A SEAT IN PONTIFICAL AND EPISCOPAL IEC BOARDS:

The Secretary General to the Pontifical Committee on International Eucharistic Congresses is  Fr. Vittore Boccardi, a Sacramentino. It seems that the Committee always reserves a seat for an SSS since the holding of such events has been inspired by our Founder St. Peter Julian Eymard.

Looking back, the International Eucharistic Congresses were initiated by Emilie Tamisier (1834-1910), a former Servant of the Blessed Sacrament. She met Eymard at her brother-in-law’s residence when she came for a visit. Eymard, who was then in the process of founding a society of adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, immediately asked her brother-in-law to allow her to join his ministry. Her love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament grew as she listened more and more to the preaching of Fr. Eymard and attended masses he celebrated. Fr. Eymard once told her, “You belong to the Blessed Sacrament in life and in death.  One is rich with such a treasure!”

SSS support for the idea of Emilie Tamisier regarding Eucharistic Congresses continued even after Fr. Eymard’s death  especially during the early years: First, in Lille on June 28-30, 1881: 4 SSS were involved – Chanuet, Audibert, Tesniere and Durand; second, in Avignon on September 14-17, 1882: Tesniere and Durand’s influence (especially for children); third, In Liege on June 5-10, 1883: again, Tesniere and Durand.

Here in the Philippines, an SSS religious has always occupied a seat in the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on International Eucharistic Congresses since the time of the late Fr. Nory Vasquez. After him came Fr. Mike Garcia (as Board Treasurer). When Fr. Mike was assigned as parish administrator of the Holy Family Parish in Panal, he was replaced in the Episcopal Board by Fr. Poli Ty. When Fr. Poli became Provincial, Fr. Mike returned to the Board as Executive Secretary.

Involvement in the Pontifical and Episcopal Boards is a long-standing apostolate of the Sacramentinos that hopefully will continue and thrive.

CONTRIBUTION OF POLA TO IEC THROUGH FR. MIKE:

The entire Province of Our Lady of the Assumption is happy to contribute in the preparations for the 51^st International Congress especially through the gift of self of Fr. Mike Garcia, the Executive Secretary of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on International Eucharistic Congresses. Aside from being the Executive Secretary, he is busy going around giving talks on the Eucharist and primer on IEC. The following are just some of his scheduled talks:

1. March 21 – Diocesan Lay Ministries Assembly (Diocese of Laoag)
2. July 4 – Diocesan Eucharistic Congress (Diocese of Pasig)
3. July 13 – Theological Conference on IEC 2012 to IEC 2016 (Don Bosco School of Theology, Parañaque)
4. July 16 – National Convention on Family and Life Apostolate (Cebu City)
5. July 24 – CEAP, National Capital Region (UST Manila)
6. September 14-15 – Diocesan Eucharistic Congress (Diocese of Butuan)
7. September 17 – Diocesan Eucharistic Congress (Diocese of Surigao)
8. September 20 – Parish Eucharistic Congress (San Vicente Ferrer Quasi-Parih, Taguig)
9. October 11 – Conference on the Eucharist (Mary Cause of our Joy College Seminary, Laoag)
10. November 7 – Parish Eucharistic Congress (Sta. Cruz Church, Manila)
11. November 14 – Parish Eucharistic Recollection (Saint John Marie Vianney Parish)
12. October 18 – Parish Eucharistic Congress (Sacred Heart Parish, CDO and Nuestra Seňora Virgen del Rosario, CDO)
13. October 25 – Parish Eucharistic Talk (Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish, Mapandan, Pangasinan)
14. December 5 – Parish Eucharistic Congress (Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Davao City)

IEC 2016 PRAYER:

Lord Jesus Christ, our hope of glory, You are the fulfillment of the

Father’s  plan to save all humanity.

You are the mystery hidden from the ages and  from generations past

now manifested to us.

You abide in your Church in  the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.

As we celebrate the Holy Eucharist and receive your Body and Blood,

grant us the awareness that your presence in us urges us to

continue your saving mission in the world.

Send us your Holy Spirit,  that he may lead us to walk humbly with

the poor and the marginalized, in the  company of Mary, your

most holy mother and ours.

O Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, to you be all honor and glory

and praise in the unity of the Father and the Holy Spirit.

One God, forever and ever.  Amen.

 

 

SCHEDULED ADORATION AND L.I.T.E.S. (TABACO):

The following are the Eucharistic endeavors in the SSS community and the Parish of the Holy Family in Panal, Tabaco, Albay:

1. Since the Perpetual Adoration Chapel was completed last July, they now have the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament daily.  It starts after the first Mass in the morning (6 a.m.) and is scheduled for reposition at 9:00 p.m.  However, the Blessed Sacrament is brought to the main Church daily at 4 p.m. for Holy Hour (which includes praying of the Rosary and Novena (e.g., Tuesdays – Holy Face; Wednesdays – Our Lady of Perpetual Help, etc.).  The schedule of regular adorers is still being finalized.  The community has common adoration every Thursday from 4-5 p.m; for other days, each religious’ individual schedule is taken into account.
2. LITE Seminar was conducted last August 8-9 at the Cana Hall.  Most of those who attended were the new volunteers in the different Church ministries like Lectors and Commentators and Extraordinary Ministers of the Holy Eucharist. There were 20 participants.
3. Another LITE Seminar is scheduled in October 10-11 at the Chapel of Our Lady of Salvation in Bangkilingan (one of the barangay chapels).  Although the participants will mainly come from the different BECs of the parish, the seminar is also open to others who are interested to attend.

