IN THE MIDST OF PANDEMIC:
A Sacramentino Reflection

Fr. Apolinario L. Ty, sss

Who amongst us would have ever imagined that we shall see that day that the doors of our churches will be closed for a prolonged period of time and that the faithful will be prevented from coming together to celebrate the Eucharist. Were the capitulars of the 8th POLA Provincial Chapter being prophetic when it drafted in our vision statement the kind of time we are and will be facing – “…amidst the trials and challenges facing our Mother church and our turbulent world.” And in the midst of all these, we might find ourselves helpless for not being able to do anything.

But I pray that we have not reached the point of being without hope. As the Holy Father exhorted us at his 2020 Easter Message, Urbi et Orbi, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?… Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives. Let us hand over our fears to him so that he can conquer them. Like the disciples, we will experience that with him on board there will be no shipwreck. Because this is God’s strength: turning to something good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms, because with God, life never dies.” Similarly, this is the right moment to enflesh what is embodied in the Final Message of our 35th General Chapter of 2017 as it quotes the words of Father General: “We have to allow our heart to be transformed in order to be religious truly passionate about our Eucharistic mission. ‘Overcoming our fear, building courageous lives, we generate gestures of gratuitousness, making life a Eucharist.”

But this does not mean we have to close our eyes to the reality that is set before us. It will be best to be able to look straight at the reality of the pandemic and recognized it for what it is – A pandemic – A crisis situation that is of global magnitude affecting people regardless of status or race or beliefs. But we need not despair but be reminded that in the Chinese word for “crisis” – it presents both the reality of danger and of opportunity. As Pope Francis exhorts us that in this time of crisis we are confronted with a choice: “we can either get depressed and alienated – the false consolation of melancholy or escapism – ‘or we can get creative. Such creativity opens up fresh horizons, creates new ways of being, opens us to the transcendent.” So instead of ignoring or dismissing it, we can reflect on this experience of COVID 19 and see what God is saying to us.

First of all, we all can agree that as the Holy Father reminds us: “this is a time of testing, a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not.” Will we choose to descend to the nadir of more fear and more anxiety? Or would we choose to shift fundamentally to how our common experience of fear and anxiety could be the very starting point for us to reach out to each other and assure each other that we are not alone in this experience and together we can strengthen each other.

For a long time, our society has made us comfortable in putting the demarcation line in the way we share our lives together in this one world – we have been more at ease building those fences and walls around our lives to protect our private properties while at the same time longing to connect with the world but only with our created virtual identities. The common experience of the pandemic is reminding us of the bridges that we should have built to strengthen our communities and to recognize the value of community life.

As Sacramentinos, the pandemic has provided us the opportunity to witness to what it means to live an authentic community life in the world today. We have made it our option to see ourselves as the little family of Eymard. In this family, “which was generated by the fecundity of the Eucharistic experience of Fr. Eymard, we breathe and share the grace of communion…which calls to welcome and express this Gift of Self… In the area of Internationality: While the world tends to close borders, particularly to the immigrants, the poor, and ill-treated, we recognize the presence of small signs that invite our communities to become open with courage to hospitality, to go out to integrate the most fragile members of society by embracing and welcoming them.” (Final Message – 35th General Chapter).

The common experience of the pandemic is reminding us of the bridges that we should have built to strengthen our communities and to recognize the value of community life.

Unexpectedly with the lockdown and quarantine, we are provided with the opportunity for a world-wide time-out. Even Mother earth was given a breather, a rest from the exhaustion that we have imposed on her through the neglect and abuse of nature. Before the Covid, we have been so absorbed with the things we have to do and accomplish and possess that we did not have the time to quietly reflect to see what is most essential in being human. With less and nothing to do, hopefully we are able to focus on our being – a person who is created in the image and likeness of God and hopefully to see a vision of the life that God has intended for us and move forward to this goal.

The common experience of the pandemic hopefully has opened our eyes to what make us truly human, that we are not meant to live alone and isolated. But that we are called to be a living and life-giving member of a community. And this life in community certainly can only be a reality if it embraces a life of true compassion for the world, for others and even for ourselves. More than ever, we are confronted by what we have written in our Mission statement that “We, Sacramentinos, conjoined with the Eymardian Family will strive to embody and foment the Eymardian Gift of Self, born of the Eucharist, by being adorers and faithful consecrated persons…” How have we embodied the Gift of Self of Fr. Eymard? How have we been as Adorers? How have we lived our consecration?

