Three New Sacramentino Priests –
A Joyful Day in the Life of the Church!
For the family, relatives, and friends of three ordinands, love came a day early, so to speak, as on February 13, 2016, at Sta. Cruz Church, Manila, the family of the Apostle of the Eucharist, Fr. Saint Peter Julian Eymard, gathered to celebrate the ordination to the priesthood of Rev. Jonelito Sison, Rev. Israel Cruz and Rev. Ronnel Fulo. They were ordained by Most Reverend Ronnie Bancud, SSS, Bishop of Cabanatuan.
The three newly ordained priests finished their theological studies at the Archdiocese of Manila’s San Carlos Graduate School of Theology in Makati. They made their Perpetual Profession of Religious Vows on the 15th of August 2015 and were ordained as Deacons on the 16th of August 2015.
Their ordination is celebrated with deep gratitude to God for they will be helping now in the aggressive efforts of the Province of Our Lady of the Assumption in promoting its Eucharist Charism, Spirituality and Mission. To make this happen they have been assigned in the different SSS communities – Fr. Jonelito, to Sta. Cruz community, Fr. Israel, to La Sallian Center community and Fr. Ronnel, to Tabaco community.
Canonical Erection of San Pedro Calungsod Parish,
Diocese of Surigao
On February 20, 2016, at 8:30 in the morning, a solemn Mass was celebrated on the occasion of the canonical erection of the San Pedro Calungsod Parish in the Diocese of Surigao, Province of Surigao del Norte.
The ceremony started with the procession of the image of San Pedro Calungsod at the center isle inside the church. The church was packed, and many people took seats outside while others were standing.
The Mass was presided by the Most Reverend Bernardito “Barney” Cleopas Auza, a Filipino Archbishop who is the current Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. The homily was delivered by Most Reverend José Serofia Palma, the Archbishop of Cebu. Concelebrating were Most Reverend Antonieto Cabajog, the Local Ordinary of the Diocese of Surigao, priests from the Diocese of Surigao and Archdiocese of Cebu, religious from different congregations and the Sacramentinos.
The rite for the canonical erection was integrated within the Mass. The Act of Canonical Erection of the New Parish of San Pedro Calungsod was read by the Chancellor, Fr. James Wendele Puracan.
The homily of Archbishop Palma focused on San Pedro Calungsod as a martyr for the faith and especially as a catechist that spread the faith even in his youth. Thus, the enormous challenge is to reach out to the greater majority of the Philippine population which is the youth, in order to engage them in knowing and sharing the faith.
When the Blessed Sacrament religious took over the Parish of San Pedro Calungsod on July 18, 2015, it was still then a quasi-parish with the name Sta. Cruz. Thus, aside from elevating it to full-fledged parish, its name was also changed to San Pedro Calungsod to give honor to the second saint of the Philippines.
Working Guidelines for the
Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Concerning the Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament, the 34th General Chapter left us with the following challenges:
- The urgency of organizing the formation of the laity in order to help them progress in their understanding of the Eucharist.
- The Project of Life as a model to accompany laypeople and should figure among the pastoral priorities of our communities.
For the General Council to realize the above mandate, Fr. General, right after the recent POLA Provincial Chapter admonished the present Council to promote the Aggregation. He said, ‘Focus on the work of organizing and forming lay aggregations. We have a big number of laity who are keen with our charism or we may say we have in your hands a huge evangelizing Eucharistic force. How can we best accompany the works of the aggregations?’
Actually, some religious have already attempted to form members of the Aggregation and they were quite successful. Unfortunately, this did not impact the rest of the Province. Although persons-in-charge have been identified with the Provincial Superior as the designated overall in-charge and the local superiors as the collaborators, the problem is always the question of how to do it. This question is even made complicated by the fact that in some of our pastoral communities, we have existing Eucharistic groups, leagues, fraternities and associations.
By way of jumpstarting things, Fr. Provincial will soon send to all the religious of the Province a Working Guidelines on the Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament. The religious will be asked to comment by correcting, adding, modifying directly on the document. The deadline for submission is March 13, just before the regular Council meeting.
A Building for the Promotion of
SSS Mission and Spirituality
The 2015 Amplified Provincial Council (APC) approved the construction of a building at the Provincialate to promote the Eucharistic Mission and Spirituality and to house the resident religious. The present structure is already showing signs of severe damage caused by termites and it is no longer practical to make repairs.
The same APC decided to use the services of Architect Hubilla (the daughter of the original owner of the house) after the presentation she made of the proposed project in virtual reality, based on the list of requirements initially submitted to her by the local superiors.
The APC made further comments which were taken into consideration and these are now reflected in the second design distributed to the different communities for comment. The deadline for submission of comments is March 3, 2016.
Davao LITES: Maguindanao Mission
Thru the invitation of FR. DENNIS GUI, OMI, the Davao LITES team will conduct the “LIFE IN THE EUCHARIST SEMINAR” at the Our Lady of Salvation Parish situated in South Tupi, Maguindanao this coming February 26-27, 2016. The seminar is intended for Catechists, Lectors and other leaders of the Parish with the hope of developing a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Eucharist – the summit of life.
The Team is composed of Fr. Ferdinand Tomo, SSS, Estela Aquino, Belen de Leon, Hilda de Leon, Germilino Bermoy, Lourdes Velasco, Cecilia Mirasol, Adolfo Mirasol and Renato Villegas.
Enflamed and inspired by the IEC and the great inspiration of Peter Julian Eymard, the Team readily accepted the invitation. With limited time to work with, the Team was able to come up with the seminar module suited for the participants of the said seminar. The Cebuano Translation of the Module has to be adopted since majority of the participants are either Cebuano or Tagalog.
Let us pray for the success of these “Missionaries of the Eucharist”.
Butch M. Samante
Prayer
- Peaceful and Credible national and local elections
- More vocations to the religious and priestly life
- Consolation for all those who are sick and elderly
- For our students on their final examinations
- For the sick members of the respective families of our religious
- For the repose of the soul of Roland Bourque, brother of Bro. John Bourque (died in Salem, MA last Feb. 10)
- For the members of the Council on their forthcoming meeting in March
Fr. Joseph Matitu, SSS
[FEBRUARY 24, 2016]