fma lifeline june 2012

June 2012 FMA Lifeline 1

FMA Lifeline June 20122

__________________

Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Provincial House

3500 V. Mapa Extension, Sta. Mesa 1016 Manila

Tel. No. 714-5937; Faxphone 716-5097

www.fmafil.org.ph

FMA Lifeline is the official news magazine of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco) in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. FMA stands for Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, the official Italian name of the Congregation founded by St. John Bosco and St. Mary Mazzarello in 1872 in Mornese, Italy. Today, there are more than 13,600 FMAs in 94 countries who are dedicated in varied ministries for the youth.

From the Provincial Superior

EDITORIAL BOARD

Sr. Ma. Socorro Bacani, FMAEditorial Board Coordinator

Sr. Theda dela Rosa, FMATechnical Coordinator

Sr. Florita Dimayuga, FMA Sr. Nora Hernandez, FMA

Sr. Ann Lyn Rose Magno, FMA

5 When Paths Meet Sr. Nora Hernandez, FMA

7 A Gotcha Encounter Sr. Nora Hernandez, FMA

8 Proud to be a Daughter of Don Bosco Sr. Sarin Eng (Cambodian Novice)

9 I thought I knew him...” Sr. Pearl Joy Catapang (FMA Novice - FIL) From the Heart of Don Bosco: the FMA Profile Yesterday and today Rosemarie U. Ual

10 Volunteerism is dying...” Charles Kaiser Madrigal

11 FMA NEWS Social Communications

12 SaKsi ni [email protected] Social Communications, Manila and Cebu Media campers

Dear Educating Communities,

Live Jesus!

Our challenge as Salesian Family and as Educating Communities is to be faithful and fruitful. We earn our citizens’ rights in the Church and in society by being true to our very identity and mission: to be with Don Bosco and tobe Don Bosco today. We want to live his commitment to God and His plan, his preferential option for the poorest and abandoned youth, his educative passion, his spirit of “da mihi animas, cetera tolle” (Give me souls and take away the rest).This fruitful and creative grafting means that we have to know Don Bosco deeply through the medium of reading and study,love him affectively and effectively as our father and teacher through the spiritual legacy he has left us,imitate him and try to reproduce him in ourselves, making of the Rule of life our personal plan (cf.Don Pascual Chavez, AGC n. 383). The Rector Major wrote in another occasion that “together with the Gospel, Don Bosco is our criterion of discernment… our goal of identification. His life is the criterion for our following the Lord Jesus in a particular manner.”

Our three-year preparation for the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Don Bosco on August 16, 2015, has precisely this goal: to know, love, and imitate Don Bosco, and reproduce him in ourselves. In undertaking this journey, we, the Sisters, along with the other

members of the whole Educating Communities, will be aided by the forthcoming editions of the improved FMA Lifeline.

The FMA Lifeline editorial board has clearly mapped out the themes for this three-year journey:

2012: Remembering 2013: Embracing2014: Re-living

Each yearly theme will be deepened in four FMA Lifeline issues that will be released every three months: June, September, December and March. The June issue will be dedicated to formation.Thanks to the editorial board for taking up this service with a generous heart.

I hope that this initial effort to make the FMA Lifeline simpler, more essential and more formative can contribute to our journey of becoming a Family after the heart of Don Bosco as we make young people our Educating Community’s preferential mission.

With Mary, the teacher Don Bosco gave us, our journey continues… onwards.

God bless you always.

In communion,

Sr. Sarah B. Garcia, FMA

3 From the Heart of Don Bosco: The FMA Profile Yesterday and today Sr. Nora Hernandez, FMA Sr. Christine Maguyon, FMA Sr. Melanie Pilar, FMA

Celebration starts with remembering, turning to the memory of the heart.

Retracing our roots in history is our way of deep remembrance. We want to journey into the heart of Don Bosco from which came forth the FMA identity. Where do we find his “heart-expression” of this identikit? Don Carlo Colli, SDB gives us the answer as he comments on Title XIII (Essential Virtues proposed for study by the Novices and to be practiced by the Professed sisters) of the FMA Constitutions 1885. This text, he says, “manifests Don Bosco’s thinking about the spiritual physiognomy of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in a very authoritative way.” He stresses that the text “shows us how to put together the spiritual identikit of the FMA after the heart of Don Bosco.”

