TESTIMONY: "I am reaping better than I sowed..."

It was not so long ago when tomorrow didn't seem promising. I was not born with privilege, and my life was once a scary journey to nowhere. But if given a chance, I would not hesitate to travel the same road.

The fourth of six siblings, I did not enjoy my childhood as every child is supposed to do. At the early age of six I took on much responsibility, from waking up in the early hours to doing household chores, to taking care of my younger sisters and selling native delicacies to the neighbors to help augment what my parents earned. Plus, preparing for school which was five kilometers away.

School was not any better. I had one peso in my pocket, I was frequently late due to whatever difficulty there was along the road - an accident, or just the rainy season sending me back home because I was all wet. And there was a punishment for tardiness: sometimes sitting on air with books placed on my arms.

All this was to change when I learned about the Sisters of Mary and subsequently became one of the "daughters" of Fr. Al, who was my "father" and my hero. The institution completely molded, honed and developed me into a better person. Aside from the excellent education the school provided me, I was given the chance to belong to a so-called "family" away from home. This sense of belonging made me feel loved by the community around me, which I hadn't felt before because in elementary school, children used to tease or mock me for my dark complexion.

Enabling me to believe in my own capabilities and restoring my self-esteem were the most extraordinary things the school - Fr. Al and the Sisters of Mary - did for me. The change that I accomplished, plus the values-laden and service oriented formation the Sisters and my teachers inculcated in me, gave me the necessary strength and courage to face life's adversities. I shall be forever grateful.

After high school, I sought employment at once to help my family. I worked for more than a year as production planning assistant at NKC Manufacturing Philippines Corp., a Japanese-run company based in Cebu. However, Fr. Al's reminder to all his children that "you are not created to be fat little ducks waddling in the mud but to be eagles destined to rise above" kept flashing in my mind and this made me decide to pursue a college degree even if it meant stopping work temporarily.

With the strong foundation I had at the Sisters of Mary, hard work and strong faith in God, I graduated from college with honors, giving greater glory to Him. I can hardly believe I had gone this far. Who would have thought that this former ugly duckling could become a beautiful swan at least spiritually and emotionally? This I owe first to God, then to my family, and of course to the Sisters of Mary who guided me all throughout.

After college, God's grace did not stop flowing for me. I first worked as part-time instructor in college mathematics at Mindanao Polytechnic State College, and at the same time as internal auditor at Technomart in Cagayan de Oro City. At present, I am happy giving back all the graces I received by serving my younger brothers and sisters back "home" in the Silang Campus. I am now secretary of the Sisters of Mary Schools Research and Development Center.

Apart from Fr. Al's reminder for us to continue improving our lives, I keep recalling now a quote from the Bible which has become more meaningful for me: "And as I go along life's way, I'm reaping better than I sowed. I'm drinking from my saucer because my cup has overflowed."


Thanks be to God! Thanks to Fr. Al and thanks to the Sisters of Mary for completely transforming my life!



   RONA C. MANDAGWAY
   Batch 1999
   The Sisters of Mary Girlstown
   Talisay City, Cebu

TESTIMONY: "A Miracle of Love"

"A Miracle of Love"

ENGELBERT R. SUPAN 

Batch 1991, Sta. Mesa, Manila

The skinny 12 year old tried to recall what he had read the night before. Eyes in the classroom were all fixed on him as he tried to recollect the night’s previous lesson.   He heard somebody from behind snicker and panic started sinking in as the teacher coaxed him to answer. His empty stomach grumbled as he clutched the side of his threadbare short pants. Disappointed, the teacher called on another student who was raising his hand. The skinny boy sat on his chair, controlling his urge to cry.

Later that day, while sorting all the pieces of scrap he picked from the Little Smokey Mountain of Pasig, the skinny 12 year old bowed he would finish schooling no matter what happens. How his parents, who both never graduated from elementary, will send him to school, he does not know. His father was a mere factory worker cum tricycle driver, his mother a poor labandera. Countless were the times when self-pity was eating him. He was the first born in a brood of nine children (that would later be eleven).

