OND Book Launching: ‘Women as Traiblazers in Mission’

COTABATO CITY – “Women as Traiblazers in Mission,” is the title of the 665-page book that was launched last month at the OND Convention Hall, St. Joseph Retreat House, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao. This was done in honor of the collective memory of the Oblates of Notre Dame (OND) as a religious missionary congregation authored by Fr. Michael G. Layugan, SVD.

Fr. Layugan personally presented the book, after the preliminaries surrounding the background of the writing of the book and the author himself. All witnessed the signing of the first and subsequent copies by Layugan, and the signing of the document attesting to the launching by the author and the current Superior General Sr. Erlinda C. Hisug and her predecessor, Sr. Carmelita Y. Olifernes.

Sr. Carmelita Olifenes recounted the background of the writing of the book as a “concrete response to the 11th OND General Chapter which had mandated a systematic organization of our documents, the rebuilding of the OND archives and assigning trained personnel for archival management in view of writing the OND history, and to encourage sisters to write their experiences related to OND charism, life and mission.” She continued to say that for this purpose, a seminar-workshop on Archival Management and Historiography was held from 22-24 July 2016 at the St. Joseph Retreat House, Tamontaka, with Fr. Layugan as the resource person. The highly motivated participants, she said, launched outright the writing of our OND History.

The 50-year-old author expressed his surprise at the relatively short span of time given to the writing of the book since its start on 01 November 2016, the culmination of the OND’s 60th founding anniversary. He said that it is based on documentary sources of individual and collective memory, and embodies mission stories of bringing the gospel to the farthest barrio. He also said that the book cover is the [color of] sisters’ habit and inside is their story, or life-stories that mirror a generation of storytelling. He further alluded to the possibility of having a sequel written, as this was just the beginning.

“Fr. Layugan has given us the broad landscape, the big picture of the OND story,” stated Cotabato Archbishop Orlando B. Cardinal Quevedo, OMI, picking up the idea of a sequel that may describe the “OND’s valiant trekking into the future” as well as to fill in certain gaps in the narrative, such as the charism connection between the ONDs and the OMIs, the OND responses to the MSPC, PCP-II and the Asian vision of a new way of being Church.

OND archivist Sr. Ma. Consuelo C. Flauta pictured the author as a man filled with passionate enthusiasm, possessing exactness and precision, demanding but patient, and determined to finish the work started. At the end, Sr. Erlinda Hisug thanked everyone present and all those who had helped in the historical activity, stating that the book is a “narrative of a faithful God who sent us to be disciples appropriating God’s mission to His people.” To Fr. Michael Layugan, she said “we are profoundly indebted for preserving the collective memory of our Congregation through this historical narrative in its written form.”

The launching date coincidentally was the 78th anniversary of the arrival of the first four OMI pioneers in Manila on 25 September 1939. Two later became the OND founders–Bps. Gerard Mongeau, OMI and George Dion, OMI, the latter marking his 28th birthday on said arrival date. It’s a significant coincidence, a great blessing to thank God for.