Ordained in 1999, Fr. Colin Tan, SJ is currently the country coordinator for JRS Singapore, while being involved in other ministries.

Fr. Colin Tan, SJ – standing, 3rd. from left with fellow Jesuits.

1. When and where did you join Society of Jesus?
My date of joining the Society of Jesus was 28 February 1988 and I was accepted to the Society and joined the novitiate in Australia in a place called Canisius College in Pymble. I did 2 years of my novitiate with the Australian novices, and Vietnamese as well. There were 3 of us from Singapore who were in the novitiate of 12 novices.

2. When were you ordained a priest?
I was ordained on 2 October 1999, just before the end of the millennium, on the Feast of the Guardian Angels.

3. What kind of studies or special studies or training have you undergone?
Well, after my Theology in Dublin where I did my Bachelors of Divinity in Milltown Park Institute of Theology and Philosophy. I also went on to do a specialization in my fourth year. I did an MA in Pastoral Leadership in All Hallow’s College.

4. What do you do in Pastoral Leadership?
Pastoral Leadership Ministry was about preparing leaders for ministry in terms of how we understand leadership within the Church. Among the topics covered were management, supervising small groups, and looking into basics of counseling strategies. This was in addition to doing theological reflection on current issues. Spiritual direction was also included.

5. Fr. Colin, on a more personal note, what made you or moved you to consider religious life?
Well, I think the primary motivation for me is the sense that I’m ever grateful to God for the gift of life, and that for me it was a question of doing what I feel to be the right approach to responding to God’s call in my life and, it was to me an act of self-offering to God for His goodness to me.

6. And, why did you choose the Jesuits?
Interestingly, when I was discerning my vocation way back in 1986-87 I had given thoughts to joining all other religious congregations except the Jesuits. I was contemplating joining the Benedictine monks, but unfortunately there wasn’t any around so I never got to really enquire about them. And I was also contemplating joining the Capuchins. I was interested in contemplative orders.

But eventually, I found that I was accepted by the Jesuits (by Fr. Paul Tan, SJ.) And to me it was a question of later discovering my talents and “fittingness” that the Jesuits was the Religious Order that I was looking for. In fact, way back even before I knew about the Jesuits, I had an inkling of setting up a group called the Society of Jesus because in school I was quite active and had set up clubs such as an Art club. So, I was thinking of setting up a club that would allow people to know more about the person of Jesus. So something like the Jesus’ Club, but of course, St. Ignatius of Loyola beat me to it by founding the Society of Jesus!

7. What was your strategy when you were discerning your vocation?
Well, it was quite simple for me. I simply went straight to the people in charge. So I spoke to a few people from the various religious congregations at the Vocation encounter. From this I got a sense of what the different congregations were about, and from this sense I was able to see which ones I felt more suited to or comfortable with.

And coming to the Jesuits, who were initially not in my list because I thought they were considered to be too intellectual and high-browed, and I never saw myself that way, and I was glad to have been able to experience the openness of the Jesuits which attracted me greatly, and also their ability to be objective, non-judgmental and to accept people as they are.

I met Fr. Gerry Keane, SJ who was at that time the spiritual director of the Youth Apostolic Committee which I was chairing. He was the one who, in a sense, gave me the first impression of what Jesuits are like. He presented a very good and positive impression of the Jesuits to me by his openness, supportiveness and by his simplicity of life. He was quite influential in my search for the right order to join, apart from the influence from another priest, Fr. Berthold from St. Anne’s Church; he was the one who gave me my instructions before I myself converted and was baptized in 1980.

I was from St. Anne’s Church but later on I had moved to another parish - Nativity Church where I was ordained.

8. Fr. Colin, now that you’ve experienced the journey of searching for your own vocation, what advice would you give to someone who is discerning?
I would say that go where your heart leads you, and if you find that your heart leads you to find God in your life, then go all the way. It’s about being happy with the vocation one has chosen, and happiness is precisely to do God’s will in spite of difficulties, objections, etc. In my case, I had objections from my father. But, through a lot of patience and prayers I was able to persevere. You can say that it’s God grace and everything has right a season and time.

So I think for young people who are searching for religious life or searching for vocation you need to give God a chance and give yourself a chance. Once they feel that this is their calling and their want to respond fully to it, then as it is said “Once the hand is on the plough, do not look back.” Just go with the flow and current. After all we never know where we may end up, but as long as we are open and are guided by the Spirit that’s where we will find our destination.

9. What about those who have those who have already chosen a vocation be it religious or married life? What would your advice be for them, in the Christian sense of the word?
There are various ways in which we can serve God, be it through religious life, priestly life, married life, or single blessedness. I think the most important thing is to be able to say, “Yes Lord, I’m merely your servant, do with me what you will.” That is, to have an understanding that we are doing no more than what we are commanded to do and therefore to do it joyfully and with great generosity.

I think the Church must, in other words, be in touch with the lives of ordinary people. The minute they are out of touch with the lives of ordinary people, that’s when the Church will run the risk of losing her sense of mission, sense of vocation even.

Links
· Choosing a Vocation
· More Vocation Stories
· Prayer