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Category: Our Mother of Perpetual Help

  • Mary’s Visit is God’s Presence

    Mary’s Visit is God’s Presence

    Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help

    (St. Clement’s Church-Redemptorist, Iloilo City)

    First Reading : Zep 3:14-18a

    Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
                Sing joyfully, O Israel!
    Be glad and exult with all your heart,
                O daughter Jerusalem!
    The LORD has removed the judgment against you,
                he has turned away your enemies;
    The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
                you have no further misfortune to fear.
    On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
                Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
    The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
                a mighty savior;
    He will rejoice over you with gladness,
                and renew you in his love,
    He will sing joyfully because of you,
                as one sings at festivals.

    Gospel Reading : Lk 1:39

    Mary set out
    and traveled to the hill country in haste
    to a town of Judah,
    where she entered the house of Zechariah
    and greeted Elizabeth.
    When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
    the infant leaped in her womb,
    and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
    cried out in a loud voice and said,
    “Most blessed are you among women,
    and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
    And how does this happen to me,
    that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
    For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
    the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
    Blessed are you who believed
    that what was spoken to you by the Lord
    would be fulfilled.”

    St. Luke described to us the visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. He included this story in his Gospel to bring a message to a particular Christian community to which Luke was in-charge. What we can learn from this particular passage of the Gospel of Luke is the role of Mary in the Christian Community.

     Even at that early stage of the Christian faith, Mary had already become a mother and a model to every disciple of the Lord. Mary who received the Lord in her womb and in her whole life manifested in her actions the wonders of God done unto her. She became a model of charity and service to others which is an expression of bringing the Lord to others. This is clear enough in Mary’s willing heart to help her cousin, Elizabeth.

    The exchange of greetings between these two women was the amazing thing we find in the Gospel. Luke described to us how the baby in the womb of Elizabeth leaped with joy upon hearing the voice of Mary. Mary, the THEOTOKOS or bearer of God, brought such great joy to Elizabeth and to her baby in the womb.

    Mary’s visit was certainly God’s visitation to Elizabeth, to her baby and to Zechariah.  God visited them through Mary. And this is what our theme for the Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is all about, “Mary’s Visit is God’s Presence: Our Call for Mission Today.”

    On this feast of the Visitation, we who are disciples of the Lord are reminded to be like Mary, to be charitable in our words and actions, to be aware of those who are in need of assistance, to be at the service of others especially those who are most in need of our help. In that way, we bring the Lord to them, we let others feel God’s presence through us and this is our mission as devotees of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

    Indeed, each of us has that capacity to bring God’s presence to others. The Lord is with us, he is with you and with me; he is in our midst, as the Book of the Prophet Zephaniah tells us. Thus, as Christians we are called to make a stand and to be aware of what is happening around us – not just within our small community but also in the wider picture of our society.

    It means that we are called to be socially aware and not to remain indifferent to the difficulties of our sisters and brothers. That is why, when we are indifferent to the difficulties of others, there is surely something wrong with our Christian life. It is good then to ask ourselves, are we socially aware or indifferent to the plight of the poor, the weak and the oppressed?

    In concrete terms and in small ways, a challenge is given to us now and that is to become God’s presence to others. It would be good then to remember those people whom we have not visited for a long time. Visit them if possible. Remember also those people we know who will surely need our help, or recognize the people around us who need help from us in one way or another. Then, in hope, we may be able to let them feel God’s presence through us, through our generous words and service. Kabay pa.

  • Serve Ta: On Being an OMPH Parishioner-Redemptorist

    Serve Ta: On Being an OMPH Parishioner-Redemptorist

    (This article was first published in the BULAWANONG GASA: OMPH Parish Golden Jubilee 1972-2022 coffee table book.)

    At 52, on my 29th year as Redemptorist Missionary & on my 25th year as ordained priest, I have much to be thankful of the many graces God has shared me all throughout these years. Along the vocation & privilege of serving our Lord as Redemptorist missionary priest, I am humbly given a chance to witness how the Lord has continually worked His wonders in us through us, His followers.

