The make-shift houses at the public cemetery in Manila
The first meeting for the pastoral reflection with the students every Thursday at the Columban International Formation House in Manila left me with a sense of interest and curiosity. I just arrived in Manila from Fiji and I was invited by Ray Husband the rector at the time to simply sit in on the actual pastoral reflections by the students every week which was led by Finbar Maxwell. Two or three students are invited to write their personal reflections on their actual experiences in their pastoral site and to share it with the rest of the students in the group. The assigned students read out their pastoral reflections and gave the opportunity to the rest of the group to ask for clarifications and to engage with him in discussions, affirmation, encouragement and raising key pastoral insights from the experiences. It was an enriching encounter and experience for both the students and the formation staff.
Formation Community
The students in the formation program were involved in pastoral works such as jail, street children, an orphanage home and ministry to a group of women and children at a public cemetery. It struck me with curiosity and some queries about why some students shared that they did pastoral work in a Public Cemetery. I have never had an experience nor heard of pastoral work at a cemetery. Every week as I listened to the students that ministered at the cemetery, my sense of curiosity and interest was heightened but it also invited me to actually go and see for myself as the saying goes ‘seeing is believing.’ I was intrigued by such a ministry and the desire was to plan and to travel together with the students to the cemetery on the Saturday as it was usually the day for pastoral work.
And so came the one Saturday that I decided to go with the students to the cemetery. The first stop just close to the cemetery was to meet the two Korean Columban nuns that also ministered to the women and children there in a Centre that they run for them. Usually, two students spent time there to do catechetical works with young teenagers who used the Centre on Saturday for further classes to help them in their studies. From there we walked for ten to fifteen minutes to the cemetery on a road that was chaotic with traffic of all kinds and many people out on Saturday to sell and to do shopping in the local market. It was a chaotic sight to behold and to marvel at as part of people’s ordinary life on a Saturday in Manila. I also appreciated the opportunity to step out from the formation house and to experience what life has to offer.
Two Columban seminarians conducting bible sharing with women at the cemetery
As we approached the gate to the public Cemetery, I was still unsure what to expect and to see. As we entered, we encountered people and many children playing and gathering in the cemetery. They used some of the graves for their pass time engaged in laughter, chats, singing and playing. I simply could not believe what I saw that people actually have make shift houses often attached to the grave houses as their place of abode. I actually went in to one grave house where a man actually lived inside it. There was a mix feeling in me about how people could live a normal life in a public cemetery as I could not imagine myself to be in their situation. I accepted the reality and situations of those who lived a life among the dead and why our students were involved in accompanying women and children with bible sharing and catechetical works with them. I was glad that the Formation staff in Manila saw the need for our students to do pastoral work in such public cemetery and for the students to learn and to minister to the people there. I valued such a pastoral ministry as a learning curve for our students to grow in their pastoral commitments to those who are at the margins of society and in their awareness of people’s struggles in life and their capacity to minister to them in compassion and empathy. Yes, the real experience and encountered with women and children at the cemetery have finally answered my sense of interest and curiosity. It was still one of the experiences that still impressed me and leaving me with a lasting memory to treasure and to reminisce about.
Children playing in the Centre run by two Korean Columban Sisters
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