Likewise, this pandemic has been an agent for revealing truths that has been blurred from our vision. More than anything else, we have been now confronted with the truth that many things that the world holds as invincible can collapse from a tiny virus. Who would ever imagine that the world’s leading nations with all their resources and technologies are unable to put a halt to it. This crisis also has shown to us that many things that we thought are indispensable in our everyday life are not really that essential. Hopefully, this has led us to the truth of espousing a life of Poverty that challenges that: “Like Jesus…our Life is marked by simplicity and moderation (ROL # 17).”

During this time, we have been led to discern the many realities that we have been taking for granted and have learnt to appreciate them e.g., the grace opportunities of being physically present to one another or the blessings of those smiles and hellos that for the time being are unrecognizable because of the face mask we have to wear. This crisis also has opened our eyes to the many dysfunctional structures in our society which are obsolete, antiquated or not serving the common good. We recognize the need for a change which can only happen through the action of the Holy Spirit who would present us with new map in navigating a world that needs healing.

We can be inspired by the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. From being downcast, how their eyes and hearts were opened as Jesus unfolds to them the meaning of the things that has just transpired – from an experience of brokenness to one of grace as they recognize the Lord in the Breaking of the Bread. How and where have we met the Lord during this pandemic sojourn?

In closing, I pray that we have learnt our lessons during this pandemic. We are being presented with a new normal of living in our world because our old ways are unsustainable and if not changed will only lead to another pandemic. But as it is, our present crisis is giving as an opportunity to move forward. And we do so by finding God in the midst of what we are undergoing today, with all its challenges and blessings. As Fr. Eymard assures us: “God has neither past nor future, He always is. Well, dwell in the existence of love, in his Divine Providence of the moment and leave to Him the care of the future and of the past. (CO 881)”

“God has neither past nor future, He always is. Well, dwell in the existence of love, in his Divine Providence of the moment and leave to Him the care of the future and of the past. (St. Peter Julian Eymard, CO 881)”

AT THE DAWN OF THE 210TH HOLY BIRTH DAY (BAPTISM) OF ST. PETER JULIAN EYMARD

Friend of Jesus, Apostle of the Eucharist

A Reflection by Fr. Reynaldo R. Capili, SSS

This year 2021, we REMEMBER with fondness the 210th birth/baptism of St. Peter Julian Eymard. This year, His Holiness Pope Francis with the Apostolic Letter “Patris corde” (With a Father’s Heart), recalls the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. And to mark the occasion, the Holy Father has proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021. This year, the Philippine Church begins to CELEBRATE on Easter Sunday, the commemoration of the 500 years of Christianity in our beloved country. This year, due to pandemic, the supposed gathering in September at Budapest, Hungary, calling us to proclaim anew that we BELIEVE in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist during the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress, is transferred to another date

What more can we ask from God, where He has already given us graces and opportunities to remember, to believe, to celebrate? Even in this time of pandemic, God has just proven that He is a providential God; a God who cares and a God who knows the inmost desires of our human hearts amidst the violent, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous period of human history.

Our holy founder said, as recalled by his protegee, Fr. Albert Tesniere:
“‘We have known the charity of God’ [1John 4:16]. All our spiritual life consists in firmly believing that God loves us. Practical faith, indeed, does not stop at truth, but extend to love as well.

Now, love is Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and it is by a living faith in the Eucharist that we requite Christ’s love for us. Frequently pray, then, for a simple and pure faith in the Holy Eucharist.

Men may teach you the subtleties of its dogma, but Jesus alone can give you to believe in It. Receive not only to taste and experience the sensible part of your faith, but rather to strengthen and to enliven it in you. ‘Ah, yes! You have the Eucharist! What more do you want?’”1

Saints lead a full life. They possess tremendous energy which is the case of those called to an active life, passes into works of corporal and spiritual mercy. In the case of contemplatives their life is not less active, though more hidden. Striving toward God, they wage war against the world, themselves and Satan.

Father Eymard was called by God first to an active life as a diocesan clergy, and later on with the, then, newly founded religious order – the Society of Mary. Then God urged him to embrace a more contemplative stance of life which though not exempt of the active works of charity (spiritual direction, preaching and adoring the Eucharist, first communion of adults, superior, religious to name a few), became more and more the great attraction of his refined and saintly soul.

