The beginning of a new year always comes with an invitation to make a fresh start. While many of us spend the days before and during the Christmas season busy shopping for gifts—often resulting in piles of trash, packaging, and excess—our lola madres (elderly sisters) quietly offer their own “small” contributions to caring for Mother Earth. May their example inspire us to be kinder to our common home this 2026.
Sr. Marcia Mercado, 94 years old and one of the oldest residents of the Maria Droste Wellness Center, shares how they spent Advent and how they continue to respond to the call of Laudato Si’ to care for our common home. Though they are no longer engaged in active ministries and apostolates and have transitioned into the beautiful ministry of presence and prayer, they remain deeply responsive to the call of WJPIC (Women, Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation) and Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’.
What began as art therapy was transformed into something practical and meaningful. With the help of their caregivers, the sisters turned trash into treasure by creating Christmas bags beautifully decorated with flowers made from toilet paper rolls. It was truly the work of many hands—folding manila paper, flattening and cutting toilet rolls, clipping and shaping them into flowers, cutting colorful art paper for backgrounds, spreading glitter, and attending to many other small details. These Christmas bags are prepared for the Province’s “signature” gifts for benefactors and friends—including doctors who patiently and lovingly care for the sisters.
Meanwhile, at the balcony of the Wellness Center, a vegetable garden is thriving. With the sisters’ diligent care and constant prayer, everyone now enjoys “farm-to-table” pechay.
And who would have guessed that trees are growing inside a sister’s room? Sr. Bernard has been saving avocado seeds and nurturing them in recycled water bottles, ready for replanting in a few weeks’ time.
There are also sisters who continue the work of making eco-bricks: cutting into small pieces the blister packs of medicines and other plastics and putting them into big plastic bottles to prevent more microplastics ending up in the ocean. These filled bottles can be used to fence garden plots.
As Sr. Marcia shared, “It is just a little effort, with what little energy we still have. It is also an occasion to witness to the spirit of teamwork and bayanihan.” This little definitely means much for Mother Earth.
A blessed and earth-friendly 2026!
