In the July-August 2008 issue of Misyon we featured an article by Richelle Verdeprado, then studying for a degree in Social Work at the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (UNO-R) in Bacolod City, A Child Redeemed is a Generation Saved. We also published this as a video, with Richelle reading her own article.

Fr Hector Suano, now in charge of Mission Promotion and Fundraising for the Columbans in the Philippines, was moved to make a video about Richelle herself. Instead of Pulong ng Editor we present here Father Hector’s video, using the version with subtitles in English. Richelle speaks in her own language, Hiligaynon, while Sr Alma Alovera TC speaks in Cebuano. We also have a version with subtitles in Spanish.

By Rev Dr Gareth Leyshon and Sean Haran

Rev Dr Gareth Leyshon is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff. Sean Haran is a social worker and is married to Mabel Bercero from San Remigio, Cebu. They have two daughters, Therese Maria (5) and Isabel Bernadette (3). Their third child is due in January.

History was made in Port Talbot on 5 May this year, with an event unique in the history of the Catholic Church in Wales. The 6th Annual Conference of Couples for Christ in the UK (CFC-UK) came to the Principality for the first time, hosted by members of CFC-Wales from Swansea, Port Talbot and Bridgend.

Bishop Burns of Menevia presides at opening Mass

It is impossible to find a single phrase which summarises this annual get-together. Prayerful celebration? Worship event? Eurovision Song Contest? Food festival? Eisteddfod? [Editor’s note: The Eisteddfod is Wales’s annual cultural festival. Similar festivals are held by people of Welsh origin in other parts of the world]. Gathering of an extended family? All of them apply, but none on its own does justice.

CFC-Wales hosted the Conference

Couples for Christ is an international Catholic movement which began for married couples but expanded into a full family ministry that includes Singles for Christ (SFC) Youth for Christ (YFC), and Kids for Christ (KFC). Its calling is to form ‘Families in the Holy Spirit, Renewing the Face of the Earth’. Once a year, members from England and Wales, Scotland, and the Isle of Man converge on a chosen venue, and in 2012, for the first time, Wales was the appointed destination. The Swansea organisers approached St Joseph's Catholic School in Port Talbot, which generously made its main hall and other facilities available. Mr Eugene Scourfield, the Headteacher (Principal) of St Joseph’s, was present on the day to warmly welcome the almost 600 people who arrived.

The 2012 theme was ‘On Fire’ and a full day - with registration opening at 7.00 am and fellowship going on till 10.00 pm - was devoted to the theme. Bishop Thomas Burns SM of Menevia, Wales, opened the conference with the celebration of Mass at 9.00 am, assisted by four priests: Fr Teyrnon Williams of St Benedict’s, Clydach and chaplain to CFC-Wales, Fr Ceirion Gilbert, Menevia’s Diocesan Youth Coordinator;,Canon Joseph Cefai of the local parish (St Joseph’s, Port Talbot), and Fr Gareth Leyshon from the Archdiocese of Cardiff, Wales. The Bishop and priests then had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of CFC-UK to find out more about the work of the community, which is in its 16th year in the UK. Fr Ceirion was also able to meet leaders of YFC.

Worship time for Conference participants

The two key speakers urged members of the movement to have ‘hearts on fire’ with zeal for God and ‘hands on fire’ with service to others. Eight other members of the Community offered personal testimonies of how God was working in their lives. The children had their own workshops during the day, which prepared them to present a dance and movement routine as part of the afternoon worship. The periods of praise and worship were led by the Music Ministry of CFC in Frimley, Surrey, England, and the program for the day ran smoothly under the direction of members of SFC in London.

Virgin Mary and Angels in opening production

Couples for Christ exists globally as a network of members, who greet each other as ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister’, and who meet regularly as ‘Households’ in their own homes, for prayer, sharing, mutual support and social activities. New members are encouraged to attend a ‘Christian Life Program’, which is an introduction to the community. One such programme will run from 10 to 12 August at St Dyfrig’s Parish, Pontypridd, in the Archdiocese of Cardiff.

Food festival presentation

CFC-UK is strongly rooted in the Filipino community in Britain, but is not an exclusively Filipino movement - the UK national leaders Brother Chris and Sister Chipo Mautsi, are originally from Zimbabwe. Sister

Laverbread is a Welsh delicacy.

Florence Gwatisara, also from Zimbabwe, used her platform testimony to encourage participants to reach out and become more involved in their local church communities, and to network with other organisations. Brother Noli and Sister Beth Arcedon from Canada represented the international leadership of CFC.

