OND nunand Happy to be OMI co-worker
• 06:38 AM Fri Sep 26, 2014
1,375
By:
Edwin O. Fernandez and Roel Osano
Early OND sisters taking vows (oblatesisters.webs.com)
MIDSAYAP,
North Cotabato (Sept. 25) – An 80-year-oldnun of the Oblates of Notre Dame (OND)
could not hide her emotions and went sentimental when she viewed the photo exhibits of OMI missionary experiences in Mindanao Wednesday at the Notre Dame of
Midsayap gymnasium here.
Sister Andrea
Solar, OND, was among those who reminisced the missionary works of the Oblates
she was part of.
Na-refresh ko
yung experiences ko working with the Oblates (My experiences working with the
OMIs were refreshed viewing these photo exhibits),” Sister Andrea told Radyo
Bida as she wiped her tears.
She worked as
parish sister in various parishes in the archdiocese of Cotabato for the past
50 years.
I remember working
with them, walking for several hours before reaching remote communities,” she
recalled without naming the Oblate priest.
Sometimes we
took a dilapidated parish vehicle but most of the time we walked because of bad
road condition at that time,” she recalled.
We took horseback
riding or carabao riding, sometimes we fell into muddy roads, the experiences
were worth remembering andreliving, I don’t regret having served with the OMIs, I am happy to
be part of it, a co-worker,” she said.
The Society of
Oblates of Notre Dame (OND) is a religious congregation of women of pontifical
right dedicated to the works of the apostolate, according to and//www.omiphil.org/ www.omiphil.org .
OND was founded
in 1956 in Cotabato by two Oblate priests, Father George Dion, OMI subsequently
Apostolic Vicar of Jolo and Tawi-Tawi and Archbishop Gerard Mongeau, OMI, DD of
the Archdiocese of Cotabato.
They were with
the first four daring missionaries who landed in Manila, Philippines in 1939.
They pioneered the OMI missionary adventures in the provinces of Cotabato and
Sulu, considered the most difficult areas in the Philippines.
The country,
then was faced with poverty and shortage of priests and mission partners.
Seventeen
years later, on November 10, 1956, the OND has come into existence in the
Church as a response to the crying need for a community of women that could
complement the role of priests and for a community that could understand its
own people.
Today, 58
years later, the OND is at the threshold of its missionary presence in the
Church. It has 167 professed sisters and counting.