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SEEING CHRIST IN ILLNESS AND POVERTY By: Barbie Lu Young

health careLife’s crosses are a universal reality. Man is not spared from the crosses and trials of life. We all suffer in one form or another, whether rich or poor, young or old. However, the patients of Rizal Medical Center are worse off than most because of the two crosses of sickness and poverty that they have to carry.

We, the volunteers of the Health Care Ministry, try as much as possible, to meet their temporal needs by giving free medicines, as well as meet their spiritual needs by instructing them on sound doctrinal values. Helping them to offer their pain to God and to sanctify it, and making sure that they receive the sacraments are two of the main points that we always emphasize. It is usually difficult for them to understand the redeeming value of their sicknesses because most of them can hardly make ends meet, let alone deal with the difficulties of sickness. But, we continue to enlighten them to particularly bear illnesses gracefully and to realize that the sick are God’s favored children.

Six months ago, a mother, burdened with the birth of a baby girl with a tumor in the middle of her face, abandoned said baby because she could not handle the disgrace of the abnormality of her child in addition to her abject poverty and state of penury. In this baby, we see the infant Jesus, born in a manger among the animals, because no home or inn would take Him in. Likewise, in the sick and the poor, we see Christ Himself imploring us to take Him and them into our hearts. He wants you and me to be a “Simon of Cyrene,” to help the sick and the poor carry their crosses, as He says to us: “As you did it to one of the least of these brethren, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40)

If the Lord moves you to help alleviate the crosses of poverty and sickness that our brethren have to bear and in so doing, emulate Simon of Cyrene, kindly course your donations to the parish office and please indicate that it is for Rizal Medical Center, care of the Health Care Ministry.

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Articles Prison Ministry

CARRYING THEIR CROSSES By: RJ Limpo

IMG_4899Here is a quick look into the day-to-day crosses that a prison inmate carries:

ACCOMMODATIONS
The average size of a prison cell is about 30 square meters (about the size of a condo studio unit) Each cell usually houses about 50 people, sharing 1 bathroom. Beds are arranged in double decked and in some cases situated inside the bathrooms.

MEALS
All meals are single pitched, either sautéed vegetables or fried fish at best. Rice is of the lowest quality and the utensils of the worst kind. Plastic plates and unmatched silverware and thick-lipped glasses are what are normal in jail situations.

RECREATION
Some jail cells have it better than others. But during the Christmas Outreach in Taguig City Jail (TCJ) last December, one inmate was thankful for our mass and activity at the quadrangle as she said she has not been outside her cell since 6 months prior to our coming.

MASSES
In TCJ, due to the absence of a chapel, masses are only held once a month. And attendance is also by chance as only about 20% of the population can be accommodated to hear mass at the quadrangle.

THE ICING ON THE CAKE
All these crosses though weigh much less than the cross of judgment. Living with guilt and the feeling of being judged is perhaps the heaviest cross anyone can bear. Ours is a harsh society —quick to judge and convenient to neglect. Some inmates experience abandonment even from their own family members. There are inmates who do not have “dalaw” from years on end.

This Lenten season is a reminder of the aftermath of judgment. The result of judgment is the cross itself. Jesus reminds us not to condemn but to forgive so we too may make our own crosses lighter for ourselves.

Should you wish to donate or participate in any of the Prison Ministry affairs please get in touch with RJ Limpo () or Teng Jorolan ().

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GOING BEYOND OUR OWN CROSSES By: Ella Tan

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The most beautiful site I have ever encountered visiting the PGH Children’s Charity Ward was when I witnessed 2 men giving a sponge bath to a feverish child suffering from a severe infection. What was so special about this was that one of the men happened to be the father of the child while the other man was a father of another patient under the care of our PGH Hospital Ministry. These two men taught me two beautiful life lessons. From the father of the suffering child, while he is beset with worry and anxiety over the condition of his son, he went beyond himself with a love so pure and selfless as he humbled himself to untiringly give his child a sponge bath. As for the other father, while he too was carrying his own cross as his own child was fighting for dear life on the other bed, without any hesitation ran to the aid of the other and assisted in trying to lower down the temperature of the feverish child. When asked why he did that, his response was “I learned to go beyond myself from the love and support my family has received”.

This is a clear proof that with everyone’s unwavering support to our Parish’s PGH Hospital Ministry, we must not limit ourselves in unraveling their hearts but also our own for the good of all. Come join us during our regular Tuesday hospital visits and be a direct witness of this heartwarming experience.