In this profile we encounter afresh the “vision” Don Bosco had of the FMA and rediscover how

this vision is kept alive in our Constitutions today. For a more complete view of his thoughts we also take a look at his Letter of May 24, 1886 is well as other conferences and exhortations to the FMA’s of the first hour.

Now, the journey into Don Bosco’s heart begins not by Salesianity scholars or experts but by daughters who want to appreciate their roots.

PATIENT SOLICITOUS OR

ZEALOUS CHARITY

Don Bosco gives first place to charity. Don Colli sees its placement as a stress on the pastoral dimension. One hears the cry of Don Bosco’s heart filled with pastoral charity. “Give me souls take away the rest!” the slogan and the central driving force of his apostolic dynamism.Faithful to Don Bosco, today’s Constitutions enshrines the “dmact” as the soul of our educative mission (Art.61). We are to live our identity as Salesian

educators animated by apostolic charity (Art. 71).

SIMPLICITY AND MODESTY/RESERVE WITH HOLY

CHEERFULNESS Don Colli contends that here Don Bosco certainly means the virtue of chastity which must be lived to an eminent degree, a shining witness of a fully-given heart. Don Bosco’s apostolic heart sees chastity in view of his mission of love for the young. “By chastity Don Bosco means a joyful sharing virtue that proclaims the Gospel of the Beatitudes… making young people feel that one can serve the Lord and always be cheerful at the same time” (Don Colli). Here we recall the words of Mother Mazzarello: “Joy is the sign of a heart that loves God” Art.14 capsulizes all this for the FMA today: “As Don Bosco taught us, our mission among the young demands that chastity be for us our special characteristic… practiced in an eminent degree.”


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From the Heart of Don Bosco: The FMA PROFILE

Yesterday and TodaySr. Nora Hernandez, FMA

Sr. Christine Maguyon, FMASr. Melanie Pilar, FMA

SPIR IT OF EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR

MORTIF ICATION

Don Bosco was well aware of the need for “Sisters who are able to master their own affections and keep their hearts fixed on God alone… (May 1886 Letter) The Paschal aspect, the “intimate participation in the mystery of the cross” is clearly delineated in the call for “sisters whose spirit of self-denial fills them with a desire to work and suffer for Jesus Christ and for the good of their neighbor” (Letter) Hence, a spirit of mortification which he calls the ABC of perfection, “a habitual attitude of the spirit, not just any specific act (Colli). Our times permeated by “if-you-feel-it-just-do-it” mentality sharpens the need for this. The Constitutions today asks the FMA to be faithful to the Salesian commitment of work and temperance practicing mortification and vigilance over herself (Art.17) and to love with confidence and hope the renunciations her loving choice will inevitably demand (Art.16).

OBEDIENCE OF WILL AND JUDGMENT

How much Don Bosco took to heart the virtue of obedience! He wants “Sisters who are firmly convinced that exact obedience without criticism or complaint is the path they must courageously tread (Letter…) To Don Pestarino he gives this critereon for the “foundation stones” of the Institute: “those who are obedient in everything, even the smallest things.” And on his death bed his final word to the FMA is “Practice obedience and make sure others practice it”. Obedience in his style must be “filial, prompt, with a joyous spirit and with much humility.” He wants Sisters “to be inwardly free from all that might hinder them in the fulfillment of their mission” (Colli). This Salesian style is the content of Art.32 of today’s Constitutions. This style requires a good dosage of simplicity and humility (Colli) expressed in accepting corrections and observations willingly and without comment as well as assignments given. Along with obedience, spirit of mortification this is a criterion to Don Pestarino for selecting the foundation stones.

STRICT OR RIGOROUS OBSERVANCE

OF POVERTY

This is a lived reality in Morness. When Don Bosco wrote (Letter of May 24, 1886) about the need for “Sisters who deem it a privilege to live in a condition of poverty and privation in imitation of their divine Spouse and for Sisters who have no other ambition… than to follow Jesus Christ who was humiliated, crowned with thorns, and nailed to the cross…”

he seemed to be describing both the material and spiritual dimensions of Mornesian poverty. These are succinctly expressed in Art. 21: Each Sister “will practice the detachment and dependence inherent in every form of poverty, freeing herself from all self-seeking and the desire to possess.” And in Art. 19: “.. each Sister is considered as literally possessing nothing.” Don Bosco also underscored the apostolic dimension of poverty – he wanted Sisters to be fully available for the mission, that is, “ready to go wherever they were needed, to bear with heat, cold, hunger, thirst, fatigue and contempt as long as it was for the glory of God, the service of souls. This is quoted in Art.22 which describes our poverty today – as a necessary requirement of the da mihi animas…

