SACRED HEART RETREAT HOUSE AND SEMINAR CENTER

Location: 1117 Quirino Highway, Novaliches, Quezon City, Philippines Telephone Numbers: (02) 939-5060/69 Mobile Phone Number: (+63) 917-8688187 E-mail Address: shretreat@yahoo.com Website: www.shretreat.com Descriptive Summary: Sacred Heart Novitiate Retreat House and Seminar Center is owned and managed by the Jesuits which has been operating for 75 years already and considered to be their spiritual home and countless others opted to be in warm embrace of God’s divine presence. It has four air-conditioned rooms which can accommodate 30 to 150 people. It also has seven private rooms for individual consultations and spiritual direction. It was the Jesuit missionaries Fr. Sedeño, Fr. Sanchez along with Bro. Gallardo who inspired the creation of this spiritual home wayback in 1581.

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The vast grounds teeming with old acacia and mahogany trees

Indeed, Sacred Heart Retreat House is a place where one can have total silence and commune with his Divine Creator. The serenity of the place can give one a total retreat from the hustle-bustle cosmopolitan lifestyle. Yet, this place is still a part of Metropolitan Manila.

The main gate of Sacred Heart Novitiate Retreat House and Seminar Center

As you start your very first step while entering this tranquil place, you will feel the aura of tranquility which puts you into the state of reciprocity.

The long shady road leading to the building facilities

Mother nature abounds inside the compound and fresh air is every where. The administration building and other facilities are approximately more than kilometer from the main gate.

Spacious accommodation and house of prayer

It has several amenities such as function rooms, consultation areas and air-conditioned conference rooms for seminars, conferences and meetings.

Part of the retreat session

The house assists in facilitating reservations and contacting spiritual directors for retreat needs where there are various retreat directors, such as Jesuits, lay persons, and other religious who are available for individual and group retreats.

Part of team building activity accommodated at Richie Fernando Hall

The house also accommodates corporate team building activities. Though every year from the last Monday of October to the third week of November, the whole house is reserved for those making the thirty-day retreat, the full Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

The tree house as part of recreational venue

There are varied sports facilities available like basketball and volleyball courts, a soccer field, a tennis wall and court and a swimming pool. It also has 24-hour security services.

The Immaculate Conception Chapel

The house is equipped with six chapels and one of them is the Immaculate Concepcion Chapel. Other smaller chapels are: De la Strada, Francis Xavier, Holy Family and Saint Joseph. These chapels can accommodate smaller groups of retreatants.

The Main Chapel

The chapel above considered as the Main Chapel is housed in the other building just next to the Refectory or Mess Hall as well as the kitchen facilities. It is a chapel where I really felt the presence of God when our spiritual master facilitated the spiritual cleansing session in the name of Brother Nikki “Nix” Hipolito – a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University.

The spacious Refectory or Mess Hall

Refectory can accommodate big groups as many as 150 in one serving where retreatants and guests are served with snacks and refreshments and three meals in a day.

Part of the Administration on the left part of the picture

The huge acacia tree on the background where roots occupy a wide radius of space is a dominant sight as you park your vehicle fronting the administration office.

The favorite corner of the retreatants and visitors

Groups of retreatants and visitors would normally have their group picture taken from this statue of the Sacred Heart where the house has taken its name.

The Sacred Heart statue gleaming in all its glory at night time

I personally thank, Ma’am Letty V. Uy, the president and major stockholder of Angels Institute of Learning and Angeli Dei Schools for inviting me to join in this very meaningful retreat held in this sacred venue. She was my former superior and remained to be a highly respected friend and mentor.

HOW TO GET THERE

Refer to this link Direction to the Sacred Heart Novitiate to get the right direction.

COMPANY OUTING FEBRUARY 2011

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This occasion is the company outing of the teaching and auxiliary staff of Angels Institute of Learning and Angeli Dei Schools headed by our very own generous school principal, Ms. Leticia V. Uy and cool Assistant Principal, Mr. Alfredo D. Celada, Jr. dated February 27 – 28, 2011 in Salazar's Private Pools located in No. 11 Sampaguita Street, Solemar Del Pansol Subdivision, Brgy. Pansol, Calamba City, Laguna.

February 27, 2011 was Sunday and we left Mandaluyong City boarding a chartered bus in the afternoon that day to our outing destination and stayed there overnight till 3:00 P.M. of the following day, February 28, 2011 (Monday) which was declared holiday to celebrate our school’s Teacher’s Day.

These two days were memorable as all of us had the opportunity to have a bonding together enjoying the lavish food, a sleepless night in the hot spring pools with videoki. Indeed, in our experience, company outing is really a big, big, big festive party for us. So far, this is my third year in this institution and the third company outing I enjoyed.