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From the desk of the PPC President

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As we prepare for our Lenten journey, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the Ministries who participated in our Buling Buling and Ash Wednesday Activities. The Performances staged by our different ministries surpassed what they did before and their efforts gave us a truly enjoyable evening. Thank you also to our sponsors and all the food booths. Special thanks to the organizing committee especially Tina Teehankee, Girlie Sison and Suzette Gatmaitan without whom Buling Buling 2016 would not be possible.

The next 40 days gives us another chance to take stock, reflect, and more importantly pray. It gives us a chance to understand the centrality of prayer in our spiritual life, the soul of our apostolate.

Looking back to almost a decade of volunteering in our parish, I began to wonder where service for me began. It started with a prayer during Stations of the Cross on one of the Fridays of lent. It began with carrying the wooden cross in our parish trying to mimick what our Lord was forced to do .

With these weekly Lenten devotionals, my road in a prayerful life took different twists and turns but all throughout, a deeper prayerful life led to a greater degree in caring. What started out as simply praying and at a lost for the next steps slowly developed to a deeper sense of caring… caring for the people praying with me; caring for the ministries I soon joined, in music, lay ministry & lectoring; caring for the beautiful liturgies in our Church, its masses and devotionals and finally caring for our parish family.

With time this sense of caring continued to march forth realizing that our parish is not just here in our local community but is present in the lives of our scholars, the many sick children in PGH and in all other outreach ministries. It is this same sense that now drives what our worship committee will do this Lent.

We are all given another chance to start a prayerful life this lent…..

I hope all of us will take this opportunity and pray. With our prayer we begin to care.

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Articles Special Events

MERCY AND COMPASSION: A TIMELESS AND AGELESS EXPERIENCE An Interview with Mrs. Chloe C. Romulo-Perqiuet By Jonathan Cruz

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For most people, the loss of a loved one is unbearable. The death of a parent, a sibling, a child, a spouse, or a relative can be a traumatic experience; one that may seem almost impossible to overcome. It has the power to shape your identity, your actions, your outlook, and thus your future. So it is only logical to imagine that having lost not just one, but two husbands from separate marriages, Chloe C. Romulo-Periquet would be distressed and embittered about life, love, and the Lord.That, however, could not be farther from the truth.

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Her first husband, Gregorio V. Romulo, had been a childhood friend she had grown up with since her teenage years. Their friendship flowed naturally into a relationship and they decided to wed when she was 24 and he was 29. She and Greg lived full lives together raising three children and practicing their professions as a ballet instructor and performer and as a member of the diplomatic service, respectively. Their marriage lasted more than 30 years when Greg passed away. He suffered a stroke several years before which left one side of his body completely paralyzed. She remembers that his favorite phrase was to “keep on keeping on.” “Don’t think I’m going to cripple your lives too. Let’s go on ahead with what God gives us,” she recounts him saying.

After his death, her prayer to help her cope with the pain was, “Lord, I think you are sending me this emotion. If you are sending me something, I can only be able to carry it with your help.” She continues, “I accepted it and it eased the pain because it [was] the natural thing that [would] happen. All of us will go through the same thing.”

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She met her second husband, Jose J. Periquet, Sr., seven years later through her future daughter-in-law. She was in her 60s and he was in his 70s.They started out as friends and their relationship progressed with the urging and support of their own families. They were married for seven happy years and spent their time together travelling and enjoying life and retirement.Jose eventually passed away due to natural causes.

When asked how she has managed to get through the loss of both husbands, she attributes it to her sense of faith, “My calling throughout all this is, ‘Whatever God sends, I accept.’ I pray for the strength to accept the things that the Lord sends [me].” It has been that total trust in God’s plan that has allowed her to let life unfold and lead her where God wants her to go. She believes that the key to getting through any challenge in life is to have that trust in the Lord that everything will be ok. She prays, “Give me Lord the strength to keep where you want me to stay.” She says that you never know what the Lord will send.

When asked what she feels is the most important attribute for a happy and successful marriage, she answers, “Patience. No matter what it is, just stop and hold yourself from saying anything and wait. Don’t volunteer opinions. Just wait and see and pray that whatever your actions that are going to react to whatever they actioned…is correct. Wait and ask always; don’t do right away. Wait, sometimes you wait too long but it’s better to wait than make a mistake and hurt others.”

Her faith has helped her navigate through the ever-changing seas of life. It is difficult to believe how Chloe has gone through love and loss twice and still come out ever-so joyful, kind-hearted, and peaceful. And if you were to ask her how she did it, surely her reply would be that it was all in a Lord’s day and that she is looking forward again to tomorrow.

