The Mary Immaculate Parish Women’s Association (MIPWA) played host to about 650 visitors consisting of delegates and guests to the 16th National Convention of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Catholic Women’s Organizations over the weekend.
The Negros Oriental Convention Center swarmed with life for three days from March 2 to 4 as the delegates, who traveled from as far north as Abra to down south from Sulu and, gathered to celebrate and give life to the convention theme Bread, Broken and Shared… The Eucharist as a Source of Wholeness.
MIPWA, Dumaguete’s representative to the Federation, invited two respected guest speakers to grace the occasion to share thoughts and reflections on the convention theme.
Rev. Fr. Joseph ‘Joey’ Faller, also known as the healing priest from Lucban, Quezon, on Saturday morning, spoke of healing found in the Eucharist. That while the bread and wine transubstantiate into Christ’s body and blood, while we, the faithful, surrender ourselves to Him, we experience God’s healing love. And that though individually, we may not be able to heal our brothers and sisters physically, in a more tangible and more evident manner, for as long as we believe in God’s love, and we feel the forgiveness within us, the scars of pain will all too soon be gone.
Fashion icon and humanitarian Jean Goulbourn also shared her personal pain on the loss of a daughter, and how, through faith in God’s love and omniscience, she put her full trust in His plan and slowly got over her pain. She shared how, by learning to love oneself once more, she also learned to overcome the dark events of her life. She said, “God loves us as we are. If God, who is the Almighty, can love us, who are we not to love ourselves?”
The convention participants, members of 34 chapters representing cities as well as parish communities of Filipino-Chinese Catholics throughout the country, are led by women who have dedicated themselves, as their Creed states, to be instruments of Christ’s peace and love. They bring their apostolate not only to the communities in the Philippines that need their ministrations, but also in China, homeland to many of their ancestors.
Following the election of the new set of officers of the FFCCWO National Board as well as for the Council of Presidents, the Federation announced that the biennial convention has named Tagbilaran, Bohol as the next venue for the 17th convention.
