A transforming MOSPI
Sacred Time, Atomic Time, Chronological Time, Space-Time all names we give to our sense of change and movement. Time, space and matter come into existence at the one moment for none can exist without the others. Time, Space, and Matter came into being by the creative power of God, who lives outside of all Time, Space, and Matter.
Our discovery of the concept of time is not of human origin. The author of time, space and matter allow us to discover the creative truth. The explanation for all human intellectual, physical, and spiritual truth arise out of our discernment of who we are, what we are, and what we will become in the world. Human knowledge limits and defines our human understanding and expression of what we sense to be real. Time, Space, and Matter are just three known elements of our universe that will forever open themselves to human discovery and understanding. Time, Space, and Matter will remain mostly unknown to our human knowledge despite our measuring of their functions and potentials now and in the future.
Humans do not discover God. God makes Himself known to humans in ways that humans can understand. Our understanding of creation is not God’s understanding. God makes known in human terms that which is of the Eternal God’s creative power.
Time though measurable by human standards is not eternal and everlasting. Time is a beginning, and all beginnings have an end. “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth, so Space and Matter are not eternal as they have a limited purpose. The Heavens change, the world changes, and we adapt to these changes. Our human intellect discerns through our human senses what we call a natural process of change that forms different conditions of being within the one eternal existence of God. Our bodies decay, but our person, our soul, our human spirit remains alive in the life of God until the completed union of our heavenly body to God. The Holy Spirit remains with the body throughout its process of decay and beyond because it is the Spirit of the Triune God that resurrects our bodies at the divinely appointed time. Our resurrected bodies take up space as risen flesh and blood within God’s eternal existence. My changing body on earth will finally change to be a glorious copy of the Lord’s risen and glorified body. The creation of time, space, and matter are of the thought and reasoning of God’s love for our human creation; and all things come together before the Eternal Life of God in the Lord so that we may know love, and serve God in eternity.
Mater Orphanorum has changed and will continue to improve over time and human history. I will use its acronym MOSPI from this point in the writing. MOSPI was founded to give a permanent home to abused, abandoned and neglected children. Children from birth to seventeen or eighteen years of age were assured protection and a good education until mid-adulthood when they would be expected to go out into the world and fulfil their human destiny; this process of change is familiar to most human families. Young adults leave home and find their place in the world. Like some ordinary families, there are exceptions and some children remain at home for a more extended period and some life-long.
The history of MOSPI is one of change; while caring for neglected, abandoned, and abused children, MOSPI also became home to some children of the indigenous tribe known as Dumagats. The Dumagats were once a fishing tribe, but the settlers from Europe forced them to live in the mountains. All of our Dumagat young adults come from their shared home which is names Karahume, Bulacan. The children leave their family homes during school periods to live and study in MOSPI to return to their family home during school vacations. We presently house, feed, and educate eight young adult Dumagats. The youngest Dumagat is thirteen and the oldest twenty-one.
The MOSPI of today has two longtime live-in young adults. Robert Cruz 19 years of age and Jerome who is fourteen; for different reasons these two young adults will spend most of their life in MOSPI unless other ways of living unfold. Robert and Jerome came as very young children abandoned and neglected until caring souls brought them to MOSPI in the first decade of the millennium.
MOSPI is now a temporary home to Junior and High School students who have come from another orphanage in Bustos, Bulacan, founded by Fr. Boyet. The Bahay At Yaman Ni San Martin de Porres Inc. helps street children, orphans, homeless, destitute, abandoned, physically abused and other children in crisis. Our service to ten of these live-in children whose ages range from thirteen to nineteen is as educators rather than as full-time guardians. MOSPI, houses, feeds, and clothes these young adults during their High School education. Their principal place of residence outside of school term is The Bahay At Yaman Ni San Martin de Porres Inc. or their parent/parent’s homes in Manila. The granting of permissions to go back home for weekends and special family occasions are allowed to both groups of young adults.
The incorporation is also home to Annlyn and her three children left homeless after the sudden death of her husband. Annlyn volunteers as a house parent. Br. Edgardo Ignacio trained in child-care is the everyday guardian of all the young adults and children who live in MOSPI. The non-profit charitable and legal incorporation of MOSPI is remaining home to two junior school teachers and former MOSPI children, Joebeth and Emil. Levi, whose family live in Valenzuela, Manila, and who is parishioner under Fr. Roger’s spiritual care lives in MOSPI as a house parent and teaches Mathematics and Physics in our High School.
The St. Ann and Joachim childcare center gave birth to Mater Orphanorum Servants of the Poor, which gave life to Ateneo Casa Famiglia Servants of the Poor, which then gave rise to the creation of the Jill Sinclair Technical School. The movement of our journeying from a childcare center to High School and Technical School hopes to educate five hundred registered students in June. MOSPI has changed and will continue to transform over the coming decades. Our earthly transformations are associated with our final transformation when our bodies will resurrect from the dead. All change good or bad forms us to be the persons we are in the world. God changed the world when our lives were transformed to be His adopted son and daughters united in life and spirit to the love and eternal life of God.