In just a few days, we in Borongan will be celebrating the
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is on September 8th. Every town in the Philippines, every little
village even, has a feast day. The
people of that area pick a saint who is the patron of their village or city,
they ask that saint to pray for them, and on the feast day of their saint they
have a big, big fiesta!! Momma Mary is
the patron saint of Borongan. I think I
wrote about it on my first trip, but to recap… in the 1800’s there was a plague
in Borongan among the children and many were dying. One day, some townspeople saw a woman dressed
in white bathing in the village spring.
They called out to her and she got out of the spring and crossed the
street into the church. Following her,
they opened the door to the church and entered and found not the woman, but a
statue of her, it was Momma Mary. One of
the people ran and brought her sick child to the spring and bathed him in it,
and he was cured! And so it was that all
of the sick children were cured through the miracle of Momma Mary. Recently, during the 2013 Super Typhoon
Yolanda, the most powerful typhoon ever recorded to date, all of the eastern
coastline of our island was totally wiped out, except for Borongan, which is in
the center of the coastline. People said
they saw a woman in white with an umbrella walking up and down the beach just a
few blocks from where I live, and Borongan was saved from the destruction of
the super typhoon. These people have a
powerful love of Mary, and they celebrate the day of her birth wholeheartedly!!
People are making preparations for the fiesta. Children are practicing for all of the
parades, choirs are practicing their songs for all of the masses, schools are
practicing their dance performances wherein they compete to see who can best
put to dance the story I told above, and houses are being cleaned, food is
being prepared, oh my…the whole city is in preparation mode. People come here from all over the
Philippines to celebrate with us. Oikos is
no different. Our children are
preparing, our mothers are cleaning and cooking with the Sisters right along
with them. It is truly a whirlwind of
constant movement! And while the “normal”,
“everyday” things are going on, everyone is getting caught up in the hubbub.
At times like this, where we are cleaning and cooking and preparing,
it can be easy to think that we are missionaries forgoing our mission, being
caught up in the goings-on of the town and not doing missionary work. But, here’s the thing… just because we are
not going off to far flung barrios, doing dental and medical missions, bringing
food and clothes to the poor, it doesn’t mean that we aren’t doing missionary
work. Even in the mundane tasks of
everyday life, we are called to be missionaries, all of us. So, even though we are on “fiesta mode,” we
still stop to give a kind word to someone in need of cheering up, we still give
what we have to those who come to our door, we still spend time with our
children and see to their needs. Even if
your job title does not include the word “missionary,” that is what we are all
called to be. Caring for others, sharing
our faith, stopping our busyness to help a person in need.
Today is September 5th…from here on out, it’s
going to get pretty crazy, and I plan on joining in the fray of all of the
movement and noise and joyfulness, with my eyes and my heart open to the needs
of those around me. Ikaw gihap? (the
same with you?) xoxo
