At 3'40" into the video our editor uses the expression 'non-active violence' when he means 'active non-violence'.

By Sr Rhea Lei Y. Tolibas TC

The author is a Capuchin Tertiary Sister of the Holy Family. She is majoring in Social Work at the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (UNO-R), Bacolod City. Sister Rhea Lei is assigned to Mater Dolorosa Formation House in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.

The stars were marching in a stately manner in the midnight clear sky as I looked beyond the darkness of the world. This was during my teenage years as I came to ask myself what I would be when I grew up. I dreamed of so many ideals and goals, but the questions still remained: ‘What is my life for? Why do I exist? What is my mission in this world? Why did God create me? What is His will for my life?’

Have you ever asked yourself why you exist? What the truest meaning of your life is? Why God created you as you journey towards the life not yet realized? Emptiness remains, but with the echo of a call that’s hiding within. Behind your existence lies the meaning of your life.

Let me tell you a story of a ‘call’. I grew up in a very simple and ‘ordinary’ life in Leyte, the middle of eleven siblings. My parents had their own sources of income. We weren’t a perfect family but how my parents strove to become good and responsible in spite of their limitations, weaknesses and even brokenness! I grew up in a poor family. Yes, I experienced eating only once a day, eating only boiled leafy vegetable or even nothing, going to school on an empty stomach, crying in front of my teachers begging to take examinations, walking a kilometer to school. Sometimes I had to walk barefoot because my shoes were destroyed. But what was the joy of my family at the end of our school year when my parents had to go onstage as we received medals, ribbons or trophies, the awards of a whole year’s sacrifices! We went to college only through scholarships.

Every night when the weather was good, I used to spend time alone under the starry sky and full moon, the silence deafening. Sometimes tears would just flow continuously while I conversed with God all about my life and faith. Sometimes under the stars I would make a vision of my future but it was far from what I was at the time. I grew up unaware of the things that were happening in my life, busy with survival. I never knew why things needed to happen. I saw ‘life’ from a negative point of view, so hard, so restless, so full of confusion and so empty. I had big questions in my life: ‘Why? How? What? When?’ So painful when you can’t do anything but strive!

The best thing is to pray always even if you have little faith and can’t understand what’s happening in life. These were the moments when God asked me to surrender, to trust and to allow Him to work in my life. So many times I questioned God. But behind every doubt and question my faith grew. We strove, we worked, we prayed, we cried but sometimes smiled until each of my elder sisters graduated from college. But my life didn’t stop there. It continued with different and even bigger challenges.

I was seeking the meaning of my life, experiencing the depth of the longing for this in the core of my existence Questions started to fill my life. Yet I continued living as an ordinary teenager . . . school – house – church – barkada – drinking - cutting classes - fiestas – lagaw-lagaw. My hobby was writing composition while listening to music. Seeking the meaning of my life was difficult. There were times I felt a stranger in my own self and even being lost in searching for the destination of my life. Sometimes we need to be lost to find ourselves. But we need first to always go back to God to find ourselves.

It was one afternoon when God called me, I didn’t know it was the first step in discovering the reason for my existence. God was leading me to discover the meaning of my life. I was already attending ‘search-ins’ and ‘follow ups’ until college in Leyte Normal University (LNU). The call was growing stronger deep within until it led me to a decision that would change my life. It was so hard to decide. I experienced confusion, doubts, darkness and even being numb. Yes, I was a coward, full of fears and insecurities as to what my decision would lead to. Trusting God is not easy when you can’t see what lies ahead.

What was most painful was letting go of my family, of my ‘comfort zone’. It was 8am 28 May 2006 when I left my family, my life in the ‘world’, to enter consecrated life as a religious sister. The pain for my family and me is still fresh in my mind. I bade goodbye to my father who was trying to keep his tears from flowing but couldn’t. The tears of my mother, sisters and brothers also flowed. I was holding back mine until I rode in the jeepney and my heart was breaking with pain. Even at that point I experienced the love of my family as they bore their pain for the sake of my decision.

Actually my decision was against that of my parents especially of my father who told me ‘Finish your studies, get a job and get married’. But the call of God is irrevocable. So many questions addressed to me: why, why enter this kind of life? Why at such an early age? But we can’t fathom the will of God. Only faith can explain. The only prayer I was uttering in leaving life outside was, ‘I trust you, God, even if I fear, Thy will be done.’