Friendly rivalry is found in all large families, and in the national family of Couples for Christ it takes the form of two competitions between regional groups - the ‘Praise Parade’ and the ‘Food Festival’. Each local area is given the same five-minute clip of Christian music and asked to present their own interpretation with music,

Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish, popular in the past with the poor because the ingredients are inexpenseive.

mime and artistic props. Points are given for ‘colorfulness’ and ‘choreography’, but deducted for overrunning the allotted time. To add to the challenge, each household has to begin performing to the music at the moment when the previous group goes off-stage - no pressing the rewind button! In theory, no other music was permitted, but the Scottish group got away with a moment of bagpipes, and the Welsh entry was accompanied by some exceptionally large scenery props (home advantage!) Before the evening meal could be served, each UK area also presented its own table of local cuisine. The interpretation of ‘local’ varied by region - haggis from Scotland, cockles and laverbread from Wales, ‘Yorkshire Tea’ from the Leeds group, and a chocolate fountain and Pimms from Surrey.

‘Yorkshire Tea’ is blended, though not grown, in Yorkshire, the largest county in England.

Reflecting the fluidity of family life, the programme for the day slipped effortlessly between worship, competition and exhortation, ending in an evening prayer session combined with prize giving for the day’s competitive efforts, followed by fellowship and the taking of many photographs. The day was formally closed with blessings from Fr Gareth (in English) and Fr Teyrnon (in Welsh).

The following morning, many of the visitors attended Mass at St Benedict’s, Clydach, where CFC-Wales lead the worship every first Sunday of the month. The church was full to overflowing and local parishioners welcomed the visitors and enjoyed the new worship songs. Throughout Sunday 6 May members of the community were to be spotted visiting tourist sites and beauty spots all over South Wales.

So for one day, in Port Talbot, the school was filled with a vision of what Catholic family life could be – vibrant, colourful, sometimes chaotic, but mindful that whatever we do, we do for Christ and under Christ. The London organisers for 2013 will have a hard act to follow!

Pope Meets CFC Leaders

On 23 May Pope Benedict met CFC leaders from around the world.

By Fr Kevin Mullins

A day in the life of Columban Fr Kevin Mullins who works in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

On the morning of 27 November 2011 Leo, the full-time parish worker, and I were crossing Juárez City, Mexico, to meet with Manny Vargas, the editor of Misión Columbana, the Spanish-language magazine of the Columbans in the USA.

After a short stop at the bank, we continued on only to be passed by speeding police cars and military convoys with sirens blaring.

Soon enough, we passed by a tragic and frequently common-place scene: the recently executed body of a 47-year-old father of four who was stretched out at the street corner.

Hurriedly, we decided to at least attempt a prayer or a blessing for the victim concerned, not wanting to repeat the example of the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan who passed by the injured man on the side of the road to Jericho. Although it is notoriously difficult to do so under the current security circumstances.

I parked our vehicle just in front of the recently shot-up funeral home which belongs to the family of the Mayor of Ciudad Juárez. We then attempted to pass the police line with its respectful and yet unhelpful automatic weapon-toting agents.

Whilst I was engaged in a rambling conversation with the police, Leo had fortunately gained access to a squad of soldiers who were more accommodating and who, in turn, sent us further along under and through the streams of yellow tape surrounding the scene of the execution.

Lo and behold . . . and ‘Thank you, God’ . . . we discovered there a younger policeman who had finished the Confirmation Course in our parish some three years before. After the mutual greetings and the mutual ‘What are you doing here?’ he sent us on another ten meters towards a group of masked investigators, who showed signs of impatience with us.

Fortunately, two of the younger female officers in charge of the crime scene took me much nearer to the body. At that moment, another officer took me back away from the body and just left me in a sort of no man's land.

I had already donned my stole and philosophized about the cruelty and the violence of Juárez, surrounded as we were by troops, sobbing relatives, crackling radios and spiraling helicopters.

Once again the younger female officer came to the rescue and guided me through the commandos and into the house of the recently deceased. I met with his wife who was in a terrible state. I prayed for her and her recently executed husband. She confided with me that at least she was glad that their four children were safely living in the United States.

The press later reported that she had been wounded in the execution and that her husband had been shot as he stepped from his vehicle. All the above was untrue. She was uninjured and there was no vehicle anywhere near the crime scene.

I left the house and paused for a blessing over her husband's body. I then found the ever-resourceful Leo amidst all of the commotion and we continued on our way.

Fr Kevin Mullins is the parish priest of Corpus Christi parish in the poor neighborhood of Puerto de Anapra in Juárez City, Mexico. It has been classified as the most dangerous city in the world because of the ongoing wars between drug cartels. He has served there for 11 years.

Box with Video

On 26 March 2010 PBS TV in the USA featured Fr Kevin Mullins in Juarez Drug Wars. You may watch the program and read a transcription here.

There is the YouTube version.

By Fr Brian Gore

Fr Brian Gore, from Western Australia, was ordained in 1968 and then came to the Philippines, where he was assigned to the southern part of Negros Occidental, at that time in the Diocese of Bacolod but since 1987 the Diocese of Kabankalan, an area where the Columbans have worked since 1950.