    In 1996, being its first ordinand, I have been part of the birthing & have witnessed the growing years of Redemptorist Cebu Province. To revive the stagnant mission-efforts in Negros Oriental region, as a young priest, I have organized Dumaguete Redemptorist Mission Team doing mission around Negros Oriental & Siquijor Island, that somehow awaken missionary dynamism within Dumaguete Diocese, which has paved a way for collaborations with the local church’s BEC ministry, organization & formation endeavors, and the missionary formation of Redemptorist postulants-then, whom some of them are now promising Redemptorist missionary priests & brother .

    While studying in Leuven, Belgium, I have been involved with various Filipino Catholic communities in Belgium, Netherlands & Germany during weekends & breaks. After gaining my licentiate & some stints with teaching at SATMI, as our collaborative effort with other units & explorative initiative for migrant ministry, I found myself in Gwangju in South Korea, ministering to our OFWs & all English-speaking migrants as spiritual director for all Filipino Catholic Communities in the Archdiocese.

    Journeying with our Lord, humbly grateful I am indeed, to have witnessed & been part of God’s wonders being revealed & God’s miracles being offered to all us now & always.

    Be as it may be, all of these graces I take great credit not only on my missionary experiences & journey as Redemptorist missionary priest, but on my growing & formative years as parishioner of Our Mother Perpetual Help-Bajada.

    Yes, I am a Redemptorist for life & I am also a parishioner of OMPH-Bajada in life. Since as a kid until adulthood, I have grown under the tutelage of Redemptorists and of the OMPH Bajada Parish all my life. And now happens to be also the Only REDEMPTORIST so-far whose family is originally from our OMPH parish.

    Daily gazing at the backdrop of the great Mt. Apo, I remember, growing as a kid in Buhangin, I cannot help but wonder about the world beyond out there. From a protective and less-involved but regular church-goer family (of seafarer father), world-out-there, life-beyond family & school was made known to me with a simple invitation: “SERVE Ta”.

    At a young age of eight, me & my classmate buddies found ourselves serving Sunday masses as Knights of the Altar – or altar boys in our parish church. There, we come not only to learn how to serve, participate, & understand sacraments, but also were able to meet and grow with other kids & people from other BEC communities. Through these experiences, we were initiated to our Catholic religion & church life, most especially to parish life – a life beyond family, schools, & neighborhood. Since then, the words “Serve ta” became part of our vocabulary as we grew in age & maturity as parishioner and as Christians.

    As OMPH Bajada parish has grown & evolved these years, for us parishioners who have been part of the parish ever since before and even until we have branched out into other parishes and countries, the challenges & responses to the invitation of “SERVE ta” has always been part of the language-vocabulary of our parish church life within our BECs & families in whatever capacities & talents.   

    As Parishioners, we are also grateful to the Redemptorist charism and for the witness of Redemptorists we have journeyed with, here in Davao, as we have been formed & grown in the spirit of involvement, voluntarism, and charitable service for our dear parish. Through the Redemptorist we have come to know, love & serve our Lord & our Church. In our parish, we also come to experience Redemptorists as missionaries. They are dear & close to us but they are transitory – never permanent. Redemptorists come and go. Some left but most, still remains. Same way as part of our parish is now apart from us, as they are now a new parish, Redemptorists as well as us OMPH parishioners as we are, evolves not only for our good but moreso for the better version of our faith-life in Christ.

    However & Whatever might be in store for us now & for the near the future, the challenge for us OMPH parishioners here at home & abroad,  & for me – specifically as OMPH parishioner Redemptorist, remains still and always: “SERVE Ta”.

    Proficiat. 축하합니다Congratulations to OMPH Bajada Parish on our Golden Anniversary    

  • LOL: Law Of Love

    LOL: Law Of Love

    June 8, 2022 – Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060822.cfm)

    “Sa classroom may batas, bawal lumabas, oh bawal lumabas. Pero pag sinabi, pag nag-comply ka na bawal na lumabas… pero may ginawa ka sa pinagbabawal nila, inayos mo yong law ng classroom niyo at sinubmit mo ulit… ay pwede na pala ikaw lumabas.” Sounds familiar?

