Please Pray for the soul of Kabatch Julio Firmalino

On the first day of our freshman year, Julio and I waited for the flag ceremony to start. I knew him because he and his sisters were boarders at my Lola's boarding house (beside Piltel) near NDD Girls Department. He was one of the tallest freshmen in our batch in the NDD Boys Department.

Nakatuluyan niya si Victoria Gonzaga, na kabatch din natin. Vickee is a relative of mine by affinity. Sila Julio at Vickee ang isa sa tatlong pares ng kabatch natin na nagkatuluyan (the other two being Ramon Arana & Paz Natividad and Virgilio Lauzon & Sonia Garcia). Julio and Vickee's high school romance started as a reverse balcony scene from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet with Julio hurrying from school every afternoon and climbing to the balcony of Lola's boarding house to get a fleeting glimpse of Vickee coming out of the NDD Girls gate. On our junior year, they became officially (but secretly) high school sweethearts. Their love for each other stood the test of time and other trials. Then came the final test.

This morning (Oct. 30), Julio was shot by an unknown assailant while he was on duty at his field station in Dole Philippines. Nadala pa siya sa hospital pero hindi na siya nag-survive. Vickee was inconsolable upon learning of Julio's death; however, her heart is kept warm by the loving years they shared for each other and their children and grandchildren. For Vickee goes our prayers for strength of faith - faith in their love and God.

Go with God, Kabatch Julio. May His eternal light shine upon you. We will miss you dearly.

(For those who would like to personally give their condolences to Vickee, you may call 0915-6546485)

Let's remember and pray for our departed teachers & kabatch

Let us include our departed teachers and kabatch in our prayers.

Soon to Rise in Gensan - Robinsons

Gokongwei to build Gensan mall
Business World Online
26 June 2008

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Construction of a P2-billion Robinsons Mall here has finally gained ground after years of delay. "This is one of the biggest investments in the tuna capital of the Philippines in recent years. Its construction has just started," Avel O. Manansala, city hall media chief, said on Tuesday. Located in an 8.5-hectare property acquired by the Gokongweis years ago along J. Catolico St. in Lagao district (near NFA), the mall is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2009. To be called Robinsons General Santos, it will be within walking distance from the two other biggest shopping malls in the city, the KCC Mall and Gaisano Mall. Land clearing for the project, which is under Robinsons Land Corp., a firm under JG Summit Holdings, Inc., recently started following a series of meetings between company officials and the local government. The mall operator was about to start building the mall years ago before a series of bombings rocked the city. The local government unit said Robinsons would enjoy tax incentives since mall operation has been listed as one of the investment priority areas under the city’s new Investment Code. The entry of Robinsons will augur well for the local economy and shows investor confidence in General Santos, local government officials said. The modern, two-story mall will house the company’s flagship stores Robinsons Department Store, Robinsons Supermarket, Robinsons Appliances, Handyman Do It Center and at least four Robinsons cinemas, Mr. Manansala said. There will also be amusement and bingo centers and leasable spaces for retail shops, boutiques and dining establishments, he added. Construction of the mall is expected to generate jobs for 500 skilled workers. Once operational, the company will be employing 700 workers. Once completed, the Robinsons Mall will be its third and reportedly the biggest in Mindanao. Robinsons has an outlet in Cagayan de Oro City. Construction is likewise ongoing for its Davao City mall. Mr. Manansala said 80% of the Gokongwei-owned mall’s work force will come from the local manpower pool. General Santos has been adjudged twice as the most competitive city by the Asian Institute of Management. — Romer S. Sarmiento

Email from Regina "Ging" Salcedo

Guys - I can't believe I am seeing your beautiful faces!

Remember me? Ging Salcedo - now Regina Salcedo-Sharpe - I have been in the U.S. - San Jose/San Francisco since 1981.

Odette Dinopol and I found each other back in 2004, then again just very recently - she encouraged me to checkout our website- wow, I fell off my chair! I've been on regular contact with Chari Odicta (left GenSan 1972 - remember her?), and spoke with Angelita Mapalo many times - Jasmin Fauni once - and that is the extent of my clandestine meetings with the GenSan crowd here in California. I am in the process of hunting down Ming Mirabueno.

Miss you all! It's been 35 years - tears are rolling down my cheeks as I reviewed the names and the pictures; Sorry, I was quite late in checking you guys out - but better late than never.

Attached are photos of me and my hubby; the Salcedo reunion in Boracay, me and my 2nd daughter; oldest daughter and my grandchildren - yes, I'm now a granny - a 3rd one was added on 9/14/08.

