Mrs. Lydia Paloma joined Woodrose in 1983, serving as Associate Directress for Personal Formation for 12 years. From 1995 to the present, she continues to form the young hearts and minds of Woodrose students in elementary and high school as a Personal Formation Mentor. She may be 90 years old, but she can still very much relate to her Gen Z mentees. We attribute this to her youthful enthusiasm which inspires us all.
Here, we share the speech of Mrs. Paloma, entitled Wisdom from Three Generations of Woodrose, delivered on December 7, 2017, during the get-together with our founding parents:
I have been privileged and blessed to be part of the personal human formation of three generations of Woodrose students and teachers – from the present students, to their parents, and to their grandparents – through one of the most important legacies of St. Josemaria Escriva…mentoring.
I am all of 90 years old. I joined Woodrose at the age 56 and have been a member of its staff for the past 34 years. My mentored pupils and students have gone beyond 700 in number, including some of you who are now Woodrose parents. These years and numbers, I guess, were the basis of the school for inviting me to give some pabaon to you, founding parents and other pioneers of the school.
Unlike the usual meaning of pabaon, which is left-over food or food not served to the special guests, the five take-home items I will hand over to you come from the best 34 years of my life: they originated from the man to whom I owe my vocation to strive to be a saint in the middle of the world. I hope you will value them as coming from a heart that has been beating love for my husband, my blood family, my mentees, my co-teachers, my co-staff members, my Woodrose Family.
1. First, many of the founding parents of Woodrose have remained friends for 40 years, quite a long time for friendship despite the many challenges facing the lives of individuals in an institution. Continue to cherish this friendship, and let it spill over to your children and grandchildren.
2. Second, the institution you founded has survived 40 years of ups and downs, joys and travails, surely an indication that this school is premised on supernatural motives that prompted the founders to sustain it through the years. Keep the supernatural motives alive for the next 40 years until the passage of time.
3. Third, one of the legacies of St. Josemaria is collegial governance. No one individual makes decisions on crucial issues. Decisions come only after careful study, even if they take more time compared to those made under a one-man rule. Preserve collegial governance; it is a guarantee of wisdom and virtue, and a means against that tyranny of genius, the tyranny of the loud, the tyranny of bossiness.
4. Fourth, Woodrose is primarily for teaching and learning, providing excellence to academic life. But Woodrose can never be in its ivory tower. It has been noted for reaching out to the less privileged, to the poorest of the poor. Continue supporting this push for social responsibility enunciated to us by no less than Blessed Alvaro del Portillo.
5. Fifth, personal mentoring is not only a hallmark of Woodrose but its cornerstone. Without mentoring, Woodrose will cease to be PAREF. Many who come to Woodrose attribute what they are now to the time, effort, and prayer rendered by their mentors. Never give up on one-on-one mentoring, come what may. It is what makes Woodrose, Woodrose.
There you are: five pabaon…five of what perhaps have been the best daily dishes prepared for me by this school to whom I owe the nourishment of my vocation, my spirit of service, and my love for souls and God.