A SPIR IT OF PRAYER IN WHICH THE SISTERS WILL EAGERLY ATTEND TO THEIR PRACTICES OF PIETY, KEEPING THEMSELVES IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND ABANDONED TO HIS SWEET PROVIDENCE

This is coming from a priest whose life is described as “God present to him and he present to God” (Kothgasser), as a “unity between the gaze he fixes on God and the work of salvation” (Viganò). Don Philip Rinaldi sees him as a “saint of action defined as union with God.”

By “spirit of prayer”, Don Bosco means “an habitual attitude of turning to the Lord in the spirit, rather than any specific act.” (Colli)

These orientations given by Don Bosco permeate the characteristics of our prayer today expressed in Article 38: “a single movement of love towards God and neighbor, requires and creates... constant self-giving, leads us to live in the presence of God, trusting in his Fatherly love...”

Fidelity to the Constitutions is fidelity to our identity and therefore fidelity to Don Bosco. Don Bosco sees “observance of the Rule” as a concrete aspect of obedience. He tells us even today: “Be obedient to the Constitutions, even in little things.”

We give the last word to Mother Mazzarello. Docile to the spirit and most faithful to Don Bosco, she tells us: “The Constitutions were given to us by Don Bosco and he knows what Mary Help of Christians wants of us.” Amen.

Sources: Carlo Colli, SDB, The Spirit of Mornese Alois Kothgasser, SDB; The Little Window of the Valponasca, Letter of May 24, 1886; FMA Constitutions.


[This is a journey into the past to help us appreciate the charismatic harmony of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello – parallel paths led by the Holy Spirit to meet at God’s appointed time. To bring the past into the present we use the medium of a make-believe interview with Don Carlo Colli, SDB. In his lifetime, he had given conferences and eventually written a study on the foundation of the Institute touching specifically on the role of Don Bosco and the personal contribution of Mother Mazzarello]

Lifeline: Fidelity to Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello implies “progressive assimilation of their founding intentions and a continuous placing of ourselves on their wavelength” (Cavaglia). Can you help us go through the road of the “first hour” for an in-depth look?

Don Colli: It is my pleasure to help you go back to your roots.

Lifeline: Which are the most decisive elements that went into the shaping of the charism of the Institute?

Don Colli: It goes without saying that it is the personality and intention of the Founder Don Bosco which is enshrined in the religious apostolic project of the Institute.

Lifeline: And that is “To set up a Religious Institute that would take care of young girls with the same programme that the Salesians have already put into action among boys.” His very own words! We are to be a feminine version of the Salesian charism.

Don Colli: And that brings us to the second decisive element – Mother Mazzarello. Don Bosco

couldn’t have dreamed of a more suitable instrument in bringing such a project into being. She it was whom Don Bosco chose as the foundation stone of the Institute. Her work in this regard has been so influential as to merit for her in all justice the title of co-foundress.

Lifeline: St. Jane De Chantal is called the “spiritual daughter” of St. Francis of Sales. Can we say that of Maria Mazzarello in relation to Don Bosco?

Don Colli: I don’t think so. When Don Bosco first met her in 1864 Maria Domenica Mazzarello was already a mature woman with a programme of spiritual formation behind her. We give credit to Don Pestarino for this. Although we cannot say that Mother Mazzarello was spiritually dependent on Don Bosco, her animating spirit was not unrelated to his.

Lifeline: Can we say that in this regard God’s wonderful ways come into play?

Don Colli: I was going into that. That very Spirit which had raised up Don Bosco was now to move Maria Domenica as well, in an equally mysterious way. It was to lead her along a path parallel to his, granting her a spirit similar to his own until the day their paths would come together to undertake a combined mission to save the young.

Lifeline: Marvelous! Would you say that there was more to Maria Mazzarello’s fascination and enthusiasm in that historic meeting of 1864?

When Paths Meet Photos from the film “Main” La casa della felicità (2012)


Sr. Nora Hernandez, FMA

Don Colli: Definitely! It was not an adolescent but a spiritually mature woman, who heard Don Bosco’s words. In Don Bosco’s voice she had detected clear echoes of her own inner voice.

