Two hundred sixteen lay administrators, teaching and non-teaching personnel participated in the talk on Augustinian volunteerism given by Miss Desiree D. Diel, RN, MAN, former CEPO Head on July 12, 2024 at the CSA-Bacolod Auditorium.
Revolving around the theme, “Echoes of Love and Heartfelt Hands: The Augustinian Spirit of Volunteerism”, the two-hour talk facilitated by the Community Engagement Program Office or CEPO headed by Miss Altha Gracia P. Diopido, RSW, in coordination with the Vice-president for Augustinian Formation, Religious Affairs and Mission or VPAFRAM headed by Fr. Raymundo Edsel T. Alcayaga, OSA, came in two batches, 8:00 am to 10:00 am and 10:00 am to 12:00 pm.
“What the world needs now is a kind of love involving the will, which means freely given without return of investment.” This was underscored by Diel as she emphasized on Agape as a type of love based on decision and not feeling. With this, she cited the famous Augustinian doctrine of The Order of Loves or ordo amorum, with God as the top, other human beings in the middle and non-human things at the bottom.
True, indeed, because it seems that in today’s world of materialism, one allows oneself to be enslaved by non-human things with other human beings at the bottom. Diel, in fact, hit the point with a quote, “Know who the person loves and you will know who the person is”.
Making the assembly imagine the image of the cross, Diel talked about the supposedly relationship of a person, firstly, vertically, that is, God on top, and horizontally, man’s relationship with others. Regarding relationship with man rooted in the love for God, she emphasized the three core values of Augustinian education, namely, unitas or unity, veritas or truth and caritas or love for others. In fact, anyone who has stayed long in an Augustinian community knows that building an Augustinian community means to live harmoniously with dialogue and friendship as additional ingredients. To thrive in a community, the speaker said, three important values have to be imbibed, first, humility, second, humility, and third humility. This is how St. Augustine had fully grasped the truth.
Building on the premise of love, friendship, dialogue and humility in building a community, the speaker linked these on On Caritas or service, quoting, “He who knows how to love knows how to live.” Loving and serving, truly, begins with a love for God and formation of will. Moreover, service done in humility builds character and develops good habits. “Working, then, in an academic institution, we must see those we serve as human persons” was her additional point. This means selflessness, sacrifice, service and support to one another. This in turn, Diel reiterated the need to develop the skills in communication, coordination, collaboration and cooperation.
As her last key concept, the former CEPO head cited the core characteristics of a volunteer namely, respectful, accountable, fair and can be trusted. Volunteers may take in many forms like being a donor, a supporter, a member, a leader or being an advocate.
Interestingly, she pointed out that as a volunteer, one has to reflect on the input, the process, the output and the outcomes that may be used as another input. This process flow has to echo “love in action” the Augustinian way.
Making the assembly ponder on the reality of life and the society we live, with all the social issues confronting us as a nation and as a race, Diel, finally, was able to put her message in a capsule, Ubuntu, an African term which means humanity to others with its lengthened version, “I am who I am because of who we all are.”
By Miss Tess Javelona