God never promised us an easy life but He said ‘I will be with you until the end of time’ (Mt 28:20). We each have our own calling. It might be for married life or for the consecrated life such as that of priest or nuns. But each of us has a call to be responded to. We are all called to happiness and each of us has his own mission. Wherever we are, no matter our status in life, we have a mission every moment of our lives. Even beggars have their own mission and are called to a vocation where their happiness lies. It is not when we finish our studies, our master’s or doctorate or in achieving success. Our mission is within us. It is to do the will of God every moment of our lives. God is not asking us to do ‘great things’, to change the world, but to do simple acts of love for which the opportunities are always there.

God calls us to experience His great love, manifested in the different circumstances of our lives, every moment. I become a religious because of His great love and mercy and wanted to respond to that love that I experienced and continue to experience. How God loves me and how that love is transforming my life, no matter how unworthy I am of that love and mercy! I am a great sinner experiencing conversion in my life within God’s love that accepts me as I am.

You may email Sister Rhea Lei at rhealei_tolibas@yahoo.com. You may learn more about the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family on their website here and on the website of Holy Family Home, Makati City, here.

‘Cada Dia Dios Me Saluda Atraves de su Pueblo’

From Peru to the Philippines

By Antonio Jesús Salas Villagómez
(Translated from the Spanish by Fr Rolly Aniscal)

The author is a Columban lay missionary from Peru working in Cagayan de Oro City. Fr Rolly Aniscal, from Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental, has worked in Peru as a Columban missionary and is now one of our vocation directors, based in Manila.

‘En un pueblo olvidado no sé porqué
y su danza de moreno lo hace mover
en el pueblo lo llamaban negro José
amigo negro José.’

‘In a forgotten town I don’t know why
and his dark man’s dance makes him move.
In the town they call him Black José,
friend Black José.’

So opens El Candombé para José by Roberto Ternán sung by the Chilean group Illapu. Listening to it, I can’t help but think of the many forgotten people around me, many living on the side of the road like the blind man of Jericho. Listening, I hear the sound of the charango and guitar, of the bamboo flute and harmonica and of other instruments. I can’t help but think of the many ‘Josés’, friends who are marginalized, discriminated against and exploited by a system that does not favor the poor or, shall we say, does not favor those already impoverished.

In the midst of the music and dance, I reflect that I am meeting face to face a God who is a friend, a brother, a companion on the journey and in adventures! This is the God who is present to me day by day here in the Philippines.

My first assignment as a Columban missionary, in September 2008, was to San Isidro Labrador Parish in Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur, in the Diocese of Pagadian. However, as a consequence of the abduction of Fr Michael Sinnott in October 2009, I was transferred to Cagayan de Oro City to work with the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SSVP).

In Dumalinao I shared my life with the farmers and small-scale fishermen. There, in the mountains and on the beaches, I encountered humble and generous people who opened the doors of their houses and of their hearts to me. These are people who, like the widow in the temple who gave the only centavo she had, don’t have anything left over which they can offer, but offer what they don’t have. I had the experience of seeing and feeling the needs of the people. I walked with them, ate with them, stayed with them, and am happy to love them despite being seven hours by bus away from them.

The SSVP here in Cagayan de Oro gives Christian formation to its members and extends help in many ways to people on the margins in this large urban area. The majority of the members are women so I share my life with them, with young people and with children.

For me, this assignment is a new gift from heaven because the people here who so impress me with their day to day attitudes, deeds and words that really fill me with joy and hope.

During this period the Vincentian Family has been visiting three different areas of extreme poverty: Cala-cala, Basakan-Penikitan and Corrales Extension. We have Bible sharing and we also share our feelings, ideas and life experiences. The members don’t talk about other people but focus on themselves, sharing their own experience of God and how God is acting in their lives.

In April and May this year we spent time learning karate, and how to dance the Salsa and Meringue. But what has been really remarkable in the last four months is that we practiced Filipino dances such as Pandanggo sa Ilaw and Tinikling, the latter the best known dance in the country characterized by coordination and balance that is simply amazing.

We’ve also practiced the Huaylas, a folk dance peculiar to the Huanca culture in the city of Huancayo in the central highlands of Peru.