Then, we may ask ‘What’s that got to do with me?’ … Nothing! Why be concerned?

This is precisely the matter at hand, about our life, our community. We need to pause and reflect for a while and be grateful, to sharpen our religious acumen, our métier – one meaningful pause, reflection and expression of gratuitousness, from the threat of Covid-19, and the humdrums of a semi-active, busy, noisy wired-life and ministry; to pause together as a community and consider for the moment – our connectivity with Him and everything that God provided for us, especially the gift of one another (with all its imperfection and wholeness, its woundedness, shame, guilt and healing). A meaningful pause – to separate us from the traffic of hallow gestures, “sa ating mga walang kasigla-siglang pagpapa-tianod sa takbo ng buhay” (boring and selfish going through with the tides of life) – can create an environment where we can appreciate once again the gift of creation, of community, of vocation, the gift of pains and sorrows, of being human with all its edges, and just as God takes a sabbath rest to appreciate His magnanimous opus, we, too, may learn anew the precious value of one another.

Remembering, Celebrating, Believing Together as A Community – that is what our prayer is all about, an urgent call rising from the “new normal.” It is our way of holding, lifting up, drinking of what is already there, our cup of sorrows and joys, the known and unknown, the uncertainty and certainty, yung gusto mo at ayaw mo, our frustrations and hopes. That is what the Eucharist is all about. It is saying THANKS for the seed that has been planted and have grown; saying THANKS for the branches that were pruned – our letting-go and letting-God experiences. It is saying: “we are waiting for the Lord, who has already come.” Father Eymard has never been wanting in this attitude of waiting. He has waited for 54 tedious years to realize that what his heart is longing is to be totally united with Jesus in the Eucharist. And after that 1865 Great Retreat of Rome, he spent his three remaining years of peace and contentment with God ….. his best Friend.

Hence, our prayer life and our communal life must pierce our hopeful memory (learned lessons), our loving gestures (of being unconcerned to becoming concerned; giving importance to others than to oneself), our faithful heart (always knocking, seeking and asking). Trusting fully that there is a spiritual power in us that allows one to live peaceably in this world without being seduced constantly by worldly allurements, sexual fantasies, pandemic despair, technological lostness and darkness. The spiritual power, ‘pandemic grace,’ which nurture and give deeper meaning to every human experience of marriage, friendship, commitment, community, Christian and Religious life.

One must reach that gamut of Christian witnessing that can begin
even from our very own Religious community. One must allow the
opening up and offering a space within and without – sacred space,
sacred place – in which we cherish and savor, that we have already
seen and tasted, i.e., the Eucharistic Love.

Our Sacramentino communities are called to be that sacred spacesacred place where the loving flame, the flame of the Eucharist can
germinate, be kept alive, shared and become stronger in each of us,
in the circle of Eymardian family and in others. In this way, we can
live with courage and grow in the perfection of charity deep within.
Vaya con Dios.

THE LORD HAS DONE GREAT THINGS FOR US, and we are rejoicing! (Ps 126:3)

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Kigwanye, SSS

Celebrating my thanksgiving Mass in my family amidst my kinsmen, parishioners and friends gives me a chance to look at the past with gratitude. I feel joy for at last having this moment that was not possible some months ago. I feel happy that I can be among my people to share a moment so wonderful. But above all, I’m very grateful to the Lord for having protected me in all the storms up to this moment. May his name be praised for ever!

One may wonder what is it like to have a Thanksgiving Mass in Uganda. Well, the first thing that should strike one’s mind is that everything is communitarian: it is not an affair of the ordained, the family and a few friends, never! Rather, it is an affair of the whole community. It is such an event that whether one is invited or not, you cannot get surprised when you see him/her coming! It is just a public affair that everyone feels entitled to be present. Consequently.

But what about the pandemic that is claiming lives all over the world? It is true that every now and then people get infected by the virus. However, for an event of this kind restraining people from being part of it is wasting one’s time like roasting a snake, as my people say (the Baganda don’t eat snakes). Restraints are only possible in big towns and cities. But for us “village-made” we feel entitled to be present at such events at all costs, even without an invitation. Any kind of hindrance becomes an abomination, an unforgivable sin. Consequently, the possible solution is to tell everyone that whoever comes must wash his/her hands and put on the mask. At the end of the day we surrender everything in the hands of the Almighty, the one who “knows how we were formed and remembers that we are dust” (Ps 103:14).

