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Spiritual
Renewal
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"Don't
complain you have no shoes
until you see a man without feet"
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| The
Catholic Commission for Health Pastoral Care organized aspiritual
renewal retreat for its staff and volunteers who work in the
field of health on 25-26 January 2005 at St. Paul House, Church
of the Miraculous Medal of the Blessed Virgin with 22 participants
from 7 institutions. Rev. Bancha Sripramong and Rev. Chalerm
Kitmongkhol are speakers on the topic of treatment towards oneself
and the collaborators. |
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| The
Catholic Commission for Health Pastoral Care is mandated by
the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Thailand to conscientize,
promote and coordinate with all the Catholic sectors working
on health and HIV/AIDS to develop their staffs in spirituality
in order to enhance their performances. Participants in this
renewal retreat are staff from the elderly center of Pathumthani
under the care of St. Louis Hospital, the Lorenzo orphanage,
Mercy Home, Baan Phak Jai - Bangkok, the Camillian Elderly Social
Center - Samphran, the Camillian Social Center - Rayong, and
staff working on the elderly of Nakhon Ratchasima. |
| The
purpose of this retreat is to: 1) let the participant understand
him/herself and the potential to develop oneself, 2) be convinced
of the his/her vocation in the health pastoral care, 3) know
and make friends of their same profession for the benefits of
future cooperation, and 4) recreate and learn to live together
through mutual support. |
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| Rev.
Bancha Sripramong leads the sharing on the theme: "The
process of understanding oneself and coworkers". The process
consists of analyzing oneself, self introduction and listening
to others. One success in life is through self examination,
lack of which will end up in the denial of one's state of life
or putting the blame on luck. One should not forget that there
are so many other people who are worse. So, always remember:
"Don't complain you have no shoes until you see a man without
feet". Don't try to find easy answer by making recourse
to vices or suicide. Some principles for self examination are
as follows: |
| O |
Set the target
of your life not too high and not too low. It should be in consonance
with your talent, potential and interest. |
| O |
In the community
life you must be courteous by accepting others as they are. |
| O |
You must examine
yourself why you fail and how to be successful. The most important
thing is that, to be successful, you must practice what you
have learned. |
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| Rev.
Chalerm Kitmongkhol tackles the theme: "Working with the
spirit and in happiness". Each participant is requested
to find good things in one's life in order to know him/herself,
because to understand oneself from critics of others is not
easy. |
| Though
we are in the state of what we are, yet we have to develop ourselves.
How? We must step out of ourselves, out of the litany of our
old data, and because the type of our work is of spiritual nature
we must dedicate ourselves to the work, otherwise our work would
be very superficial. The daily life is full of competition,
i.e. you must win. And as we have to work daily with people
we must use both our heart and intellect in our work. |
| The
speaker also says that the first morality of any activity is
sharing which must come out of ourselves in an appropriate balance.
Giving has a double meaning, i.e. 1. Abstract Giving - knowledge,
love, understanding which must develop within oneself and grow
up in others, 2. Concrete Giving - materials which result in
us having less but an increase to others, making them have a
better life. As for the reward let it be known only between
you and God. |
| Expected
results by evaluation of the participants are as follows: 1.
Gaining new knowledge from the 2 speakers, 2. Understanding
current social problems and AIDS situations, 3. Understanding
self better and having a new attitude toward others, 4. Would
have more happiness in the work, and 5. Having more friends. |
| The
Catholic Commission for Health Pastoral Care also intends to
organize another renewal retreat for personnel/volunteers of
the Church working on AIDS in the northeast dioceses. |
