Secular Institutes held 2nd national meeting

Forty delegates were in Davao City from October 21-24 2015 for the Second National Meeting of the Secular Institutes. The first was held about the same time last year at the Mother of Life Center in Novaliches, Quezon City. This time they were at the Benedictine House of Prayer in ULHA Village, Ulas, Talomo District, Davao City.

The Secular Institutes are Church-approved associations of consecrated single women and men who profess the gospel vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in their commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

Living alone or with their biological families, wearing neither habit nor religious identification, their vowed identity often unknown, some of them lawyers, doctors of medicine, nurses, bank managers, educators, these courageous professionals discretely and humbly bring Christ and His values into the world of secular work.

The names of these institutes, mostly founded by men religious, are The Institute of Notre Dame de Vie, Secular Daughters of Saint Anne, Servitium Christi, Associates of Notre Dame, Madonna della Strada, Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ, Volunteers of Don Bosco. The first three are international in membership and founded abroad. The rest were founded in the Philippines.

The Secular Daughters of Saint Anne and Servitium Christi are based in Davao, while the Associates of Notre Dame is based in Cotabato City. As society grows more negatively secularistic that is, wordly, the Secular Institutes emerge as a counter-balance of godliness, a gift of the Church to the humanity.
(Photo by Mary Grace Alestante, MD)