Not one to take polite refusals cheerfully, Gugma (Gigi) Kimpo texted her friends, this writer included, that that was the last time she was going to invite us to her farm house in Zamboanga del Norte. If we still declined, then that was it.
I had earlier refused, since I had gone out of town twice already in the last two weeks; besides, the second semester had started and how do you justify a three-day holiday break? Though the prospect of a farm-and-beach resort certainly appealed to me, how could I justify leaving my post now? I finally agreed when I realized that it could be an opportunity to form with Gigi and our mutual friends the first group of Saint Monica Christian mothers. Plus Gigi said she’d organize for me to talk to the people of the place.
The group went on Sunday, November 4, a day ahead of me. From the airport, one of the group, Charito Florendo, texted asking for prayers for a safe journey to Dipolog. To my inquiry how many they were, she replied that with Gigi they were seven.
The significance of the number did not dawn until I was in the plane the next day. According to the rules of the association of Saint Monica Christian mothers, I read
* onflight, the members are grouped in choirs of seven mothers. Mere coincidence? A cold rush went through my spine.
The association called “Madres Cristianas Santa Mónica” was started by Recollect priest Fr. Lorenzo Infante in Madrid in 1982. In his prayer and dialogue sessions with parishioners, he realized that mothers were greatly concerned about the loss of faith of their children and grandchildren. They were saddened that the children that they had nourished and formed in the Christian faith were no longer practicing it, were reluctant to receive confirmation, and many went on to have a family without the blessing of a Church wedding. The grandchildren were worse off as some were not even baptized by their parents.
Fr. Lorenzo accompanied these women of faith and with them he found out that insistent and continuous prayer was a good, if not the best, solution. At the same time, they discovered an example in the history of the Church and of the Augustinian Order: the example of Saint Monica who, thanks to prayer, could face the problem of having an unbelieving husband and a son who rejected the faith he had received in infancy.
God worked the conversion of Augustine through people, especially through his mother Saint Monica. The grateful Augustine talked of her in his preaching and writings with such a respect, fineness and spiritual depth that, perhaps unknowingly, he came up with the portrait of a true model of Christian woman in her condition of spouse and mother.
Augustine’s conversion was not only to the Christian faith, but to religious life as well. He wrote to his mother acknowledging her importance: “We commend this … religious consecration, above all to you, Mother, as I believe and affirm without hesitation that through your prayers God has granted my desire to consecrate myself to the search for truth without preferring anything to it, without desiring or searching any other thing. And I am confident that such an immense grace, whose flame burns in us because of your merits, we will be also able to obtain through your prayers”.
Back to my northwestern Mindanao trip. From the Dipolog airport, we went to Dapitan for the
de rigeur visit to the Rizal shrine and the town plaza, still redolent of our national hero. Then we proceeded west to Manukan town, where Gigi has her quaint red house on a 32-hectare farm and beach property. I managed a quick swim in the gathering dusk, in the company of Gigi’s son Albert (Bebot) and cousin Benjamin. Dinner at the lanai was at once elegant and familiar, to the strains of music from yesteryears. Our gracious hostess saw through all the details.
The next day, November 6, I met the villagers in the chapel down the road for a formation talk. The parish priest could only say mass for them once a month; the rest of the Sundays, it is the lay leaders who conduct paraliturgical rites for them. The people amazed me with their knowledge of the songs and their dances, and especially with their thirst for the word of God. They reminded me of Sierra Leoneans, whose eyes expressed all the hunger for the word, the word of man for their upliftment, and the Word of God for their salvation. The chapel was near the highway, but all around it was green fields and rustic setting. How fertile is the soil of Mindanao! How fertile are the hearts of these people!
So as not to keep the Good News disconnected from their daily life, I asked them what three urgent problems faced their village. Water, light and roads, they said. Among the audience were three recently elected
barangay councilman and councilwomen who were also active church leaders. I made sure they heard clearly the people’s plaint.
In the afternoon, some women came to Gigi’s house to bring
tuba. I had mentioned it would be a shame leaving their place without tasting their coconut toddy. As we conversed, they mustered the courage to speak about their most recent problem: a proprietor who had for many years allowed them to put up a well from where they got their drinking water was now disallowing them and would not even permit pipes to another lot whose owner was willing to accommodate them.
After the mass later in the afternoon, this time at the Kimpo family’s private chapel, I talked about the Saint Monica Christian mothers. The association’s first objective is “to give its members a continuous and progressive formation as mothers of faith”. And the second: “Thus, convinced that faith is the greatest treasure they can leave to their children, they will defend with increasing efficacy the faith of their children: through a life that is progressively more coherent with this faith, and through daily prayer for the faith of their children and that of the children of other mothers”. I also told them that exactly twenty years ago, on 6 November 1987, the statutes of the association were granted Church approval. Another mere coincidence? Gigi’s face looked as if a cold rush had gone through her spine.
The movement has spread in countries where Recollects have communities (Spain, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile) and even where there are none (Hungary) because of its intrinsic worth as well as its simplicity. There are hardly any structures, nor obligatory meetings nor fees (unless it is agreed on by the group, say, for printing costs of more copies of the prayer). It is meant to help the women carry their already many tasks, not to burden them with more. Every day, they just pray the simple prayer and the petitions, and on the day of the week that is their schedule -- that is why there are seven members, one member takes charge of one day in the week -- they pray it a second time before the Blessed Sacrament, laying before the Lord in the tabernacle the pleas of the other six. Thus, there is a continuous prayer chain.
The first choir of seven Saint Monica Christian mothers in the Philippines was formed that afternoon in a farm house in Manukan town, Zamboanga del Norte. They are: Gugma (Gigi) Kimpo, Rosario (Charito) Florendo, Lita Singson, Rita (Didi) Canlas, Sylvia Diaz, Evelyn (Baby) Abutin, and Norma Gloria.
In my morning mass the next day at the chapel along the road, there were other Christian mothers. Aside from their concern about the faith of their children, they were concerned about electricity, water and roads. Much can be achieved, they agreed with me, if we prayed as if everything depended on God and worked as if everything depended on us. And praying and working in unity and continuity.
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* A short pamphlet by Fr. Ismael Ojeda, OAR, describes the history and spirituality of the Saint Monica Christian Mothers
