The Patna Province Education Commission organised a four-day training programme for selected teachers from all the schools of Patna Province at Atmadarshan from January 03, 2020 to January 06, 2020. Twenty seven teachers from our ten schools participated in the programme. The objective of the programme was to acquaint these selected teachers with Ignatian Spirituality, Jesuit Heritage and Education Leadership in the Society of Jesus. The province envisages that these Lay Collaborators will become motivators and leaders in all our schools to take up responsible roles in implementation of the Jesuit Vision of Education.
During the Training programme, the participants were familiarised with the history of the Society of Jesus, Spiritual Exercises, Examination of Conscience, history of Jesuit Education, Characteristics of Jesuit Education, Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm, etc. The participants also were guided to understand the current thrusts of the Society of Jesus through sessions on the Four Cs, Universal Apostolic Preferences and Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition. The programmes provided special focus on the Global Identifiers of Jesuit Schools and the Universal Apostolic Preferences to find ways of implementing these in our schools. All the participants immersed themselves fully into the programme and experienced a spiritual renewal in their own personal lives and renewal in their professional lives. They expressed their appreciation and satisfaction at the end of the training programme and suggested that this opportunity should be provided to all the staff of our schools to make them truly Jesuit Schools. The programme was conducted by Frs. Norbert Menezes and George Nedumattam with the assistance of other resource persons.
– Fr. George Nedumattam