By Avic Vera

From the start, I knew that God was leading me to make the WYD journey, the biggest blessing in my life. In 2000 I attended a retreat in Batulao with the famous Fr Armand Robleza SDB who talked about Yuppeace, an upbeat group of professional men and women, organized in 1995 to animate the Vigil for the WYD in Manila. Yuppeace has since evolved into a faith community living the WYD ideals.

I joined Yuppeace the year after, and soon became a facilitator in its various youth-centered activities. In 2002 the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) sent me and other Yuppeace facilitators as delegates to the WYD in Toronto, Canada.

By Sr. Teresita Perez, mm

A years back, while I was missioned in Peru, our doorbell rang at around 9 pm. When I opened the door, there was Cristina, a junior student in high school, looking very distraught and panting. “Sister,” she said, “I want to talk to you.” I invited her in to sit down and without much ado she said in Spanish: “I want to kill myself.”

By Fr. Donal Halliden mssc

Arriving at O’ Hare International Airport in Chicago on a bitterly cold Winter’s day, I was warmly welcomed by a young Filipino woman who has become a very dear friend. I was pleasantly surprised when she conducted me to where she had parked her Volkswagen “Beetle” and which she then expertly drove trough the busy highways and streets of the “Windy City”. But I am getting ahead of my story...

SCA Leader

They young lady who welcomed me was Angelita Carandang Matick who had been an outstanding leader of Student Catholic Action (SCA) during my tern as chaplain at Centro Escolar University CEU in Manila. Lita Carandang had come from the nearby province of Batangas in 1964 to take up Medical Technology at CEU. Her leadership potential was evident from the beginning and this quickly blossomed in SCA so that she became president o that very active student organizations in 1966, the first to do so in her junior year.

By Gee-Gee O. Torres, assistant editor

In the famous confession of St. Augustine, “My heart is restless until it rests in Thee”, Augustinian Fathers Arlon Vergara and Adam Lasmarias realize the restlessness of their own hearts. Here I tell you how they find peace and serenity in the mountains of Kangwha, far away from the bustling city of Seoul.

Fr. Arlon Vergara, from Bicol, arrived in Korea in 1993. He was the first Filipino Augustinian missionary to be sent there. His superior asked him what apostolate would he like to be involved in: formation or parish work? He chose parish work. “Parish work for me is the actualization of being a priest because I am able to use all the faculties I learned in sharing the Good News.” In 1999 he was given his first parish assignment in Onsuri, one of the parishes in Kangwhado Island.