Celebrating the Eucharist, consecrated as students...

Last Saturday, 23 July 2011, we celebrated a special Mass for the children in Montalban to consecrate them in their vocation as students as they embark on the new academic year. This year, we were privileged to have Fr Jun, the parish priest of the Chapel of Immaculate Conception, preside the Mass.

It was a special day for the children and youth as they served in various capacities throughout the Mass. Our lovely commentator Ianna Marie, welcomed the children and their families while the row of altar servers walked down the aisle followed by the Lectors. All of them are currently members of our youth group, the Seeds of Faith. In his homily, Fr Jun reminded the children to be wheat for the Kingdom of God as they pursue their studies. He engaged the children ranging from 5 to 15 years of age with his interactive explanations and insightful stories.

For the Prayers of the Faithful, each student took turns to pray for the different needs. During the Offertory, the children offered up ballpens (symbolizing their desire to be used as instruments of God) and a set of school uniform (a sign of their desire to grow as students for the Lord) together with the bread and wine. After Mass, the children were blessed by Fr Jun and each child received a ballpen as a souvenir. It was a special day of thanksgiving for the lives of each child and their call as students.

May the year ahead be a fruitful year for them indeed!

Our new school supplies!

This year, the children from Montalban returned to school at the start of the new academic year with a basic set of school supplies with our Back to School project. On 17 July, 135 children turned up with eager faces for our Children Ministry sessions, clutching the precious vouchers that enabled them to claim their set. Thanks to a group of teachers from Singapore who sponsored the school supplies, we were able to run this project for the second consecutive year. For a small contribution of Php 10, each child received a set of stationery for school. Each pack contained basic school needs like notebooks, papers, folders, art papers, pens and other writing materials. As they received the packs with bright smiles, the children lifted up a prayer of thanksgiving for the sponsors and for God's provision through their generosity.

Our school supplies waiting to be distributed

Our vouchers to claim the school pack

Each pack contains the following...

Finally.. our start up packs!

We thank God for our generous sponsors and our volunteers who helped us pack and distribute the school supplies with us!

We're back...

After a month's break, we're all back in action.. beginning with our regular ministry in Montalban and also in Tagaytay. Last week, we had Mass in the centre for our neighbours and today we held our Children Ministry in Tagaytay. Once again our house resounded with the voices of 21 children, singing with gusto and answering in chorus. Today, as we shared with them Jesus' friendship, they responded with much excitement in wanting to have Jesus as their friend.

Each child then made a friendship band with 2 hands clasped together- one hand to symbolize Jesus and the other as their hand-holding onto Jesus, their friend, who never abandons them.

What a lovely way to end the day..

Would you like Jesus to be your friend?
What about you?
I know how to pray.. and tell Jesus that He is my friend!
Making our friendship band...
Yay...we are friends of Jesus...!

A one- of -a-kind retreat

For the first time, our Montalban ministries of Balikatan Ministry (adult group) and Seeds of Faith (youth group) came together for 3 days of retreat in Tagaytay. It was a special occasion for the adults and youths to participate at the same retreat and more significantly for families whose parent and child were able to attend the retreat together.

Centering around the theme ‘Thirsting for the Living Waters’, the participants met together for common prayer times, games and meals but had separate sessions for inputs. Throughout the 3 days, they encountered Jesus the Living Water in the various sessions comprising of teachings, prayer ministries and the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist. As the weekend marked the start of Holy Week, we journeyed with Jesus as He entered Jerusalem and reflected on His love.

One highlight was the outdoor Way of the Cross. Each person took turns to carry a big cross in small groups while reflecting on the 14 Stations of the Cross. In the evening, they continued their reflections on Jesus’ love for them on the cross in a prayer ministry and through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Many of them shared that it was a grace-filled occasion of growing in awareness of their sinfulness and Jesus’ loving forgiveness. The following day, we celebrated Palm Sunday together, again with the awareness of entering Jerusalem together with the Lord who would lay down His life for a friend. Earlier that morning, we had prayed for them to be renewed in the Holy Spirit and released further in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was thus with such grateful hearts that a chorus of voices began praising God in greater freedom and in the joy of the Spirit.