We are promoting a programme of subsistence farming in the parish of Oringao, in the mountainous hinterlands of Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, where I worked from 1975 to 1984. I no longer work as parish priest but coordinate any parish related matters with the present parish council. In the old days we were able to organize rallies of up to 10,000 community members determined to protest against abuses by the military, government officials and landlords. We were seen by the Marcos regime as a threat to established power. Seldom before on Negros Island had the poor found a way to stand up to the wealthy and powerful.

In the early 1970s the price of sugar began to rise, prompting major sugar-cane growers to make a grab for more land by moving on the land of subsistence farmers around the foothills of the mountains. They would attempt to pick off the small farmers one by one by taking out an eviction order and having it enforced by the police or the military. However, on the day of the eviction each community in our parish would send up to 20 members who would join in the communal work on the farm affected. Our non-violent tactics together with the ability to convoke so many local residents to a rally constituted a power that the military were not able to control. So we were seen as a threat that had to be eliminated. After Blessed Pope John Paul II’s visit to the Philippines in 1981 the establishment in Negros declared war on the Church. The Pope said in his talk in Bacolod City on 20 February 1981: ‘Injustice reigns when the laws of economic growth and ever greater profit determine social relations, leaving in poverty and destitution those that have only the work of their hands to offer. Being aware of such situations, the Church will not hesitate to take up the cause of the poor and to become the voice of those who are not listened to when they speak up, not to demand charity, but to ask for justice’.

On 10 March 1982 Mayor Pablo Sola of Kabankalan was ambushed and killed along with four others. At the time he was out on bail having being charged, along with the military, with the murder of seven farmers from our parish. In September of the same year Frs Niall O’Brien RIP, Vicente Dangan RIP, six lay workers - Conrado Muhal (RIP), Lydio Mangao, Peter Cuales, Geronimo Perez, Jesus Arzaga and Ernesto Tajones - and I were charged with the murder of the mayor and his four companions. We were jailed and later dubbed the Negros Nine. We were released 14 months later after the judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict. A deal was worked out that all charges were to be dropped against all of us and that Father Niall and I would leave the country within 30 days of being released. The six Filipino lay workers would be free to return to their families without reprisals.

President Marcos was defeated by Cory Aquino in the 1986 snap election but the new president was unable to control right-wing elements in the military who unleashed a reign of terror on the Christian communities involved in social issues. The military used para-military forces to destroy the networking and the non-violent power of the Christian communities. Also, the bishops began to back a less confrontational form of Christian communities, which were not built on organizing around social issues, but on the promotion of intra-ecclesial ministries. As from 2007 I have renewed contact with people I was forced to say goodbye to in 1984.

However, the lot of the poor is maybe even worse than in the 1980s. Those of us involved with the rural communities today wish to ensure that the sacrifice of those who were martyred for their commitment to live their faith, proclaiming justice and protesting injustice, will neither be forgotten nor be in vain.

Generating large networks of communities committed to shaping a more just society is no longer a major thrust in the Philippine Church’s pastoral ministry. So we are putting our energy into the development of sustainable agricultural methods, a more efficient approach to marketing, and the promotion of a producer/consumer cooperative. Most of our energy is going into creating, with the communities, a viable way of remaining on the land.

The cooperative is an essential part of our work with the farmers. No matter how efficient farming methods may be, without some control of the marketing of their produce, the small subsistence farmers cannot progress economically. Also, we hope that through the cooperative the various experimental agricultural projects of the ‘Negros Nine Demo Farm’ will be replicated in the farms of its members.

There are now 53 communities in the parish, seven of which surround our experimental farm and reforestation project. With financial support from Australia and Ireland we bought land to start an experimental farm and are well on the way to showing results that should help local farmers improve their farming methods. On one section we are maintaining the indigenous trees, shrubs, vines and grasses. On other sections we have planted new trees, as much of the forest had been destroyed by logging and slash and burn farming.

Our patch of forest protects the water catchment and the spring that allows us to irrigate our farm and provides water for our nursery, the vermiculture project, the fish pond, the vegetable garden, various animals and domestic purposes. We are experimenting with contour farming to control the erosion of the soil and rejuvenate the soil’s fertility by crop rotation and various forms of composting. Pray that we can keep these people on their land. The alternative for them would be to move even further down the spiral of abject poverty.

You can read more about the work of Father Gore on the website of the Negros Nine Human Development Foundation, Inc.

By Vissia Hernandez

Last May 12, I attended a seminar organized by the Social Communications Ministry of the Archdiocese of Manila which recognizes the boundless potential for Evangelization in utilizing Parish-level communications media (newsletters, websites, bulletin boards, videos including social media: text, Facebook, Twitter, , etc). We were celebrating, a week in advance, the 46th World Communications Day, established by Pope Paul VI as a consequence of Inter Mirifica, the 1963 Decree on the Media of Social Communications of Vatican II, to coincide with the Solemnity of the Ascension when Christ directed His apostles to ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature’ (Mk 16:15).

