A Glimpse on the Life of Dominicans in Gen. Santos City

On a weekday, I would usually wake up at around 5:30 AM, to the sounds of cocks crowing in the cool morning breeze. St. Antoninus House, our mission house in Gen. Santos City is situated in a property with lots of mahogany, mango and coconut trees. After a quick shower, at 6:15 AM, I would proceed to Our Lady of Manaoag Chapel, just in front of our house, and together with about 30 to 40 lay people, mostly women and elderly, we would recite the rosary, pray the Lauds and celebrate the Eucharist. By around 7:15 AM, after the mass, I take breakfast with Fr. Jude Roquero, OP and Fr. Ching Salibay, OP, my companions at St. Antoninus House. Every first Friday of the month, devotees of the Sacred Heart would bring their own breakfast and share the meal together after the mass. On the second Saturday of every month, a group of lay Dominicans hold their monthly meetings after the mass and have breakfast together.

If there are no scheduled retreats or recollections, I usually do the marketing for our weekly food supply and other needs of the house on a Monday or Tuesday morning. At the supermarket in the city, there are fresh meat, vegetables and sea foods. Since Fr. Ching takes care of our finances, we often go together. There are times that mass goers would see us at the supermarket, surprised to find out that we do the marketing by ourselves. Oftentimes, we do not know their names, we just recognize their faces.

On the first Tuesday of every other month, we join the clergy recollection of the Diocese of Marbel together with the bishop.  Every other month, it’s a joint recollection for the religious and diocesan clergy. The religious groups present in the diocese of Marbel are the Passionists, Marists, Dominicans, Franciscans and Claretians. The recollection, which is held at various parish churches of the diocese, begins with a holy hour at around 9:00 AM. Lauds follows, after which an invited guest speaker gives a sharing or lecture on a specific topic. Before lunchtime, we celebrate the Eucharist, with the parish priest of the host parish as the main presider. A business meeting may be held either before or after lunch. These recollections give us an opportunity to be with the bishop and the clergy of the diocese.

Sunday is a busy day for us. We help out in the Sunday mass schedules of at least three nearby parishes. Aside from our conventual Sunday mass at our chapel at 10:00 AM, we take turns in celebrating the three Sunday masses in the afternoon at St. Michael the Archangel Parish, under which our mission house belongs. We have one mass in the morning at Sto. Niňo Parish and another mass in the afternoon at Our Lady of Fatima Parish.

Occasionally, we receive requests for house blessings, funeral masses and anointing of the sick. There are also occasional requests for confessions by some groups. Every first Wednesday and first Friday of the Month, we celebrate mass at the chapel of St. Elizabeth Hospital. We also get invited to celebrate mass for GKK fiestas. Once a month, we hear confessions and celebrate mass with the members of the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena. Since the Siena sisters administer schools in Gensan, Polomolok, Marbel, Tacurong and Tulunan, we get invited by these schools to give retreats and recollections to their students and employees or to celebrate masses on graduations and major Dominican feast days like St. Dominic, St. Catherine of Siena, Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo, and Our Lady of the Rosary. As “itinerant preachers” we also give retreats and recollections to other Dominican schools run by Dominican sisters in Mindanao. It is also an occasion for us to promote the Dominican vocation.