By Krixia Zhienelle A. Subingsubing
Third Year – St Augustine, St Paul College of Makati, Makati City
He ran around wildly, tears streaking down his face relentlessly. Not knowing where to go or what to do, he ran even faster, in hopes of finding someone or something to tell him what to do. As he was about to collapse, a young man dressed in fine silk purple robes cam up to him and said, ‘My child, my child, stop!’
By Mary Michie A. Gambe
Fourth Year, Rosevale School, Xavier Estates, Cagayan de Oro City
In the big and confused world today, people make their own notions of peace. Many of us think that when peace is achieved, there will be no more wars, suffering, misunderstandings, etc. because people learn to love and understand each other.
In the duration of the fifteen years of my life, I have heard many sermons and talks, some of which came from my parents, on many subjects with contrasting views of people about them. I was particularly struck by what my dad said in one of his talks. He once mentioned that as a lawyer he has all sorts of clients – that is, some rich, some poor, some young, some old, some healthy and some ailing. He observed that some of his rich clients are happy but there are also rich clients who are disturbed and restless because they still want to make more money. I also hear comments from others that the rich still worry because they fear that they might lose their money, or that they simply have problems about how to spend their money.
By Ma. Isabela Agawin
Third Year – St Bonaventure, Lourdes College, Macasandig, Cagayan de Oro City
I love it every time my mom prepares my favorite sandwich for breakfast. Just the taste of the sweet orange marmalade that combines with the creaminess of the butter and the softness of the bread, gives me the perfect start to my day. Every bite of my mom’s scrumptious sandwich brings me comfort, love and happiness.
By Nicole Shaun J. Cosico
Third Year – S,
Corpus Christi School, Macasandig, Cagayan de Oro City
What does a 14-year-old like me know about world peace? I am only a junior high school student, studying in a private school here in the Philippines. I have seen and read terrible news about wars and terrorist attacks in other countries. Religion has been one of the reasons why some people wage wars. Siddharta Gautama, a spiritual teacher who founded Buddhism and also known as Buddha, said that there is no happiness like peace. Without peace, life is not possible. That is why it is important for us to understand ourselves and our upbringing because the things we do affect the people around us.
How Can I Make Peace Come Alive in My World?
By Ayana Jamnia G. Maranda
Third Year – Class 303, La Salle Academy, Iligan City
by Sr Marie Paul Therese OCD
Sr Marie Paul Therese wrote this for the newsletter of the Carmel in Vilvoorde, Belgium, which we have featured before in Misyon. It has been slightly edited.
You can find the English-language blog of the monastery here.
by Raul Espenocilla
Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself
Said by my brother Jesus to the person with anxiety and distress.
For whoever who believes in Him shall not perish but shall continue to exist
In this world of love where people with pure hearts are holy and blest.
Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find
Knock unto him and the door of happiness will be found.
In the darkness of your soul where light seldom sparks
His arms welcome you, ‘I am with you always until the very end of time’.
By Jack B. Pamine
Mission Awareness Ministry
In my Basic Christian Community-Community Organizing (BCC-CO) days, after I left the Redemptorist Formation program, we taught three models of Basic Christian Communities (BCCs): liturgical, developmental and liberational. I didn’t expect to see these being implemented by the Columbans, though maybe I didn’t recognize that they all belong to what is now called ‘integral evangelization’.
My first encounter with these models was in southern Negros Occidental, now the Diocese of Kabankalan, as a Redemptorist in Cebu, on my first summer mission experience in 1984. Three of us chose the Land of Sugarcane instead of going to a barrio. We also attended almost daily the court hearings of the Negros Nine in Kabankalan at the invitation of Redemptorists Fr Francis Connon and Fr Patrick Sugrue. I had no idea then of the Columbans’ work except that they had a room in the Redemptorist Monastery in Bacolod. My first image of a Columban was Fr Mark Kavanagh, an Irishman. Years later I was to change my affiliation from the Redemptorists to the Columbans but with the same mission of Christ
I was amazed during the trial of the Negros Nine to hear the former cook of Fr Niall O’Brien allege that Father Niall and Fr Brian Gore had plotted in the convento the killing of Mayor Sola of Kabankalan. I saw the court interpreter cry as he translated this statement. The immediate question that came into my mind was ‘Why?’ I understood later that the accused priests were championing the ‘liberational model’ for building BCCs, by supporting the rights of the poor and challenging the unjust social order that kept them in the poverty and misery that was very apparent at that time.
By Richelle H. Verdeprado
Born in Omagh, Northern Ireland on 15 December 1926, Fr Terence Bennett or ‘Father Terry’ has spent most of his life as a Columban missionary priest in Negros, Philippines. This morning, eight days before he celebrates his 84th birthday and three days before he returns to Ireland, I’m happy to be given this opportunity to interview him. Father Seán had introduced us to each other several times already, perhaps because we kept forgetting each other. But after this one-hour interview, I’m sure we won’t be forgetting each other anymore.
Father Terry was the eldest of seven children. The idea of becoming a priest came to him through the first cousin of his mother, Fr Thomas ‘Tommie’ McGovern, who was a Columban priest, prayed for him that he would enter the seminary and it happened. Father Terry joined the Columbans at the age of 17. Father Tommie also prayed for his younger brother Donal and the same thing happened.