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50 YEARS OF MERCY AND COMPASSION By Randy and Cecile Limjoco


“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” – Jesus Christ

When we speak of Mercy and Compassion we need to understand that both are premised on the ability to love. There can be no greater love than that of our Lord Jesus’ commandment of how to love one another.

Marriage can be compared to an arduous trek up a high mountain the peak often obscured by a myriad of distractions brought on by everyday life. There is no guarantee that newlyweds will succeed in navigating the sometimes rocky and slippery slopes to the top no matter how passionate and intense their love was for each other on their wedding day.

My loving wife Cecile and I have been scaling Mount Marriage for nearly 50 years and have had our share of challenges while hiking up that path to the top. I consider myself extremely blessed in having tied the knot with Cecile. I have always said that she is my angel who God in his mercy chose her to lead me to Him. The truth told, I had no knowledge of the Sacraments nor any spiritual formation when I met Cecile in January 1966 having just turned 19 years old. It was she who in her love for me took compassion on my young wandering soul that led me to God. As my personal relationship with Jesus Christ grew and knowledge of God’s precepts became more understood so did our love for each other. This made it possible for Cecile and I to continue growing in the spirt as we serve God in the various ministries of the SSAP.

We learned that the secret of staying together is to work on your marriage and nourish the love for each other everyday — love must be expressed, articulated and made real. Like a bright light love must be allowed to shine not kept hidden in a closet. Hence, communication, sharing our dreams and doing things together with our children and grandchildren. The best place in the world is in the arms of someone who will hold you at your best, but who will pick you up and hug you tight at your weakest moment hence a compassionate love.

Jesus did not only lay down his life for us to save us from sin, but we recognize that he is also our source of strength and peace we need in our married life thus, having experienced and witnessed what Jesus did for our journey to the top of Mount Marriage and our family, it is our desire to make Jesus known to others who may not as yet made Him their personal Savior and in doing so allow Him to work his miracle as they journey through life with God as their partner and guiding light.

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Where have I seen mercy in my life? by Vince Recto

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I am not perfect. I am actually far from any form of greatness. Growing up, I had honestly made many mistakes. Mistakes that my siblings and parents never seem to forget and would always make it a point to remind me of them. I had once thought this was cruel punishment. What happened to forgive and forget? Why must they press on healing wounds?

It is only recently, when it all made sense to me. Everything my family does is out of love. They weren’t pressing on wounds but rather, they were only reminding me why I was hurt, and they wished that I would not bring myself into the same situation. The amazing thing is that they know all my mistakes, my errors, and my flaws but even still, they have chosen to love me. They love me in more ways than I had understood at the time, and probably more than I do now.

So if I were to answer where I see mercy in my life, I simply have to say that I see it in my being. I am the product of the mercy from everyone important in my life, and for this I am truly grateful.

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Experiencing Mercy and Compassion in the Workplace By Marly Laraya

The knee jerk notion of “mercy” and “compassion” in the workplace would most likely be the scenario of firing someone and having a change of heart “Have mercy on meeeeeeee!!!!” which may (or may not) turn out to be disastrous for the office in the long run. But “mercy” in the workplace need not be that dramatic. When you bring into your profession the wholeness of your being, you bring into the workplace the kindness and justice that the love of Christ brings. Rather than seeing workers as a means to an end, a thoroughly replaceable entity by an entirely more efficient alternative/robot, you regard those around you as human beings and you set goals and targets which allow them to move into achieving the fullness of their aspirations. A good example of this would be a story I heard recently wherein the job for a hospital janitor entailed “mopping, cleaning, and disinfecting the floors”. When reprimanded for not doing his job by helping the elderly get on and off the bed, for singing to the bandaged blind patients who could not fall sleep, for taking the time to make the sick children laugh – his response was “yes I do mop, clean, and disinfect the floors, but my job is to make sure that I provide the environment so that the patients get better.” It was a man of mercy who must have hired the janitor, briefed him, and set him loose on the workplace – a janitor, a human being on fire to help others get better.

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PREPARING FOR LENT: A FAMILY AFFAIR By: Marie Tycangco

PREPARING FOR ASH WEDNESDAY
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Every year, Catholic churches around the world prepare for Ash Wednesday by burning palms, which were blessed during the previous year’s Palm Sunday.The priest begins the rites by calling the faithful to do penance and show mercy. After the palms are burned, the ashes are blessed by the priest and collected for use on Ash Wednesday.

