Ask No Questions
By Sr. Jeanette Matela, SSpS
Happy Mistakes
I wanted to join the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary because my cousin who was with them was sent to Africa. But my spiritual director –an SVD – by mistake dropped my letter expressing my desire to enter the convent in the Holy Spirit convent Quezon City instead of the FMM convent in Tagaytay. When the reply and application forms came from the SSpS sister, I was surprised. I did not want to join them because I already knew them. I had been working as secretary to Mother Fidentina, SSpS, Principal of the Girls High School, University of San Carlos, Cebu City. Anyway I filled up the form and mailed it back to them. And the rest is history. I have no regrets.
Extract from a letter to Jim Forest from the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, dated February 21, 1966; the full text is published in The Hidden Ground of Love, edited by William Shannon; New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1985.
Molokai, known as the leper colony island of Hawaii, is located west of Maui, the island where I am presently stationed.
It was a case of mistaken identity. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I was jailed by accident. But looking back on that fateful day I am certain that I was serving the right purpose of God.
It was then that the police brought out the photo albums and went through them hurriedly. They saw the picture that they would use against me. it was a picture taken on Dec. 29, 1984, when I first officiated a Eucharistic Service after being anointed as Lay Minister of the underground Catholic Church for the Filipino Group. The picture showed me while I was leading the group in prayer. The community, which I helped organize, regularly met for fellowship very early in the morning when the Arabs were still fast asleep. We started with six persons then the community grew to a little less than a hundred in just two to three months, which necessitated us to meet in smaller groups during the week. I was consulted on important plans and decisions in the spiritual care of Filipino Christians. In times of crisis, I would also mobilize my community in responding to those in need.