The ASIAN Vision
Our Field of Dreams
by Wil Hernandez, PhD, Obl. OSB
Founder/Executive Director, CenterQuest
Original Dream
As a brief backgrounder, the concept of CenterQuest originated as an Asian dream of mine many years ago after migrating to the United States in 1995. Through a series of events and circumstances beyond my control, the original intent never materialized. Instead, as God providentially orchestrated it, the vision evolved into a global thrust with technology playing a major piece in its current hybrid format of training delivery. Through various collaborative endeavors and partnerships over the years, the School of Spiritual Direction or SSD was finally birthed in 2013 with the aim of training people in the art and skill of spiritual guidance and companioning.
Recapturing the Dream
The original dream never died; it just took on a back seat for a while until slowly we started witnessing the initial vision being revived ever more clearly before our eyes. Throughout the past seven years while running five SSD cycles with cohort participants from all over the world, I continued traveling back to Asia every year, establishing networking relationships with various individuals and groups who share the vision of bringing a contextualized version of this training program to Asia through more accessible and affordable means.
The Time Has Come
Meanwhile, from the Asian graduates of our SSD program over the course of five cohorts, God continued to raise up a good core team of people embracing similar vision. Together, we kept dreaming, envisioning, praying, and discerning what God might unfold before us until we began sensing unanimously that God's kairos moment seemed to already be looming on the horizon. During one of our gatherings via Zoom, as each person in the group expressed their personal conviction about the prospect of CQ Asia-SSD, it became evident that more than any other period, we have finally arrived at the most opportune time to take a leap of faith and trust God for the realization of this shared dream and growing burden in all our hearts. Amidst the continuing reality of the pandemic and its accompanying challenges, while fully cognizant of the unpredictability of it all, we chose to forge ahead and trust the Author of our faith to lead and guide us toward the fulfillment of our embraced vision for CQ SSD-Asia. By faith, we moved forward one step at a time according to the light provided for us until together we finally witnessed the slow but sure unfolding of God's dream for us---starting with the weeklong Opening Residency retreat attended by close to 70 people including a total of 34 accepted participants from all over Asia this past Jan. 25-30, 2023 at Mirador Jesuit Villa, Baguio City, Philippines (see our Updates page for more details).
Moving Forward
As we look forward with great anticipation for the culmination of our pilot cohort during our Closing Residency in April 2024, our CQ Asia Core Team once again discerned with one heart to begin preparing for another SSD cycle with a brand new cohort (Cohort 1) to officially kick off in October, 2024. Super early bird (SEB) applications will start this October, 2023 until mid-March 2024 after which regular applications (RA) period immediately follow. Deadline for application is June 30, 2024 (see Our School page for more info).