Lifeline: In fact, the chronicles of the Institute report: “It seemed to her that Don Bosco’s words echoed a language she heard in her heart, but had not known how to express; in such words she had now found the translation of her very own sentiments; as an answer long-awaited, and now finally arrived.” Would you consider the meeting as a turning point in her life?

Don Colli: No, it wasn’t a turning point in her life, as such, but a clarification, a transition from the implicit to the explicit, from the confused and nebulous to the clearly defined.

Lifeline: You are saying that for all its importance in Mazzarello’s life, her meeting with Don Bosco did not mean a really radical change of direction; it simply meant a more clear-cut, precise awareness and confirmation of both her role and her destination towards which God was already leading her.

Don Colli: Precisely! That is why when the Daughters of Mary Immaculate had to choose a different way of life opened to them by Don Bosco to be the nucleus of his new religious family, Maria Domenica was right away and completely for Don Bosco: “Even if Don Pestarino were to leave Don Bosco which is impossible, I will stay with Don Bosco.”

Lifeline: Was Don Bosco aware of the treasure he had in Mother Mazzarello? That she was in the words of Don Gino Corallo, SDB “a helpmate like himself prepared by God, that having ‘discovered’ her, gave her that final formation before seeing her off on her Great Divine adventure”?

Don Colli: He certainly was – as confirmed by his very own words to Cardinal Cagliero who was entrusted with the task of directing the new Institute: “You know the spirit of our oratory, our preventive system and the secret of making oneself loved, heard, obeyed by young people; loving all of them and never humiliating anyone; assisting them day and night with fatherly watchfulness, patient charity and constant

kindliness. Well, Mother Mazzarello already possesses these requirements and so we can be at ease, confident about the government of the Institute and the Sisters.”

Lifeline: What a tribute coming from someone like Don Bosco! Somewhere you stressed the major importance of the Constitutions for determining the identity of a Religious institute.

Don Colli: I did. If there is one thing that Don Bosco personally took charge of without delegating it to any collaborator, it was precisely the drafting of the text of the Constitutions. This fact shows what importance Don Bosco attached to them. In fact, he was wont to repeat: “Be observant of the Constitutions even in little things… Remember me at every point of the Holy Rule when you read it.”

Lifeline: I think we can say that Don Bosco gave us a rule but Mother Mazzarello taught us to be FMA’s after the heart of Don Bosco.

Don Colli: Mother Mazzarello was also aware that Don Bosco’s intervention in no way interfered with the tiny seed the Spirit had germinated at Mornese – it had simply given it a clearer end-aim, method and spirit, lent it support for its formation and organization so that it could grow, develop and expand all over the earth. That’s why she was truly grateful to Don Bosco: “Dear Don Bosco! Dear Salesians! They regard us as part of the family…”

Lifeline: Our chronicles record these words of gratitude: “Never forget to thank the Madonna for making us her daughters; she has entrusted us to a saint, such as Don Bosco is.” Don Colli, your last words to us FMA’s of today, please?

Don Colli: God’s fire, alight within her for so long fused with Don Bosco to make but one flame. The flame is within each one of you, too. Keep it ever burning!

Lifeline: Yes, the torch is in our hands and it is meant to be passed on from one generation to the next.

Sources: Carlo Colli, SDB, The Contribution of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello to the Charism of the Foundation of the FMA Institute; Cronistoria I.



Thus, my attention was riveted to the many “leavings” he had to undergo: leaving home so young, leaving a mother whose love took away the sting of painful experiences, letting go of attachments to the things of this world: pets, games, tricks, stunts, hunting and “similar pastimes that gave momentary pleasure but did not really satisfy the heart”. (BM, I) He also knew what it meant to be bereft of support, of friendship.

One thing he never “left” was his dream to be a priest. “...I want to study and become a priest (BM, I, 78) and I want to give my whole life to the care of boys” (BM, I, 187). This dream was in the forefront of everything he did, everything he suffered, everything to which he committed himself. His journey towards priesthood was thorny – nay, it was against all odds”: privation, biases, prejudices, taunts, jeers, bereavements, countless sacrifices. He pitted his hope against all human hope (Lemoyne). Love I told myself must be purified by the cross.

