16 September 2013
Dear Alumni and Friends of ADNU,
Dios marhay na aldaw!
As the Feast of Ina, Our Lady of Peñafrancia, approaches we once more refocus and intensify our efforts to truly listen to the words of her Son as our Ina did. We remember that first miracle of Jesus at Cana, when our Lady tells the servers at the banquet: “Do whatever he tells you.” So too we listen intently to whatever the Lord tells us at this juncture of our lives on how we can follow him more intently.
At the Ateneo de Naga University we too listen intently to what the Lord would tell us. As a university community, we listened to the call of the Lord to begin this bold undertaking for the future of our Bicol youth—build the new Grade School facility at the Pacol campus.
In this regard, I call upon each one of you to wholeheartedly support this major effort through your prayers and financial contributions. First, we need all of your prayers because we know only too well that it is God alone who brings all our endeavours to fruition. “Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build.” (Psalm 127: 1)
Second, we need your financial support because we cannot do this alone. I have outlined the details of how you can support through an attachment to this letter. The different alumni groups always remind me that during the extremely difficult period of the early 1990s the alumni, friends, faculty, and staff of the Ateneo de Naga bonded together to support Fr. Bonoan so that the school would not close down and so continue its legacy of educating the Bicol youth. Now we are continuing his legacy in embarking on a bold, new frontier for Ateneo de Naga University—providing Jesuit elementary education to our Bicol youth, both boys and girls!
Once again, I humbly beg of you to now support the Grade School project by your prayers and individual contributions and/or collective efforts per batch to help us make this dream come true for our children. We are proposing to begin construction of the Grade School campus this coming June 2014.
Dios mabalos saindo gabos! Primum Regnum Dei!
Sincerely in our Lord,
PRIMITIVO E. VIRAY, JR., S.J.
President