Introduction

Heritage and hope -these are the burdens of St. Paul's message to the Hebrews. The long record of the great achievements of the heroes of the Old Testament history -Noe, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses –all this shows great achievements through faith. It was through faith that they became pleasing to God. It was through faith that Abraham left his country in obedience to God's call, through faith that he and his descendants dwelt in tabernacles in the wilderness. For they looked for a city. ",hose foundation, whose builder and maker is God. This is the rich heritage of which St. Paul reminds the Hebrews.

At the same time, Paul is careful to emphasize the moral implication of that inheritance: to live in hope and to give hope. The holy patriarchs were pleasing to God because they were perfectly content to go on and in hope, obeying him and worshipping him, although they knew that the promise which had been made to them would not be fulfilled in their lifetime, or for many centuries after it. They lived as exiles, believing that their children would have a country that promise was not fulfilled until the time of Josue. They lived in tents without an)' fixed dwellings, and it was in a tent that they worshipped the God of their fathers, believing that their children would be able to raise Him up a majestic temple, in enduring stone -that promise was not fulfilled until the time of King Solomon. But why did God allow them to live in hope of an unfulfilled promise in their time? At the end of the previous chapter, Paul provides the answer: "God has made a better plan, a plan which included us. Without us, they were not to be made perfect. "

It is in reflecting on .this statement of St. Paul that we are most vividly reminded of the great heroines of this Tricentennial celebration. Their achievements dear Sisters, are the stuff of your heritage and the basis of this Tricentennial celebration.

Can you imagine what confidence in God it must have needed for Francisca, Antonia de Jesus Esguerra, Maria Ana Fuentes and Sebastiana Salcedo to hold on to the inspiration of living together in a life of prayer and the practice of virtues while continuing their social apostolate when their Director, himself disapproved of the idea, and scolded Mother Francisca for her, I impertinence when she opened the subject to him in the course of her confession?

Can you imagine what confidence in God it must have needed for Mother Francisca, Maria del Espiritu Santo, Juana de la Santisima Trinidad, Lorenza de Jesus Maria and Rosa de Santa Maria to take their stand against the Archbishop of Manila upon a mere ground of principle -the privilege of exemption? How lonely, then, must have been the position of that handful of women who were penalized by the Archbishop: Mother Francisca of excommunication, and the other Sisters of interdict? Can we imagine what confidence in God it must have needed for all of them that -to avoid scandals, these Beatas had to forego the consolation of the Mass for many days? How little hope there was. None from the Audencia, because the Beaterio was founded without the King's permission from him was not written? How hopeless it must have seemed for them when they were taken to their "exile": ill-clad because they had to wear secular clothes instead of the holy Dominican habit they so cherished; ill-housed because they were going to the Royal College of Santa Potenciana and not to their Beaterio? But they endured, as seeing Him who is invisible; these valiant women had their confidence in God which sees behind the shifting panorama of religious politics, and rests in eternal truth. They gave us all -you, my dear Sisters in particular -the great heritage "' of faith.

You see, your faith is the fruit of their labours, purchased -under the mercy of Christ who redeemed us all -by their sufferings and their trials. They laboured while you enter into their labours, my dear Sisters. There is a certain directness about your debt to Mother Francisca and her first community which gives your devotion to them quite a special colour -which you can never give to other Sisters or any other who molded you into the vision of Mother Francisca. You may have many formators and teachers in the religious life; you may not have many mothers, such as these founding Mothers of your Institute.

How different are you, the inheritors of a tradition, from those who made that tradition: you freely practice your religious life, unencumbered by the religious politics among superiors; you can celebrate Mass 'in beautiful chapels, you can give yourselves into the ministry without any fear of excommunication or interdict. But that doesn't mean that there is nothing more left to do. It does not mean that the fight is over; that you can sit down and fan yourselves and say "Thank God, that's all finished! What Mother Francisca and her companions prayed for was not just establishing a place, called Beaterio; but to gift the Church in the Philippines with an apostolic witness to the truth combining, for the Filipina women the evangelical tradition of contemplative prayer and social ministry. It was an original project in her time. It is nowadays a common feature of many religious institutes. That aspect of the project of Mother Francisca is finished but not the reason why. We still stand in need to gifting the Church in the Philippines with the apostolic witness of truth.

We see around us a proportion of our fellow countrymen, we dare not ask how large a proportion, who doubt or cold-shoulder the claims of Catholic doctrine; even more, those who are losing even their hold on Christian morality. All that vital legislation of Almighty God which protects the sanctity of marriage and family life is simply thrown aside as old-fashioned by them. Look over your shoulders, my dear Sisters -and observe your own religious family: the vastness of the things yet to be done invites even the strong ones to despair. The problems seem so enormous and intractable. The wickedness of man seems so limitless: war, plunder, selfishness, cruelty, and dishonesty with themselves, larger and larger with each succeeding year. Those who fight against it seem so ineffectual, helpless. "Where to being?" How? When? With what? Why now? The only answer to this is the kind of hope that type of confidence that echoes from the dramatic history of your beginnings, from the loves of Mother Francisca and her companions. They all tell us: "God is on our side, however faithless we prove to be. Trust in the future; trust in the fundamental goodness and reasonableness of man -both are guaranteed by Christ and His Father." The distinctive contribution of Christians to the struggle for peace and justice has to be hope. A glance at the crucifix on the wall should always be sufficient to remind us that God is not defeated, in the long term, by the force of human selfishness, however much the short term prospect is "hopeless". Since the resurrection, we have no need to run away from Gethsemane when the cause seems lost.

No, the battle is not finished yet. From the tombs of Mother Francisca and her companions we hear the voice of comfort, and it bids us to fight on. Do you doubt my dear Sisters? Do you hope? Do you really hope that the Philippines needs today the gift of the Dominican Sisters of Sta. Catalina de Sena? If you are willing to bring to perfection her vision, you are worthy children of Mother Francisca. Then this tricentennial is more than justified.
Conclusion

We read in the Gospels that in commissioning his disciples to spread the message and to announce the coming of his kingdom, Jesus sends them out two by two (Mk 6:7). For nearly 2,000 years this same sequence continues.

Two by two he sent them out. Sisters, you are never alone. You are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Two by two you go out accompanied by the example and wisdom of Mother Francisca and her companions who have walked before you, proclaiming the same faith, living the same Gospel, celebrating the same Sacred Mysteries. You are never alone. How can you possibly fail in such a glorious responsibility given to you by our God.
Let us entrust then the observance of this tricentennial year and your commitment to the vision of Mother Francisca, to Saint Catherine of Siena, patroness of your Institute, and to Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, our common

Mother. May they imbue us with the same spirit with which they suffused Mother Francisca and her companions so that we can become what the Lord called us to be -gifts to the Church in our country.