Sr Marie Paul Therese wrote this for the newsletter of the Carmel in Vilvoorde, Belgium, which we have featured before in Misyon. It has been slightly edited. You can find the English-language blog of the monastery here.

By Sister Mary Carmela OCD

My first home visit to the Philippines, 21 May -14 August 14 2006

We first published this article in May-June 2007 when Misyon was still mainly a printed magazine. Sr Marie Paul Therese tells us in From Iligan to Vilvoorde how reading Sister Mary Carmela’s article led her to Vilvoorde. You can find the English-language blog of the Vilvoorde Carmel here.

‘Vacation is also a mission,’ was the gist of what dear Rev. Mother Ann Christi whispered to me before she gave me Holy Communion at dawn on Sunday 21 May, reminding me of Mary Magdalene. After her encounter with the Risen Jesus early on Easter Sunday she ran to proclaim to others the Good News that indeed ‘He is alive!’ I should radiate Jesus to everyone He desired to send me.

By Louis Marièn

Father Apolo de Guzman of the Diocese of Cabanatuan, chaplain to the Filipinos in the Archdiocese of Mechlin-Brussels, Belgium, sent this article. He is the brother of Father Efren de Guzman SVD and Sister Emma de Guzman ICM, both frequent contributors to Misyon.

She’s reduced to tears. She hasn’t seen her children for three years. Carina is a Filipino who worked as a housekeeper for the ambassador of an Asian country who locked her up in his house like a slave for six months. Washing, cleaning, cooking, ironing, from six in the morning to eleven at night. She was paid only €200 (a euro is worth about P70) per month while others were receiving around €500.