IN MEMORIAM

S. MARIA LOURDES TABAR CABALLES, RVM

(December 23, 1936 – June 12, 2021)

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me." 

Mt: 25:35-36

S. Maria Lourdes unreservedly lived a life personifying these words of Jesus. She dedicated herself to serving and loving the poor, the sick and the vulnerable. She showed us a life lived to the full.

S. Maria Lourdes was born on December 23, 1936 in Cebu City. She was the 6th of fourteen children of Fortunato and Valentina. Out of fourteen, only six (6) of them survived. She received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and eucharist at San Nicholas Parish, Cebu City. But there are no specified dates corresponding the events since the official records of the said parish were burned during the second World War.

Her elementary and high school days were filled with excitement. She described herself as a happy go lucky person. She enjoyed being with her classmates - studying, eating, singing, and going to radio stations. She wrote that as a teenager, aside from doing household chores, she had also time for parties, dancing and outing, and she also entertained admirers.

In 1956, she graduated with a certificate on Secretarial Science. She desired to pursue a bachelor’s degree, but due to financial difficulties, she stopped formal schooling for ten years and took up vocational courses like hair science and dressmaking. She spent most of her days at home while she ventured into small businesses. She enjoyed meeting new friends and selling goods.

In 1962, their place was blessed with four missionaries who facilitated different religious activities. She attended and listened to their talks out of curiosity. In one of these talks, she was touched by the message of Fr. Zafra, and she was encouraged to join church activities. She became a legionary, a CWL, Children of Mary member, and one of the two women members of the Knights of Columbus in their place. She was also a promoter to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the heart to which her heart for the poor was fashioned. The death of her mother in 1962 left her with many responsibilities towards her younger siblings, but it did not hinder her to serve the church.

Her calling to religious life started when she was 18 years old. She did not heed the call that time because of her responsibilities in the family. At the age of 25, she was again reminded of her call. This moved her to finish her college course. She took up commerce major in accounting and minor in economics. She studied and worked at the same time. She worked as a bookkeeper in one of the big business firms in Cebu where she was the only female employee. As a professional, she spent her free time doing home and hospital visitations, consoling and giving spiritual talks to the poor families and the sick. She was much appreciated for her listening and compassionate heart.

As she was persevering in her studies and work, S. Maria Lourdes was also experiencing moments of confusion. She felt that something was lacking in her life and that she was longing for something which she could not describe. There were times that she felt empty, worried and troubled. She could not concentrate on her CPA review. These continued until she responded to God’s call by writing an application letter to the RVM Congregation.

At the age of 33, on November 30, 1969, she was accepted to postulancy. On the following year, May 1970, she was invested to noviceship, and she made her temporary profession on May 31, 1972. On March 25, 1980, she pronounced her perpetual vows. She gratefully celebrated her silver jubilee on May 31, 1997.

Her missionary years in the Education Ministry were spent in Western and Eastern Samar. She spent twenty years in the Social Ministry, eleven years of which was in Pantabangan, Neva Ecija Mission Center, five years in the Prison Ministry at Iwahig Penal Colony, Palawan, four years in Marian Center, Tagaytay City and Porac, Pampanga. Her ministry with the prisoners especially with the sick saddened her because of their living and helpless condition. This challenged her to give the best of herself in the service of God.

S. Maria Lourdes loved to write poems and put music on them. Some of her poems were written while taking a rest from long walks through hills and valleys to do her mission in Pantabangan and during her quiet moments with nature. She was able to come up with a compilation of songs which she personally composed and entitled it “Singing My Way to God.”

Here is one of her compositions: “God is Calling me Home.” She wrote this while she was meditating on death:

Awoke from my deep sleep, 

I heard my God calling me home. 

Home to His eternal house. 

My Sisters never, never shed tears for me

For I know that someday we’ll meet 

We’ll meet together in our Father’s house 

Singing, praising our God. 

Rejoice my Sisters as you hear me singing 

Singing the song of goodbye 

You smile as you say goodbye to me 

But never, never, never cry. 

She narrated: “Instead, pray for me as I do pray for you. 

Your love and concern for me, 

inspired and encouraged me to stand up 

after the many falls in my religious life 

and continued carrying my cross

patiently, lovingly, humbly, and courageously 

until I reached this joyful day of my departure. 

Well, it’s time for me to go now my Sisters 

but before I’ll go let’s join hands together 

and pray, praise and thank God 

for all the blessings we received 

from Him especially this joyous day.

S. Maria Lourdes, you made it known through your song that you do not fear death. Instead, you welcomed it because in death you can share Christ’s resurrected life. You added, “I was inspired and always look forward to my death.” Finally, your wish has come, you were called home by the loving Father on June 12, 2021 at 7:50 in the evening because of acute myocardial infarction. 

Thank you, S. Lourdes, for the eighty-four fruitful years you spent here on earth. Thank you so much for blessing the Congregation with your faithful commitment as Religious of the Virgin Mary for forty-nine years. 

We are deeply grateful to you, S. Lourdes, for the witness of your life. Your love and compassion for the poor were remarkable. Your life was a witness of simplicity, poverty and humility. Your self-giving, self-sacrificing, sense of responsibility, kindness and gentleness of heart were noteworthy. As you breathed your last during our country’s Independence Day, we remember how much you have worked for freedom of those whom you were with – freedom from poverty, prison, ignorance, and freedom from not knowing God. We remember how you led them, with their joys and sorrows to know and love the merciful and forgiving Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Joseph, and Venerable Ignacia del Espiritu Santo welcome you with great joy and love. Rest assured of our prayers. Please pray for us in this difficult time that we may be free from deadly illnesses. Farewell, our dear S. Maria Lourdes. Our love goes with you.

Eternal rest grant unto S. Maria Lourdes, O Lord, 

and let perpetual light shine upon her.

May she rest in peace. 

Amen.