The author, who is majoring in social work at the University of Negros Occidental–Recoletos (UNO-R), Bacolod City, tells how her life has been transformed by a group of Sisters who live their Catholic faith with the belief that ‘A Child Redeemed is a Generation Saved’. Richelle has been involved in campus journalism since elementary school.

It takes brave and selfless hearts to create history that is meant to change the lives of thousands of people around the world. However, the day in 1982 when a group of Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family stepped on Philippine soil for the very first time was more than just creating history. They were transforming the future. I can really feel this - for I am one of those blessed girls whose lives have been changed and whose future has been transformed because, once upon a time, there were brave and selfless hearts who dared to start their mission despite all odds.

When I was a kid, before I had been introduced to the Sisters, I considered those religious women with a piece of cloth wrapped around their head (that seemed to me to replace their hair) and whom I always saw carrying rosaries and Bibles, as weird, strict and absolutely boring. In fact, I viewed them to be totally different in almost all areas I could ever imagine. They had surrendered everything to God while I couldn’t afford to give even an hour of my entire week to Him. They were godly. I was worldly. Since then, I began wondering what it would be like if circumstances would play a joke on me by making me live together with nuns.

Then several years later, as my second semester in college was approaching, I woke up to the alarming truth that I had nowhere to run. I was sixteen years old that time - old enough to admit that the situation wasn’t a joke but for real. 

How I lost myself

I was trapped. I realized that if we will get caught with limitations, our tendency is to look back or at least try to recall the piece of the puzzle that we have put in the wrong place. I remembered how my sister and I would fight because we didn’t have enough rice to eat. I remembered the time I heard myself praying that if there was a heaven, I hoped Papa was there. I remembered the enthusiasm I had right after graduating from high school. I remembered the broken promises … the false hopes … the unmet expectations … the feeling of being trashed. I remembered the day I went to UNO-R wearing a borrowed school uniform that wasn’t my size and a borrowed pair of shoes that didn’t fit me. I remembered trying to fix things. I remembered how I failed.

How I found myself

My life changed forever the day I started living with the Sisters. I learned that my wrong impressions about them should not last. For the very first time, I encountered Sisters who were fun to be with, doing ordinary house chores and filling the role of mother for many children whom they accepted, supported and loved as their own.

I found myself believing and dreaming again upon reading this line printed on the gate while waiting for somebody to open it the day I decided to stay in Holy Family Home, Bacolod City: A child redeemed is a generation saved. Eventually, I nodded my head in agreement. Then Sr Alma Alovera TC, from Titay, Zamboanga Sibugay, opened the gate and that was my first night with the Sisters.

Holy Family Home of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters aims to welcome, protect, and rehabilitate children and youth in order to attain their integral formation and assure them of their Christian participation in society. It is a refuge for girls who have been abused and maltreated.

How I found others

The Sisters have taught me one of the greatest lessons about life: I am not alone. Because of them I am reminded that there are many people who suffered more and who badly needed help. The world is not just for me! Day after day, I could say that my desire to become a social worker is strengthened because of the Sisters, Ate Amie Tibus, the resident social worker, and the other girls in the home. It’s a noble act to be a light for others and to love them too. I feel very glad every time Sister Dora Hernandez TC, from Colombia, sends me to join in outreach activities. The emotion I feel when in the midst of my nothingness, I can still become an instrument in painting smiles and bringing enjoyment for my brothers and sisters is indescribable. Unconsciously, memories like those tell me that ordinary people possess extraordinary and inspiring stories that will prove to us that we can simplify complicated facts about living.

Just like me, I have witnessed how the girls who are my companions manage to move on after the darkest experiences that they have been through. They are able to go to school, to develop their potentials in singing and dancing, among others, and to be trained for independent living. They are part of the generation being saved. 

How I found God

I can call this part of my existence the turning point because just like the vertex of an angle, everything in me started to twist the moment I had discovered God’s presence in my life.

The Holy Family Home girls are given the opportunity to reflect on the Gospel and to understand the doctrines of the Catholic Church better. Even though we have imperfections, hang-ups and weaknesses, we are guided towards the Christian way of life. Many girls with different stories and personalities mean a lot of patience, prayers, and love and intervention strategies from the Sisters together with other professionals. Undoubtedly, sometimes we are trouble-makers capable of tantrums and disobedience but the Sisters still continue to influence and bring out the best in us.

To meet Jesus after being like a lost sheep is such a wonderful gift. If Fr Luis Amigó OFM Cap, who founded the congregation and who was later a bishop, and the first group of Sisters hadn’t listened to the call of God or if they had gotten easily discouraged by all the frustrations and lack of resources they had to face at the beginning, what would have happened to us now? That’s it. This world needs brave and selfless hearts to create history that will touch lives and transform the future. We are the future and we praise God for bringing the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters to the Philippines. I praise God for making my way meet their way!

You may email Richelle at rich_verde706@yahoo.com.ph

THE CAPUCHIN TERTIARY SISTERS IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, founded at the shrine of Our Lady of Montiel in Benaguacil, Valencia, Spain, on 11 May 1885 by Fr – later Bishop - Luis José María Amigó y Ferrer OFM Cap, came to the Philippines from Spain in 1982. Down the years they have had Sisters from that country as well as from Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica working here.

The website of the Terciarias Capuchinas de la Sagrada Familia, www.terciariascapuchinas.org , gives the following brief account of the Sisters’ presence in the Philippines:

In 1982, a group of Sisters from the Immaculate Conception Province arrived in the Philippines, responding to the invitation of the Capuchin Fathers and the Archbishop of Manila, to be in charge of the spiritual care of youth in risky situations, to work among the poor, to teach catechism and give health care to the most needy.

The existing houses in 1988, were integrated into the Missionary Project of the Congregation and in 1993 they were created a General Delegation.

The Sisters are now present in: Cebu City, Makati City, Bacolod City, Talisay City (Negros Occidental) and Titay, Zamboanga Sibugay.

On 25 March this year the General Delegation became a Vice-Province, incorporating the communities in the Republic of Korea and the future mission in India. Already three Sisters here in the Philippines have been asked to go there: Sr Dora Maria Vargas, a Colombian who has been in the Philippines for more than ten years, and two Filipino Sisters, Sr Anselma ‘Emma’ Bawag from Cavite and Sr Lorena Sacal from Zamboanga Sibugay, The new Vice-Province has seventeen Sisters from Latin America and Spain and 23 Filipino Sisters. One, Sr Nida Galera TC, is on mission in Tanzania and had an article, The Right to be Here, in the November-December 2007 issue of Misyon. In addition there are eleven Filipino novices and thirteen postulants.

The Vice-Provincial Superior is Sr Maria Elena S. Echavarren TC, a Spaniard who is a former superior general of the congregation. She is based in Luis Amigó Friendship Home, 235 Pelaz St, 6000 CEBU CITY.