Today, that skinny and oftentimes garbage-reeking boy is a lawyer at the peak of his dreams and ambitions, scanning the horizon armed with knowledge and conviction. I am that droopy, dreamy-eyed boy of 12 who was robbed of his childhood by poverty. I lived the life of a drifter for years until one man’s lifelong work which has touched countless of lives drastically changed the life that I knew and gave me the direction, the anchor to fully achieve the potential that I myself knew I have but couldn’t do anything about.

I am the man that I am today because there was a man who believed in the love of God and wanted the poorest of the poor to experience what it is like to be loved and cared for by God. In the bible Jesus was asked by the high priests what are the two greatest commandments and He answered “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” The life of Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz, to us his children known simply as Fr. Al, founder of the Religious Congregations of the Sisters of Mary and the Brothers of Christ, is the consummate embodiment of total obedience to these commandments.

During the days that I was in the Sisters of Mary, cared for by the kindest people I have ever met, I witnessed how Father Al loved God and how he wanted us, his children to emulate the way that he loved God. For him constant communication with God through prayer is a way of life. The constant theme of his Sunday homilies was the boundless love of God for all of mankind. His love for God knows no bounds and knows no condition. When he was already dying of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, I saw that even speaking is a painful feat, a difficult and excruciating task that would have taken the measure out of lesser men. But Fr Al, bound in a wheelchair, his neck supported by a brace, continued to speak to us in the Holy Mass, delivering homilies that speaks on the love of God and his desire for himself and his children to become saints. I have never seen a more courageous man.

Love your neighbor as yourself. I speak of Fr. Al to pay tribute to a man who gave his life, his dreams, his everything, to serve the poorest of the poor. If there was a Mother Theresa in the slums of Calcutta, India, there is a Fr. Al in Korea and in the Philippines. Today, Fr. Al’s mission has extended itself to other countries - a veritable testament to the intensity of the love that he lived. Visitors to any Sisters of Mary compound are always incredulous when told that the multitude of happy children they are seeing are living and studying in the compound for free. I myself used to wonder how Fr. Al was able to support all of us without asking any financial assistance from us or even from the government. Now I know better. I now know that all of Fr. Al’s seeming insurmountable accomplishments were made possible by the miracle of Love – love for God and love for his neighbor.

My stay at the Sisters of Mary will always be one of the happiest periods in my life. It will certainly be the most important phase in my effort to build my dreams. It was during this time that I fashioned a dream and one man showed me, with the way he lived, that nothing is impossible to one who sets his mind into achieving his dream. Poverty robbed me of my childhood but Fr. Al and his caring Sisters of Mary gave that childhood back to me.

More than the material things that Fr. Al and the Sisters of Mary provided me with for four years - relevant education, quality time (to play and be a child again), clothing, food – the Sisters of Mary proved to this doubting Thomas that there is a God. Were it not for the four years that I stayed at the Sisters of Mary, I might have been persuaded to believe in the promises of other religions or worse, I might be an atheist today. Fortunately, I was saved from the clutches of ignorance and into the light because of the teachings of Fr. AL and the Sisters of Mary. Fr. Al always spoke with clarity and conviction that knows no shaking. He was firm and steady about his wish to become a saint and equally, to live a life that we, his children, can emulate.

At the Sisters of Mary, Fr. Al’s life and his sacrifices was a constant reminder of the warmth of the love of God. He and the sisters unceasingly showed to all of us living in their care, an unconditional love that is akin to the love of God for mankind when he sent His begotten Son to redeem us from our sins.

Today, I am living my dream. In retrospect, I don’t think I would have been able to achieve this dream were it not for the wings that Fr. Al and the Sisters of Mary carefully, lovingly and patiently fashioned for me and for the countless of other unfortunate souls who were born into poverty. I shall forever be grateful to Fr. Al. everyday of my life.

I live my life each day proudly wearing the insignia of my alma mater, an institution that is a testament to one man’s commitment to love his neighbor as he loved himself. No, I think he did not merely loved us as he loved himself but loved us better than the way he loved himself.