 

LIFESTYLE COMMISSION MEETING:

In order to better the animation of our Local Communities, the Commission on Lifestyle headed by Fr. Hermie Garcia initiated the gathering of the local superiors who are in the Philippines (Fr. Kit was represented by his assistant Fr. Ed Bugna).

The gathering started by taking up the 10 points decision of the 7^th Provincial Chapter that fall under the purview of the Lifestyle Commission. The participants discussed ways and means of realizing and implementing the 10 points decision.

The next part was the animation of the Provincial Superior regarding the points that the General Superior wants the Province to look into. And these are the following:

1. For a more assured means and quality of work, a suggestion for a reading together of the ROL on the Congregation’s governance system, as well as those in the General Statutes and the Provincial Statutes.
2. Accompanying well the religious especially the young in our option for the poor. Pope Francis insists on this aspect, and as a Congregation, we cannot deny our origin.
3. Attending the celebration of the International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu, which may be viewed also as an opportunity to underscore the presence of the Congregation in the different activities of the celebration.
4. Assisting kindly in offering the books (translated to English) on Fr. Eymard to our laypeople. They present an authentic spirituality of Fr. Eymard.
5. Carrying out the difficult task of looking into allegations of abuse.
6. The priority of vocation work.
7. Communication as essential these days especially in the role of animation.
8. 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 associates?
9. Letter of the Union of Superior Generals which speaks of the service of authority in religious life. We begin from the example of Pope Francis who speaks of authority as service and not privilege.
10. The task of being a role model.

 

The last part was the sharing of the different superiors regarding their own experiences and the concerns of their respective communities. This part took up most of the time at the gathering.

 

SSS INVOLVEMENT IN DIOCESAN IEC PREPARATIONS (SURIGAO):

The icon of the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) will be in three different parish churches in Surigao Diocese. The parishioners from the different parishes of Surigao del Norte are called upon to attend the prepared spiritual activities in any of these three churches – Cathedral, Sison and Claver. Part of the spiritual activities is the Holy Hour which is scheduled, one in the morning and one In the afternoon, both with confessions. Our very own Sacramentino brothers are in-charge of facilitating the Holy Hour in three churches.

This coming September 26 the parish leaders and parish organization officers will have a recollection at the parish premises.  After the whole day recollection, there will be an oath-taking of the leaders and another formal welcome for the SSS religious.

INSPIRED BY FR. EYMARD, ADORATION IN THE BARANGAYS (SAN LEONARDO):

“Adore Him wherever you are, you will make a true adoration, not the worship that require presence, but love.” St. Julian Eymard.

These words posted by one of our religious brothers on his Facebook account caught my attention and inspired me to spread the love of Christ through Eucharistic Adoration.

“The mission of the church is that of John the Baptist, to reveal, to show Jesus Christ to the world. The church thus reveals Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament, he reveals him by his word and by his faith.” – St. Peter Julian Eymard.

Our community in San Leonardo arrived with the decision to have Adoration with Eucharistic celebration outside the regular schedule of Masses in all barangay chapels. The schedules are all on Tuesdays of the month: First Tuesday in barangay chapel of Castellano, second Tuesday in barangay chapel of San Roque, third Tuesday in barangay chapel of San Anton, fourth Tuesday in barangay chapel of Magpapalayok. To cover all the barangay chapels, there is also Adoration with Eucharistic celebration in barangay chapels of Diversion every last Sunday of the month, Tabuating every last Wednesday of the month and St. Jude every Thursday. The same setup is made in the sitio chapels of Balanga and Bucot every first Wednesday.

After two months, we began to receive feedback from our parishioners encouraging us to continue what we are doing, because our parishioners have developed a deep sense of love in Christ through adoration and celebration of the Holy Eucharist. We also came to realize what our holy founder said,

“True love lies in growing, so growing is love. Let us adore Him and give more expansions of our love, we unite ourselves to Him.”

To deepen our understanding of and faith in the Eucharist, like our other parishes, we now also have Eucharistic Recollection every 3^rd or 4^th Saturday of the month. We also invite some of our SSS Religious to share their reflection on various topics on the Eucharist including the forthcoming 51^st International Eucharistic Congress.

Our community here in San Leonardo believed that we are now in the direction of aggressively spreading the seed of love of Christ in the Eucharist in the hearts of our parishioners so that they will embrace Christ in the Eucharist and will work together for the building up of the Eucharistic Kingdom of God here on earth. (Fr. Nelson Roque, sss)

 

PRAYERS FOR:

• John Bourque and all the other SSS religious who are sick
• Sebastiao Machado, sss, General Treasurer

Fr. Joseph Matitu, SSS