austraLasia #2116

'I seek no fulfilment; I seek the Lord': an example of 'Da Mihi Animas' till the last breath

CEBU: 3rd April 2008 -- Sometimes it takes a simple example of those who live out what 230 people are trying to encapsulate in so many words back in Rome. Yesterday was the Feast of Blessed Pedro Calungsod, Cebu's martyr and, incidentally, the St Dominic Savio's birthday.  But it was also the day that Bro Bernard (Berns) Villasanta sdb breathed his last in the presence of his brother, Fr Patrick Villasanta and his Rector, Fr Jhun Paradiang, after 22 years, more or less of suffering since a diving accident when he was a practical trainee at Don Bosco Technical College. 
    Bro Berns, as he was universally known, lived his Salesian life from then on in a wheelchair, the next 22 years seeing a gradual failure of vital body organs until his heart gave out yesterday.  But his smile never gave out, and this writer witnessed that on a visit to Cebu Boys Home Lilo-an last year.  Bro Berns was a model of Salesian assistance around anything that could be called the ground floor, unable as he was to get up to higher levels.  The higher level he occupied, however, was that of a holy life.
    When his brother Patrick went through his diary yesterday, he found any number of comments from Bro Berns on the experience he had to live for 24 years or so after becoming a paraplegic; years that saw him frequently confined to hospital.  Comments include the following:
    In essence I seek no fulfilment - I seek the Lord.  The experience of a hospital confinement may be likened to crossing the Red Sea.
    It is a 'passover' in God's mysterious way.  In Jesus' name it is a Pascha Mystery, a sharing in Jesus' sacred passion.  Pope John Paul II
    calls it 'Salvific Doloris', a suffering that redeems. "For in our flesh we complete what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of
    his Body, the Church (Col 1:24).
  _________________
 AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific.  It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome.  For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2008 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there.  Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org

Title: australasia 2116
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces THA Thailand Tsunami anniversary
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2116