Life took me on a v-e-r-y long journey - I'm sure you all experienced the same- but I quite "disappeared" from the face of the earth.

I plan to be back in 2009 for another family reunion - maybe - just maybe, I might stop by GenSan.

This weekend Odette, Chari and I are going to party-crash at an NDD reunion in Napa, CA - Wine Country. Supposedly classes of the late '60s - whew! Will let you know how it went.

Take care everyone and if you have Helen Posadas' email - do let me know.

Say hello to everyone -

Kabatch 73 Ging
email address: ging21028@gmail.com


(Thanks Ging, for getting in touch with us, your Kabatch! We r-e-al-l-y miss you too! Daming nagtatanong kung nasaan ka na raw. Now we know :))

Gallery 3: Golden Girls in Uniform

Rowena Villanueva

Victoria Gonzaga

Ceferina Graciosa

Minda Andang

Rabia Batuwa

Sonia Garcia

Susan Guatlo

Photos by Glyn Dumanig

New Pics of our Kabatch Abroad!

Kabatch Odet Dinopol with colleague in Oakland, Florida

Odet and colleagues entertain their wards

Neneng Ongkingco & Lynne Dulay during their dayoff in Israel

Neneng enjoying her sushi

Neneng, hubby and daughter in a group in their kitchen

Lynne showing off her Wow Legs! :) O, laban ka???

Lynne and her sister, awww, daughter diay! :)

Charles Wong, looking dapper in suit

Cha's passport photo? :)

Charles' only son Jason during his high school graduation

The Golden Girls with Kabatch Cora Narciso during her daughter's wedding in September

Evelyn Duran, Glyn Dumanig & Gilda Bantawig as the "stolen" flower girls. :D

Photos downloaded from Friendster accounts of Neneng, Lynne, Charles and from Glyn Dumanig & Odet Dinopol

Gallery 2: Golden Girls in Uniform

Gilda Bantawig

Gloria Gamolo

Glyn Dumanig

Ma. Colleen Garcera

Aprille Anung

Photos by Glyn Dumanig & Evelyn Duran

September Golden Girl Birthday Celebrators

Ambassador Evelyn in pink with Glyn

Evelyn with Malou

Having fun during Loida's birthday

Loida in floral blouse with batchmates

Happy happy birthday kay Evelyn Duran-Flores (Ambassador!) and Loida Sanz!

photos by Glyn

Gallery 1: Golden Girls in Uniform

Alicia Pelarco

Corazon Dizon

Evelyn Abueva

Esterlina Barot

Kinder GMA & Grade 1 Loren
Hehehe! :D

Photos by Glyn & Evelyn Duran, internet

Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo

Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo (1647-1711) is a Spanish-Filipino Roman Catholic figure. She is the first Prioress of the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in the Philippines. Beatification Process currently underway with protocol number:2533. Her Feast Day is on August 24.

Francisca de Fuentes was born to Don Simon de Fuentes and Doña Ana Maria del Castillo y Tamayo in the City of Manila in 1647. Francisca grew up to be a fine lady; and she was given in marriage to a gentleman who, by the inscrutable design of God, did not live long, leaving her a childless young widow.

Francisca then dedicated her time to prayer and social service helping many poor and sick in the city. In a vision in which she saw St. Francis and S. Dominic, she prostrated herself before St. Dominic. Because of this, she chose to be a Dominican, being admitted as a tertiary in 1682. She chose the name “ Francisca del Espiritu Santo”.

In 1686, Francisca, Antonia de Jesus Esquerra, Maria Ana de Fuentes (blood-sister of Mother Francisca), and Sebastian Salcedo requested that they be allowed to live together in a life of prayer and the practice of the virtues while continuing their social apostolate. After a brief hesitatuion, their request was sent to the Master General of Order of Preachers in Rome, who approved it on January, 1688.

Meanwhile, the erstwhile director of the Third Order, Fr. Juan de Santa Maria, who favored the request of the ladies, was assigned to Bataan, and Fr. Juan de Santo Domingo was assigned in his place. The new Director was against the project and the proposal was laid aside. Mother Francisca and her companion were deeply dismayed, but Mother Sebastiana prophesied that although she and Mothe Antonia would not live to see it, the Beaterio would be a reality.

Mother Francisca was progressively maturing spiritually, and her desire for serving the needy grew more and more. The desire for the realization of the Beaterio also grew more intense so that one day, after confession, she opened once more the subject to Fr. Juan de Santo Domingo, and she got scolded for her. “impatience’. But bravely, she told Fr. Juan with a tone of prophecy: “ Father Prior, the Beaterio will be established, and Your Reverence will see it”.