Celebrating this thanksgiving gives me a chance to look back with gratitude. I remember the beginning of my journey so many years ago: a toddler trying to do what the priests in his parish were doing— putting on a bed sheet for a chasuble, forming chalices and ciboria from clay, constructing a church using banana fibres for roofing and

Yes, it is at the exact place that this journey began some 25 years ago seems to get a fulfilment. It is no longer imitating the others but celebrating the real Eucharist. I can see those who used to be my congregation (my nieces and nephews) becoming my congregation again. I look back with gratitude also for the wonderful encounters that have made me what I am today: the happy memories in the nursery school, in the primary school, in the minor seminary, in the Postulancy and the philosophical studies, in the noviciate in Senegal, in the Scholasticate in DR Congo and in the Philippines. Like Saint Paul, my heart is filled joy when I remember the wonderful people in all this journey! For all those that have been a consolation, I say thanks be to God.

Since the Lord has been so good to me, I feel even more determined to serve him till the end of my life. However, I know I am a weak man, a reed that is swayed by the wind! That’s why, surrendering everything to him, I ask for the prayers of everyone.

HESUS NAZARENO – A HISTORICAL VISIT
AT SANTA CRUZ CHURCH

By: Dante Chua
(Core Group Member of Life in the Eucharist Seminar,
PPC Consultant of Sta. Cruz Parish)

The Parish of Santa Cruz is a “child” of St. John the Baptist Parish at Quiapo, Manila. In the past commemoration of traslacion of Nuestro Padre Hesus Nazareno, the closest to Santa Cruz Church that the procession of the image went was at MacArthur Bridge (Plaza Goiti and now, Plaza Lacson) at the back of our church. It was an event that has not much connection with the devotees at Santa Cruz.

In recent years, the procession had to use the Jones Bridge, via Escolta side of the church and we witnessed the Nuestro Padre Hesus Nazareno up close during the annual procession. In 2018 to 2019, the procession passed through Dasmariñas street. This time, Santa Cruz had a more active involvement in the event. The Rector of Quiapo made Santa Cruz Church a prayer station. We then decided to bring the original image of Nuestra Señora del Pilar out, standing on a pedestal, for a “Pagtatagpo ng Anak at Ina” (Encounter between the Mother and Son) during the procession. We also were given permission for the blessing of the devotees with holy water as they passed by.

This year, 2021, the significant blessing resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is the decision of the Rector of the Basilica Menor of Nuestro Padre Hesus Nazareno to designate Santa Cruz Church as a satellite church of the minor basilica to celebrate Traslacion.

This is historic in the sense that for the first time in history we can remember, the image of Hesus Nazareno, a replica in fact, was temporarily enshrined for 3 days (January 8 to 11) at the sanctuary of our church, up close to His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Nuestra Señora Del Pilar, for public veneration.

We do not know when this will ever be repeated but the blessing of this “Pagtatagpo” (encounter) between Mother, Son and the euchristic devotees will surely be treasured and fondly remembered in the future.

Part of what is seen now as new normal in the life of the world is the remarkable intervention of technology in making people stay connected to one another at least virtually. The Church undeniably in her exercise of ministry in shepherding souls has benefited greatly from this virtual means of connecting with the people. Online Masses, adoration, prayers and many other forms of Catholic devotions eventually became a source of consolation to many faithful who long to partake physically in these celebrations.

The Provincial Council in like manner, with its determination to pursue local community animation also went through the same means of virtual meetings. The Provincial consultors gathered at the Provincialate office to meet the different local communities via zoom conference on January 12-14, 2021. Earlier face-to-face (actual community visitation) meetings were done in Sta. Cruz on November 11, 2020, with Fr. Roel dela Cruz, Fr. Reynaldo Capili and Fr. Alde Bureros; Eymard Formation Center (Scholasticate Community) on November 22-23, 2020 with Fr. Provincial; and Blessed Sacrament Novitiate on December 4-6, 2020 with Fr. Provincial. The same face-to-face community animations by the Council were given to the Provincialate community on January 14, 2021 with all the Provincial Consultors; and with Fr. Roel dela Cruz and Fr. Alde Bureros at San Leonardo Community on January 19-20 and Mapandan Community on January 21-22, 2021 respectively.

