Greetings once again from Mindanao!
As the people of Canada are winding down and beginning to look forward to summer, the people of the Philippines are grateful for the rain that has started again after a couple of extremely hot summer months. April and May is summer here. June is the beginning of the rains, and back-to-school time.
But most of all.... June 12, 2006 was the 50th Anniversary of Sr. Mary Gauthier's entrance into Our Lady's Missionaries. For those of you who don't know her so well, Sr. Mary is from the Fourth of Kenyon, Alexandria. We celebrated with friends, old and new, last Sunday, June 11 with a mass at our house followed by a celebratory dinner. Fr. Pat Kelly SFM led us in the celebration of a creative liturgy which included the planting of a tree nourished with organic fertilizer from our compost pit to recognize/symbolize that it is in facing the "garbage" in our life, and working through it that we find new life and peace. After the tree planting, a Muslim friend offered a prayer in the Meranao language and a Chinese friend offered incense and a prayer in Chinese... helping us to recognize the inter-connectedness and sacredness of all.
We had a shared homily which Sr. Mary led by speaking of people and experiences for which she feels grateful, beginning with her family and you, her friends and neighbours in Glengarry, and continuing with friends in Sourthern Leyte where OLM's used to live, and here in Mindanao where we now find ourselves. Others shared their gratitude for Sr. Mary's presence with us here in the Philippines.
We OLM's, Sisters Mary, Margaret, Myra, Lucy and Christine, renewed our vows as well, and I'm sure the others, like myself, were conscious of how we wouldn't be able to live out those vows here in the Philippines among people who have almost nothing of monetary value to share with us, if it weren't for people like you who support us with your prayers and donations.
The old friends who celebrated with us included Fr. Pat Kelly SFM who also lived and worked in Southern Leyte before, and Irene Yusingco who was among the first to welcome OLM's when they arrived in the Philippines way back in 1966.
The new friends included those with whom we work in two urban poor communities and in Muslim-Christian Dialogue for Peace, and the OLM Associates.
It was a grand way for Sr. Mary to BEGIN her celebration of her 50th anniversary. I say BEGIN because I know that she is looking forward to continuing her celebration of life with you there when she goes home for a visit next year!
Bye for now.... Peace, Christine Gebel OLM
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