by Kuya Louie Climaco (Fra Louie)
The smallest organizational unit of the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) is the Action Group (AG). It is composed of five to seven couples or five to seven individuals, and is headed by an Action Group Leader (AGL). The action group is a significant means of support, formation, and growth for all members. The BCBP continuously trains AGLs to better help members to find and establish their life and service on God’s Word, to work with God in their life, and preach God’s work to others. For such purpose, every year the BCBP conducts a training seminar not only for current Action Group Leaders but future ones as well together with Service Ministry heads.
Objectives, Attitudes, Focus Areas, and Ends
The two-day AGL training has the following objectives:
- Develop a joyful attitude and commitment to service.
- Clarify our leadership roles and responsibilities.
- Learn and apply ways to improve caring for our members.
It invites trainers and trainees to adopt the following attitudes:
- Openness to the Lord
- Eagerness to learn from the Lord
- Willingness to obey the Lord
- Love for others as the Lord loves them
It emphasizes the following aspects:
- servant leadership
- the action group
- the BCBP caring system
It prays to the Lord to achieve the following ends:
- greater service and faithfulness to the Lord
- refreshment and encouragement from the Lord
- strength from the Lord for service
Training in 2018
In 2018, the BCBP Mactan Chapter held its Leaders Training and Worshop at Saint Francis Seraph Retreat House in Maghaway, Talisay City. Day 1 of 2 was February 3. Now are there hints that the Lord would do His part to make the training a success? Well, read the following excerpts from the readings of the Liturgy of the Word of the Most Holy Eucharist of that day, and judge for yourself.
Wisdom and Understanding
The first reading (1 Kgs. 3:4-13) is the conversation between God and young Solomon who just succeeded his father David as king of Israel:
“You have shown great favor to your servant . . . even today, seating a son of his on his throne. O Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”
The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request. So God said to him: “Because you have asked for . . . understanding so that you may know what is right I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there . . . will come no one to equal you.”
On the day Mactan Chapter AGLs began to be trained to better lead AGs, the Word of God reminded them to imitate young King Solomon: desire wisdom and understanding. The Lord also reminded them that two of the seven gifts from God the Holy Spirit, received in the Sacrament of Baptism, are wisdom and understanding; consequently, the Lord reminded them that BCBP is part of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement, which one of its international leaders described as “a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit . . . through which we are asked to hand our lives over to God and to give the power back to him.”
Also, the Word of God gave them a magnificent model in young King Solomon on adopting the attitudes that the training invites them to adopt.
Teach Me, O Lord
The Responsorial Psalm seems to resonate the prayer of King Solomon: Take the response, for example:
Lord, teach me your statutes.
Psalms 119:12
and some stanzas:
With all my heart I seek you;
Psalms 119:10,13,14
let me not stray from your commands.
With my lips I declare
all the ordinances of your mouth.
In the way of your decrees I rejoice,
as much as in all riches.
On the day Mactan Chapter AGLs began to be trained to better lead AGs, the Word of God reminded them to always come to the Lord all who are weary and will be weary from carrying a heavy burden, such as the burden of leadership, so that He will give them rest; and the Lord also reminded them to learn from Him for He is gentle and humble of heart in taking His yoke, such as the yoke of leadership, so that His yoke is easy and its burden light (Mt. 11:28-30). And was the Lord giving the AGLs rest not refreshment, one of the ends of the training, or was the Lord making the yoke and burden of AG leadership easy and light not giving strength for service, another end of the training.
Come Away and Rest Like Sheep With A Shepherd
Finally, excerpts from the Gospel:
The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. . . .” So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. . . . When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
And the Word of God reminded them that He really intended for them to come away by themselves to a deserted place so that He may teach them to become shepherds. To the AGLs, the deserted place is Saint Francis Seraph Retreat House, and to be shepherds is exactly what AGLs are to AGs.
Curiously, the name “Saint Francis Seraph” comes from the vision of Saint Francis of Assisi at Mount La Verna. While in a retreat of prayer and fasting, the saint saw a seraph with six wings, all on fire, from heaven. As the seraph drew near, a form of someone crucified appeared amid the wings. The seraph gave Saint Francis the five wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise known as the stigmata. As a matter of fact, the Franciscan order, formally known as the Order of Friars Minor, is also called the Seraphic Order due to this vision.
Interestingly, as with Saint Francis of Assisi on Mount La Verna, the AGLs were also in a retreat, training to lead AGs. Moreover, they spent the retreat in a retreat house named after the vision of the saint that reminded him that the Lord, by laying down His life for His sheep on the cross, is the Good Shepherd, which the Lord proved to the crowd by teaching them as mentioned in the Gospel of the first day of training.
In closing, meditate on the following quote from the first pope in history to take the name of Saint Francis of Assisi for regnal name:
You must be shepherds with the smell of sheep.
Pope Francis