By Amparo Batutay

The author is a Misyon promoter. Here she shares her struggle to grow into the post-Vatican II way of living our faith.

An old song says, ‘It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ These words have significance in my life.

Before I started my formal schooling at the age of 7, I had already received my First Communion, studied the basic Spanish alphabet and memorized the old little booklet of the catechism. Though born in Cebu City, I was raised in Boljo-on, a sleepy, quiet romantic town in the southeast of Cebu, with verdant mountains majestically towering over white sandy beaches where bathers stretch lazily and enjoy the lapis lazuli sky over a shimmering azure sea.