Tag: Edmund Lim

From the desk of the PPC President

Post author By Santuario de San Antonio Parish
Post date February 21, 2016

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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.

Tags Edmund Lim

Articles

FROM THE DESK OF THE PPC PRESIDENT, Edmund Lim, KHS

Post author By Santuario de San Antonio Parish
Post date January 10, 2016

A very Happy New Year to all of us! The Christmas season officially ends this weekend. As we embark on this new year and new Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) term, allow me to thank everyone who participated and organized all of our parish activities from Advent to Epiphany. The hard work of all our ministry heads and members gave our parish another beautiful Christmas season.

Looking forward, the PPC will have their planning day next week to set the goals and direction of the parish for the next two years. Specifically, we will explore 4 key areas where we can make our parish more meaningful in our lives.

Firstly, we hope to complete the current reorganization program our Parish priest, Fr Reu, had began last November with the help of the PPC Execom. This reorganization aims to strengthen our parish organization by improving coordination and cultivating new leaders/members in our different ministries.

Secondly, we seek to review and check the physical structure of our 63 year old church. This activity will continue to ensure the comfort of our parishioners while maintaining the upkeep of our facilities.

Thirdly, we will strive to develop new plans to enhance the stability of our parish’s long term financial well-being.

And finally, we will work closely with our Parish priest and pastoral team to stimulate spiritual growth and bonding in our community.

As we begin this process of discernment, we request for your continued prayers and understanding. Our goals will only become achievable with your help and God’s Grace. Our whole team is elated to serve and we look forward to a year of compassion and mercy.

Tags Edmund Lim, PPC President

Reflections

Faith Sharing for Fiesta Novena Mass Day 4

Post author By SSAP Contributor
Post date July 12, 2014

We are featuring a series of nine Faith Sharing of Virtues of St. Anthony of Padua that were presented during the fiesta 9-day novena masses. This will temporarily replace the Sunday Gospel Reflections; after which the Gospel Reflections will return.

Lost Article
by Edmund Lim

My Name is Edmund. Last October just right after the 2013 Francis fest, I had time to reflect on my two years as head of our Music and Worship ministries. It was a busy two years serving here in our parish. While challenging, the job was not without its joys and excitement. How time flies. I am extremely grateful to our past parish priest Father Joel and our past PPC President Mike Limpe for giving me the opportunity to serve our parish in both roles and with this chance, grow my faith in Christ. I would also like to thank Mrs. Abella for teaching me ever so patiently all the Liturgical celebrations and traditions in our parish.

At the end of my two year service, my mother requested that I accompany her to visit Lisbon and Fatima in Portugal. I leapt at the chance to visit a sacred pilgrimage site for our Blessed Mother and what’s more, have a chance to see the birth place of our patron saint Anthony of Padua. Yes, while our patron saint is known to be of Padua, he was actually born in front of the Cathedral in Lisbon and was Portuguese and a Lisboan. In this pilgrimage, I planned to thank St Anthony for all the blessings and answered prayers.

Upon arriving in that cold October day in Lisbon, we set off to attend mass at the birth place of St. Anthony. Praying ever so deeply, my mind started to wonder about the next PPC term. As the last PPC term ended, speculations about the new one began rising as it normally does. I kept hearing my name pop up as a person who can be part of this next PPC. While serving in church is rewarding, the prospect of two more rigorous yeas filled with more responsibilities is not exactly my cup of tea. I saw how our hard our past presidents worked and it is not without fear and apprehension that I look towards the next term with dread. should I be chosen. I prayed hard that day to saint Anthony, to intercede and minimize my church responsibilities. I pleaded with him that since I am here every day serving and attending Mass, singing and praying, lecturing and commentating, and being a Eucharistic minister, there is no need for me to take up more responsibilities. Now I know that this is a selfish request.

After a few pleasant days spent in Portugal, our trip continued on to Santiago de Compostela and on to Paris for a few days of vacation. While on the flight to Paris, all of our group’s luggage got lost en route. Being angry at the airline, a dreadful thought came to my mind. I just went to the birth place of St Anthony, the saint of lost articles, the saint who helps find things which have been lost. Why did he allow my luggage to go missing? Is it because of the selfish prayer I made while in Lisbon? Did he want me to serve more in his church? Could this be why our articles got lost?

At first I refused to believe this idea and set it to the back of my mind. After 2 days, something inside me (it must be the Holy Spirit) made me go to a church. In that church luckily there was a statue of St Anthony. I lit a candle right there and then and prayed once more. This time, I asked for forgiveness –for my selfish request. My prayer at that time was “thy will be done” and “if called I will serve with all my heart and with all my soul”. The bags showed up within 12 hours after that prayer.

From that moment on, I thanked St Anthony for reminding me that we do not choose to serve. We are called to serve. He did find something which I have lost. It was not a bag. That day he found my will to serve, picked it up from the ground where I discarded it out of fear and apprehension and he gave it back to me. In giving my spirit of service back to me, Saint Anthony also protected something more important from getting lost. My FAITH. So here I am, continuing to serve with a Franciscan heart but also with a Benedictine motto of Ora et Labora ringing in my mind. Today being Pentacost, I pray that the Holy Spirit continues to guide me in the next year and a half and I also pray that if the Holy Spirit ever inspires any of you to serve here in our Church in whatever, shape or form, I and all of us here in the Liturgical ministries will welcome you with open arms.

Tags Edmund Lim