For this retreat, we were blessed to have the use of the retreat house of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). Surrounded by lush gardens and tall strapping trees, the participants enjoyed the beauty and stillness of God’s creation in the morning reflections in the garden. Strengthened by the retreat, we hope that the adults and youth will continue to pray, encourage one another and grow as a community in Montalban.

We thank the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) Seminary in Tagaytay for the generous use of their retreat facilities and the cooks from the St Augustine Major Seminary who prepared our meals. God bless you!

Of endings and new beginnings...

On 28 April, we celebrated the closure of 2 years of Staff Formation for Denzil Rodrigues from India, Domisiano Kim and Carolinge Song from South Korea. It was a day of thanksgiving for their journey of growth and f9r the blessing of their lives with us. At the Eucharistic celebration, we also welcomed 3 of them into the Glory of God International Covenant Community (GOGICC). Denzil began 2 years covenant with the GOGICC in the ICPE Mission whilst Domi and Carol began 1 year of covenant as Companions of the ICPE Mission. Congratulations!!!!!

Denzil signing his covenant, witnessed by Esther

Caroline and Domisiano publicly declaring their desire to enter the covenant with GOGICC
Celebrating the Holy Eucharist together as community

praying for the newly covenanted members

Presenting... Denzil, Caroline and Domisiano!

Our community

Our reading corner...

Last month, we opened our home again to the children... this time for them to read and browse English books. Thanks to generous donations of books over the past few years, we amassed enough stock of books to share with children of various ages. The books range from pre-school to high school level with books covering fiction, non-fiction, Bible stories and magazines. Converting our garden to a conducive reading area was not as easy as the tarpaulin covering kept flying off in windy Tagaytay but we finally nailed it down with the aid of wooden props. With some mats on the floor and boxes of books, we were ready for the children. They came and excitedly rumaged through the treasure chest of books. Most children were of the younger age group and even though some were not yet of reading age, they enjoyed themselves flipping through the pages and looking at the pages. We ended the session with a story telling session. The reading corner will continue to operate every Saturday morning and we hope that the children will learn to cultivate the joy of reading and improve their command of the English language.

Hey.. this looks interesting!

Let's just read here and let the little ones enjoy the floor...

Our very own reading corner

At last, my own book...

Sharing Jesus' gift of salvation with Tagaytay Children

Praising the Lord with song...

for He is our God!

Skit: My sins are too heavy...

Skit: Jesus takes my sins upon Himself
Skit: Jesus dies on the cross for me

Skit: But He is alive!!!

Lifting up the cross..

Remembering the Gospel truths...

Writing my name on the cross

For God so loved the world, He have us His only Son so that whoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life. John 3:16

Amen! We believe!

Nurturing Vocations

“Your sharing and talk has helped us confirm the different things that we need to do to help nurture vocations” said Ate Lory, the leader of the Philippine Catholic Lay Mission.

Indeed it was an afternoon of affirming and confirming firstly our individual call as lay missionaries and highlighting different vital elements needed to nurture vocations as we shared with members of the Philippine Catholic Lay Mission (PCLM) at their Annual General Meeting of leaders. Reflecting on Luke 10:2 “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting”, the members of the PCLM were interested in ways to encourage more lay people to respond to God’s call as missionaries. In her presentation, Esther drew from the members the key elements of their own call to the mission and highlighted the importance of these elements in their efforts to nurture vocation. She also encouraged them to identify their core identity as PCLM to be able to communicate that clearly to those interested.

Reflecting on Christifidelis Laici, the apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul II on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the world, the Church affirms the present urgency for a re-evangelization and our 'responsibility to foster the birth and growth of vocations...in the lay state, specifically directed to the missions" (#35). The vocation of lay missionaries is indeed a vocation that is needed in the Church and needs to be presented and fostered so that others may discover and respond to this particular call.

There was a question whether there is still a need for lay missionaries. Quoting the late Pope John Paul II in Ecclesia in Asia, “The peoples of Asia need Jesus Christ and his Gospel. Asia is thirsting for the living water that Jesus alone can give”, all agreed that this is still a big need, and that unless there is someone who will preach and share Jesus Christ and his Gospel, the thirst of the peoples of Asia will remain unquenched! As lay missionaries, our aim is primarily to share Christ and his Gospel.