That is how I meet the God of life and joy, the risen Christ who smiles at me, who embraces me and who gives me life and the inspiration to continue on my journey. Every person with whom I share my life is different but all have one thing in common: a simple faith in God and the will to go out to meet ‘the other’ in the midst of their poverty.

Time passes slowly and with it comes the daily goodbyes; but my heart and life are marked by the love of God that has been offered in and through the Filipino people. I am still thinking of ‘A forgotten people and I don’t know why’, in the ‘Black Josés’ who are living on the edge of the road.

But I cannot help but smile, even though there are many poor, or shall we say, many who have become poor because of the system, who, despite the fact that there are people who discriminate against or exploit others, still offer faith, hope and love to the less favored. We really learn so much from a culture different from our own.

Thank you, Lord for showing me your face every day, for caressing my soul and speaking to me through my more humble brothers and sisters.

Thank you, Lord, because not only do you go with me but you live in me.

See Lyrics

Editor’s note: The ‘candombé’ is a South American dance of African origin and also the name of the drum used to accompany the dance. The song El Candombé para José became a kind of hymn of political prisoners in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship. They would sing it when a new prisoner was brought in or when a prisoner was released.

You may email Antonio at antoniojesussv@hotmail.com .

By Father Vic Gaboury

This article first appeared in Misyon in 1988. At that time the Columbans had a mission in the Diocese of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

It looked as though it was to be a busy time both before and during my first Christmas in Jamaica. I didn’t know the local customs and the expectations of the people. The parishioners of Seaford Town where I lived had asked for Midnight Mass. On Christmas Day there would be Masses in two mission stations at opposite ends of the parish.

The roads resembled Chinese noodles with twists and turns all the way. I’d be picking up 20 to 35 people along the way in a van made to hold 15.

On Christmas Eve there was to be an all-day and all-night church festival -- so where or with whom I’d have Christmas dinner wasn’t uppermost in my mind.

Cross at St Columban’s, Bristol, Rhode Island

Then I met Mrs Marriott on a Communion call to her home. She was a frail 87 years, living alone in a small shack, the corners held up by small stones, and the walls inside covered with newspaper to keep out the cool night air of the hills of Jamaica. There was no paint on the wall, nothing that looked like home -- but I know that whatever she had there was home to her and every rag and bottle important.

Fr Vic Gaboury with some of his flowers at St Columban’s, Bristol

She welcomed me in after the heavy task of getting her door opened. Inside, in one corner, she had her wood-burning ‘stove’, the metal rim of a car wheel. This lady wasn’t poor, she was destitute. We talked for some time or rather she talked for a long time, telling me of her life and what she was going through, alone and without any income apart from the equivalent of US$3.50 a month that was her Jamaican old age pension. Along the way I asked her what she would be doing for Christmas and she said ‘Nothing’, that she was alone and had no family.

So I told her that I would be alone too and could I bring my dinner there and have it with her. She thought that would be nice.

Japanese rock garden, St Columban’s, Bristol

On Christmas Day I didn’t finish my last mission station till 1:30pm. I thought she would be wondering if I’d forgotten our date. When I finally got home I heated up our meal and hurried to her place to find that she had no doubt I’d come eventually. She had a small two-by-two foot table covered with a clean cloth and two seats without backs. Of course, there was no running water or indoor plumbing. I’d brought plates and eating utensils and we sat down and she prayed for God’s blessing. She talked and ate with relish. I don’t know which she enjoyed the most -- but enjoy, she did! She talked of a relative who lived to be over 100 years, and I asked her If she would like to live that long. She said, ‘Well, if the Lord gives me that many years, I would like it, but if He takes me tomorrow, that’s O.K. too!’

I had wrapped a calendar with the picture of the Sacred Heart on it and some used clothing I had from home, washed and ironed. After dinner I gave them to her and she received them as if it were an everyday event. But as she unwrapped the calendar and saw the picture it wasn’t anything she said that stuck me but the way she touched and relished every detail as if it were gold. And it was the same with the other gifts as she opened them, saying nothing. After it was all over, she looked at me with a sparkle in her eyes and said, ‘Everyone needs a boost once in a while’.

Before I left she went to the corner of the room and started lifting many things off a large tin, saying she wanted to give me something to take home, and I wondered what she might have buried beneath all this.