As expected, the Mass celebrant, Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila expounded on Pope Benedict XVI’s chosen theme for WCD 2012 – ‘Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization’. It was a beautiful homily on a profound theme which, sadly, was not relayed to most of the worshipping communities on Ascension Sunday (if my informal Monday survey over lunch, is any indication); so I have decided to share some of the highlights of the Pope’s and Archbishop’s messages and my own reflections. The full text of Archbishop Tagle’s homily is here.

When heard for the first time, the concept of ‘silence and communication’ it seemed to be a contradiction in terms and a surprising choice for a theme for World Communications Day. But the Pope’s message teaches how silence is often overlooked as an essential element of communication.

In his homily, Archbishop Tagle posed the premise, ‘John the Baptist was the voice crying out in the wilderness. A word is devoured in the wilderness as it loses itself in the silence. (‘Ang salita mo uuwi sa katahimikan. Ang salita mo lalamunin ng kalawakan upang maging katahimikan’). In the eyes of a pragmatic world, that word has become useless because it disappeared. It is tantamount to saying that John the Baptist was useless.’ Then the Archbishop asked, ‘But was he useless?”’

Of course, we who continue to hear John the Baptist’s messages reverberate across the centuries and from across the world, know the answer. He who speaks for God, even in the wilderness, even if he was silenced, is always heard by God who in turn communicates His Word.

St John the Baptist in the Desert, Tanzio Da Varallo

THE VALUE OF SILENCE

The Archbishop then cited occasions when silence enhances communication in our daily lives.

In silence, we are able to filter truths and nuances from the deluge of information around us and fully develop our thoughts. I am reminded of brandy in oak barrels, ripening and maturing in silent cellars.

In the silence of active listening we learn in the process to appreciate other people’s stories, their dreams, their fears, even stories they are unable to tell, and with open minds and hearts we learn to appreciate the storytellers themselves. I remember meeting a former college professor. For two hours she wove one engaging story into another like a modern-day Scheherazade staying her execution for 1001 Arabian Nights. I was quite busy then but I decided to listen encouragingly as, somehow, I sensed that beneath her animated stories, was a desperately lonely person.

At times we may have to lend our voices to tell other people’s silent stories. The following excerpt from a poem of a former Jesuit seminarian could well have been spoken by those who have been silenced by abuse and fear, injustice and neglect, poverty and ignorance. May we have the courage to be their voices.

Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying,
what I’d like to be able to say,
what for survival I need to say,
but what I can’t say.

In the silence of shared affection, thoughts are communicated with a glance, a touch, the gift of presence; thus sensitivity toward and consideration for the other are heightened and relationships deepen. Elderly couples always attract my attention whenever they come for the Masses in St John Bosco; how heartwarming it is to see them hold hands while quietly sitting, walking, or being wheeled in on wheelchairs.

Estefanio and Teresita Luceño

In silent introspection, as we listen to ourselves, to others and to our God, we discover and value who we truly are; as such, when we do speak we also value our words, mean and keep them.

THE DANCE OF WORDS AND SILENCE

Mutual listening is essential to developing relationships.

If relationship is a dance, the ‘dancers’ must maintain a graceful choreography, balancing between word and silence to allow shared knowledge and understanding to grow. Too little silence and they step on each other’s toes, while too much silence may be perceived as indifference to the choreography and to the other dancers. Eventually, in both cases, the dance sadly stops

SILENCE AND GOD

The beginning of the Gospel of St John, Book of Kells

Across religions, devotees have put a premium on setting time and space apart for silent prayer, and quiet contemplation of what they understand to be God’s Word, be it the Bible, Torah, Quran, Vedas or Dhammapada. And whether we apply ourselves to Bible Study or Lectio Divina, we do so to ‘listen’ to God’s voice, though, more often than not, God speaks to us with the voice of silence.

The Holy Father spoke of the ‘eloquence of God’s love speaking in silence’ as His Son died, seemingly abandoned on the Cross. He then quoted from one of my favorite readings from an ancient homily on Holy Saturday by an unknown author, ‘After Christ’s death there is a great silence over the earth, and on Holy Saturday, when “the King sleeps’ and God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages” (cf. Office of Readings, Holy Saturday), God’s voice resounds, filled with love for humanity’.

Blessed Sacrament Chapel, Cathedral, Chihuahua, Mexico

Quiet realization dawns . . . God communicates in silence not just because our human faculties are puny and woefully limited to receive, much more, fully comprehend the ‘the breadth and length and height and depth’ of the Divine, but more so, because, God is Love, thus, a relationship with Him is infinitely better experienced. ‘To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:19)’.

‘In silence, we discover, the possibility of speaking with God and about God’.

We sincerely thank Him for this privilege and, yes, that of listening to others speak about Him in beautiful homilies.