MOUNT BATULAO CLIMB FOR THE THIRD TIME

This is my third time to scale Mount Batulao of Nasugbu in the province of Batangas. This mountain has an elevation of 811 meters above sea level or 2,660.76 feet which is categorized as a minor climb, level 2 and moderate. It has steep and open summit offering such an awesome panorama when one is on top of it.

This climb has offered me another exciting experience as I have guests with me and a fellow PNB MC Member, Rome Frias and another seasoned mountain climber from OWWA in the name of Mr. Anthony Bueza, Rome’s officemate. Our guests were: Doctor Cesar Garcia – Rome’s and my friend; Raymund Leonor (OWWA) and my colleagues (SPED teachers) in Angels Institute of Learning in the names of Ella Krizia and Emlou Vargas. It was the first time for them to experience mountain climbing. For Doc Cesar, Raymund and Ella, it was such a great milestone in their lives conquering the mountain’s summit and overcoming their fear of heights. The long legged and long-haired Emlou, on the other hand, is a daring woman without any fear of high altitude. She just find it thrilling being in this endless scaling activity.

This climb started boarding a bus in Pasay Taft Rotonda at 6:20 A.M. and we arrived in Evercrest of Batulao at 8:48 A.M. We fixed first ourselves in the nearby store in answering the call of nature and proceed with a 12-minute tricycle ride for P20 per head going to the nearest jump-off point. Melvin Brusas (Grade III pupil and a school drop out for 3 years), the cousin of Randy was our local guide then. It was my first to climb where I forgot to lead a prayer for I was as excited as my guests. The trekking started at 8:58 A.M. The skies then were open and the weather was perfect. It was not so hot and small amount of clouds accompanied us to shade us while on trek. Along the trail, the panorama was so inviting that our guests requested for an endless picture taking. After one hour and 31minutes, we have to rest and regroup in Halo-Halo Refreshment Point. It was a 17-minute break along with some other climbers having their Halo-halo moments to quench their thirst from a grueling trekking session.

We resumed our trekking at 10:27 A.M. But we have to stop shortly at a Buco Stop Point where the entry point for New Trail awaited our guests. Then we went down trailing to the direction of the Old trail. We arrived at Camp 1 of the Old Trail at 11:49 A.M. after a series of 5-minute stop and regrouping with accompanying picture taking with a registration of P20 per head. We agreed that we will spend overnight in Camp 1 to really have some rest and refreshing moment with mother nature. Besides, our guests would like to avail of the comfort room facility which costs P20 per pail of water. A water source is available in the camp for cooking. We pitched then our tents and took our lunch. We slept in our tents for almost two hours and after that the group except for Raymund and Anthony scaled towards Camp 7 to capture best shots with the backdrop of the summit. We cooked our dinner at around 5:00 P.M. and had eaten at 6:30 P.M. where socials followed, the usual wine drinking. Of course, I am a non-drinker and so I have to be contended in sharing some conversational moment with the group. Lights out was at 10:21 P.M. but I slept earlier than the rest of the group. We hand really a soundly sleep as almost all of us were snoring.

We woke up at 5:30 A.M. and cooked for breakfast. While others were cooking, Raymund, Anthony and I scaled up to Camp 6 for picture taking. We had our breakfast at 6:22 A.M. and cooked again for our pack lunch. Break camp followed at 9:35 A.M. for we opted to stay in the camp to enjoy the place. Ascending towards the summit started at 10:11 A.M. Our guests find ascending towards Camp 7, Camp 8, Camp 9 and Camp 10 (the summit) with extreme difficulty though I still initiated to take some pictures to capture the action while my group mates were ascending the summit. We were at the summit at 12:06 Noon and stayed a little bit longer. We resumed a more relaxed trekking towards the new trail passing on a narrow and breathtaking ridge. We arrived at the New Trail registration camp which cost us P20 per head at 1:49 P.M. and stayed longer for our late lunch. We arrived in the exit point of the New Trail at 2:14 P.M. and stayed longer for a buco treat costing P20 per order. An endless trekking followed up to the jump off point at 4:15 P.M. where we took a tricycle to take us to Evercrest. Anthony and Raymund left earlier due to scheduled appointment. The rest of us in the group had fixed and cleaned up ourselves in the available stores and took a 22-minute jeepney ride for P17 per head to Tagaytay City for a Special Bulalo treat at the Diner’s Restaurant. Bus rate from Tagaytay City to Pasay is P87 per head. We arrived Pasay City at 9:09 P.M.