It is the hope of the Province that we remain steadfast in mission despite the many limiting factors that may affect individual and communal efficiency. Many of our aspirations may not turn so much to be successful and yet we count our joy and contentment from the fact of being faithful religious over being successful. This is a time we maximize available means of staying connected to one another for the strengthening of fraternal charity.

Perpetual Profession and Diaconate Ordination of
Br. Ian Michael Abad, SSS

Answering the voice of Christ in the mystery of religious vocation, Rev. Ian Michael Cacho Abad, SSS made to God the Perpetual Vows of Chastity in the celibate state, Evangelical Poverty, and Obedience according to the Rule of Life of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (ROL#102). It took place on December 8, 2020 – Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, before the Very Rev. Fr. Roel L. Dela Cruz, SSS, Provincial Superior and in the presence of his Sacramentino Brothers and Fathers at St. John Marie Vianney Parish, Adorable, San Leonardo Nueva Ecija. He was ordained as Deacon the following day, December 9, 2020 – Canonization of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, by Most Reverend Roberto C. Mallari, DD, Bishop of the Diocese of San Jose, Nueva Ecija. Rev. Ian, SSS at present is assigned at San Leonardo Community. He re-entered the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament in 2016 and stayed at Blessed Sacrament Novitiate, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. In 2017 he was transferred to the Scholasticate at Eymard Formation Center. He graduated and finished his Theology way back in 2013. As requisite for his re-entry, he re-enrolled some Theological subjects for one year at San Carlos Graduate School of Theology as an audit student to refresh his studies. In 2018, he was assigned in San Leonardo Community where he completed the rest of his initial formation serving the parish and the community until his preparation for the Perpetual Profession Program.

Three Sacramentino-Scholastics Installed
to the Ministry of Acolyte

Last December 21, 2020, three brothers of Eymard Formation Center namely: Br. Emmanuel Byaruhanga, SSS, Br. Fred Bugembe, SSS and Br. Nathaniel Juan Obal, SSS were installed in the Ministry of Acolytes. The Mass and the Installation rites was presided by Very Rev. Fr. Roel De la Cruz, SSS, POLA Provincial Superior.

As installed acolytes they are given the responsibility, ta assist the priests and deacons in Liturgical services, particularly to prepare the altar and the sacred vessels and, if it is necessary, as an extraordinary minister, to distribute the Eucharist to the faithful.

There is a Norwegian proverb that reads: “Heroism consists of hanging on one minute longer.” True heroism often consists in staying the course long enough, of hanging on when it seems hopeless, of suffering cold and aloneness while waiting for a new day.

All of us have experienced tensions brought about by the pandemic – loss of jobs, economic downturn, immobility, and sickness among others. Amidst all these, we are given always the opportunity to choose between giving up or holding on, carrying tension or letting it go. But as mature Christians we are invited to walk with patience, graciousness, and forbearance and to never grow weary for the Lord God will be with us until the end of time (Matt 28:20). Thus, our different local communities have their way to be creative enough and make use of their time while in “home confinement” due to the pandemic. Our communities have become “domestic church” in which our Religious are proclaimers of the faith by word and example. Our Congregation prepared sacks of rice for the needy families around the country in cooperation with the AMRSP (Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines).

WHEN LOVE JUST CAN’T STOP US BEING GOOD

There is nothing to stop a community of love in finding ways to reach out and share blessings, most especially among the less fortunate. The Blessed Sacrament Novitiate in keeping the spirit of giving during the Christmas season, gathered gifts from the generous friends of Fr. Kit Mendoza, SSS, and wrapped them prepared for the people especially to children.

So near yet so far

When greeting and meeting physically at Christmas time were not possible due to the pandemic, we made way as a Congregation to reach out to our relatives, friends and benefactors through our songs rendered via video. These were sincere keeping-in-touch and assuring them our prayerful thought of their love and kindness. Greeting so real yet so virtual.

AMRSP JEB AUDIENCE WITH THE PAPAL NUNCIO

Fr. Roel dela Cruz, SSS, together with the AMRSP (Association of Major Religious Superiors on the Philippines) Joint Executive Board had its Audience with the new Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, His Excellency Most Rev. Charles John Brown, Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at the Apostolic Nunciature in Taft, Manila.