Why are ashes from the previous year’s Palm Sunday used?
“Palm Sunday was when the people rejoiced at Jesus’ triumphal entrance to Jerusalem. They celebrated his arrival by waving palm fronds, little realizing that he was coming to die for their sins. By using palms from Palm Sunday, it is a reminder that we must not only rejoice of Jesus’ coming but also regret the fact that our sins made it necessary for him to die for us in order to save us from hell.”

Why do we use ashes?
“Blessed ashes having been used in God’s rituals since the time of Moses.Ashes are a biblical symbol of mourning and penance. In Bible times, the custom was to fast, wear sackcloth, sit in dust and ashes, and put dust and ashes on one’s head. While we no longer normally wear sackcloth or sit in dust and ashes, the customs of fasting and putting ashes on one’s forehead as a sign of MOURNING and PENANCE have survived to this day.”

PREPARING AS A FAMILY
In this Year of the Family and the Eucharist, we are invited to kneel down to bring renewal to the family. With so many problems stemming from family issues, broken marriages, sibling rivalries, parental abuse, problem children, among others, we are called to strengthen our relationships with our family more than ever. This Lenten Season, let us mourn together and do penance as a family.
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Penance: Mutual Forgiveness
Pope Francis in his catechesis said: “The family cannot live well without mutual forgiving. Every act of forgiveness repairs the cracks in the house and strengthens its walls.”He says, “If we learn to ask for forgiveness immediately and mutually forgive one another, healing the wounds, the marriage is strengthened and the family home gradually becomes more solid, capable of resisting the shock of our small and great wickedness. Now, that does not require a big speech, but just a caress: a caress and everything is finished and starts again.”

Mourning: Praying and Making Sacrifices as a Family
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Family prayer not only strengthens each family member’s relationship with God, but also with each other. It makes each family member aware of each ones pains, thus are able to share the same with each other. Pray about marriage problems together; Pray about parental problems together; Pray about your children together; Pray for the world together.

Families can also make sacrifices as a family and together share in the passion of Christ. It doesn’t have to be heavy. The whole family can make simple sacrifices like going to Mass together or having family meals together or doing outreach work together throughout the season of Lent.

Let us also make the holidays Holy Days as a family, by staying home during the Holy Week and participating in Church activities. Join the Way of the Cross, which will be held every Friday starting Feb. 12, attend the Vigil on Holy Thursday, Visita Iglesia,Seven Last Words on Good Friday, Easter Vigil on Black Saturday and celebrate as a family on Easter Sunday.

PREPARING AS A COMMUNITY

Buling-Buling 2016 Dekada: A Retro Musical Affair
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Santuario de San Antonio Parish will be holding its annual Buling-buling festival on Feb. 9, 2015 (Tuesday) at the Parish Center Social Hall. A mass will be held at the main Church before the start of the festivities. JJ Yulo, Antioch adult leader, will be master of ceremonies for this year’s event. The different ministries will be showcasing their talents through song and dance numbers based on this year’s theme: Dekada: A Retro Musical Affair. Food stalls will also be set up. The festivities will be culminated with the burning of the blessed palms, which will be used on Ash Wednesday.

We would like to invite all the families to join the SSAP community for Buling-buling and as a community prepare for the season of Lent.

References:
http://prayerbookforreligious.blogspot.com/2011/03/palms-to-ashes-rite-of-burning-palms.html
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/ASH_WED.htm
http://www.familiam.org/famiglia_eng/church/00004309_Pope_Francis.html

 

 

 

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FR. REU! by Javier Luis Gomez


This week, we take a quick break from all our activities to greet our wonderful parish priest, Fr. Reu Galoy a very happy birthday. If you’re wondering, his birthday was on January 26 – and Fr. Reu, his brother Franciscans and some parishioners came together for a little celebration.

Let’s also take a moment to thank God for how blessed we are to have Fr. Reu guiding  the flock of San Antonio. A servant who uses his talents, Fr. Reu is one who has constantly moved to learn more and do more. He got his Ph.D. in Ministry from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He has served for many different parishes and in many different capacities for the Franciscans. Before coming to San Antonio he was Dean of the Franciscan School of Theology and President of OLAS College.

Above that, he brings to San Antonio his skills as a facilitator and is talented in bringing people together to work for the mission of the parish. Undoubtedly he has done much to work with the many different people from different stages and walks of life within the parish. No doubt, that at the heart of it is his love and compassion for people, regardless of where they are from and what they can offer. With him, the parish continues to come to life and grow into God’s design for the entire community.

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” 
― Francis of Assisi
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