Trailer to Into Great Silence, a documentary on the life of the Carthusian monks of Le Grande Chartreuse by Peter Gröning (2005)

By Beth Sabado

The author is from Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur, and before becoming a Columban Lay Missionary was Chief Nurse in J. Cabahug Hospital, Pagadian City. She has been in Taiwan since 2003 where she worked at the Hope Workers’ Center. Recently she was appointed Coordinator of the Lay Missionary Central Leadership Team and will be moving to Hong Kong.

One evening a friend invited me out for a walk and a drink in one of the shopping places in Pasig City, part of Metro Manila. The structural design, the different artistic expressions, the ambiance and other features of the place were surprisingly and overwhelmingly beautiful for someone like me who sees art as an expression of the soul. Exploring the place for the first time made my brain cells do ‘multi-tasking’. We moved to explore the place, but my eyes spotted a giant chess board situated in the middle of the park. Walking closer, both of us agreed to play a casual game, thinking that it would be exciting. The last time I had played chess was with my brother Patboone in the summer of 1981. Soon after his death in December 1981, the family chess board was put away with his other stuff in our underground storage. Since then, I had never had the chance to play chess again.

I could still recall the basics of playing chess though my friend had to remind me every time I make a wrong move, ‘You can’t do that’, ‘be careful with that move’ . . . his patience was commendable. Trying to concentrate on my moves, I also enjoyed the distractions from people passing wanting to take photos of the giant chess board. I had enough reason not to play a blitz. Every move I made brought back memories of my brother but surprisingly, the enjoyment of winning wasn’t there anymore. Every move I made was purely mechanical, just minimal analysis, no strategy but mainly a memory refresher. After a while, I had the courage to say, ‘I’m tired, let’s stop playing’. The unfinished game was left under the brightly lit grounds.

Reflecting on this experience I can’t help but compare playing chess with the different roles played in the family. I wonder how the families of migrant workers play their roles when after several years of absence, they come back to be reunited with their families. I can’t help but wonder how a man can again play the role of husband and father, a woman play the role of wife and mother, the same familiar roles they had left several years before. Will they still be willing to play the same roles? Like playing chess after many years of not touching the chessboard, will the enthusiasm for winning and ending a game be there?

To work abroad seems to be the trend for survival for most Filipinos. A highlighted report from the Institute of Migration recorded an estimate of 8.7 million Filipinos in 239 host countries with an average of 3,377 daily deployments. This means that wives and mothers, husbands and fathers, suspend their present roles and their physical presence to one another in search of greener pastures. The children left behind will be turned over to a trusted relative or friend, or the eldest child will take on the role of a ‘parent’. Will the suspension and taking over of roles in the family be temporary? The answer could be yes or no. Each one plays a gambit. However the result is still unpredictable.

Out of the 3,377 migrant workers leaving every day, how many leave the country of their own will? How many of them are pushed by their families, forced to fulfill a parents’ role or because of a family project? One of the children of OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) said,’Waking up one morning, I noticed a piece of luggage in the room. My mom started giving me instructions to wake up early so I could prepare breakfast for my siblings . . . I was confused but managed to ask why. Mom said she was leaving to work abroad . . . I wish I had been involved in making that decision’. (Jane, not her real name, is 14 years old with three siblings, aged 12, 10 and 8).

Still vivid in my memory is an experience where a 6-year-old patient expired on my shift due to complications from dengue fever. The mother in grief cried out, ‘You had a nice voice, you could sing and dance well, and I had a dream that you could work in Japan, but now you’re gone . . .’ Hearing the mother utter those words while weeping made me walk out of the room, disturbed and angry. I believe that a decision to work abroad should be a family one. Each member of the family should be consulted before a decision is made. When a family member starts packing her luggage, she packs as well the dreams of her family. Each member of the family has the responsibility to keep their focus on achieving their goal – the fulfillment of those dreams.

It cannot be denied that people have the right to move, yet statistics show how this movement is affecting the basic unit of the society, the family. While thousands of people leave the country for a better future, a question that needs an honest answer should be asked - Is leaving the present to live in the future the only choice we have? Will there be a bright, secure future for the families of OFWs? What about the ethical challenge of migration? These questions arise from the vast scope of migration. Migration as a phenomenon itself is unfathomable, even a mystery. However, families are directly affected by the impact of migration.

I firmly believe that the Church plays a very important role in both the sending country and the host country. The six months I spent here in the Philippines to explore the possibilities of the local church being involved in the pastoral care of migrant families wasn’t that affirming. I can’t help but wonder if, like the unfinished chess game left under the brightly lit grounds, the issues, concerns, problems associated with migration have already been exposed in the open.

Seen in brightly lit grounds, yet another series of questions would arise: Would there be willing players? Will the next players decide to continue the unfinished game? Or will they decide to start a new one?

God, keep us from redefining your home in society - the family.

You may contact Beth at bethsablm@yahoo.com

Here are two comments posted recently on Misyon Online Forum.

Fr Oliver Mc Crossan’s article, Masipag and the International Year of Biodiversity, appeared in our July-August 2010 issue. Jessica M. Maglunob posted this comment on 7 May this year.

