The Redemptorist Formation Community (RFC) began the new formation year with a grace-filled retreat from August 8–11, 2025, at the Benedictine Sisters in Ulas, Davao City, Philippines. Guided by our formator, Fr. Jesus Sanito Umbac, we entered into four reflective sessions that invited us to look deeper into our calling and mission.
The first session, “Where am I now?” challenged us to take an honest look at ourselves and our lives as Redemptorist formandi. The second, “Who am I as a Redemptorist?” invited us to reflect on our identity and sense of belonging. The third session, “Why am I here?” became a space to rediscover our purpose and renew our commitment to the mission. Finally, we were led to articulate our personal Credo as Redemptorist missionaries answering the question, “How am I to live, and where to?”
Through heartfelt sharing, we revisited the goodness of God in our journeys, how Christ called each of us in unique places, moments, and even through trials and darkness. We remembered the joy and love we discovered despite our struggles, a joy that frees, sustains, and inspires us to serve, especially the poor. We have witnessed these things through our apostolate among Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) and missions in different places.
As the retreat ended, our conversations turned to compassion for the most abandoned poor and the “poor” within ourselves and inside our formation community. We recognized the contagious spirit of the Redemptorist: the commitment to live among the people, to walk with them in simplicity, and to share their joys and struggles. This is what draws us to persevere. In the faces of the people we serve, we have found the happiness we once sought elsewhere.
We also acknowledged the guiding presence of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, whose intercession strengthens our journey and commitment. With Mary, our mother, we walk in the footsteps of the Redeemer, striving to be bearers of God’s love and hope to the most abandoned and wounded poor within us. Truly, “In Him, there is plentiful Redemption.” Amen.
Bro. Daryl Tecson, CSsR.
4th Year Theology Student
