work is mostly taking careof the property and sustaining the beauty ofour home. Sometimes we help Hermi (thegroundsman) when he needs us for somemaintenance of the house.

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We are responsible for maintaining andcleaning the inside and outside of ourchapel, the houses, our vehicles, and each ofour rooms. Cooking and shopping are alsopart of our daily work.

Work is fun and enjoyable to the brothers,especially when manpower is needed and avariety of skills are needed to complete thework.. Sometimes the laughter and jokesmake it easier. Our work always involvesmultitasking. Sometimes working togetherin the flower garden or in our vegetablegarden creates opportunities to strengthenour brotherhood bond. It also reminds us ofthe love for creation and to care for what isgiven to us, especially the value of time andour tasks.

We work as one family, and we look out forone another. Work motivates aninventiveness of honesty and integrity. Anykind of work we do, whether inside oroutside, we do it to the best of our ability sothat we can create a life that one can worknot only for himself/herself but especiallyfor the good of others and the glory of God.

The work you and I do everyday makes theworld a better place and creates a brighterfuture for our families, our countries, theChurch, and reflects the loving mercy ofGod. To all the workers, rest assured thatyou are always in our prayers.

Your son in Christ

Sepu

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Prayer LifeBy: Gaberieli Saunivalu

We need to find God, and He cannot befound in noise and restlessness. God is thefriend of silence. See how nature—trees,flowers, grass—grows in silence; see thestars, the moon and the sun, how theymove in silence. We need silence to be ableto touch souls. – Mother Teresa

To pray is to be in dialogue or conversationwith God. At times to pray means to alsoreflect and listen to what God is saying tous. This is why for us, adoration is veryimportant. Prayer life is not only part andparcel of formation in Novitiate, but alsorather one of the most important aspects inthis year’s novitiate. We are fortunate to be

given ample time to pray not only as acommunity but individually, whereby weform ourselves spiritually so that it helps usin our discernment of the spirit and the callthat we are journeying in, especially in thenovitiate. Our prayer life is not only aboutus and God, but also includes pastoral visitsto parishes, visiting our brother priests, andalms giving to those in need which, I cansay, adds flavor to our prayer life.

The Eucharist is apriceless treasure: bynot only celebrating itbut praying before itoutside of mass we areenabled to make contactwith the very being ofGrace - Pope John Pau II

Visiting Parishes and meeting parishioners is one way ofliving out our prayer life.

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Visiting our elderly priest is part and parcel of what ourprayer life is all about.

The chapel serves as a place where we come to pray andmeditate and also come together to celebrate theEucharist as brothers in Christ.

Community LifeBy: Tavite Uluilakeba

“The most important thing which the community mustrecognize in each one of its members is the gift of Godwhich he is for the whole body.” Rule of life 39.

Each of us living in communities have ourown stories to share, we leave our islandsand the shores of our own homes searchingand setting sight on a new place, a newvision, a new reality, a new family. A familywhich searches for unity and love beingmodelled through the love that found its

source from the Sacred Hearts of Jesus andMary. Our different journeys have broughtus far to where we are today living under thesame roof and sharing the one table wherewe all participate. The sharing of life stories,how long and far we have journeyed wasdifferent, unique, and special in its ownways, because of the choices we make andthose who have been part of our journeys.

As I sit around the table listening to thesharing of the different journeys from mybrothers, it is evident that we all have ourown different paths and our differentencounters with God along the way. Someare good and some not so good moments,mold us to be the person we are today. Ourperfections and imperfections and ourbrokenness are all part of our journeys.

In reflecting on the term community, I basedmy reflection on a bowl of salad, and myquestion being, “What would make a goodbowl of salad great?” So, after some timeof thinking and staring at the bowl of saladbeing passed around at the dinner table, Istarted to think deeper into the making ofsalad. A few factors came to my mind as Ipondered over it.

First is the wide ‘variety’ of vegetables andfruits chosen to be put in the salad, Iconsider to be the gifts that each brotherbrings to the community with him, with allits taste, flavor, originality, sourness andsweet, perfection and imperfections, rough

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and smooth edges and so many more that webring with us.