Dear Father Oli, I have been very lucky to visit this farm and training center in Bukidnon in May 2011, and I feel that I have not thanked you enough for accommodating me and my niece Tina. The cool climate in Bukidnon is quite ideal for the farm; our farm here in Occidental Mindoro is too dry especially during the summer. I get so frustrated. I hope that during the rainy months I could just stay in our small farm and plant vegetables for our consumption. Our farm is surrounded by a brackish creek and I don't know if it could still be saved from the salty water that intrudes little by little. I just hope that there will be a sufficient supply of drinking water for all of us as the sea keeps on rising. Let us just pray that the devastation of our natural resources will not come all at once. I am afraid for the next generation. God bless you and your continuing commitment to help our poor! Jing

Rodelyn Bebila commented on 3 May 2010 on Richelle Verdeprado’s article, Fr Michael Sinnott: a Valentine with Faith, published in May-June 2012. Fr Sinnott (in photo on left and with Richelle below), ordained in December 1954, is retiring to Ireland this July.

Yes, I agree . . . I have read all the details in the article, which touched my heart and made me reconcile with God. In my human nature I sometimes doubt God's love and protection because of certain difficult experiences in my life. But God always seems to understand why I respond this way . . . He is a JUST God.

May you always inspire people through the many articles you publish in Misyon.

By Mary Joy Rile

Last June Anne Gubuan, the assistant editor, and I went to Ozamiz City for the ordination of Fr Rodolfo Christopher Kaamiño IV. We availed of the opportunity to interview two siblings from there who are also Columban Sisters. Anne interviewed Sr Teresita E. Bernad while I interviewed Sr Regina E. Bernad, known to all as ‘Sister Inday’.

I was captivated by her gentleness and loved the simplicity of her words, which I hope will also find their way to your heart. Below is the account of my privileged encounter with Sr Regina ‘Inday’ E. Bernad SSC.

Q: How did your calling begin?

Born in what was then the town of Misamis, now Ozamiz City, we grew up with our parents who were really practicing Catholics. We owe our vocation to our parents who were very close to God.

I was teaching in the school when I decided to join the Columban Sisters. I did not need discernment nor pray because I knew I was called. Discernment is more difficult now because there are a lot of things that attract you. How many would want to become missionaries?

Q: What about your ‘love story’?

I had many suitors but I did not commit to any. I knew where God wanted me. I was sure about it, because if you ask God, and talk to God, God will guide you, with the Blessed Mother.

Q: Any incident you might consider as your ‘last temptation’ before entering the convent?

The last temptation . . . the x-ray result! I was preparing to go to Boston for my novitiate when my medical check-up showed I had TB. I was really grieving when my mother approached me and said, ‘Inday, stop crying or else you will get sick and not be able to go.’ That was also a signal that my mother had finally accepted my decision. Later it was discovered by another doctor that my x-ray result was clear!

Q: How was your work with the Columbans?

When the Columban Sisters came to Misamis in 1945, I was teaching with them, helping them with enrolment. The Columban Fathers rented our schools. They arrived in 1941, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

I started working with Fr Don Kill in Mission Awareness in 1997 and continued until the last printed issue of Misyon in 2008. We did vocation campaigning, helping young people understand their own mission in the family and in the community. We were also distributing Misyon in different areas. We started with the parishes and Catholic schools in the Dioceses of Ozamiz and Pagadian, later adding Dipolog. Other private and even some public schools invited us. We slept in the parishes and schools, wherever we could spend the night.

When Misyon started, I was in Labrador, Pangasinan. Later I found myself promoting it. And before I knew it, it was finished as a printed magazine! We ended quietly in 2008. Misyon was instrumental in the awakening of the call of many young persons! [Editor’s note: Misyon continues as a bi-monthly online magazine, with new material added almost daily: www.misyononline.com].

Sisters Inday and Teresita Bernad with the author.

Q: How is it to be in a community?

In a community, you live with different people. There are those who are easy to live with, others not; at least I did not have friction with anybody.
If all are centered in God, you pray together, you eat together, those are binding. If there are differences, you can make allowances. We meet together, talk about it and then we decide.

When we come we share, we go together. When you know what the other is doing, when you need help, you ask for help. And you also give help. You support each other. Then we forget the differences. Shared prayers are like faith-sharing. Prayer is really very good.

When one is having a problem, we try to help, like the Sisters having a problem with the situation in Midsalip, we pray and come together and help one another. We know their problems, we know what’s going on because we share. We are like one!

Q: Have you experienced certain spiritual dryness like what St John of the Cross and Sta Teresa de Avila had? And how did you deal with it?

Just continue praying. Even if you think there is no God, your faith will tell you He is there. Just continue. God will bail you out.
St John of the Cross and Sta Teresa de Avila, they experienced it for quite a long time. It was painful but they continued. That was what they did also – they continued praying.

Q: What has been your most challenging experience as a Sister?

