Calling from afar

It was amazing after returning to the Lux Mundi Monastery in Murcia to see a complex where ten years ago was a plain field with mango trees, lots of grasses and what looked like a swamp. Five years ago, I attended the inauguration of the chapel. At the time they had a small convent, a chapel, a piggery, poultry, tilapia fish ponds, rice fields and vegetable garden. The monks are vegetarian and their vegetables are grown organically. Wastes from their piggery and poultry are converted into organic fertilizers. It is a self-contained community as common of monasteries.

At the time there were only 14 novices and aspirants, three brothers and their Superior, the mild-mannered, soft-spoken Very Rev. Stanislaus Su who is still there. There were novices from Vietnam and only one from the Philippines.

I remember the inauguration of the chapel. The first ringing of the bell resounded in that otherwise empty space as if to herald and call for new things and new ways. Even then there were plans for an agricultural school to serve Negros and whoever would come to learn the skills for which the Taiwanese farmers are well known.

Last Monday, the feast day of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception which is also the fiesta of Murcia, Bacolod Bishop Vicente M. Navarra dedicated the Oratory of the Congregation right there at the center of the 12 hectares of land donated by the Montelibano family.

It is a huge, modern church without the usual posts to support its roof. It has a 20-meter high dome with the figures of the four evangelists. This is the second church with a dome over the high altar. The other one is in the church of St. Didachus (San Diego) in Silay City.

The beauty of this Oratorium is in its simplicity that creates an atmosphere of spirituality and peace. High up behind the altar are the figures representing the Eight Beatitudes and across it at the entrance is a roseate that can be seen from afar as one enters the area.

For the moment, the windows on the sides are clear glasses but these will be replaced by stained glass that will portray twenty mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Each of these figures will cost US$1,800, in case our reader would like to donate. These stained glasses will be imported.

The sacristy is raised high because under it is a basement, but for what purpose, I was unable secure the information. It can be an office or a crypt for an ossuary as is common in monasteries where the monks are laid to rest.  Or it can be just a depositorium.

I estimated that the Oratorium cost P45 to P50 million but it turned out much less. The reason is that a lot of expensive services were given for free. Engineers Maximiano and Mae Hernandez, the builders of the Oratorium and Catholic Ming Yuan College gave their services, pro bono. The same pro bono service was extended by architect Andres Reyes and artist/designer Professor Maita Maronilla-Reyes. Professor Reyes who has been helping renovate and rehabilitate churches, explained to me what the interior of the church would eventually look like.

The Catholic Ming Yuan College is designed with its two wings extended, inspired, according to Professor Reyes but the Bernini columns of the St. Peter’s Basilica whose exterior columns extending from the basilica appears like two arms about to embrace.

One feature of the Ming Yuan College building is that its center is lower than the two wings. The purpose of this is to insure that as one stands in front of the college, the Oratory behind it will not be covered but exposed as if the college itself is part or extension of the church.

The college is still small. It has only 24 classrooms but considering the phenomenal growth of the facilities of the Lux Mundi Monastery and the innovative methods of teaching as well as its new ways of making the land productive to the full, it will not be long when the college will expand.

Rightly is this college named Yuan Ming which means “calling from far away”. Indeed the monks and the brothers of the Congregation of St. John the Baptist of the Venerable Fr. Vincent Lebbe came from far away in China and Taiwan to accept God’s calling of helping people. Taiwan has many things to offer the Philippines and the Congregation is there to make this happen through agriculture as a way to social transformation and growth.*

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