Forty theology students from STF Driyarkara Jakarta stepped into ordinary parish life on May 11, joining worshippers at Regina Caeli Church in North Jakarta in an effort to help future clergy and religious learn pastoral presence, silence, and liturgy in an increasingly distracted digital age.
The students, representing various religious congregations and diocesan backgrounds, participated in the Fifth Sunday of Easter Mass at Regina Caeli Church in Pantai Indah Kapuk Parish, serving as lectors, choir members, psalm readers, collectors, and other liturgical ministers.
The immersion was organized by Father Jacobus “Jack” Tarigan of the Archdiocese of Jakarta, who teaches theology at STF Driyarkara and also serves as associate pastor of the parish.
Instead of limiting seminarians and religious sisters to classroom instruction, Tarigan said he wanted students to experience pastoral ministry directly within a parish community.
Photo credit: Regina Caeli PIK Parish Church via Fr. Jack Tarigan Pr.
“That is, into the Sunday Mass at PIK Parish, where I serve pastorally,” the priest told LiCAS News.
STF Driyarkara, founded in 1969, is a Jakarta-based philosophy and theology school attended by seminarians, religious sisters, and lay students from various congregations and dioceses.
Among those who joined the immersion were seminarians from St. John Paul II Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Jakarta, Jesuit residents of Kolese Hermanum, members of CICM and OFM, and sisters from the HSHJ congregation.
Members of the parish community said the students’ participation brought a different atmosphere to the liturgical celebration.
“We were delighted to experience a different and rather special atmosphere during last Sunday’s Eucharistic celebration,” one parishioner wrote on social media.
Another parishioner said the celebration felt “much more alive because it was enriched by the liturgical ministers and choir composed of seminarians currently studying theology at STF Driyarkara Jakarta.”
During his homily, Tarigan reflected on silence and prayer in a society increasingly shaped by technology, social media, and constant digital engagement.
Tarigan said the Church now uses increasingly advanced audio-visual technology in liturgical celebrations, including large LCD screens, sophisticated sound systems, video displays, and livestreaming platforms that can support worship and evangelization.
“The Church is not anti-technology. LCD screens help the congregation sing. Livestreaming helps the sick participate in Mass. Digital media can become a means of evangelization,” he said.
Tarigan, however, urged the faithful to reflect on whether constant sounds, images, visual effects, and busyness during liturgical celebrations still leave room for believers to listen to God interiorly.
Photo credit: Regina Caeli PIK Parish Church via Fr. Jack Tarigan Pr.
“Because liturgy is not primarily about what attracts the eyes. Liturgy is the mystery of an encounter between the living God and humanity thirsting for salvation. And every true encounter always requires silence,” he said.
Tarigan said modern life leaves little room for silence and contemplation, noting that many people have become uncomfortable with quiet moments and instinctively turn to their mobile phones whenever there is a pause or absence of noise.
“And yet it is precisely in silence that the heart begins to listen. The prophet Elijah encountered God not in the mighty wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in ‘a gentle whisper.’ God often comes softly. Therefore, a heart continually filled with noise gradually loses the ability to perceive His presence,” he added.
As mobile phones, livestreams, and digital distractions increasingly shape daily life, the immersion offered theology students a pastoral lesson difficult to teach inside classrooms: that silence remains central to prayer, liturgy, and listening to God.
