12th April 2023 is Colegio/Universidad de Sta. Isabel, Inc. 155th Foundation Anniversary. As the institution prepares for this great event, the Committee opted for a countdown beginning 2 January 2023, to provide an opportunity for all of us - members of the USI Vincentian family, our stakeholders, and partner communities to reflect with profound gratitude, the journey through the years colored with obstacles, challenges, and opportunities that served as strong pillars to be “inventive” in our service and mission.

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The celebratory events have been lined up as mentioned by the Committee Chair,  As we celebrate the various activities and continue to journey in the years ahead, there is one crucial point that I wish to focus on: to continuously develop and raise a culture of encounter and care that gives premium to compassion, especially to those are ‘nameless and faceless’.  

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What is the ‘culture of encounter and care’? Individually and collectively, we put in our Heads, Hearts, and Hands, a new mindset to make the various events life-nurturing and meaningful not only during the celebration day but daily embracing encounters as a way of life. A culture of encounter and care is a call to mission with joy.

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Pope Francis in his homily at the Madison Square Gardens on 15 September 2015 emphatically declared: 

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... go out ... go out and meet others where they really are, not where we think they should be … go out, again and again, go out without fear, without hesitation,.. go out and proclaim with joy the good news that God, our Father, walks at our side. He frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter… he removes us from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before us the path of peace… that peace which is born of accepting others, that peace which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need as our brothers and sisters.

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The people who walked – caught up in their activities and routines, amid their successes and failures, worries and expectations – have seen a great light. The people who walked – with all their joys and hopes, their disappointments and regrets – have seen a great light. 

 

Recently, Pope Francis wrote that ‘this year, while we hope for new beginnings and new cures, let us not neglect care … together with a vaccine for our bodies, we need a vaccine for our hearts, and that vaccine is care. Our world is gravely polluted by how we speak and think badly of others, of society, and of ourselves … but complaining and denigrating others corrupts and decays, whereas blessing restores life and gives the strength we need to begin anew.  We cannot continue to focus on ourselves… the time has come to commit ourselves seriously to pursuing a common  good.

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Let each day of the countdown and onward serves as your continued commitment to serve USI with passion and dedication, coupled with renewed hope which enables you to see and experience the presence of a guiding STAR, who is JESUS with MARY.

 

For that, I am forever grateful.

 

 

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