Ora et Labora et Laban

Ora et Labora. Ora et Labora. Ora et Labora. Prayer and work. Prayer and work. Prayer and work.

This is my Alma Mater’s motto.

I am a Taft Avenue Girl, through and through. I am currently taking my Masters in Business Administration in De La Salle University. I took my undergraduate degree in the same school as well. But, prior to becoming a Lasallian, I already knew my way around Taft and its surrounding areas. You see, before I made the move to Taft, I was Leon Guinto St. Girl. I am a Benedictine child, a proud Kulasa, a true blue Scholastican.

I take pride in my Scholastican identity because I feel it has truly allowed me to be imbibed with the values that a person ought to have if that person ever wanted to change the world. And, by gosh, did I want to do so badly. I cannot tell you today whether I have wanted to live a life of service since I was born, or if I acquired the taste for it when I entered St. Scho. It’s hard to tell. It is so ingrained in me that I feel that at the very core of my being are the twin voices of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica telling me what to do. But, regardless, I took to heart the mission of St. Scho, to be, “a Catholic Benedictine educational institution for young women committed to providing a holistic formation anchored on academic excellence to mold our students into critically aware and socially responsible agents of change towards the transformation to a just and equitable society.”

Critically aware. Socially responsible. Agents of change.

That’s everything I ever dreamed of doing in my lifetime. To become a woman for others. And St. Scho did not fall short of its standard. In the 9 years that I have spent in its four walls, every day was an opportunity to learn about how to change the world. In the second grade, I learned the Philippine electoral process by having our classroom elections be a replica of the national elections. In the third grade, I joined the nuns of the Manila Convent, my teachers, and my fellow classmates in noise barrages and rallies in the EDSA People Power Shrine, calling for the impeachment of then-President Joseph Ejercito Estrada amidst allegations of plunder, graft, and corruption. In the fifth grade, I learned how debate, how to speak my mind while still being respectful of the arguments of others. In high school, I learned the plight of the poor, immersing myself in the way they lived their lives, by the rail road tracks, along the coast of the Laguna de Bay, and in the forgotten slums of Manila. I learned regret, penitence, and forgiveness through the eyes of the inmates at the Women’s Correctional. I learned about the differences in culture and tradition from the fast friendship developed between my class and our friends in an indigenous tribe. I learned patience from my deaf friend, as she struggled to teach me sign language because I simply could not remember it, and joy from my little sister with Cerebral Palsy and Turret’s Syndrome, as she allowed me to push her wheelchair around an obstacle course we built for our Pista sa Nayon. I learned about the pros and cons of nuclear energy, the struggle of Muslims in a post-9/11 America, and suffering and injustices of the Marcos Era. Suffice to say, as is contemporary slang, I, together with many other Scholasticans, was woke.

I am an outspoken girl because I have been brought up this way by St. Scho. No, it was not forced upon me. No, I was not brain washed. And, no, I was not paid by any nun, teacher, or otherwise to believe these things. It was simply by the vigilant and sincere effort of the entire Scholastican Community to LET US THINK, FEEL, and ACT. Ora et Labora. Life is equal parts prayer and work. And the work begins in the service of others.

So, imagine my dismay when last year, my little sisters, the students of St. Scholastica’s College were the subject of lewd, malicious, and offending comments on social media. What did they do? They were outside the gates of St. Scho, conducting a noise barrage protesting the Supreme Court decision to allow the burial of the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Here are some of the comments I compiled from online:

I was incredulous. In what modern-day society, in what 21st-century country, in what liberal democracy was dissent ever silenced, and from the same grass-roots level at that? Apparently, here, in our country. But what hurt me the most was how they attacked my Alma Mater for the very core of its identity, its mission to create women who are agents of social transformation and service.

