Last Saturday I celebrated Mass in one of the more depressed areas in our parish. People call the place "Maligaya", i.e. "Happy." It is what others would call a squatters' area.
The
Mass was the second celebrated in the place in two years. We made
use of a vacant lot (in the pictures above, it is the lot used for
drying washed clothes) for the celebration. The purpose of the
Mass was two-fold. First, to tell the people of "Maligaya" that
they have not been forgotten, and that we are continuing the initiative
taken by the previous parish administration. Second, we were
inaugurating a program that will involve the people of "Maligaya" and
make them active participants in the building up of our
parish.
The Mass was prepared in a month. I coordinated with a group of
our parishioners who have been thinking of turning Maligaya into
place of Basic Ecclesial Communities but who haven't had the
opportunity to do so. By allowing the group to participate in the
preparation of the Mass, a door was opened for them to get inside the
Maligaya compound and formally begin a work that they have wanted to
begin years ago. With the Mass, we were able to get initial
volunteers for future masses and other activities that we will be
planning with them.
Last Saturday's Mass was a first step. We hope to make it the
first step in a journey that will empower the people of Maligaya to
become Church.