Shortly after profession, I was assigned to start St Columban College in Lingayen, Pangasinan. Very challenging to start a college from scratch without any experience. We were just doing and praying.

It was very difficult but very gratifying. We were working with poor people, helping especially the students. There was a strong bond between us. The first batch were very bright students. We needed to process papers, permits and many more things. But see how the students responded. It was all hard work! When things become difficult, then you go to God and pray and He will help.

Q: What about your happiest moment?

If you want to be happy then you become happy. At the end of the day you can thank God for the day. Right now, I do as much as I can. If you know, you understand your body, your sickness, how much you can do. There are people who will criticize or affirm you, but if you listen to all, you will go crazy. But if you listen to your body, you just know. Sometimes it’s so difficult that you contradict people, but it’s you yourself who knows what you can do.

Q: At the age of 91?

Sometimes I wish to go to Europe and other places but I know that I cannot. Sometimes I would run to the doctor to tell me what’s wrong, then done!

It’s not that life is not easy, but how you cope with things, how you cope with your sickness. If somebody contradicts you, you talk it out together. We try to be at peace, because that’s God’s plan. ‘Peace be with you,’ and to let God do the work.

Sometimes when you see things are not in order, in your mind you start to complain, blame, and God wills you to stop! If you scold, you make others unhappy. So you don’t scold anymore because it’s done anyway. You choose to be patient. If the memory keeps coming back, you have to drive it away or else you lose your peace.

The community understands your predicament, that God wants you to try to help the other for her or him to develop and grow.

Q: Any piece of advice for searchers like me?

Just listen to the call, if you feel you are called. Really pray for a good decision. It’s listening first and then prayer. And if you decide, accept all the consequences . . . because it’s God’s call.

When people try to tell you things, are you not happy, etc, that’s when the devil will try to pull you. If a mother makes a mistake, it’s because she loves you. You don’t run away . . . My brother, a Jesuit priest [noted historian, the late Fr Miguel E. Bernad SJ], once told me, ‘Inday, if God wants you, He will really have you.’

Q: A line of a message that you would want me to bring home?

Keep happy, keep free!

The vocation story of Sr Teresita Bernad SSC

By Anne B. Gubuan

‘I wish I could be praying what they pray.’ Sr Teresita was a young student when she first uttered these words to herself. Their house was just across from Immaculate Conception College (ICC, now La Salle University), Ozamiz City, run by the Columban Sisters in the 1950s. She would always watch the Sisters pacing back and forth saying their prayers. She even wrote a poem about these Sisters praying. I asked her, ‘How did you know you wanted to become a nun?’ She answered, ‘Longing for a vocation is a longing for God. The Lord calls us in several ways. There was just something inside, a kind of longing for the Lord that continued to persist’.

Coming from a very religious family, Sr Teresita grew up involved in Church activities. She remembers always going with her mother in religious processions. She went to college and taught in ICC. Through the years, she couldn’t leave the thought of being like these Sisters. Something about them just fascinated her no end. ‘Why shouldn’t I?’ And so, at 25, Sr Teresita started ‘vocation shopping’.

When her mother heard that Teresita wanted to become a Columban Sister she felt lonely. But there was no resistance. Having lost her father when she was only 11, Sr Teresita and her seven siblings would always think of the welfare of their mother. Entering the convent would mean that only her sister Inday would be left to take care of her.

Sr Teresita spent two and a half years as a novice in the USA. And in her first year there she got news that both delighted and worried her. The novice mistress told her that Inday was also coming. ‘What will happen to our mother?’ was all she could blurt out.

Her mother cried when Inday asked for her permission. Sr Teresita learned later that her parents had prayed that one of them would become a Sister. One of them, not two. But her mother said to Inday, ‘I cannot say no to you because that would be saying no to God.’ In spite of her loneliness, Mrs Bernad entrusted her daughters to God. ‘Yet she would always be sitting on the balcony waiting for us to come home,’ Sr Teresita said with obvious nostalgia on her face.

She spent eight years as a professed Sister in Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, where she had an exciting life. Among other things, the Sisters ran Sacred Heart High School there. Her time there included the early 1980s when there were frequent rallies and transport strikes. She would be so eager to go ahead with her schedule that oftentimes she would stand by the road and raise her thumb, hoping to get a free ride. ‘I am not interested in getting rich. I am always interested in helping others. There are hardships everywhere but I always remind myself that I have more chances to help others. The more I share the more I am blessed.’

Sisters Inday and Teresita Bernad with the author.

In the late 1980s, when she was serving as the first Filipino Regional Superior in Manila Sr Teresita answered the phone one day. It was the Superior General looking for a volunteer to Chile. ‘Why don’t you take me?’ said Sr Teresita, volunteering herself.

She spent 11 years in the desert in northern Chile. ‘It’s amazing you don’t look for rain in a place where in 40 years of dryness it might rain for only one night’, she said, marveling at the missionary zeal that kept her going. ‘After one place is set up, you go to another where you’re needed. You don’t stay in one place. Because you are a missionary, you are always on the move.’

