Sparks of life and love flashes of awareness

Our Lady's Missionaries in Cagayan de Oro on the island of Mindanao, Philippines

Summer 2004

Return to Table of Contents
Print Article

A few months ago, we celebrated Jesus. life, death and resurrection through the various prayers and rituals of Holy Week and Easter.

The rituals are finished, but we are still living the Paschal Mystery in our daily lives. Here are the stories of some of the people who have brought this realization to light for us.

An awareness of mission

By Margaret Walsh, O.L.M.

During the past year, I spent several months in Canada. While at home, I experienced a deeper awareness of mission as being present each day to whatever life brings and responding with love. I was helped in this awareness by family, friends and members of my community. I witnessed a friend who cares for a sick husband faithfully and lovingly each day; parents who give selflessly to their children; and the sick members of our community who with courage and trust continue their journey. How unique is the call and response of each person.

Since coming back to the Philippines, I am reminded again of this daily mission call as heard by so many. One day I went to the town of Binuangan where I had lived and worked before. While visiting a home, I heard the cry of a sick woman, "I am very hungry Sister." Despite her hunger and illness, this woman is nursing an infant and caring for others in her family. So joy and pain mixed in our greetings, and cultural boundaries now are crossed as a Canadian friend continues to help this woman get the medicine she needs.

Because it was fiesta time, I walked around the area with friends. While chatting with another woman, I asked how things were going. She answered, "Oh Sister," and I knew that things were not going so well. Then she said, "But today is fiesta. Let's celebrate!" I was reminded again that our mission that day was to rejoice and be happy together while sharing what we can.

Sr. Margaret Walsh of Newfoundland is involved in pastoral work at the city's landfill, a place that many impoverished people are forced to call home.

Children of a loving God

By Sr. Myra Trainor, O.L.M.

As I walk down the dusty road towards the prison, I am aware that I am happy to be going there to Mass. Even though I could go to a church where everyone is "appropriately" attired and there is an adorned altar rather than a rickety table, I am nourished in this atmosphere. It helps me to be aware that just as we all contribute to and suffer from evil in our world, our poverty, brokenness and our need for God unite us. In this communal celebration of breaking bread, together we find healing and wholeness.

As I approach the iron bars, the prisoners reach out to me with a gracious smile, seeming to forget their loneliness and the horrific, deprived life they now live. They tell me their problems and concerns, and I gather the information I need to follow-up their cases. Many have endured long periods of time within these prison walls with no court hearing and no word of their status. They are grateful for whatever assistance I can give them and for the opportunity to worship weekly.

With almost a sinking heart, I bid goodbye. I am free to roam God's world. My poorer sisters and brothers are not. Accompanying these little ones, reinforces my belief that each of us is called to help make this a world in which all people are children of a loving God.

Sr. Myra Trainor of Prince Edward Island volunteers at the provincial prison and is part of a campus ministry team at Xavier University.

Hope for the future

By Sr. Lalang Nuñez, O.L.M.

Her haunting eyes draw my attention. In them I see glimpses of her struggle. She worries about the future. How can she meet the high expectations of her family and friends? What if she fails to understand God's call in her life?

She is one of many Filipino youth whose parents live far away in another city or even another country in order to make a living. Feeling abandoned and desperately missing her parents, she longs for the day when her whole family will be reunited and able to make a real home for themselves.

She challenges me to look deeply at her questions. She wants to live a life that has meaning and purpose. She feels she might be called to religious life, to be a missionary. And yet, to answer that call would be a denial of her most basic dream – of a united family. How can she abandon her family, especially her twin sister?

One day, after a wonderful visit with her parents, she exuberantly shares with me her awareness of God's great love for her, and her realization that "wherever I go and whatever I become, my family will always be in my heart." Her prayer now is, "Not my will, but yours, Lord!"

Through those haunting eyes, God draws me to her. In God's own mysterious way, as I walk with her and witness her deepening awareness of God's loving call, I too am blessed with a sense of hope for the Filipino youth and their future.

Sr. Lalang Nuñez of Gingoog City, Philippines, coordinates the campus ministry services at Liceo University.

Hearing God's call

By Sr. Christine Gebel, O.L.M.

As we talked together, she mentioned that she had had a dream in which a voice called her to spread the Good News. Calling her by name, the voice told her that she needn't travel far away for she was to do mission among her neighbours. "Is God calling me?" she wondered. Then she began to cry quietly as she spoke of her struggles these past few years.

She used to belong to a Base Ecclesial Community, the members supporting each other in living their faith, dealing with their problems and striving for their dreams. Gradually she became less and less active in the community until she finally stopped taking part altogether. Getting food on the table for her family took up more and more of her time and energy. It felt like God had abandoned her, though she couldn't understand why.

Then came her dream and the realization that "God is calling me! I thought that God had abandoned me. Now I realize that it is I who abandoned God." Not only was God lovingly calling her back, God was calling her to spread her new awareness, her Good News, to her family and friends. I'm grateful that she decided to include me among them.

Sr. Christine Gebel of Manitoba works with Base Ecclesial Communities in Sto. Niño parish.

The greatest find

By Sr. Yol Cadavos, O.L.M.

Arriving back home after fetching her daughter from school, mother and child were met with chaos and confusion. People were running and shouting, looking for missing family members and trying to escape the intense heat of the fire that was devouring house after house along its path.

Tensions were high. Confusion, concern and sadness etched their faces. I saw a child clutching a statue of the Holy Infant Jesus. I heard murmurings of Our Fathers and Hail Marys like mantras. As the people held onto some sense of consolation and cried for deliverance, the smoke continued to billow up into the sky.

The mother and child watched as the fire reached their home, hungrily consuming its wooden walls and all their treasures and memories. Just six years old, the child began to cry. Was she remembering her toys? Precious little treasures? Happy times? The mother hugged her daughter, trying to soothe her. "Thank God we're together and we're okay," she said with a sense of gratitude in the midst of loss. "We have each other. We can always replace things."

Eventually, the fire began to lose its momentum. People started reaching out to each other and making an accounting of the destruction. The fire had turned 320 homes to ash leaving 480 families homeless.

Then a neighbour said to the mother and daughter, "We had to break down your door, but we managed to get some of your things out – your cookstove and the cupboard with your photo albums." Not everything was lost, but the greatest find of all was the knowledge that the neighbours cared.

Sr. Yolanda Cadavos of Maasin, Philippines, works with Base Eccelesial Communities in Sto. Niño parish.

Discovering my vocation

By Anie Montejo

My presence one day a week as a merchandiser in a grocery store brought me to a deeper personal awareness. As I had to continually rearrange misplaced stock, I remembered how in my student days I spent many an afternoon browsing in the department store, sifting through merchandise that I had no intention of buying, and leaving a mess for someone else to clean up.

When I got off work at the end of a day, my legs ached and I was so tired. Yet, I noticed that the rest of the staff seemed content, showing patience and graciousness as they carried on with their tasks.

I began to realize that it is not a degree, a good job or money that brings happiness, but rather the ability to be open to accept each moment as it comes, doing the best with what we have rather than constantly bemoaning what we do not have. Ambition can blind us to the goodness of the present moment.

Through my experience in the grocery store I have learned much: humility, patience, dignity. Most of all, I have learned the difference between a job and a vocation.

Anie Montejo of Salay, Philippines, lives with the Sisters in Sto. Niño parish as she discerns a call to religious life.

And so, the Paschal Mystery continues within our own lives and those with whom we work and live here in the Philippines. Sparks of life and love... flashes of awareness... Jesus is risen and lives among us.

Return to Table of Contents
Print Article