The key to finding happiness and becoming a loving person is to be true to oneself and to follow one’s heart, says Cerila Basas Roa, who finds herself “in full circle” as a single lay missionary who continues to work with basic ecclesial communities (BECs) and the indigenous peoples at age 64.
She believes “the invitation (to do a mission) is always open, even if we have diverged from this path many times, and we can choose to return to God any time we want to and He will be there to welcome us.”
Her sense of humanity, that she is “a child of the universe," comes from childhood books she read, like the one given by her father titled “Children Around the World” and later on from Thomasites books that filled their library.
“That I am no different from anyone was confirmed by the Christian teaching that we are all children of God, which is the source of human dignity. Human values of love, respect, honesty, etc. transcend skin color, religion, age, gender, and status in life,” she says.
This is why training to become a lay missionary of the Philippine Catholic Church and working for the poorest of the poor came easily to her, she says.
Organizing a Basic Ecclesial Community
In 1977, the Maryknoll Missionaries founded the Philippine Catholic Lay Mission (PCLM) in the then-Prelature of Tagum, now divided into the Dioceses of Tagum and Mati.
Known for BEC organizing, the PCLM’s goal is to form and train lay leaders in the parishes they are assigned to. They sustain the communities they have organized until they leave after their two-year term.
Roa's assignment to Mindoro Island in 2005 presented her with the opportunity to serve indigenous peoples. Bishop Warlito I. Cajandig assigned her to the indigenous Mangyan community of Kaldayapan, in Alcate, Victoria town in Oriental Mindoro province, from 2013 to 2014.
“It is a natural development in my missionary journey that I continue serving, even at retirement, the Mangyans. I became the co-founder of Fr. Ross P. Heruela, SVD, of a community of consecrated persons called the Laity of the Divine Mercy (LIDM) in 2021 in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro,” says Roa.
Their mission statement says, “We are a community of consecrated lay persons following the spirituality of Jesus, the Divine Mercy, in the service of Indigenous Peoples.”
LIDM is currently doing youth ministry for the Mangyan Tadyawan tribe. In November 2023, using the Bible Youth Camp as an entry point, LIDM organized the Tadyawan Youth Ministry, which attracted 64 youth representatives from 8 of the 15 Tadyawan communities.
“It is a new development that the new youth leaders are now participating in Inagtukaw (leaders in the Tadyawan dialect) Meetings and formation,” says Roa.
When she was assigned to Mindoro in 2005, particularly to St. John the Baptist Parish in Pola town, the core program of the Apostolic Vicariate of Calapan called Dekada ng Pamilyang Mindoreño was transitioning to Hapag Ng Pamilyang Mindoreño (HPM).
As a pastoral worker at Pola, she was able to attend the HPM Orientation in September 2005 for Vicariate Forane 3 in Pinamalayan. The diocesan launched the HPM on July 16, 2006. It houses the BECs or Munting Kapitbahayang Kristiyano in Filipino, the evangelization strategy of the AVC.
“As a BEC organizer, I took to HMP like a duck to water,” says Roa.
Indigenous Youth
Serving the Mangyans of Mindoro, leaders, and youth is the fulfillment of a dream, which she wrote in theme writing for her English class in second-year high school at St. Mary’s College, a school of the Religious of the Virgin Mary in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, in the early 1970s.
“I wanted to be a social worker serving tribal communities in the mountains; I even planned to marry the chief of the tribe and, if he’s too old, the son of the chief of the tribe to ensure that my help would be efficient and effective,” she said.
“I knew then that in order to maximize my desire and capacity to help, I needed a power higher than my own. I have to partner with someone who likes helping the poor. In my senior years, I have come full circle, and serving the Mangyans of Mindoro continues to give meaning to a life that I will only pass by once,” she said.
Education
Roa says that her education, training, and experiences have all been helpful in his mission. She completed her primary schooling at Leyte Normal Laboratory School, Tacloban.
She earned units in Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños College, Laguna, then went to Ateneo de Davao University, where she was a fourth-year undergraduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.
Roa earned units in Bachelor in Broadcast Communication at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines—Open University and a BS Entrepreneurship at MINSCAT (now Mindoro State University) in Victoria town.
She finished refresher courses while with the PCLM: Counseling for the Poor (UGAT Foundation/Center for Family Ministries), Psycho-Spiritual Clarity and Integration (Emmaus Center Foundation, Inc.), Leadership in a Participatory Church (East Asian Pastoral Institute/EAPI), Evangelization for 21st Century Asia and the Pacific (EAPI), Spiritual Direction (Center for Ignatian Spirituality/EAPI) the 5th Pastoral Management Workshop in 2009 and Non-violent Communication Seminar/Workshop, Tagaytay City in 2014.
Joys
She cites the joys of being a missionary: “Loving relationships with people that develop from strangers to lifetime friends is my joy and delight. As a lay missionary, I go to places where I have never been and meet people I have never known. Because I carry the name of Jesus, people generally become attracted to me at first meeting.”
“We are usually introduced formally to the community by the Parish Priest. The community provides me with food and accommodations, and they have consistently assigned me to remote grassroots communities. Any form of treat we call our ‘simple joys’”, she says.
“The amazing thing is that after a term of 2 years, I ended up having family closeness with those I have served. I also learned to speak their language. Today, I still speak fluent Kinaray-a, which was the dialect of my first mission area, Igbaras, Iloilo, where I was assigned 30 years ago and I still connect with their youth leader, who is my Facebook friend,” she says.
“This tells me that being on a mission is written in my heart. Then I realize that Jesus is true to His promise that if I leave everything behind, I will find more than what I have forgone,” says Roa.
Her message for the Holy Week: “God loves us despite our sinfulness, and He showed us the height, breadth, and depth of this love by allowing His only Son to suffer, die, and rise again for our sins... If we want to be reunited with God, we have to follow how Jesus did it. Carry our cross daily. Jesus’ temptation was to stop carrying His cross. This is also our human tendency. When things get difficult, we run away. When Jesus was on the cross and before dying, he said, “It is finished.” … Doing God’s will always brings peace to our hearts. Perhaps the best human example of how to carry our cross and find joy and fulfillment after suffering would be parents raising their children, who later become good and responsible adults. What joy!”
