LA CASTELLANA – The community at Hda, Asuncion-Taburda, Brgy. Robles, La Castellana arranged for a mass baptism of some children and randomly coordinated as well the mass-wedding of long-cohabiting couples including the parents of the newly-baptized.
On the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe last December 12, 2018,the mass-wedding of 17 couples turned into a community festivity when families, groups, private individuals,, local parish including the municipal government of La Castellana generously volunteered time and material resources to mount the first ever mass-wedding held at the sugar farm’s tiny chapel.
The women-volunteers of Kasanag Study Center took the helm of collaborating the efforts of the couples, their families and several groups to bring the sacrament of marriage to these families. Kasanag Study Center, a formation center for women and young girls, runs the La Castellana Conference Center situated at Hda. Asuncion-Taburda, has been doing regular visits to families in the neighborhood for more than three years now.
Many applied but many begged-off due to unforeseen expenses and requirements. But right after the mass baptism of the children from the farm, the catechists headed by Susing Gelecania went on a house-to-house campaign to convince cohabiting couples to have a church wedding.
The 17 couples who finally committed went through the rigorous but exciting preparations of the wedding ceremony that include local government licenses, personal documents, completion of pre-marriage counselling and Pre-Cana sessions, baptism, confirmation, confession, etc.
An all-in-one ceremony was held last November 11, 2018 for baptism, confirmation and confession of the couples. One Aglipayan couple requested to be baptized to the Catholic faith, all 16 couples were confirmed and heard confession except for one who was at work in Iloilo City and arrived on his wedding to hear confession at the foot of an altar cross, after 21 years.
The Soriano-Vargas, under whose sugar farm some of these couples are employed, shouldered the suit and gown rentals, custom-made wedding rings, flowers, giveaways, food for the reception including the Silay-baked mini-wedding cakes for each couple. Neighbor-beauticians were hired for hair and make-up, photography, wedding stylists and events coordination, the fiesta-like “salu-salo” of home-cooked dishes at the covered court after the church ceremony.
The Hda. Asuncion-TAburda Multipurpose Cooperative paid for the wedding sponsors’ fee and donated homegrown coconuts for the salu-salo. Manang Linda, a local dressmaker sewed up the veil and cord of the couples.
A woman-tandem made a soulfulkeyboard-violin rendition of Westlife’s Beautiful in White for the wedding march.
The Holy Mass and marriage rites were celebrated by Msgr. Ariel Gregorio, parish priest of the National Shrine of St. Vincent Ferrer in La Castella.
He enjoined the couples to not only take each other as husband and wife and believe that indeed there is a forever. “In your wife or husband you shall find a friend, a sister or brother, a mother or father, a lover, then a husband or a wife”, says Msgr. Gregorio.
Antipas and Wenna Torres are proud parents to couple Arnel and Jode who have been living-in for 5 years. “There is no greater joy than witnessing that with our 4th child Arnel, all our children were married in Catholic rites,” says Wenna.
Lodyme Cabristante tied the knot with her first love, Ramil Suriaga, whom she met and dated at La Castellana National High School. They lived together for nine years. “I have finally worn a white wedding gown,” Lodyme grinned while staring at her newly-wedded husband.
The Commission on Family and Life of St. Vincent Ferrer Parish shall sustain the formation of these 17 couples through regular bi-weekly activities called “Panimbahon”, an afternoon reading of Sunday scriptures, prayer and worship. The commission has been doing the house-to-house campaign all over town to convince families to receive the sacraments of baptism for their children and matrimony for cohabiting couples. |A feature story written by Agnes Lira-Jundos
