“The 17th General Congregation (GC XVII) challenges us to take the Social Apostolate (SA) as a “central [key] that has to permeate all our actions and our very life. . . [We] have to continue clarifying and impelling this apostolate, and to grow in a greater articulation among the different sectors that make up the apostolic work.” (GC XVII Determination no. 13)
With this challenge, all the Apostolic Centers of F.I. Panay-Guimaras convened at Colegio de las Hijas de Jesus last September 1, 2017 to consider how the F.I. schools are living the Social Apostolate through the data gathered from the RCAs and Principals and the path the schools are taking to strengthen the social action inspired by the principles and criteria of the Social Doctrine of the Church (SDC).
Sr. Georgita P. Hormillosa, F.I., Community Superior of the Houses in Panay and Guimaras and member of the Social Apostolate International Team, gave a talk to all faculty and staff and Sisters of the F.I. schools. She challenged the educators to have a conviction or a choice and decision in life to collaborate together with the charism of St. Candida as the uniting force, even if not all have the spirituality of Mo. Foundress. She further stressed that “all” who are called or attracted to the spirituality of the Foundress and feel a belonging to it are considered part of the great family of St. Candida Ma. de Jesus.
The icon of the Merciful Trinity further challenged the F.I. educators to get involved in realizing the 17th GCXVII Determination No. 13 and to reflect on the action plans to deepen the meaning of the SA and the structures of the society where it is implemented and not simply focus on its activities which are more often sporadically done.
The F.I. Panay-Guimaras schools are set to know the reality with sensibility, to interpret this reality as a plan of God for the human being and the world, to “be affected” by this reality, and to commit to act and work in concrete situations.
Though it was a National Holiday for our Muslim brothers and sisters in the country, the call of the F.I. Social Apostolate was strengthened more because we are all brothers and sisters under the fatherhood of God. May all F.I. families be “apostles” of the Good News!
By Mr. Roque Mario G. Cequiña
CHJ, Iloilo City, Filipinas