After dusk there is dawn. It is in this context that Sr Teresita shares her life as a Columban Missionary Sister. She is always looking for ways to reach out, to share herself, even in the twilight of her life. ‘The older you become, the more you realize that helping one another is the way life should be lived.’

Across Cultural Boundaries
By John Wang Zongshe

John and Joseph Li Jiangan are the first seminarians from China to join the Columbans. After a year studying English in Manila they have just begun their spiritual formation year in Cubao, Quezon City. They told their vocation stories in our May-June issue.

John Wang on a carabao

‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age’ (Matthew 28:19-20, RSV CE). Inspired by this passage, missionaries have been trying to evangelize people in foreign countries. Through two thousand years of effort, people in most countries have heard about Jesus and some have believed in Him.

Three of us Columban seminarians were invited to experience life in Negros Occidental at the end of our studies for academic year 2011-12 at CICM Maryhill School of Theology (MST) in Quezon City. My companions were Joseph Li Jiangang from China and Emmannuel B. Trocino from Pulupandan, Negros Occidental. Before we went I knew this wasn’t simply to experience life. People had higher expectations of us. I felt pressured because I didn’t know what to say or how to act in a new culture since this would be my first time to visit Negros.

Redbelly tilapia, ‘St Peter’s Fish’

We stayed on the Negros Nine Organic Farm and saw carabaos (water buffaloes) pulling plows. We helped harvest vegetables from the garden, plant trees on the mountainside, catch tilapia in the lake, and sell organic vegetables in the market.

During Holy Week we stayed in the home of Lydio J. Mangao, ‘Kuya Boy’, and joined the ‘Apostles’ in visiting and praying in one house after another. We ate whatever each house provided and had a good time with the different families.

Joseph, John and Emmannuel (behind) at the statue of San Columbano outside the chapel in Purok Mahogany, Barangay Oringao, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, of which he is patron.

During our stay I was thinking how I should please people. I finally realized I should be my true self. As a foreigner, I wasn’t familiar with the Hiligaynon language. I tried to express my ideas with the help of actions. I bought things from the store on the mountain, washed dishes, encouraged people with my broken English, played with their children and sang some Chinese songs with my hoarse voice.

The people also had a hard time expressing their feelings in English, but we could feel they were happy to be with us. Through our sharing of life, we got to know more about each other and most of all about God. As a Columban seminarian, I don’t think it was our spoken languages that united us in our hearts but our sincerity. We had many weaknesses and limitations but these couldn’t stop us from loving one another.

Joseph, Emmannuel and John with new friends

We didn’t expect to get something from the people but simply wanted to be with them and accompany them on their spiritual journey. The key to crossing cultural boundaries is to have a genuine heart, a humble spirit and a devoted mind. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, may Jesus’ mission of proclaiming God’s kingdom be done by the will of the Father through our hands.

Over the years, indeed over the centuries, there have been many changes in Society and in what we consider to be important. But one thing that has not changed is our need to belong. This is true in all walks of life, indeed even among the most hardened criminals! At times in our lives we may 'go it alone', but nearly always we end up experiencing the need to share our achievements, our sufferings, our difficulties, our joys, to share whatever is happening in our lives with others: especially with those who are important to us in our journey through life. This sense of belonging is part of human nature, as God created us. It is a very basic and fundamental need.

~ Bishop Derek Byrne of Guiratinga, Brazil, at the International Eucharistic Congress ~

The full text of Bishop Byrne’s Morning Prayer on Friday 15 June at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, Ireland, is here. Bishop Byrne is a native of Dublin and is a member of the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, (Kiltegan Fathers).

Portrait of William Blake by Thomas Phillips (1807)

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

~ William Blake, Poet and Visionary (1757 – 1827) ~

If you love peace, all will be well.

~ St Elizabeth of Portugal, Queen (1271 – 1336) The saint is the patron of The Third Order of St Francis. ~

St Elizabeth of Portugal, Francisco de Zurbarán (painted 1638-42)

All men are our brothers because they are created in the image of God, purchased by the blood of Christ, they are called to eternal salvation as members of the one Church.

~ St Tikhon of Zadonsk, Bishop and Monk (1724 – 1783) ~

The bishop is a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Find happiness in making others happy.

~ St Mary McKillop, Foundress of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (1842 – 1909) ~
 

Fight the good fight against our ancient foe, fight him insistently with fasting, because no one will win the crown of victory without engaging in the contest in the proper way.

~ St Dominic, Founder of the Order of Preachers (1170 – 1221) ~

St Dominic in Prayer, El Greco, painted 1586-90

Portrait, 1904

I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

~ Helen Keller, Blind and Deaf Educator (1880 – 1968) ~

Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble mind. Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing.

~ 1 Peter 3:8-9 (RSV Catholic Edition) ~