At the beginning of March, 19 members of the Salvatorian Community in Australia gathered for the annual retreat at St John of God Retreat Centre, Safety Bay, WA. Fr Adam Teneta SDS was invited this year to be the retreat master. He is a member and chairman of the Postulation Team and also a member of the International Historical Commission of the Salvatorians in Rome, Italy.

At the beginning of his presentations, Fr Adam reminded the participants that the superior general of the Community, Fr Milton Zonta, proclaimed the year 2015 "The Salvatorian Missionary Year." Therefore, Fr Adam referred to that theme very often during his speeches and homilies. It was the idea of FrFrancis Jordan, the Founder of the Salvatorians, to form a group of dedicated modern apostles and missionaries. According to Fr Adam it was absolutely central to the Salvatorian charism and spirituality to evangelise in every corner of the world using all good means available.

Many times Fr Adam quoted words from our founder's Spiritual Diary, which are all important in the Salvatorian tradition.Father Jordan encouraged even himself to be a true apostle of Jesus Christ! He wrote “Do not rest until you have carried the word of God to the four corners of the earth. Be a true herald of the Most High! [Fly like an eagle around the globe and proclaim the word of God!] [...] Establish an apostolic Society [...]. At least once a week examine whether an apostolic spirit prevails everywhere in the Society; if you find it lacking, pray with all your strength and, full of holy zeal, introduce it everywhere.”

Fr Adam encouraged all of us, to look into the future of our Salvatorian life and ministry in the light of the important heritage Father Jordan has left to us. He reminded us that each one of us is called for the apostolate “that all might know God and the one he sent, Jesus Christ.” (Francis Jordan, June 23, 1899).He recalled Fr Francis’ words from February 1, 1901:  “Work closely together to exercise the apostolate of announcing Christ.” He refreshed our awareness of the apostolic nature of our Society, which is clearly visible in our Constitutions, where we define ourselves as an apostolic institute, where we refer to the holy Apostles as to our example and help, and where we stress that our Salvatorian life is apostolic, and that our apostolic zeal is one of the ways of proclaiming Jesus Christ to all people. Also he said that when we make our religious profession, we promise to dedicate ourselves to Jesus Christ in His Church without reserve, and to a life of apostolic service in the Society of the Divine Saviour.

Summarising, Fr Adam touched many topics during his five day presentation. They covered the Salvatorians’ charism and mission, the holiness of our Founder and his beatification process, evangelisation’s zeal of Fr Francis and his followers (ex. Fr Otto Hopfenmuller, Fr Pankracy Pfeiffer), Eucharist, Mary, cross and humility.

All the members of the Australian Region of the Salvatorians who participated in the Retreat agreed that Fr Adam was an outstanding speaker renewing our apostolic enthusiasm. The fruits of his words and his love for Fr Francis Jordan will definitely reflect in our pastoral activities.