Hearts still on fire

We are the schools we went to. And the teachers who spent as much time with us in our formative years as our parents did formed half the mold that shaped us into who we are today.

When Theresian Mayen Juico, daughter of PCSO chair and true-blue Theresian Margie Penson-Juico, was drawing up a list of her friends in media who were Theresians as well, she wrote down my name. When she submitted the list to the organizing committee of the celebration of the Centennial of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (who established St. Theresa’s College in the Philippines), no one objected.

When I laughingly told Mayen that I was, in fact, from the Assumption, she was incredulous. “I always thought you were Theresian!” During a recent gathering of Theresians at the Manila Pavilion to plan the ICM’s Centennial, Mayen thus introduced me as an “honorary Theresian.”

I took her introduction of me as a compliment, even if I am a proud Assumption girl. Theresians are known for excelling in academics, and for being well versed in both English and Filipino. Theresians are known to be disciplined in their studies. When someone says she is from STC, she is presumed to be smart. And she usually is. Even my younger friends say the stereotype of Theresians as “intelligent types” holds true to this day.

My paternal grandmother Mary Loudon Mayor was a Theresian. She went to school at St. Theresa’s College in San Marcelino, Manila in the ‘20s. Among her classmates was Justice Lourdes Paredes San Diego, who presided over the sensational Maggie de la Riva case in the ‘70s. My paternal first cousins, whom I all looked up to as a child, Cheryl Loleng Mangasarian and Natalie Loleng Mijares (and their younger sisters Karen Parungo and Aimee Ferrer) all went to STC from Grade 1 to high school.

I was about to be enrolled in STC Quezon City for Prep when my late dad was assigned to Iloilo and the Assumption Convent Iloilo was where they sent me. My parents Frank and Sonia Mayor had no regrets that they produced the first Assumption girl in the family (me), and a whole line of Assumption girls after me (my sisters Mae, Geraldine and Valerie and niece Patricia Sotto).

But my three sisters, at one time or another, also went to STC, especially when the Assumption Grade School in Manila relocated to Antipolo. I share this circuitous history of our schooling to stress that next to Assumption, St. Theresa’s is the school I have the most ties to (my mom went to St. Scholastica’s, Manila for high school, though). STC has a special place in my heart. It’s all over my family tree.

*    *    *

Alumnae of STC will stage a musical on Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Star Theater in Pasay City to honor the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (ICM) on the congregation’s 100th year. Titled “Hearts on Fire: 100 Years of Fire and Grace,” the performance will highlight the three-day Centennial celebration that will start on Oct. 8.

“Hearts on Fire” will tell the story of the ICM through songs, dances, video footage and narration. Viewers will be walked through the sisters’ journey that started on June 20, 1910, when Mother Louise de Meester arrived in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur. It will feature the many facets of the sisters’ mission here and overseas and their new challenge of ecological integrity.

The climax of the show will be a medley of songs by a hundred voices.

Participating in the musical will be STC alumnae, among them pianist Ingrid Sala Santamaria, prima ballerina Lisa Macuja Elizalde and film director Laurice Guillen, as well as the ICM sisters’ partners in their various socio-pastoral programs. (For more information, please call Rose Diaz Sales at 740-0115 or Tess Abellon at 740-1810.)

*    *    *

According to the narration of Sister Emelina Villegas, the ICM story started with Marie Louise De Meester of Roeselare, Belgium. She arrived in Ilocos Sur on June 20, 1910, after a very stormy voyage from India, where she had joined a mission. On June 22, Mother Marie Louise and three other sisters opened a little health clinic and on July 4, primary classes for the children started. From 1910 to 1964, 29 schools were opened in the Philippines by the ICM sisters — 10 in the Cordilleras, seven in Metro Manila, four in La Union, two in Ilocos Sur, four in Cebu, one in Sulu and one in Iloilo. STC Manila and Quezon City were two of these schools.

At present, according to Villegas, the ICMs are in 20 communities and are involved in six schools all over the country. They house out-of-town patients who need treatment at the Philippine Orthopedic Center. They are engaged in campus ministry, inter-faith dialogue, organic farming and advocacy with indigenous communities, urban-rural poor, women and children, among others.

“The fire ignited by the mission-dream of Mother Foundress has spread and blazed in different parts of the country and the world touching peoples in different situations and with different callings,” says Villegas. “The fire continues to light even as aging is upon us, God’s faithful accompaniment is enduring grace. Fire and grace are one. Fire and grace bid us to move on with serenity, and energy, with realism and great dream, with faith, hope, love and wisdom.”

One hundred years after Mother Marie Louise set foot in the Philippines, the ICM nuns’ hearts are still on fire.

Enjoying harvest of the seasons

For gourmands of Chaine des Rotisseurs, all roads led to Restaurant Verbena as the showcase restaurant of Discovery Country Suites was the venue of their dinner.

The promise of an exquisite “harvest of the seasons” by maitre-rotisseur David Pardo de Ayala set the tone for high culinary expectations. 

The chef from Colombia did not disappoint as dish after dish was met with approving reviews from restaurant guests. The evening’s masterpieces include black truffle permentier; seared diver scallops basquaise; roasted Chilean sea bass with barley mascarpone risotto, madeira froth, shiitake and white truffle condiment; tout le canard (described by the chef as a study in French mulard duck and served with foie gras; and Verbena’s assiette de patisserie (Restaurant Verbena’s signature “old country tart”). Moet de Chandon wine pairings were served for the dinner.

(Discovery Suites, Discovery Country Suites Tagaytay and Discovery Shores Boracay are developed and owned by the Discovery Leisure Company, Inc. The Discovery Collection of resorts and hotels is managed by HSAI Raintree Hospitality Management.)