Fr Vic Gaboury with some of his flowers at St Columban’s, Bristol

She finally reached the can and took out a bunch of bananas she had there - both for ripening and to keep them safe from rats. With pride she handed me a bunch to take home, happy to be able to give me something. Too bad I had to eat the bananas - because if I could put them with other things recalling special moments, they would be sitting there with the most memorable, reminding me not only of my first Christmas in Jamaica but of Christmas spent with a gracious lady. I came away with her words ringing in my ears, ‘We all need a boost now and then’ – and I didn’t have to reflect too long to realize it was she who had given me just that.

Fr Gaboury, ordained in 1957, served for 20 years in the Philippines before being assigned to Jamaica. He lives now in Rhode Island, USA, where he uses his talent for gardening and landscaping at St Columban’s, which serves mainly as a retirement home for Columban priests.

A Letter to a Friend

By Kenneth Acap

The author is a former Columban seminarian from Bacolod City.

Dearest Friend,

It is both in profound gratitude and in slight weariness that I am writing you this letter.

You
see, our world has greatly changed. Every single day, my values are
being challenged by television and other media. I can sometimes
see myself caving in, wanting to have a bite of the morsel offered by
the bohemian society. What we have right now is good. I admit, there is
nothing wrong in change. What I am concerned about, though, is when we
change our established core values to accommodate the fleeting and
dictated trends of false self-imaging.

Our society now
encourages us to buy all kinds of clothes, flashy shoes, posh cars and
the like. Yes, these are good stuff, undeniably. What our society fails
to do is to teach us how to love ourselves as we are. Slowly, in the
world of consumerism, building relationships is jeopardized. Respect
towards others now leans on what the others have and not on who they
are. Our humanity, indeed, has taken the backseat.

It is
truly sad that our young ones are now misled into thinking that they
become valuable to their circle of friends and to society if they
hang out in bars to smoke, drink, and have some casual chat. Moreover,
it is disheartening to observe that our young generation is a consenting
one. Parents may think that their girls are safe when they go to
parties held in their daughters' friend's house. However, this is not
the case for many. The party place mostly becomes a bordello wherein
couples, soon-to-be couples, and perfectly newly met strangers are left
alone in one of the rooms set aside for sensual pleasures. When the act is
over, those involved become ‘superstars’. The boys will be looking up to
the guy and consider him a perfect species of a man. The girl's
dignity, on the other hand, is in shambles. Unthinkable, isn't it?

In
addition, what has happened to our laws protecting our minors from
substance abuse and smoking? Go to a bar and you'll find yourself
surrounded by thirteen- or fifteen-year old kids strutting around like
peacocks with a bottle of beer in one hand and a cigarette securely
clipped between the fingers of the other.

This is
the struggle that we are facing right now - the gradual degradation of
our society in the guise of liberalism and progress. On the contrary, I
think that real progress hinges on our valuing human dignity.

This
letter is a plea to you, my dearest friend, to protect me from the
misinformation of our society, to protect me from myself and from my
unhinged desires and ambitions. I plead to you that you serve as my eye
and my heart if mine become blinded by the spotlight I wish to have or
the pleasure that I desire to achieve. For you are one soul woven into
mine, one person who has seen me in my best and in my worst through the
minutes, days, and years that you have known me. I deeply thank you for
that opportunity to share my life with you as a close friend.

In
turn, I will serve as your eye and heart, too. Furthermore, I wish that
this mutual protection shall be extended to the young souls that we
will produce, the souls of the next generation who will for certain face
a fiercer onslaught of devaluation and dehumanization of our society.

As
of now, my dearest friend, it so nice to enjoy the company of a hot cup
of coffee as my mind is engaged in a bordello of ideas on how to save
our youth and our society.

Kenneth

You may email Kenneth at featherstone_ph@yahoo.com.

‘It is my hope that in a small way I have been able to contribute to peace through compassion and also to the recognition, as George Fox has said . . . “That there is that of God in everyone,” a conception of the sanctity of human life which precludes all wars and violence.’

Fritz Eichenberg, Quaker Illustrator (1901-1990)

Christ of the Breadlines

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‘The year of grace, 1654, Monday the 23rd of November, from about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight. Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. Not of philosophers and scholars. Certitude. Heartfelt joy. Peace. God of Jesus Christ. God of Jesus Christ. My God and Your God. Your God shall be my God. The world forgotten, everything except God. Joy. Joy. Joy. Jesus Christ. I am separated from Him for, I have shunned Him, denied Him, crucified Him. May I never be separated from Him. He can only be kept by the ways taught in the Gospel. Complete and sweet renunciation. Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my Director. Everlasting joy in return for one day's striving upon earth. I will not neglect Your Word.’

