7th Luzon Cluster Assembly

Today, at the conclusion of our 7^th Custer Assembly in Luzon, we raise our voices in praising and thanking the Lord for the manifold goodness and blessings He has bestowed upon us during these past days of our meeting when we have experienced intensely the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all our life-giving activities, sharing, evaluation, deliberations, decisions and even recreations. We also feel so grateful to all the sisters and collaborators of the other two clusters and to all our sisters in the congregation who stormed heaven and earth with their prayers for the fruitful outcome of our assembly. Their greetings and text messages assuring us of their prayers and spiritual companionship inspired us so much from day to day.

What a great blessing to begin our cluster assembly with the celebration of the 109^th Death anniversary of our dearest mother, St. Bonifacia! The Eucharistic Celebration in her honor and the 1^st Renewal of Vows of Anna Teresa Ha Thi Thiet for another two years disposed us to the task ahead of us.

Thanks to the organizational skill of our Cluster Coordinator who was assisted by the Luzon Cluster Coordinating group. All the activities during the gathering flowed smoothly. They were the following:

o   The Highlights in the life of the five participating Communities-Taller (namely- C-T Krus na Ligas, C-T Mandaluyong, C-T Murphy, C-T Butiña and C-T Provincial House) and their respective apostolates shared in different creative ways were very enriching. The knowledge of each C-T was deepened and its selfless dedication to its specific tasks inspiring.

o   The Harana for a Cause Part II in a form of recreation intended as a fund raising for the Formation Fund and done in the evening of the first day of the assembly (August 8). was enjoyable and recreating. Songs were rendered by the groups of sisters representing different countries/cultures: Philippines, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea. At the end of, the money was collected and counted. It reached more than Php 48,000.00!

o   The Reports on the CAP Evaluation, OMG Practices, Cost Cutting Measures, Pastoral Care of Vocations and Mid-Term Evaluation of the Strategic Plan reflected the dynamics lived by the sisters in the CTs and their passion to follow Jesus the worker and to work for the Kingdom.

o   The Synthesis of the CAPs as a Cluster gave us a sense unity and joy as we affirm our strong points in the living-out of the three dimensions of the CAP and the elements of OMG, and our impact on our target groups. Accepting humbly our weaknesses and acknowledging the difficulties we encounter in their living out as a cluster, we challenge ourselves to do something about them through our recommendations/and proposed actions. The group became more enthusiastic as we discussed on the topic of Pastoral Care for Vocation especially when the Provincial Team considered the recommendation of the group to appoint one Cluster Vocation Promoter.

o   With conviction we affirmed and impelled ourselves to be imbued with the passion of our Founder and Foundress for the promotion and evangelization of women workers and young women at risk, as we gave our conclusions and recommendations for the Systematization on the Work with Women.

o   Another very exciting moment was when we shared and put together the activities we have done and have planned to do to celebrate the Year of Father Francisco Butiña.

o   Motivated to improve the internal communication in the Congregation in order to strengthen the interdependence and the sense of being one body, each CT in the cluster commits itself to facilitate the active / fluid flow of communication with other spheres.

o   Finally, after an hour of prayer before the Eucharistic presence of Jesus, the Spirit led us to elect in the first voting Alicia Blanquisco as our Cluster Coordinator for another term.