Memory of Advent past
Advent begins on Sunday. The season reminds me of a ritual in my preteens as a student at St. Scholastica’s College (SSC) Manila.
During Advent, we would have a green wreath made of entwined fir leaves to form a circle like a halo. It had four candles—one pink and the rest lavender.
On the Monday of the first week of Advent, after morning prayers, the teacher would ask the class to sing an Advent song. We would oblige and stand in awe of the very solemn ritual.
Then she would ask the youngest girl in the class to light one candle in the wreath. Often, it was me or Victoria Rosales or Marilyn Castro.
On the second week, we replayed the ritual, only this time, it was the oldest girl—Josefina Tengco or Lourdes Carmona—who had the privilege of lighting the second candle.
The ritual was repeated every Monday until all four candles were lit, which signaled the Christmas season.
Lighting the wreath was such a big deal then. When I was called up to do it, I performed it with trembling hands, my eyes almost popping out of their sockets in great excitement. I thought at the time that the act would earn me points for a spot in heaven.
Our teachers incessantly pounded into our heads the importance of love of God. To show this, we were told to do acts of kindness, no matter how small. The nuns were, of course, the best models of Christian love.
When Christmas came, the nuns conceived of a most wonderful idea of teaching us the importance of sacrifice and love for God.
On a little table beside the brown wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the chapel, someone would place the cutest image of the Infant Jesus lying on a cold manger with no hay.
Near the manger was a little box that held hundreds of paper strips in pastel shades. There was an open shoe box with the words “Did you make a sacrifice or do a good deed for Jesus today?” written on it.
The idea was to encourage us to make little sacrifices every day. Each student earned the privilege of writing their sacrifice on a piece of paper, which was dropped into the shoe box as an offering to Jesus.
After doing that, we could then get a strip of the pastel paper and put it in the manger of the Baby Jesus to warm his little crib.
The idea caught on like wildfire among us kids. Pretty soon, Baby Jesus’ manger was no longer bare and cold as it got filled with the pastel strips of paper, each representing an act of patience, kindness or self-denial.
In my case, my act of kindness was tiptoeing to my parents’ room so as not to wake them when I had to get something and not eating champuy for a whole week as a sacrifice.
It was a wonderful sight when we visited the belen on the last day before school closed for Christmas, and found it all lit up. The Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) seemed to be beaming at us.
This memory of Advent will surely light up my twilight years.
The writer says she is privileged to have studied and made friends at SSC Manila from 1955 to 1967. She teaches World Literature at Polytechnic University of the Philippines. She’d like to form a Scrabble club for seniors. Those interested to join can text her at 0920-9122487.