In the face of all this, how much “clinging” he had to do – a faith-filled clinging to a God whose providence never failed him through generous people who believed in him and in his dream. I realized he was never “homeless” because God was his “heart-home”. He could leave everything because “it is the heart that gives, the fingers just let go” (Nigerian Proverb).

So young and yet so wise! He already had, in the words of a modern author: PURPOSE, PASSION and GOD. I was interpellated, challenged! I, a VLV, (a Very Late Vocation by Salesian standards since I entered as a thirty-something)asked, “How goes it with me?” I had to go to the chapel to pray and take a close look of my inner choices, the choices of my heart.

In two days Don Bosco found his way into my heart and stayed there and I found my way into his heart and I stayed there, Gotcha! (P.S. My superior’s assignment did the trick and now I realize, Don Bosco was also God’s birthday gift to me!)

A “Gotcha”Encounter

1972 – The centennial of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. I entered as an aspirant of December 9. A week later, I was introduced to Fr. John Monchiero, SDB who commented with a smile, “Our Lady pulled you in before the year is over.” I felt happy to be “Our Lady’s centennial aspirant”. What were her plans for me, I wondered. On December 27 my 19th day and my first birthday in the convent I was asked by my Superior, Mother Anna Maria Mattiussi to write an article on Don Bosco for the Past Pupil’s newsletter. When I told her I didn’t know much about Don Bosco she gave me the Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco, Volume I. I had two days to read it because the article was due on the 29th. And that was how it all began.

The aspirant reading Don Bosco’s biography was grappling with pain of living out Christ’s words: “Leave everything; carry your cross” – not just the literal living but its deeper meaning, that is, “unhooking ourselves from the restraining emotional bonds that prevent us from following our deepest vocation” (Nouwen)


Sr. Nora Hernandez, FMA


Growing up as a Buddhist, crossing paths with the man Don Bosco was something unthought-of. Knowledge about Religious

men and women never existed in my consciousness except for Christians whose identity is distinguished by the cross they usually wear. I couldn’t imagine that the world acclaimed Father and Teacher of youth would also reach my motherland, Cambodia, a predominantly Buddhist country! But this is a dream come true! On the Great Jubilee Year, October 2000, a friend of mine invited me to Don Bosco Vocational Training Center at Phnom Penh. It is a school of the Salesian Sisters that offers integral education to poor young people. Although the Sisters looked so strange to me on that very first meeting, something dormant within me was awakened: “I want to be like them.”

Have I been one of those young people Don Bosco dreamt of? I simply marvel at how God designs circumstances in our lives and how beautifully events intertwine at the appointed time! I never planned to take up a two-year course in a Salesian School, more so, working with the FMA for some years after my graduation. I am convinced that it was Our Blessed Mother and Don Bosco who brought me here. My encounter with the Sisters made a difference in my life. I saw myself and my family gradually being transformed in innumerable ways by the formation I received from Don Bosco Vocational Training Center. Although initially my father was opposed to my decision of studying in a Catholic institution, religion was never a matter of contention at home. I became a respectful, good-mannered and more filial daughter to my parents. As a result, I started to greet my parents before leaving and upon arriving home from school. I also shared with them during mealtimes whatever I’ve learned and experienced from school, especially the loving-kindness and joy imparted to us by the Sisters. Perhaps it was because

of this that at evetnually, my father encouraged me to become a religious! Some months ago, he died as a Buddhist. He will not see me making my religious profession (if God wills it) but I believe that Don Bosco will also include him in his promise of salvation for the relatives of FMA up to the fourth generation.

Don Bosco’s Preventive System of education inspired me so much. From experience I understood that it is based on love rather than on punishment, it is capable of attracting young people to holiness through the family spirit that permeates ordinary youthful activities – studies, games, sports, songs, dances, theater, prayer. Like Mother Mazzarello, I consider Don Bosco more than just an ordinary priest, he is a saint! His passion to live and die just to save the souls of the young, and his faith in the seed of goodness in each of them attracted me most. Reflecting over the events of my life these past years, I could now say that I am a part of Don Bosco’s dream to reach out to young people of all races and cultures in order to lead them to Jesus Christ and Our Blessed Mother. It is within this context that I decided to be converted and be baptized into the Catholic Church. I will forever be proud to be a Daughter of Don Bosco!

