St. Bernard Novitiate: Hinay hinay

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

It has been a long time since I wrote. We hope you have not forgotten us. The embellishing of our church continues slowly slowly, or, as we say in Filipino; hinay hinay. But great was our joy this Easter to be able to celebrate the beautiful liturgy of the Church in a real church. For nearly 20 years we had these beautiful ceremonies in a garage. What a difference.

Then, last 13th of May, which fell this year on a Sunday, we celebrated the first anniversary in the presence of about 300 people. It was, however, quite unexpected that the statues of Sts. Michael and Elizabeth of Hungary should arrive only a few days before. We were able to lift the statues to their so-long awaited niches. The statues were ordered more than a year ago; but the artist died; RIP. Finally his apprentices completed the work, and quite well too. The solemn blessing took place on the 13thamongst all these faithful.

On the more natural side of things, the community, already numbering 18, also need to be fed, housed, clothed etc. So our farm is an absolute necessity. Apart from farming rice, cattle, fruits of all kinds, ducks, turkeys etc etc; we also farm electricity. Huh? Well yes, we have a solar and wind Samson-power garden. It has been running very successfully for three years. We recently added a hi-tech computer system allowing the solar panels to “follow the sun” and so enhancing immensely the efficiency.

Below you may see all the photos.

Palm Sunday …. The Ingrediente at the door of the church.

The Immaculate and sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary (for the main door) are being gold leafed by our postulants:

St. Michael (patron of the Brothers of the Society) and St. Elizabeth of Hungary (Patron of the Iloilo diocese) are lifted …

Really? The boys are lifting it? Oh Pinocchio!!

And the final façade:

Farming electricity: Solar (The panels following the sun for maximum efficiency) and or wind .. the control center .. saving us about 200U$ per month:

Thanking you once again for your generous support, may Our Lord and His Holy Mother bless and guide you always.

On the feast of Pentecost

Servus Mariae

Fr. C. Daniels

St. Bernard Novitiate

Iloilo, Philippines