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THE MRAC JOURNEY
(Mother Rosario Arroyo Commission)

The NIHIL OBSTAT dated March 14, 2009 was received by His Excellency Archbishop Angel Lagdameo. It was the permission to open the Diocesan Process of Canonization of the Servant of God, Mother Rosario Arroyo de la Visitacion.

Upon receipt of the NIHIL OBSTAT His Excellency Archbishop Angel Lagdameo constituted the Diocesan Tribunal. The members of the Tribunal are:

Judge Delegate
Msgr. Higinio Velarde, VG, PA

Promoter of Justice
Rev. Fr. John de Castro, OSJ

Acting Notary
Rev. Fr. Carlo Noquez, JCB

Actual Notary
Sr. Thaddeus Magtoles, OP

Theological Commission
Rev. Fr. Rey Zerudo
Msgr. Jose Ma. Amado Delgado

Historical Commission
Rev. Fr. Alejandro Esparencilla
Sr. Visitacion Alecto, OP
Atty. Rex Salvilla

A web conference of the members of the Tribunal with Father Samson Silloriquez, Postulator of the Cause of Mother Rosario Arroyo de la Visitacion will be held in July. The judge delegate will convene the tribunal for instruction with Father Samson in the internet.

The opening of the Diocesan Process will be on October 7, 2009. It will be the beginning of a long journey. We ask you to pray with us and hopefully with our concerted effort in promoting her life and virtues Mother Rosario will soon be beatified.

In case of healing please state

1) symptoms of the disease
2) diagnosis of the doctor
3) medical intervention
4) development of the illness
5) cite if cure is immediate or instantaneous

THANK YOU.

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UPDATE

I. June 14, 2009 was 52nd Death Anniversary of Mother Rosario

This year the Sisters gathered in the Motherhouse.

6:00 AM - Mass. Prayer was said in the crypt of Mother Rosario after the mass.
7:00 AM - Sisters joined the procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the town of Molo
9:00 AM - Symposium on the life and death of Mother Rosario.

In the afternoon - sharing on the exhumation of Mother Rosario in 1982 , the transfer of remains to the Motherhouse chapel and update on the opening of Diocesan Canonization Process. Open forum followed. We ended the day with the Holy Hour."

It was a reflective day. Everyone was touched by what she had heard. "The more we cling to Jesus, the more capable we will become of being close to one another."

II. July, 2009

A. July 24, 2009 – 84th Foundation Day-c/o DEB
B. July 26, 2009 – gathering of all the OP Sisters in the Motherhouse - a day of recollection

III. August 8, 2009 — St. Dominic's Day

A. Activities: Per Community/ School

IV. October 7, 2009 — 9:00 A.M.

Opening of the Diocesan Process of Canonization of
Mother Rosario Arroyo de la Visitacion
St. Anne Church, Molo, Iloilo City
(All OP Molo Sisters are expected to attend)

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LIFE AND VIRTUES OF MOTHER ROSARIO

It is to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, that Mother Rosario derived her strength, her holiness and her perfect love for Jesus. Throughout her life, Mother Rosario had been closely devoted to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. While still a child there had been in their house the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle. It was here that she was absorbed most of the time in loving intimacy with her savior, it was also here that she presented her problems, her trials, her plans and her inmost feelings, and found solution.

The greatest influence of the love of Mother Rosario for the Blessed Sacrament made possible the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from 6:00 o'clock in the morning to 6:00 o'clock in the evening in the Motherhouse Chapel. Two sisters are in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament every thirty minutes 12 hours every day.

The death of Mother Rosario in June coincided with her great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament – the month dedicated to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Rosario died in June 14, 1957 after receiving the holy viaticum which gave her strength and courage during the last hour of her life.

Mother Rosario's great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament nourished her in her daily life. She became like Jesus, Christ-centered, Christ-oriented. She did things Jesus did, said things Jesus liked to hear and only thought of things that pleased Him. It was a life fully consumed in Jesus. This was the life lived by Mother Rosario.