My journey of faith begins from Buddhism to Catholicism through the Daughters whom Don Bosco sent to Cambodia. After discerning what my heart said when I first met the FMA in 2000, I have come to understand that ‘I want to be like them’ for the rest of my life - a living monument of Don Bosco’s gratitude to Mary. As an FMA Novice, I could say that I have found the meaning of my life: totally be offered to God in the spirit of Don Bosco’s leitmotif “Give me souls, take away the rest.”


Proud to bea Daughter of Don BoscoSr. Sarin EngCambodian Novice

When I was in St. Mary Mazzarello

School up to the time I became a formand,

I thought I knew Don Bosco quite well. I studied more about him and his feast day was my most awaited day in

the whole school year because of the interesting activities and sports events. I thought I really knew him, not until I personally met him through the Pilgrim Relic, a “part of the hand” of Don Bosco exuding forgiveness, love, blessings, guidance, and spiritual

accompaniment to the Youth of today. His visit two years back truly brought a difference in my life as a formand.

I praise God that I am a daughter of this great Saint. I must have part of his dream, too. He

has touched my heart, strengthened my Salesian vocation especially my love and passion for the mission. Truly, it is enough that I am young to be loved by him through his daughters who have instilled in my heart the Salesian Youth Spirituality and who accompany me to grow authentically in my Salesian vocation. On top of all these, the seed of goodness that Don Bosco sees in me continues to grow, I hope that someday, I too, will sing with his daughters the song, “O Qual Sorte”! It is indeed a joy to belong to this family wherein we are all called to become saints.”

“I thought I knew him...” Sr. Pearl Joy CatapangFMA Novice (FIL)

In December, 1996 when fate brought us to Ceris I, Canlubang, all I ever knew

was that Don Bosco was an Italian priest who founded the congregation of ‘Don Bosco” and later became a saint. Today, that very scantly knowledge has grown by an expotential factor. At this point, I can say that he is a lot more than a father, teacher, and saint. For Christians and Catholics who used to be faithful servants of the Lord through the Elim Community, a Catholic charismatic group, we always felt the burden and void left by being separated from a community bound by Christ’s love, service, and commitment to be witnesses for others. Marriage and a change of priorities made my late husband, Rey, and I drift apart from our own personal relationship with God. Moving then to Canlubang as part of God’s plan was a puzzle that had been slowly revealed to us. The first masses that we attended were mostly celebrated by Don Bosco’s priest who we later

discovered to be Salesians. The void within was continuously filled up with the renewed longing to belong to God’s community of believers-followers of Christ and devotees of Mama Mary. Our zest for God’s Word has started to be rekindled by well-animated celebrations of the Holy Eucharist. We felt we belong. We resolved to again put Christ in the center of our marriage and family. Through Don Bosco, we were guided back to the path less travelled - a path to Christ through Mary. Long before our children were born, we dreamt of giving them the best Catholic education that we could afford. Finding ourselves at Don Bosco’s door step has been the catalyst in fulfilling that dream for Rei Cid Romar and Laubrey Marie. Our formation in the Salesians’ Preventive System has started in 2000 when our son enrolled in Mary Help of Christians School. The quarterly formation sessions are a welcome treat for us. They have facilitated our spiritual growth and widened

our perception for varied things, whether concerning our faith or not. The choices that we had made were aimed to be pro-life and for Jesus. What used to be bigger-than-life challenges and trials seemed to appear manageable and easier to overcome. Having been sensitized to volunteerism and service, I have been serving at Diocesan Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in the LCM since April 2010. As I viewed and prayed to Don Bosco during the visit of his relic last January, 2011, I just left the tears rolling down my cheeks beyond control. Those were tears of gratefulness to God for giving us Don Bosco. It dawned on me that all the blessing that we have received and the challenges that we have faced and overcome must be attributed to him. Don Bosco has not only been interceding for us, but has been leading us back to Jesus through Mama Mary. Indeed, Don Bosco has Guided and journeyed with us to become better Christians and upright citizens.


Don Bosco, More Than a Father, Teacher, and SaintRosemarie U. Ual, Parent Officer from MHCC


These are the words that hese are the words that keep on running in my

mind whenever I think about the SYM Formation held in Mindoro with the SYM Mission Experience Team. I believe that this phrase captures also the essence of being a volunteer. When I first heard this, I was greatly struck and moved. I reflected on such an unusual answer – very deep, very profound, and very personal. Then the Gospel image came to my mind, that like the seed – only when it falls to the ground and dies, will it live, grow and bear fruit. I agree, volunteerism is dying.

