Grace, Grandeur, and Gratitude
“We cannot live the Eucharist unless we are animated by the spirit which led Christ to give his life for the world. When he proclaimed the new covenant by the gift of his Body and Blood to his disciples, it was out of love that the Lord gave himself up”
(SSS ROL, 4)
Every time I recall my vocation journey, I could not help to recognize, reminisce, and reflect God’s graciousness that vividly painted and ponded at different facets of my life. While every journey has its own beginnings, desiring diligently how the first step must be taken, the grace of God remains uncontainable amidst uncertainties and unchartered destination. On the process of formation, it wrestles and widens the opportunities given for such momentum of subtleness and stillness to the movement of the Holy Spirit. The fusion of human values and spiritual virtues became an oasis of strength and sultry disposition and discipline towards integration. The panoramic views on raging realities and the assiduous allurements are reflected at the heart of the gospels. There are times in the journey where the dawn breaks unpromising and uncompromising. The daybreak despoils the hopes and hungers and the daytime deplores for guidance and gist and the dusk delving on the edge of endurance and efficacy of God’s love whose love and mercy has never wavered. For me, everything is nothing but grace. As Thomas Merton beautifully says, “Grace is not strange, magic substance which is subtly filtered into our souls to act as a kind of spiritual penicillin. Grace is unity, openness within ourselves, oneness with God.”
My Eucharistic vocation enunciates the grandeur of God’s loving plan in my life. When I look back, the pervading experience of God’s grandeur in my life is always the ineffable experience of God’s love. The immensity of God’s love is always the source and summit of my understanding that my vocation is a journey of love because God loves me first viz-a-viz the love that he manifested at the heart of the Eucharist. The grandeur of God’s love nourishes me in my journey and becomes the pervading paradigm in carrying out the Eucharistic spirit and charism. “Drawing life from bread given for the life of the world, we proclaim in the thanksgiving prayer the Passover of Christ, and we welcome the Lord Jesus in his Eucharistic presence by a prolonged prayer of adoration and contemplation” (SSS ROL, 3).
I would always remain grateful to God for the gift of Eucharistic vocation. Those words may not be enough to express how grateful I am to be chosen in spite my shortcomings and limitations. The road which I have taken may not of constant comfort and conquest but of contours and corrasions. I have indebted much gratitude for all those who have become part of my self-giving in the service of the congregation and of the Church. I am profoundly convinced that in my humblest way of giving myself thru the gift of self as taught by our holy founder St. Peter Julian Eymard our Eucharistic Lord will continue to inspire me as I have received the gift of priesthood. Indeed, my priesthood is God’s manifold manifestation of his everlasting love in my life. I wish to share that same love “to respond to the hungers of the human family” so that the world may overcome those forces that firmly fetter the human’s freedom to experience the fire of God’s love in the Eucharist. May His Eucharistic Kingdom Come! (Rev. Fr. Throy M. Fuentebella, SSS)
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
SPAIN COLLABORATION
In the letter of our Superior General Fr. Eugenio BARBOSA MARTINS, sss to POLA dated January 20, 2020, he confidently articulated the need of our support for the Eucharistic mission in Spain, he mentioned that “in view of the drastic decline of vocations in Europe, we believe it is necessary for us to maintain some strategy so that the Charism of Saint Peter Julian Eymard remains present. In this way, our mission and our presence may be well qualified. For this reason, our presence in Spain, starting with the important diocese of Madrid, can be maintained with your missionary presence.” For now, the Provincial Council on its meeting last January 15, 2020 identified three (3) more Religious for the Spain missionary collaboration to augment the existing two (2) Religious – Fr. Allen Peña, sss and Fr. Dante Mejillano, sss who are currently assigned in Parroquia del Santísimo Sacramento, Madrid, Spain.
Our response to this mandate of our General Superior is a timely and relevant consequence to the call of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for missionary initiatives Ad Extra in view of the 500th Year celebration of Christianity in the Philippines. As what bishop Broderick Pabillo, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila said “the quinquennial event is not just a looking back to the past. It is also a looking forward to the future. Yes, we have been chosen and truly gifted with the faith. This carries a great responsibility. We gratefully accept the gift, we develop it, and now it is our turn to pass it on to the others. By “others” I mean to the coming generations of Filipinos and also to the other peoples in Asia and in the world. Jesus has come for the salvation of all peoples. Since we received the Good News, we have to share this Good News to others. Hence, the celebration is also a call to mission. In fact, the encompassing theme of the celebration, which also serves as a challenge, is GRACIOUSLY GIFTED TO GIVE. Let us vigorously celebrate so that we will all be vigorously motivated to go out to share the gift of the Christian faith!” In this context, we as a Province is greatly moved through the inspiration of our Holy Founder, St. Peter Julian Eymard, to manifest our presence in places that we are most needed and continue illuminating the world with the fire of the Eucharist. (Fr. Alde O. Bureros, sss)
TAAL OUTREACH
The Taal Volcano eruption last January 12 has displaced many of our fellow Filipinos in Batangas and forced them to flee their homes and evacuate to centers in Batangas, Cavite, and Laguna.
True to its values of Eucharistic service, the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament – Province of Our Lady of the Assumption (POLA) collaborated and joined with the Association of Major Religious Superiors (AMRSP) its campaign to call out for donations for the victims of the aforesaid calamity. POLA extends its heartfelt thanks to all those who donated funds especially the Santuario Eucaristico – Sacred Heart Parish, Cagayan de Oro; Fr. Alfred Yap, sss and the Filipino Community of St. Francis Church Australia; Blessed Sacrament Communities in Hilo & Honolulu, Hawaii; and our friends and benefactors through Fr. Choy Ramos, sss