An actualized reflection on the ODN tradition of celebrating the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple.

1. Nina Maria and My Being an
ODN Educator
Feast of the Presentation of the Child Mary to the Temple
17 November 2020

2. The Presentation of Nina Maria in the
Temple touches the essence of our
identity as a school.
We bear her name.
It was this Feast that gave birth to this
school, of course rooted in the tradition
410 years ago.

3. Nina Maria has given us a sense of a
corporate identity--”a brand”.
Being part of the school’s story and
history has illumined or lives and helped
others as well through the education
that the school has offered throughout
all these years.

4. In one way or another, we have
offered a way of opening up to the
world, a pathway of growing. The
school has provided guidance for the
development of one’s capacities and
potentials.
November 21st celebration
implies a sense of identity.

5. Who am I? Who am I to the others?
It is convenient that every now and then we ask ourselves
these questions and to stop to answer them.
Doing it is a way of giving birth to ourselves--an ongoing
creation, unfinished business of God.
…to expand our inner landscape.
An interactive exercise.

6. We associate a name with a quality.
Question:
Why do parents come and enroll their
children in NMLC?

7. The hallmarks and strengths of the school…
Where could these be coming from?
What are the factors that make the children
manifest them in their being?

8. These are what we bring to the Lord...
we offer to Nina Maria for this feast day.
A little history why Jeanne started this
November 21st tradition.
Why she also named the Order after Our Lady: AMDG and
that of His Mother Mary
“Fulfill your name”

9. A name with a dynamic meaning:
“fulfill your Name" = live up to who you are.
What does this wish of Jeanne de Lestonnac evoke in us?
We are a Center that is the House of Our Lady.
In Mary, the first follower of Jesus, we recognize that God has
done and continues to do great things with our littleness.

10. As a Company of Mary educator, do you have a
particular Covid-19 story that relates with this
point:
That in Mary, in this case, in and through the
Nina Maria School, God has done and continues
to do great things with our littleness?

11. In the midst of what we are going through due
to Covid-19:
What do you see are sources or reasons for
hope that in our little ways in NMLC, we are
doing our share in God’s Project of renewing the
face of the earth—the face of the Filipino family,
the Filipino youth, the Filipino society, and
ultimately the world?

12. These are what we celebrate and honor in
the Child Mary…
…and offer to the Lord
through Nina Maria on the
Feast of her Presentation in the Temple.

13. OUR LADY OF THE COMPANY
Our Lady of the Company,
You know who we are and what we can
do,
You know this mixture of clay and grace
in which we reside.

14. You have been walking with us for four centuries to
the rhythm of the Gospel.
You inspire and animate us,
You fill us with tenderness when the provisions for
the road are few.
You renew the miracle when we lack wine,
You give us the boldness and the risk to do
“Whatever He tells you to do.”

15. You share your oil and that is why the
lamp keeps burning;
Burning without being extinguished as
time and torments pass us by,
and the passion is inflamed on contact
with
all human misery.

16. Our Lady of the Company,
conserve happiness in us,
the joy of the announcement and
the commitment.
Animate us to make visible the invisible
to “widen the space of the tent,”
to keep everything in the heart,
to remain standing near
the cross and the Crucified;
to fill ourselves with life and to look for
signs of Resurrection.

17. Accompany our “goings” and “comings”
so that in each moment of the Kingdom
we will announce your Word and show your Mercy
and your Love,
so that, with the hearts of men and women,
we may spread throughout the world
the desire to follow Jesus.
AMEN.