It is only when we die to ourselves can we share to others, be with others and live for others. As St. Paul puts it “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Gal.2:20.

The immersion was the time to verify the “dying experience” when we met the villagers in the mountainous part of San Teodoro called Kaagutayan. Dying means to leave one’s comfort, mindset, and way of life, and share the Mangyans simple yet happy and contented life. I thought that we were the ones giving and teaching them. Instead, without their knowing it, they were the ones who taught us and gave

us something to ponder about, something to treasure for the rest of our lives – to have faith and to live in God’s love.

This is my dying experience which leads me to live my life for others as Don Bosco did.

Charles Kaiser B. MadrigalSYM – SME Team

MHCS-Mabalacat

It is only when we die to ourselves

can we share to others, be with others

and live for others.

Even in Don Bosco’s time, the boys

in the oratory of Valdocco were

launched to volunteerism during

the cholera epidemic in Turin (cf.

BM vol. 5, 56ff). Shielded by the

blessing of Mary Help of Christians

the boys courageously and safely

assisted the sick.

Among the first collaborators of

Don Bosco were many volunteers

from all walks of life.

Today, the same spirit of generosity

is alive.

“Volunteerism is dying.”“Volunteerism is dying.”


Sr. Eustacia Mendoza, FMA, Sr. Mylene Sanchez, FMA and Salesian Youth Volunteers with the Kaldayapan Mangyan-Alangan Community in Victoria, Oriental Mindoro during their immersion activity which was part of the 5-day Basic Course on Salesian

Youth Volunteerism held at Mary Help of Christians School Technology Center, Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, on April 20-24, 2012.

Lezeil Ebdane with the recipients of the VIDES MISSION CAMP 2012 held at Mary Help of Christians School Technology Center, Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro last May 27, 2012.


Canlubang, Laguna - FMA gathered for the inauguration of the Mary Help of Christians College last May 24, 2012. Fr. Danilo Torres, SDB, blessed the newly renovated building of the former Auxilium Catechetical Center and presided the Holy Mass.

FMA NEWS ________________________

Macarascas, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan - The Eusebia Palomino Learning Center of the Mary Help of Christians School Palawan was finally inaugurated on June 16, 2012. The blessing of the new building was officiated by Fr. Anthony Almadrones, parish priest of St. Ezekiel Moreno Parish, Macarascas.


Incoming students, past pupils and some professors of the college were also present in the celebration. Choir members from the senior students of the college staged a mini-Marian concert.


“Saksi ni Bro., NO FEAR!”, continues to echo in the hearts of the almost 200 campers who attended the Media Education and Evangelization Camp held at Don Bosco School Manila on April 13-16, 2012 and at Mary Help of Christians School – Cebu on April 20-23, 2012.

For the first time, FMA Social Communications and Youth Ministry (Oratory) sectors joined forces to organize the said summer camp exclusively for oratorians, streetchildren and youth in FMA non-formal settings since they have very little or no chance at all to receive media education.

Through the assistance of invited media experts and FMA facilitators, the campers actively participated in the sessions and workshops that led them to draw up the Camp Manifesto: 1. to be witnesses of Brother Jesus also by being critical and responsible users of media, and maximize them as potent means to spread the Good News of Jesus; 2. to be vigilant users of media so as not be used and abused by those who produce and advertise them.

“Media have been my masters and I have become its restless slave, a thought I could not get even hold of. I’m very thankful that I was able to join the camp because it made me realize the madness I got myself tied with.”

- Ryan RondinaOratory LeaderFMA Punta Princesa, Cebu City

“Troubled and disturbed.

Troubled, because we

realize that we were long

hexed by media. Disturbed,

because we could not wait

on telling others how we can

break the chain of slavery

and madness which mass

media caused.”

- Diovanie ObinetaOratory Leader

FMA Punta Princesa, Cebu City

“The formation I received during the camp did not only equip me with the knowledge and skills through which I can analyze and evaluate different forms of media but it also paved the way for me to deepen my faith in God. This experience was God’s way for me realize that I should be a real “SaKsi ni Bro.” (witness of Christ) as I use any media at my disposal. After attending the camp, I became particularly sensitive to the lyrics of the music I hear around me and I can now readily speak my mind in line with the convictions I have as a “Saksi ni Bro.”.

- Carmark Gerero, ALS Don Bosco School

fma lifeline june 2012

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