Lay Camillian Family in Mati Launched – Finally

       
The 40th birthday celebration of Fr. Marcelo L. Pamintuan Jr. became the launching date of the Lay Camillian Family (LCF) in Mati. The twin event was so well and meaningfully attended. No less than the incumbent governor, Hon. Corazon Nunez Malanyaon and two former governors, Marlene Palma-Gil and Rosie Lopez, came to cheer up the celebrant and to express support for the launching of the LCF.

Prior to the celebration, the idea of establishing the LCF in Mati perceptibly surfaced as a response to the challenge specified by the recent Camillian General Chapter with operative guidelines that the Provincials in collaboration with the Secretaries for Ministry study ways of promoting the LCF. Details were conceptualized with the help of some St. Camillus Hospital (SCH) personnel and staff. The terminally-ill patients, a not-yet fully sized up segment of SCH clientele, became the focus.

Fr. Bong began by inviting SCH employees to visit five terminally-ill patients: a colon cancer patient, a bedridden stroke patient, a mother blinded by brain tumor, a bedridden grandfather in his 90s, and a skin-and-bone suicide survivor teenager.  Except for the latter, all had been confined at SCH.  Varying numbers of participants joined the visits to offer moral and spiritual support to the patients and their family in a prayer for healing.

Though Fr. Bong broached the idea of establishing the LCF, he did not immediately enlist the participants to the organization.  He initially led them to taste and see the goodness of the organization and to understand its mission and the responsibility of its members.  Those interested were then asked to undergo values and spiritual formation proper to an LCF member.

Fast tracking the process, he gathered the participants to a group processing after the visitations.  He raised the question: What did it mean to you to be part of a group that visited terminally-ill patients? Below are some of their splendid insights:

“My purpose in joining the patient visitations was to give the patients and their family moral and spiritual support they needed badly. I was wrong. They were the ones giving me blessings in return. ”

“I don’t have the right to complain of my problems; they are nothing compared to theirs. They made me realize that the Lord’s goodness overflows.”

“They touched my life.”

The launching of the LCF in Mati signifies the initial steps of a journey, the blueprint of which has been drawn and followed. Others have already covered a considerable distance. But it’s still a long way to go. Yet undoubtedly, the LCF members in Mati will hold on to their vision and in no time at all will be able to actualize their mission.