Mother Rosario's great love for the Blessed Sacrament is worth emulating. Love shows itself more clearly in action than in words.

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Testimony

By: Ramona Ledesma de la Torre Acanto
Birthday: August 6, 1942
Address Lot 6, Block 8, Phase 1
Alta Tierra, Iloilo
Mobile Phone: 09192395771

I had a mixed emotion and was teary when I heard Msgr. Sergio Jamoyot, our parish priest in Alta Tierra announced to his parishioners last June 7, 2009 to pray for the beatification of Mother Rosario.

I remembered my childhood days with my parents and siblings. We were then living very close to the Beaterio. My father was jobless and so with my mother. But my father used to be one of the apostles during Holy Week. Mother Sayong as we fondly call her, provided for his apostle's attire.

Mother Sayong was kind and generous to us. Although very rich yet she was humble and simple. When my mother got sick, she had her brought to the hospital and she paid for her medicines and hospital bills.

We used to visit Mother Sayong everyday. She gave us half of her share for meals and told the one in-charge of the kitchen to add some more so that it will be enough for the whole family of six. She did this everyday for quite sometime until my father got a job.

In the afternoon together with other children we went to the Beaterio to pray the holy rosary with Madre Sayong, after which she gave us bread, fruits and candies. During the month of May we were given white dress to wear during the Flores de Mayo. We went to the convent sang songs to the Blessed Mother, offered flowers and prayed the rosary. Until now I cannot sleep without praying the rosary that Mother Sayong had taught me.

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CAN WE BE SAINTS?
By: Fr. Bernabe Tutana, Jr.
Chaplain, WVSU Medical Center, Jaro, Iloilo

"If you will look into your own heart in complete honesty, you must admit that there is one and only one reason why you are not a saint: you do not wholly want to be." William Law

Can we be saints? This question might appear to be so ambitious to many of us. The first thing that would enter our minds I'm sure would be the unique looking statues stationed in our church altars and walls - but with our faces on them. That is not possible! Although we read the lives of saints and admire them, most of us cannot imagine ourselves in that sacred company.

Never mind if you find it hard to convince yourself that you can be a saint. To be convinced and to be committed is part of the journey. Sainthood is not an ambition just like our ambition to become rich and famous. Sainthood is an invitation to a way of life.

All of the saints I'm sure never thought that they be placed on the pedestals as models for us to follow. All they know was that they have chosen God above all others and made a definite commitment to God. All saints are filled with love of God. This for me is the first characteristic of a saint.

Phyllis McGinley writes that saints are human beings with an added dimension. "They are obsessed by goodness and by God, as Michaelangelo was obsessed by line and form, as Shakespeare was bewitch by language, Beethoven by sound."

I would like to say the same of Mother Rosario. She was a woman filled with the love of God, She chose God above everything else and made a definite commitment to love Him. Nothing stands between her and God, only love and her ardent desire to grow more intimate with him everyday. This is evident in the way Mother Rosario spent her spare time in prayer. Those who were privileged to live with her attested to the truth that no time is wasted for Mother Sayong. Spare time for her means prayer time. I would like to believe that saints are made in prayer and prayer make saints because prayer joins us to God who is the source of all graces.

None of us can make ourselves saints. None of us can even say the name of Jesus in faith without His grace. It is God who reaches out to us. It is God who first called us.

It is in this light that we approach God and humbly beseech His grace to raise Mother Rosario to the dignity where God, in the first place, has called her to be - a Saint. It is also in this Light that-we ask God to fill us with the same grace to make a commitment to Him and to choose him above all others.

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For favors granted please write to:

Mother Rosario Arroyo Commission (MRAC)
Dominican Sisters Motherhouse
Molo, Iloilo City , Philippines
Email: Mracop@yahoo.com
Tel.: 337-9820
CP.: 09284134592