In The Hills Of Peru
By Ariel Presbitero
The Fiesta of Señor de los Milagros is a very popular devotion in Peru. Every year, Peru is celebrating it like Lent so you could see people wearing purple, rich or poor, to commemorate this great devotion to a painting made by a black Peruvian slave. It is a painting of Jesus on the cross with the Blessed Mother, Mary and Mary Magdalene on both sides, God the Father on top of the cross with a dove, which symbolizes the Holy Spirit. This painting survived the big earthquake inPeru and people believed that many were healed through this painting. They even said that it is still making miracles up to the present.
In 1987, my Dominican Superior invited five sisters to apply for the missions so I immediately applied but I did not get a positive response, instead I was assigned to help in the novitiate for almost three years. I resigned myself to the Will of God, but I made a secret promise to him: “Yes, I will forget this desire. However if there will be an opportunity to work in the mission one day, I will never say no.”
Last December 29, 1998, Archbishop Jesus Tuquib ordained Jude Genovia and Rolando Aniscal priests in St. Augustine’s Metropolitan Cathedral in Cagayan de Oro. More than a thousand people including 97 priests attended the celebration. Archbishop Jesus Diosdado of Ozamis, Msgr. Des Hartford of Marawi Prelature and Msgr. Tex Legitimas, the Rector of the Cathedral, were there. The Columbans were represented by people from many different countries.