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

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‘The sense of defeat is what we are fighting against. People must not just give in to the hardship of life. People must develop a hope. People must develop some form of security to be together to look at their problems, and people must, in this way, build up their humanity. This is the point about Black Consciousness.’

Stephen Biko (1946-1977), South African Martyr for Freedom

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‘At this time, when we need so much strength to regain and uphold our freedom, let us pray to God to fill us with the power of His Spirit, to reawaken the spirit of true solidarity in our hearts.’

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‘If I must die suddenly, it is surely better to meet death defending a worthwhile cause than sitting back and letting injustice win.’

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‘In order to defeat evil with good, in order to preserve the dignity of man, one must not use violence. It is the person who has failed to win on the strength of his heart and his reason who tries to win by force . . . Let us pray that we may be free from fear and intimidation, but above all from lust for revenge and violence.’ (From his last homily, 19 October 1984, the day he was murdered).

Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko (1947-1984, beatified 6 June 2010 in Warsaw in the presence of his mother, Marianna, aged 100), Priest and Martyr of Solidarity

Rafal Wieczynski directed the movie Popieluszko: Freedom is within us. Here he is interviewed and you can also see some footage from the film.

'Jerzy’ is the Polish form of ‘George’.

Reflections of a pilgrim following in St Columban’s footsteps.

By Fr Ray Scanlon

Until I did the pilgrimage I did not know much about St Columban. To me he was a mythical figure of ages long ago, one who was not so human and who had extraordinary powers, superhuman ideals and expectations.

As we travelled in St Columban’s footsteps we heard a number of accounts about his life. I began to understand and admire him. He became alive and real rather than a distant historical figure.

At the beginning of the pilgrimage our leader, Fr Derry Healy, said, ‘We are a group of lay people, sisters and priests hoping to be touched by the people, places and cultures where St Columban traveled, setting up schools and monastic communities at the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh centuries’.

The highlight of the pilgrimage was offering Mass with my classmate, Fr Brian Gore, on the occasion of our 40th anniversary of ordination. We celebrated beside St Columban’s tomb in the crypt of the basilica in Bobbio, Italy. I felt feelings of gratitude to God, to my family, Columbans, the people of Korea, the benefactors of our mission Society and to St Columban himself.

Through the pilgrimage I have come to know St Columban as someone I could pray to in a personal way.

Basilica of St Columban, Bobbio, Italy. The basilica was built between 1462 and 1522.

Reverence for St Columban

I was surprised at the way the people of Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy remember and revere St Columban today. His name is everywhere - mountains, streets, towns, churches, orchestras and businesses. Even the dry-cleaning shop and a lingerie boutique in Luxeuil near his former monastery are named after him. There are groups of people in these countries such as Les Amis de St Columban (The Friends of St Columban) in Luxeuil, in Baden-Baden (Germany), Olivone (Switzerland), in Bregenz (Austria), and in several towns in Italy, who keep his memory and his spirit alive.

We traveled by bus and a few on foot. St Columban did most of his traveling by foot and during his life covered amazing distances. He also traveled by boat; his original journey was by sea from Ireland to mainland Europe, down the Loire River in present day France and later by the Rhine to Austria. He was 70 years of age when he walked across the Alps into Italy.

St Columban loved nature

We found that St Columban had a strong relationship with nature. He regularly walked up mountains to spend time in prayer and reflection there. Images show him with a sun on his breast and a dove on his shoulder. Scholars today still research the influence he may have had on St Francis of Assisi.

St Columban, Bristol Rhode Island

Young men flocked to receive an education from St Columban who was highly educated. The rule he wrote for his monasteries was notorious for its severity, particularly the acts of penitence imposed for infractions.

One of the valuable teachings that appealed to me is the link between love and respect for the Eucharist - with the practice of love and respect for one’s brothers and sisters.

We are truly blessed to have St Columban as our patron, our model.

Crypt of St Columban, Bobbio

Fr Ray Scanlon worked in the priestly formation of Columban students in Korea and the USA. He now resides at St Columban’s, Essendon, Victoria, Australia.