I believe that Fr. Al wanted to change the world for the better one person at a time. His life and works is a miracle of love, a miracle that shows to this world and to this cynical age that the love of God can make a difference in the life of the ordinary man.

I should know.

TESTIMONY: “Capital Investment: Screwdriver”

Believing firmly that poverty is not a reason to become hopeless, as Fr. Al taught me, plus of course prayer and sacrifice, saw me through a life of ups and downs. My parents were widow and widower, each with children of their own, while my sister and I were of this third family. It would have been a good combination of sorts but they separated when I was twelve.

Mother brought us to Manila, not knowing what would happen to us. We lived in a squatters’ area in Novaliches, Quezon City. I sold fish balls, dyaryo’t bote, became a kargador at the Novaliches market, all to help us survive. I felt irritated and helpless at my situation, even contemplating suicide. I wanted to continue my studies but my busy mother showed no inclination to send me back to school.

Once she spanked me because I was too lazy to go out and sell fish ball. I told her my feelings. But there was a good neighbor who saw me and told me about the Sisters of Mary School and that her daughter was studying there. For free! With almost everything, from food and lodging to clothes and school supplies and much more. It seemed too good to be true. My mother needed no convincing and let me go with the neighbor. I was interviewed by Sr. Teresita Prudente and she gave me a small pamphlet to read aloud. Then she told me I had passed and was accepted.

For four years I learned so much. Boystown gave me a high quality education, from academics to vocational courses, such as automotive, electronics, refrigeration and air conditioning, repair and maintenance of industrial sewing machines. And the best teachers were hired for us, too.

It was just the training I needed for employment even immediately after high school. But then the Sisters of Mary Boystown was even more generous. After graduation, I was hired as an assistant electronics teacher. I had a job at once. But my rather independent disposition urged me to look elsewhere and to work on my own. Meanwhile, life was about the same. We were still in the squatter’s area and when it rained, our beds floated on the rising water. But I never complained to God. I believed he would never abandon me.

Then my prayers began to be answered. I began work washing empty bottles in a wine factory, with a daily wage of P50. After a month, I became a refrigeration and air-conditioning technician. I was using my training. Then I transferred to another company where they made a specialist in automatic door systems. In these two companies I learned a lot about the fabrication and installation of glass windows, automatic doors, gates, and many more skills related to building construction.

As I learned skills and handled responsibilities my personality developed but I retained the virtues I learned in school with Fr. Al: work hard, be honest, be humble. I learned, too, to deal with different people and professionals like architects, engineers, contractors, managers, and suppliers. My appreciative boss encouraged me to have self-confidence even if I was “only” a high school graduate. In time I became a sub-contractor for the installation of automatic door systems and glass windows. When I had enough funds I put up my own contracting business in Manila. For almost two years it was failure but I did not lose hope, I always prayed and worked hard.

I went back to Masbate where I met my wife, Maria Cristina. She is a very devout lady who is always there beside me in all my efforts. I worked odd jobs until we felt ready to revive the business that had been suspended. With a capital investment of a screwdriver and some small tools for installing window glasses, coupled with lots of perspiration and inspiration from my wife and three kids, we restarted. This is now my company, Green Glass and Aluminum Supply, with main office in Masbate City and a branch in Minglanilla, Cebu.

At home, we live the way I learned at the Sisters of Mary. I am the founder and my wife is my sister-in-charge. My little boy and my two girls are my Boystown and Girlstown respectively. We attend the Holy Mass every Sunday and are members of the Christian Community Couples for Christ. I will always remember one of Fr. Al’s homilies, which said, “The most powerful weapons to overcome fear, trials, obstacles, and temptations are prayer and sacrifice.”

*** 

Erwin Cortes
Batch 1991 (2nd Batch), 1987-1991
Sta. Mesa, Manila

Fr. Al's Thoughts: On Action-Oriented Prayer

Fr. Al's Thoughts: On Helping the Poor