The greatest influence that Sister Robrecht had on me was our Saturday morning visits to National Orthopedic Hospital to pray and give rosaries to the patients or to sit with them while listening to their stories. We would help them make cotton balls and cotton buds or fold bandages. We would leave at 8 in the morning and return to school before lunch. That was significant to me because it challenged our capacity as teens to give of our time to others instead of spending Saturdays in the malls, endlessly chatting on the telephone (no cellphones then) or sleeping till 10 on Saturday mornings. No TV or computers either, so our free time was spent mostly reading novels or listening to long-playing records. A busload of around 20 of us junior and senior high-school students would volunteer every Saturday for that hospital visi- tation. Sister Robrecht and another Sister would organize us and make sure we were properly briefed and safe in these trips. National Orthopedic Hospital used to be in Mandaluyong but it has now transferred to Banawe, Quezon City, right behind my old school, St. Theresa’s College. As members of the Eucharistic Crusaders, we learned to love the Bible, especially the life of Christ, devotion to Mary, a missionary zeal for the poor and the sick, practice of saying the Morning Offering and doing little acts of sacrifices from day to day. That organization was my training ground for leader- ship. Sister Robrecht patiently guided us, calling us for regular meetings and thinking of special activities on feasts of saints so we could remember their life and virtues. I did not realize then that these were the building blocks toward my vocation to the religious life. Not that I was dead set on entering the convent. Boys and picnics and dancing parties were as much of interest to me as they were to my classmates who have gotten married. And during our Golden Jubilee Homecoming, my naughty
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