Fr. Juan de Santo Domingo was enlightened and became one of the powerful supporters of the Beaterio project. Under his direction, Mother Francisca and her companions lived at first the house of Mother Antonia de Esguerra who had by then died.

On the feast of St. Anne in 1696, the Beaterio was formally established with Fr. Juan de Santo Domingo, then Provincial, presiding. And on this joyful occasion, Mother Francisca was appointed first and founding Prioress for life. The first community consisted of Mother Francisca, Mother Maria, and Mother Rosa de Santa Maria. The community was placed under the patronage of St. Catherine of Siena and accepted in the Provincial Chapter of 1698.

But their joy would not last very long, for in 1703, Manila Archbishop Don Diego Camacho wanted the Beaterio under his jurisdiction. The conflict grew until Archbishop Camacho excommunicated Mother Francisca, and put the other sisters under interdict. To avoid scandal, the beatas removed their habits and with the help of the Governor General and counsel from the Dominican Fathers, they went into “exile” at the Santa Potenciana College, there to stay for over two years in “ Babylonian Exile”.

Mother Francisca suffered the most under these grave trials, but with heroic courage, she and most of the Sisters increased their religious and hoping for the day of victory.

Since part of the opposition against the Baeterio was a question of finances, very valuable help came from a lay Dominican Tertiary, Don Juan de Escaño y Cordova, who in 1704 assured the Beatas an annual subsidy through the Dominican Province of the Holy Rosary of two thousands pesos – a considerable sum in those days.

The time of triumph came in 1706 when after some negotiations, their former opponent Archbishop Camacho changed heart and began to show himself sympathetic to the Beatas. With the help of the Governador General and the Dominican Fathers, Mother Francisca and her Sister returned to their original home, having donned once more their Dominican habits, there to live under the rules set for them as beatas, with a few added features of their religious life as prescribed by the Archbishop. The permit from the Archbishop is dated 26 March 1706. With Mother Francisca at the time of their return were (15) fifteen Sisters including a novice, and in addition, there were lay Sisters and a girl who eventually donned the habit. It was in the same year that the Beaterio became a Beaterio-Colegio which admitted Spanish girls, “mestizas” and natives, instructing them in the (4) four R’s Religion, Reading Writing and Arithmetic with Music, Embroidery, Flower Making, etc.

The major trials having passed, Mother Francisca continued with even greater ardor her pursuit of spiritual perfection for herself and for spiritual daughters. Like the brave and strong woman that she was she governed the Beaterio with great prudence and fidelity to the Rule, amking the Eucharist the sublime center of the community’s spiritual life. To do this in the absence of a Chapel for the Blessed Sacrament in the Beaterio, she importuned, against many difficulties, the Fathers of San Juan de Letran College, to build a corridor connecting the Beaterio to the chapel of the Blessed Sacraments in the Church of Letran. As always, her prayers eventually prevailed.

Wornout physically by her perpetual acts of mortification, and her continual strunggle to secure the solid establishment of the Beaterio, she became ill and was suffering with heroic resignation and humility for several months, edifying everyone with her extraordinary spiritual life. And on the feast of St. Bartholomew on 24 August 1711, she was born to eternal life, leaving behind her living witness to her love of God and neighbor- the Beaterio de Santa Catalina de Sena which lives vigorously as ever up to this day as the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de Siena.

(Mother Francisca's bio from Wikipedia)

Bio-video of St. Marcellin Champagnat

St. Marcellin Champagnat (Shampanya)is the founder of the Marist Brothers Congregations. Below is his bio-video from Youtube:

Saint Marcellin Joseph Benedict (Benoît in French) Champagnat (May 20, 1789 — June 6, 1840) was born in Rosey, near St. Etienne (Loire), France. He was the founder of the Marist Brothers, a religious congregation of men in the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to education. His Feast Day is on June 6.

Champagnat was ordained a priest in 1816, and was part of a group led by Jean-Claude Colin which founded the Society of Mary, also called the Marist Fathers and Brothers, a separate religious congregation to the Brothers Marcellin later was to found.

Marcellin Champagnat was born the ninth of ten children at Le Rosey, a hamlet in the Rhône-Alpes region (Loire Département, Saint-Étienne Arrondissement, Mahrles commune). He spent his childhood years in this area amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution where he witnessed the atrocities of civil war.

Marcellin's character was influenced by three people in his family. His father, an intelligent, hard-working, enterprising man, contributed to his formation as a citizen. His mother and his aunt (A Sister of St Joseph) served as models and guides to strengthen his steps as a believer and to deepen his faith.

