Introduction: Eucharistic Celebration

(The following is the Introduction given by Sr. Milagros Santos RGS, local leader of Villa Maria Community, during the Eucharistic Celebration for Sr. Mary Immaculata Antigua RGS, held on September 29, 2010 in Banawa Hills, Cebu City.)

 

“Surely goodness and kindness shall follow you Sr. Mary Immaculata all the days of your life, and you shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Ps 23:6)

 

Today, we are gathered together for Sr. Mary Immaculata.

         

Sr. Mary Immaculata Antigua (baptismal name: Salud Antigua) passed on to eternal life on September 26. She was 84 years old and spent 52 years in Religious life.

 

Sr. Mary Immaculata belongs to the generation who entered religious life painfully aware that if their parents died they would not have the freedom to be at their wake or funeral. Those of us who entered after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council were asked to sacrifice much less.

 

I mention this here because those who knew her well would agree that a hallmark of the entire life of Sr. Imma ( as we affectionately called her) was her love and care for family. When she was called to be a Good Shepherd Sister, she simply spread her arms wider to embrace also all those whom God sent her way through the past 52 years, in the communities where she was assigned, in the ministries where she labored.

 

Her mission assignments were Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao which were in Quezon City, Buhi, Camarines Sur, Manila, Lantapan, Bukidnon, Batangas City and here in Banawa Hills, Cebu City.

 

There is one community in the Good Shepherd Philippine Province that claims to have enjoyed Sr. Imma at her best. That was the community that laid  the foundation for the mission in the Bicol Region at Buhi, Camarines Sur. It was materially poor, yet its earliest memories were of the happiest of times. Its written narratives tell of Sr. Imma’s creativity to cook. When all that was available was donated box of sardines, those sardines never looked the same when she served them at the table for a period of an entire month. Dessert was not only in the form of food. Sr. Imma regaled the community with her endless jokes and stories. “Where did she manage to store all that?” the Sisters would ask. Well, that’s the treasury that she handed back to God on September 26, 2010. It had done its share of making the world a happier place.

 

It seems so fitting that we are sending off Sr. Imma from this place, from these hills among whose people, especially the poor, especially God’s little children, she expended everything she had; every ounce of energy, every new idea, every inspiration. To this place she drew her friends, believing that they, too, should discover the joy and peace that comes from giving oneself.

 

Sr. Mary Immaculata, that you for the gift that you have been to us from God and from your family.

 

Loving Father, Son and Holy Spirit, receive this gift we now return to you from our hearts.