Quezon City, Philippines. On February 25, 2025, the 39th anniversary of the People Power Revolution, Filipino Claretian aspirants and their formator, Fr. Angelito Ancla, CMF, joined the different sectors of the society who commemorated that peaceful revolution that took place in Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) in 1986.
From Claret Seminary, they went directly to the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace, also known as Mary, Queen of Peace Shrine, Our Lady of Peace Quasi-Parish, commonly known as the EDSA Shrine at corner Ortigas Ave, Ortigas Center, Quezon City. They attended the 7:00 am Mass. Then, they proceeded to the People Power Monument (PPM), an 18-meter-high monument made by Eduardo Castrillo in 1993, built to commemorate the 1986 People Power Revolution events located on the corner of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue and White Plains Avenue in Barangay Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, Philippines. They joined the hundreds of people in the wreath-laying ceremony hosted by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) in collaboration with Bantayog ng mga Bayani. In the afternoon, they joined the “LAKBAY DASAL, DIWA NG EDSA” organized by the Conference of Major Superiors in the Philippines.
Awareness of society’s situation is an essential part of seminary formation. As number 188 of the General Plan of Formation (GPF 2020) of the Claretian Missionaries underlines, “Knowledge and appreciation of the symbols and values of a people’s culture will continue to shape us and give us the kind of attunement we need to understand better the hopes and problems of those human beings whose existence we share. We must make an effort to listen to the Word of God in personal prayer, in the events of history, and also in the cultures and lives of different peoples, in their silences, and in their outcries. We can only evangelize when we open ourselves to others, offering them the best of ourselves and sharing our hope with them.
Pictures from Fr. Angelito Ancla, CMF