The area of Marlhes in which Champagnat lived and worked had been badly affected by the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, and the local community was poor and uneducated.

Seminary & Ordination

From 1805 to 1813 Marcellin attended the minor seminary in Verrieres. At one stage, quite discouraged, he overcame the temptation to just leave the life and give in. He then attended the major seminary in Lyon for his spiritual and thelogical formation as a priest.

It was here that the idea for the Society of Mary was conceived and promoted by a group of seminarians including Marcellin. From the start, he announced the Society should include Teaching Brothers to work with children deprived of Christian education in remote rural areas because others were not going to them.

Founding the Marist Brothers

After his ordination as a priest on 22 July 1816, Champagnat’s first posting was as curate to the parish of Lavalla-en-Gier. Marcellin was distressed that the people in the village were so isolated that they did not know much about the rest of the world. There was also little happening to help young people learn more about the Catholic faith. Teachers were poorly paid and not respected and therefore teaching attracted those with low ability and bad character.

At the end of October 1816, Marcellin visited the dying Jean Baptiste Montage. Champagnat was horrified that this seventeen year old boy who looked more like a scrawny child of twelve was totally ignorant of the basic beliefs of the Catholic faith. He knew that there were many young people like Jean who were poor and lacked knowledge of religion and God. This event motivated him to act.

On 2 January 1817, Marcellin encouraged two young men Jean-Marie Granjon and Jean-Baptiste Audras, to join him in forming the nucleus of the Marist Brothers. Others soon followed. La Valla thus became the birthplace of the Marist Brothers.

The first Brothers were young country men, most of whom were between 15 and 18 years old. They were more used to hard work in the fields than to prayer, intellectual work and working with children and the uneducated.

Marcellin motivated these teenagers with his enthusiasm for teaching and spreading the gospel. He lived among them, like one of them. He taught them how to pray and to live in religious community as Brothers, and how to be teachers and religious educators themselves.

Very soon, he sent them into the most remote villages to teach the children, and sometimes the adults as well, the basics of religious knowledge, and of reading and writing. Between 1817 and 1824, he started a traditional primary school at La Valla and used it as a teacher training centre for his young Brothers.

Encouraged by the success of the school in La Valla, others were founded at Marlhes 1819, in Saint-Sauveur-Street 1820, and in Bourg-Argental 1822. But this success endangered the small congregation, which had little more than novices. In March 1822 eight applicants come from Haute-Loire giving a new impetus to the institution, and allows the creation of new houses to Vanosc 1823, Saint-Symphorien-le-Chateau 1823, and Chavanay Charlieu 1824.

Champagnat decided to build a novitiate on land purchased from the Hermitage at St. Chamond. One sign of both his trust in God and the huge success the Brothers had become was the building being designed to accommodate 150 people. The chapel was blessed on August 13, 1825. In 1837 Champagnat printed a Rule for his Brothers. Exhausted by his travels and his incessant efforts to gain recognition for his work with the authorities in Paris and having been sick for a long time, Champagnat began preparing for his succession and Brother Francis was elected as Marcellin's replacement, on October 12, 1839.

Final Years

After a long and painful illness caused by cancer Champagnat died on 6 June 1840, aged 51, at Our Lady of the Hermitage in the Gier River valley about 30 kilometres from where he had commenced his work He was buried on 8 June. He left this message in his spiritual Testament of May 18, 1840: "Let there be among you just one heart and one mind. Let it always be said of the Little Brothers of Mary as it was of the early Christians: See how they love one another!" By that time there were 280 Brothers and 48 Marist schools in France and Oceania (South Pacific), and by 1856 there were 300 houses and more than 1500 Brothers.

The Marist Brothers Institute was not formally approved until 1863 by Pope Pius IX. The educational philosophy of Champagnat was simple: to teach children one must love them, and secular subjects should be well taught as a means of attracting children to the schools, where they would learn the basic elements of their faith. Champagnat saw God at the centre of life and the Virgin Mary as a sure means of attracting people to God.

Marcellin Champagnat was declared Venerable in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV beatified by Pope Pius XII on 29 May 1955, and canonised by Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1999. His feast day is observed in the Roman Catholic Church on 6 June. At their most numerous the Marist Brothers numbered about 10,000. In 2005 there were around 5,000 brothers.

Quotes

To raise children, we must love them and love them.
I cannot see a child without wanting to tell them how much God loves them.

Dare to Dream

(St. Marcellin's bio from Wikipedia)