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Some links

Les Amis de St Colomban (The Friends of St Columban, Luxeuil, in French)

Les amis bretons de Colomban (The Friends of Columban in Brittany [France], in French)

By Maria Theresa C. Gayondato

‘Matet’ Gayondato is from Lutopan, Toledo City, Cebu, and is a member of the Teresian Association. She has worked in Italy for many years, first in Milan, then in Palermo, Sicily, and now in Perugia.

‘Woman, behold your son.’ These were the words spoken by Father Agostino Awoyemi when he introduced to me to my future godson, Jacques Hippolyte Temdemnou Yetgang, a native of Cameroon and an engineering student in Perugia, Italy. It all started that day, 6 January 2009, the feast of the Epiphany. The French- and English-speaking Sunday Mass communities in Perugia were gathered for the despedida party of Father Agostino who was returning to Nigeria, his native country. A few days before his departure Father Agostino mentioned that he he had been following up a young man for baptism for some time already and that he thought of entrusting him to me before going home.

Jacques David with Fr Alessio Corradino

In the beginning I thought I only had the responsibility of accompanying him on his journey towards baptism and to see how his preparation was going. Months later, when Jacques asked me to be his godmother, once again God revealed himself to me as the God of wonders and surprises. His ways are indeed infinite, knowing no bounds. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’ (Isaiah 55:9). It had never occurred to me that I could be a godmother in an adult baptism.

with Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Città della Pieve

Being such was especially significant for me who received the sacrament as a baby for I rediscovered and renewed my own baptism in this period of preparation of not one but two young persons I personally knew. The other, Inxhina, from Albania, was a student staying in our university residence in Perugia, who chose Miryam as her baptismal name. Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia administered the sacraments of initiation of eight adults during the Easter Vigil this year..

Inxhina, right, with her godmother who is also a TA member.

It was a gift, a privilege, to witness the birth of David into the family of God. Jacques personally chose David as his baptismal name. The experience of King David as a sinner and how God revealed to him his mercy and forgiveness really struck him during the period of his catechesis. He had a very strong personal experience of God’s mighty hand liberating him. These words from Exodus 20, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage’, filled every fiber of his inner self. This changed his life so much that in an encounter with a group of young people when he was asked to give his own testimony he exclaimed ‘NEVER AGAIN I WILL BE A SLAVE OF ANYBODY, BECAUSE I AM GOD’S CHILD!’

A group of IT youth in the Cathedral of San Constanzo, Perugia, after the Easter vigil.

It’s truly amazing to witness how far and deep the saving love of the God work can be in people’s lives. To Him be praise!

You may email Matet at gayondato2000@yahoo.it

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The Sacraments of Initiation

The three sacrmanets of initiation, referred to in the article of Matet Gayondato, are baptims, confirmation and First Holy Communion. In the Latin or roman Rite of the Catholic Church, to which most of us belong, baptism is usually received during infancy, confirmation around the end of elementary school and First Holy Communion around the age of seven. In the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church and in the Orthodox Churches baptism and confirmation are normally given together in infancy. In the Latin or Roman Rite when those who have reached the age of reason are being baptised they are confirmed in the same ceremony. If this takes place during Mass they make their First Holy Communion during that.

Though not common in the Philippines, many adults are received into the Church during the Easter Vigil, which is the most appropriate occasion. They are baptised and confirmed and then receive their First Holy Communion during the Vigil, as did the two friends of Matet Gayondato. Those already baptised, eg, Protestants, are received into the Chruch without baptism but receive confirmation and then make their First Holy Communion.

You can read more about these three sacraments in Wikipedia. The article there has links to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Touching Lives

By Ching Mendoza

I am a lady engineer presently working in a private construction firm here in Manila. When I started reading Misyon I thought it was just the usual magazine with uninteresting stuff. But as I turned the pages, I could not help but read it from cover to cover. I was touched by the efforts and sacrifices of missionaries just to spread the Good news of God. This magazine is definitely one of the best I've come across. I hope and pray that you will continue to touch lives, especially those who are far from home and family and whose spiritual guidance is really much needed.

More power to Misyon and to all missionaries throughout the world. May God keep you safe and look on you with favor. May He give you peace and good health always.

God bless you all...!!!

You may contact Ching at chingmendoza_17@yahoo.com