    While we earlier adjust to the constrains demanded of health protocols & restrictions of Covid-pandemic times – although subject to a lot of misinterpretations, somehow these words of Kim Chui particularly highlight our certain unhealthy attitudes towards observance of the law. It may sound clever & smart, but definitely there is something unhealthy & devious about such attitude towards laws & commandments. Yes, we do tend to fix, outwit, or by-passing the law (may ginawa, inayos at sinubmit) for our own convenience & advantages rather than abiding for common good.

    In our gospel today, Jesus said: “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill the laws or the prophets.” Though he was judged as trouble-maker and law-breaker of the established Jewish laws & traditions, Jesus is teaching us here that he is not into the business & attitude of fixing the law – not into deconstructing, downgrading or upgrading, reviewing, making or abolishing the law. But rather, Jesus is fulfilling the law – doing, observing, practicing & teaching the value & spirit of the law. His affairs are the fulfillment & observance, rather than fixing or circumventing God’s commandment of Love.

    In other words, in our loving God & others as we love ourselves, like Him Jesus wants us to be concerned more on WHAT should be done than on only HOW things should be done. Like Him, Jesus wants us to do & teach the RIGHT things rather than on how things done rightly or properly. Because experience teaches us that we can do wrong things in a right and proper way, and we can make mistake in doing the Right things. OR we can do the right things in love in a right way, like Jesus.

    As we receive anew the gift of the Holy Spirit after Easter Season, we are now back to Ordinary time in our Liturgical Year calendar. How to practice our faith life as Easter people, believers of the risen Lord, guided now by the Holy Spirit is the very challenge of Ordinary liturgical Time. And this is deeply reflected on our particular attitude towards God’s commandment of Love.

    Like Jesus, are we doing the Right things rightly and fulfilling the Law of Love? Or are we just rightly/properly doing right and wrong thing, and more like fixing & by-passing, outwitting, sidestepping the commandment to love?

    In our love and loving, Mother of Perpetual Help.. Mother ever Help us.

  • OMPH DAVAO PARISH GIFTED WITH BULAWANONG GASA

    OMPH DAVAO PARISH GIFTED WITH BULAWANONG GASA

    Fifty years ago in June of 1972, the Our Mother of Perpetual Help parish under the administration of the Redemptorist Missionaries was founded. These were the circumstances leading to this historic event (as quoted in the 50th anniversary commemorative publication).

    Devotees of Our Mother of Perpetual Help

    “ It was not until the early 1970s when the idea of a Redemptorist parish in Davao again surfaced. In May 1971 this offer was made formally by the Archdiocese in writing.  On September 2, 1971 during the visit of the Vice-Provincial, Fr. Mahoney, the community (composed of Fr. Sean. Magnier as Superior, met to discuss whether a parish should be established. Some questions that arose included: Would accepting a parish be for the good of the Local Church? Would it so reduce their missionary effort as to render it ineffective? Furthermore it was to be considered that conducting missions was the  priority apostolate. At that time,  the parish of about 25,000 was being cared for by one priest.

    The community members were in a deadlock and could not reach consensus. It was then left to the Vice-Provincial and the members of his Council to make the decision and they approved the establishment of a parish. A meeting was then held at the Archbishop’s residence and among those who attended were Archbishop Antonio Mabutas, Fr. Maurice Leveille PM, other PMEs and Blessed Sacrament Fathers and Fr. Magnier and Fr. Pierse. One task at hand was to set the boundaries between the areas left with the Assumption Parish under the Blessed Sacrament Fathers and the new parish under the Redemptorists. A date was then scheduled for the date of the parish foundation which was to be a week after Easter of 1972. Officially, however, the foundation of the OMPH parish in Davao was inaugurated on July 27, 1972 with Fr. Dominic McKenna CSsR as parish priest.  When it was first established, the parish covered the areas of Callawa, Mandug, Tigatto and Buhangin.”