We also shared our individual testimonies of how we responded to God’s call to be a missionary.

Domisiano and Caroline shared their story of encountering God and answering His call from the perspective of a married couple.

From our shared experiences, we concluded that the most effective promotion is the witness of our lives as missionaries, our prayer for more labourers, our passion for the Lord, and reaching out to others in love and inviting them to a deeper encounter with Jesus through ‘come and see’ experiences. The internet, media and publicity materials are then additional supports that would help stir and nurture the vocation in others.

We ended the session with a time of prayer, offering our lives anew to the Lord and asking the Holy Spirit to renew the members in their call and in their various mission fields. It was a blessed afternoon indeed, where we, ourselves, were refreshed by the time spent with brothers and sisters who were passionate to respond to the Lord as lay missionaries.

For more information on the Philippine Catholic Lay Mission, please visit their website http://www.philcatholiclaymission.com/index.php

Watching the Seeds of Faith grow...

In the past 5 years of Children Ministry in Montalban, we have had the privilege of watching the children grow into teenagers. Our weekly sessions of teaching, sharing and journeying with140 children every week birthed a stable group of youths who desire to follow God and grow together as a group. As they continued to receive faith formation, they were challenged to live out their Christian faith in their homes and in their schools. In 2009, they formed the youth group of our ministry called Seeds of Faith. Every fortnight, around 30 of them turn up for meetings where they share their faith stories and are encouraged to live their faith practically. They also volunteer at our Children Ministry sessions for the younger children. We hope they will eventually become good role models for the younger children.

We thank God for their lives and we pray that what God has sown in their lives will flourish and bear much fruit!

We present the members of Seeds of Faith followed by a testimony from Dexter Marin, one of our youth who is currently in his penultimate year of High School...

Gone sowing...

From 7 – 9 February 2011, I had the chance to teach on evangelisation to the participants of the School of Witness (SOW) 2011. The School of Witness is a 6 week course organised by the Catholic Youth Ministry Office, Singapore in collaboration with the ICPE Mission. The 1^st SOW was held in 2009 and this year, the 3^rd SOW had 22 participants from Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. I was very blessed to spend these days with them reminding the youth once again that we are all called as missionaries to share Christ and his Good News to all by virtue of our baptism. The youth were challenged as to whether they themselves are evangelising or in need of evangelisation since ‘the test of truth, the touchstone of evangelisation: it is unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the Kingdom without becoming a person who bears a witness to it and proclaims it in his turn’ (Evangelii Nuntiandi #24). As part of the SOW, there were opportunities for them to share the Good News in their lives, and the climax of SOW 2011 was an evening for youth, Testify to Love, where they were not afraid to proclaim their faith in Jesus, and testified of God’s unconditional love, forgiveness, healing, salvation in their lives. Many were blessed through the sharings, dramas, worship and ministry. As a Singaporean, I was very blessed by my younger brothers and sisters bearing witness to Christ and sharing his hope in our midst. May the SOW 2011 keep sowing the seeds of faith wherever they are!

Renewing our commitment

On 27 February 2011, thirty men and women expressed their commitment to love and follow the Lord as his disciples, to grow together in faith, to share and support each other, and to serve in Christ’s mission to reach out to others. Of the thirty, ten were expressing their commitment for the first time. Most of them had been attending the Balikatan ministry meetings in the past year. The remaining twenty had made their first commitment in January 2010 and were renewing their commitment for another year.

There was much joy as the members made this commitment. It was apt that the Gospel for this day was from Matthew 6:24-34. In their daily struggle for survival, many of the Balikatan members face challenges to choose money, other values to be their gods. On this day, they chose clearly that that they want to serve God, and no other. Jesus’ words not to worry about what we are to eat, drink or wear, spoke into their reality since often, many of our Balikatan members and families do not really know whether they will have something to eat, drink or wear. His assurance that “your Heavenly Father knows you need them all” strengthened them to make this commitment expressing their desire to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and trust that all other things will be given them as well by the Father who knows and loves them.