My orientation has always been towards business having been born to a typical Chinese family.  My father has no religion, but a man with a golden heart, and my mother was a devout Buddhist, so the children were sent to a secular school. However, by sheer twist of faith, our path crossed that of Rev. Fr. George Etienne Beauregard, SJ, a young French Canadian Jesuit, the Shepherd determined to lead us to his church in Pasay City, Mary the Queen Parish and successfully convinced my parents to enroll all their 13 children to two prestigious Catholic Schools, Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA) for girls and Xavier School for boys.

I am greatly indebted to Fr. Beauregard for sowing the seeds of my faith, ICA for my basic Catholic formation and my Scholastican / Benedictine education for re-enforcing and honing my Catholic Faith.

Being married to a spiritual and private person, my husband and I practiced our religion quietly and piously within the confines of our Church and Community, until, in yet another twist of faith, we met Mrs. Winifred Powers, founder of Rosary For Life, International who extended her invitation and opened our doors to newer and greater  possibilities and opportunities. With apprehension and reluctance due to unfamiliar territory, we initially distanced ourselves. But the call seems to persist, so after some extensive discernment, we finally succumbed and accepted Mrs. Powers’ offer to start and head Rosary For Life, Philippines.

Rosary For Life is a quiet prayerful movement that aims to stop worldwide abortion through the faithful recitation of the Holy Rosary, as well as, for the preservation of lives threatened by euthanasia and mercy killing.  It  was eventually launched in the Philippines on November 11, 2003 in the presence of its founder, Mrs. Winifred Powers of Brooklyn, New York. With a team of dynamic and committed volunteers, we were able to spread the movement to most cities of Metro Manila, up North to Pampanga, Baguio, Vigan, Laoag and South to Lipa, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan etc. until we called a halt after 6 years to evaluate  and re-assess the extent of help our prayers may have reached. It was then, inspired and initiated by Bo Sanchez, that Grace To Be Born (GTBB) was put up.

GTBB is a private shelter conceived to help pregnant women undergoing crisis who might, otherwise, resort to abortion, if not helped on time. Since the establishment of GTBB in 2009, it has saved, almost 300 babies that could have been victims of man’s evil act of destroying the lives of millions of unborn babies to enrich a selfish world.

GRACE TO BE BORN is currently on its 12th year of operation and time, once again, to stop and revisit myself to find out what else is left to be done. At 76, not much option is left for me to pursue. So the idea of putting up a retreat center started to surface and haunt me, reminiscence of my ICAN and Benedictine days when I would experience unexplainable joy & fulfillment attending retreats, recollections and inspirational conferences. After all the twists and turns, I feel that I have…arrived home.

Now that my dream of creating a sanctuary for prayers, meditations, searching, rediscovering, formation and conversion is now a reality, I feel that the long journey of my productive life has, finally, led me home.  And to all our clients, I hope you, too, find “home” in Rosary Hills.