    Bulawanong Gasa (A Golden Gift) was decided by the Davao Redemptorist Mission Community (DRMC) as the theme for the 50th anniversary celebrations when the members met a  year ago to prepare for this event. This theme became the title of the commemorative publication which recently got published and distributed to the different CSsR units and foundations, and are not available to the parishioners and churchgoers.

    Various activities were planned and some of them have already been accomplished through the past few months. There were mass confirmations, baptisms and first Holy Communion rituals involving all of the 35 GKKs across the parish. Just these past week-ends, more than a hundred volunteers (from the DRMC members to parish staff to GKK leaders and youth) volunteered to be facilitators and resource persons for the 50th year parish missions held in the different seven zones. These missions were mainly skills training for the spotted new leaders as well as existing alagads of the GKKs.

    On Pentecost Sunday, the Care for the Earth parish ministry conducted an Organic Market in the church grounds, in collaboration with the Paglaum Ecological Network which is affiliated with Sustainble Davao Movement. Through this network, the parish ministry is linked to other parishes, Catholic schools, NGOs and other ecological groups based in Davao City. They will be hosting the novena Mass on Sunday, June 12 where hundreds of trees would be distributed so parishioners and churchgoers can be actively involved in making sure the city have more trees. On the same day, a group of volunteer ophthalmologists and optometrists will provide free eye consultation to poor households of the parish.

    The nine-day novena from June 10 to June 18 will be live-streamed for both the 6 AM and 5:30 PM Masses (although on Sunday it will be at 6 PM). Each Novena Mass has its theme which relate to the Province’s missiological priorities. From June 13 to 17, the St. Alphonsus Theological and Mission Institute (SATMI) in collaboration with the parish and the MindaNews Media Cooperative Center/Institute of Journalism are co-sponsoring the Second Mindanao Book Festival, a Book Fair/Exhibit that will have a launching of all Mindanao books published during the time of the pandemic on June 13 at 3 PM. All Mindanao books published through the years are then exhibited in Rooms 5-6 at SATMI.

    A concert – Halad ni Maria, featuring Fr. Bonn Barretto CSsR and the different church choirs (Sts. Catherine, St. Blaise and St. Hildegaard Choirs) along with the Kaliwat Theatre Collective backed up by a quartet under the baton of Kruz   – will take place inside the church on Friday, June 17 at 8 to 9:30 P.M. Songs to be interpreted are all in Cebuano-Bisaya used popularly in most of our missions, especially with the Redemptorist Itinerant Mission Team.The finale are songs dedicated to the Blessed Mother.

    A dawn procession will begin the fiesta day on Sunday June 19. The Pontifical Mass will be at 10 A.M. with the Archbishop, Msgr. Romulo Valles officiating and Bishop Emmanuel Cabajar CSsR as homilist. Lunch will be served by the DRMC to invited guests. From 4 PM to evening, members of the GKK will gather inside the gym for the final activity – a grand fiesta celebration!

    All Redemptorists are naturally invited to join their confreres at this 50th anniversary of the OMPH parish, especially all those who have served the parish through the years!

  • GROWING NOT IN FEAR BUT IN GRATITUDE LIKE MARY

    GROWING NOT IN FEAR BUT IN GRATITUDE LIKE MARY

    June 20, 2021 – Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help; 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062021.cfm)

    When I was growing up, I was taught to fear God because He brings punishment to disobedient children. I was taught to be good and to follow my parents and elders so that God won’t be angry at me and condemn me in hell. Somehow, I developed dependence on rules and regulations, at home and at school. I tended to be hard on myself and on others whenever rules were broken. Yet, I was also inclined to feel righteous by being an obedient boy but condemning to those who did not follow the rules.

    Such upbringing made me believe that God was like an old grandfather always holding a stick and whose eyes were always angry, ready to strike a naughty boy.