What was so wrong with dissent? Or intellectual discussion? Why is it when there is a difference in opinion, the default reaction of people is to dumb down the discourse, or worse, turn it into a crass joke? And, especially when the subject matter is a woman? What’s so wrong about knowing and understanding things that happen outside your social circle? And, why is there a need to have felt the exact same pain in order to empathize? Is it really that impossible to believe that one can feel the struggle of another without having gone through the same ordeal? But more importantly, it pisses me off to know that people belittle the capacity of the youth to comprehend complicated social issues but in the same breath say that they must be shielded from the harsh realities of the world.

And they weren’t just attacking my little sisters over this one issue. They brought up so many other social issues that Scholasticans have voiced concern over in the past years – the displacement and killing of the Lumads, the extrajudicial killings, the Boko Haram kidnapping of girls in Nigeria, the exploitation and inequality of women – issues so diverse that I’m sure not many fully comprehend to begin with, but issues worth talking about nonetheless. They criticized St. Scho for teaching our girls to think about anything else aside from algebra, and physics, and Shakespeare. They said children are not to be bothered by worldly concerns just yet. They said our girls had to learn their place.

Sadly, these people are not strangers. They are friends, or friends of friends, or friends of friends of friends, real people who we go to work with, who ride the same jeepneys as we do, who see the same plight of the poor and vulnerable, these are Filipinos, Christians, Catholics, who have chosen to turn a blind eye on the issues that face humanity, and have instead excused their indifference by picking on the Scholastican spirit.

One of the major themes of Catholic Social Teaching is Participation. Everyone has the right to be involved in their community, in any capacity, whether economic, political, or cultural, as it is a requisite to the respect of one’s human dignity to be treated fairly and to be given a voice. THIS is why we do what we do in St. Scho. We see that not everybody is given an equal opportunity to speak out, and not because it is intentional, rather because it is systemic. We speak for the voiceless and the vulnerable – the illiterate, the poor, the indigenous, the young, the old, the disabled, the convicted, the dead. It is our duty as Christian Catholics to be of service to those who do not have the same platform that we do. But, more importantly, before we can even speak for them, we must recognize that we, too, have the ability to participate. Our age does not preclude us from knowing, understanding, and empathizing. If anything, our age makes us more honest and sincere, without agenda or expectation of return. Our privilege does not shelter us, rather it provides us a bigger stage to amplify our voices so that they may hear us better. Our participation in societal life is not for personal gain. Rather it is so that we may speak for those who cannot themselves, and so that we may provide them with the dignity they deserve.

At the height of the bashing and trolling of Scholasticans on Facebook, we, a group of deeply affected and concerned alumnae, decided to form a group that would defend our little sisters and the Scholastican mission. We called the movement, “Ora et Laban”, pray and fight. We wrote an letter of solidarity to the current batch of Scholasticans expressing how proud we were of them for standing up for what they believe in, and thanking them for reminding us of our Scholastican identity. We wrote an open letter response to those who had something to say, educating them of the culture of social awareness and a yearning for social transformation in our Alma Mater. And, what started out as merely a call to support our little sisters against the online treachery they faced, grew into an organization that extended the Scholastican dream of being of service to others beyond graduation. We knew that to prove the naysayers wrong, we had to work, not to contradict them, but to do what is right and just for the underserved. From a group of some 15 people, we now have a following of about 4,000 Scholasticans from different batches, in different parts of the globe, all with the interest to uphold and protect the good name and mission of St. Scholastica’s College, so that future generations of Scholasticans may fulfill this mission as well. We organized outreach programs in the various communities that St. Scho was helping. We conducted seminar workshops on social issues some of our members are passionate about. And just today, we met with head masters and mistresses from Catholic schools in the United Kingdom, to talk about the positive influence the Scholastican mission has had on our lives as alumnae, and how they too can do the same back home.

Ora et Laban is celebrating its first anniversary this 25th of November. We can only hope that we can keep the Scholastican flame burning, so that we may continue to inspire thousands more Scholasticans to never waver in their intention to help, never fear the backlash that may come their way, to never stop standing up for those who cannot stand on their own, and to PRAY, WORK, AND FIGHT…

So that in all things, God may be glorified.