Second is the ‘bowl’, in which thevegetables and fruits are thrown and tossedinto, so that it will give a good blend offlavor. This bowl is the “community” inwhich we are being placed to live in, wherewe share and take care of each other asbrothers and a place we call home, where wefind family and it is also where we live bycertain guidelines that will help us to live inmutual respect and love for one another asequals and share the same commonality andidentity. Where differences are set aside andthe desire to love and serve one another isnurtured.

Third is the ‘dressing’, this to me are thingsthat add flavor and taste to the salad, it helpsto bring the salad to a much greater taste andbeauty. These are the conferences, thestudies, the constitutions, the rule of life andthe experiences that we learn over time andthrough the years which makes a lot ofdifferences to the way we choose to live ourlives in the community and the training thatwe all go through to make our communityenriching and life giving.

Finally, there’s the ‘X factor’ which is whatI also consider the most important part ofmaking salad. It is the unseen reality thattakes place when we prepare a salad or evena meal. The amount of time and effort, thelove and passion that is put into thepreparation of the meal, is of greatimportance. It is the ‘x-factor’ that adds the

finishing touch to a delicious and tasty salad.I always believe that a meal prepared with alot of love will be felt by those who partakein that meal, they will be nourished not onlyin body but in spirit as well. This is what Ibelieve happens in a community wheneverything is in place and every preparationis done, then we see God’s personal touchwhich is the ‘x-factor’ moving among us.

I believe that God is the unseen reality, thesilent listener, the silent mover in our midstmoving in and among us, continuing tooverflow us with his love and goodness sothat we will continue to be in communionwith God through our brothers and withanother. We supply the factors of the saladbut without the ‘x-factor’ or the ‘GodFactor’ I believe that we will not be able toachieve that greatness that we need for thesalad.

Community clean up volunteers at Holy Name of Mary

Fr. Gomes visit to the Novitiate community in Hemet

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A Day in the LifeBy:Charlie Martinez

In a recentFaceTime callhome, mysix-year oldnephewbombardedme with alitany ofquestionsregarding mycurrent living

situation. "Do they let you watch TV?","Where do you sleep?", "What do you eat?","Do you wear a uniform?", "Do you getrecess?", "When are they going to let youout?", and "Do you have to go to churcheveryday?" are just a fraction of thequestions he asked. As most six-years oldsoften do, he followed up every one of myanswers with "why?" or "how come?" Myquick call home to say hello turned into along show and tell session. My favoritequestion was, "what do you do all day?"When he asked me I had to pause and thinkabout it for a minute. How would I explainreligious life in a way that a six year oldwould understand? The conversation wentsomething like this: "well, I get up everymorning and the first thing I do is say mymorning prayers. I then get ready and go tothe chapel for Mass. After mass, I havebreakfast and then do some reading. I thengo to class (he didn't understand the word

conference) After class, I go to the chapeland spend some quiet time with Jesus( Itried to explain the concept of adoration butI wasn't getting anywhere quickly). After myquiet time with Jesus, I have lunch and thenI do some more reading. In the afternoon, Ido chores around the house(he laughed atthe idea of me doing chores) and Isometimes cook for the community.. Afterdoing my chores, I have a little bit of time togo out for a walk or a run or a hike or aswim(he then quickly asked if he couldcome over and swim in our pool). After that,I have dinner. After dinner I go to thechapel to say my evening prayers. Afterprayers, I go to my room to do some morereading and then I go to bed.” Theconversation would have ended there excepthe asked me what my favorite part of theday was. Again, I had to think for a minute.I told him that my favorite part of the daywas my quiet time with Jesus. I told him itwas my favorite mostly because I have adifficult time sitting still(me too, he said). Itold him that the time I spend with Jesus islike sitting with a good friend. He thenproceeded to tell me all about his friendfrom down the street and how they spendtime playing almost every day. I began toask him a question when he quicklyinterrupted and said "Ok, tio (spanish foruncle) I gotta go. I love you” and with thatthe conversation was over. I am grateful forhis interest and his innocence and thankfulto God that I am able to share this part of mylife with him.

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Marc, Sepu, Gabby and Charlie at St. Paul the Apostle

Fr. Rich, Charlie and Fr. Jerry at the San Fernando MissionCemetery after Fr. Bill and Fr. PD’s burial

Gabby, Charlie and Marc at San Juan Capistrano MissionBasilica

Charlie deep watering and pruning the roses.

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