    However, this belief in God made me distant from God. Faith and my relationship with the Lord was motivated by fear of punishment. Is this the kind of faith that God wants us to develop, then? Does God want us to relate with Him through fear?

    Surely, this is not what God wants. God’s self-revelation in our history tells us that God is our creator, defender, savior, a parent, a friend, and a companion because his love is everlasting, as what the Psalm proclaimed today. Indeed, in Jesus, God tells us that He is with us, he brings good news, freedom and salvation.

    This is the very image that has been revealed to us in today’s Gospel. The disciples who were terrified by the storm thought that Jesus was indifferent to the dangers they were facing. Yet, they were wrong. Jesus was entirely confident in the Father. This is what Jesus showed to them as he calmed the storm and brought peace. Having these images and experiences of God, should we be afraid of Him which could prevent us to develop an intimate relationship with God?

    God desires us that we love Him. He constantly invites us to come closer to Him because through Him, then, we shall find the fullness of our life. Jesus desires that we grow in gratitude to God for not giving up on us and for being always with us. In fact, St. Paul told us in his letter to the Corinthians, “Christ died for all” – for each of us no matter how underserving we are.

    We find this in the life of Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Mary is motivated by love and gratitude to God. Despite the fear that she felt at the announcement of Angel Gabriel to carry in her womb the presence of God, love and gratitude also must have filled her heart to respond to God.

    Her constant listening to God allowed her to understand more fully the identity and mission of her Son and Lord. Because of this, Mary must have discovered herself in God’s plan of salvation. And Mary responded to Gabriel saying, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done according to your word,” because the love and gratitude in her heart made her more confident not just with herself, with her ability and strength but most especially, she has become totally confident to God who loves her.

    Indeed, Mary, our Mother, brings inspiration to us now that our God, certainly, desires that we become grateful to Him because it is when we become grateful that we become confident. By being grateful to God, our insecurities will certainly lessen and our fears will be transformed into faith. This is how we become a new creation, as what St. Paul told us, because gratitude brings us closer to Christ and whoever is in Christ is a new creation.

    Let us also remember that when we become grateful, we also become joyful because we will be able to recognize how blessed we are. This is also how the old things in us, (our old hatred and grudges, anger and insecurities) shall pass away so that new things will come.

    Mary, as a new creation, is certainly a joyful woman, and no wonder, she is blessed among women because with her is the presence of God.

    This gratitude and joy will move us also to recognize ultimately the source of blessings. When we are able to recognize God then, it also follows that we will be moved to respond to Him in love.

    The Book of Deuteronomy (6:5) tells us to love the Lord God with all our heart, whole being and strength. Loving the Lord then, is our expression, not of fear, but of our deep gratitude to God.

    Moreover, Jesus reminds us of the immediate result of loving the Lord. The love of neighbor is the concrete manifestation of loving the Lord. Remember, God’s image is in each of us. Therefore, if we love God, then, it also means that our love is being expressed towards ourselves and with our brothers and sisters who are created in God’s image and likeness.

    Thus, we should be very careful when we tend to become so stiff with our religious practices but having a growing indifference towards people around us, then, our devotion to God is empty and merely motivated by fear. Our religiosity can be a mere appearance of our arrogant devotion when we also refuse to see and recognize the abuses in our community and choose to be silent amidst oppression and injustice committed against the powerless and the weak.

    To love God calls us then, to love one another. And we can begin and renew our commitment today by being grateful to God which would hopefully make us joyful persons like Mary. When we are joyful, God transforms us to be generous to others, both in our words and deeds. Thus, joyful and grateful persons are truly generous because true generosity springs forth from those attitudes of gratitude and joy. However, when we pretend to be generous but having an impure motive, just to advance our personal interests, then, this is not a true expression of love towards others, but selfishness.

    Hopefully, we will be constantly reminded through our devotion to Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help to grow not in fear but in gratitude and that Jesus invites us to love our God and our neighbors, regardless of our differences. Hinaut pa.