2015 Year of the Poor - Mercy and Compassion June 28, 2015 13th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Forbes Park, Makati www.ssaparish.com FIRST HOLY CONFESSION AND FIRST HOLY COMMUNION (2015) By Marga Gregorio The Level 2 students (aged 7-8) of the CCD program of the King..our Lord God..his body and blood, soul and divinity, parish recently received two (2) very essential Sacraments. in the blessed Eucharistic. By the sidelines were their joyful Last February 26, 2015 they experienced their First Holy and proud parents and family as they witnessed this most Confession (Sacrament of Reconciliation) with Fr. Reu Jose precious occasion with blissful hearts. The angelic voices C. Galoy, OFM and Fr. Efren Jimenez, OFM as confessors. of the Lester Delgado choir, the fresh selection of elegant After being taught basic Catechism earlier in the school year, flower arrangements by Tony Padilla and the expert they were carefully prepared to learn the steps for a good photography of Tino Ley contributed to this perfect moment. Confession beginning with an examination of conscience The benevolent guidance of our Parish Priest Fr. Reu Jose to the process of Confession in the Confessional box, C. Galoy, OFM and all the SSAP priests, the captainship ending with a fervent act of contrition. Truly their souls were and maternal care of the CCD committee - Lia Te (CCD immaculately pure and clean thereafter, ready to nurture Chairperson), Katty Qua and Marivic Borromeo, the support their souls and receive the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. of our multi-talented office assistant - Leah Azarcon, the Last May 16, 2015, from 2pm - 4pm these blessed dutiful instruction of the CCD teachers- Dottie Pasia, Tess children received their First Holy Communion, in a Holy Sarmiento, Nancy Gonewai, Micki Poe, Crissy Castillo Mass officiated by Father Reu Jose C. Galoy, OFM. With and Marga Gregorio, the invaluable help of the SSAP staff the girls clad in their pristine white dresses and sheer veils, and the indispensable support of the First Communicants’ and the boys in their crisp barongs, they truly resembled an parents, also contributed to the realization of this miracle ensemble of cherubims as they filed down the red carpet that truly felt like a slice of heaven on earth. aisle of our glorious San Antonio church to receive their Santuario de San Antonio Parish Center Office • Tel. nos. 8438830-31 Parish Bulletin with symptoms. He asks us to replace those caused by microorganisms and SUNDAY consumption with sacrifice, greed with chemical substances. Dysentery and GOSPEL REFLECTION generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of cholera, linked to inadequate hygiene sharing, an asceticism which “entails and water supplies, are a significant By Fr. Efren Jimenez, OFM learning to give, and not simply to give cause of suffering and of infant mortality. up. It is a way of loving, of moving Underground water sources in many gradually away from what I want to what places are threatened by the pollution God’s world needs. It is liberation from produced in certain mining, farming fear, greed and compulsion.” [17] As and industrial activities, especially in Christians, we are called to “accept the countries lacking adequate regulation world as a sacrament of communion, or controls. It is not only a question as a way of sharing with God and our of industrial waste. Detergents and neighbors on a global scale. It is our chemical products, commonly used in humble conviction that the divine and the many places of the world, continue to human meet in the slightest detail in the pour into our rivers, lakes and seas. seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet.” [18] Paragraph 48 – The human environment The new encyclical of Pope Francis about and the natural environment deteriorate the Environment speaks of the church Paragraph 25 – Climate change is a together; we cannot adequately combat thinking on the value of care for creation, global problem with grave implications: environmental degradation unless we since, “ it cries out to us because we environmental, social, economic, attend to causes related to human have inflicted on her by our irresponsible political and for the distribution of and social degradation. In fact, the use and abuse of the goods with which goods. It represents one of the principal deterioration of the environment and God has endowed us.” challenges facing humanity in our of society affects the most vulnerable day. Its worst impact will probably be people on the planet: “Both everyday It is characteristic of God to give life, to felt by developing countries in coming experience and scientific research show sustain life and to desire not death but decades. Many of the poor live in areas that the gravest effect of all attacks on the fullness of life (Gospel of Thirteenth particularly affected by phenomena the environment are suffered by the Sunday B). related to warming, and their means poorest.” [26] For example, the depletion of subsistence are largely dependent of fishing reserves especially hurts small We feature in this section some relevant on natural reserves and ecosystemic fishing communities without the means to themes of life from the encyclical services such as agriculture, fishing and replace those resources; water pollution Laudato Si. forestry. They have no other financial particularly affects the poor who cannot activities or resources, which can enable buy bottled water; and rises in the sea Paragraph 8 – The statement of them to adapt to climate change or to level mainly affect impoverished coastal ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew, with face natural disasters, and their access populations who have nowhere else to whom we share the hope of full ecclesial to social services and protection is very go. The impact of present imbalances communion has spoken in particular of limited. For example, changes in climate, is also seen in the premature death of the need for each of us to repent of the to which animals and plants cannot many of the poor, in conflicts sparked ways we have harmed the planet, for, “in as adapt, lead them to migrate; this in turn by the shortage of resources, and in much as we all generate small ecological affects the livelihood of the poor, who are any number of other problems, which damage,” we are called to acknowledge then forced to leave their homes, with are insufficiently represented on global “our contribution, smaller or greater, to great uncertainty for their future and that agendas. [27] the disfigurement and destruction of of their children. There has been a tragic creation.” [14] He has repeatedly stated rise in the number of migrants seeking to this firmly and persuasively, challenging flee from the growing poverty caused by us to acknowledge our sins against environmental degradation. They are not creation: “For human beings…to destroy recognized by international conventions the biological diversity of God’s creation; as refugees; they bear the loss of the for human beings to degrade the integrity lives they have left behind, without of the earth by causing changes in its enjoying any legal protection whatever. climate, by stripping the earth of its natural Sadly there is widespread indifference to forests or destroying its wetlands; for such suffering, which is even now taking human beings to contaminate the earth’s place throughout our world. Our lack of waters, its land, its air, and its life – these response to these tragedies involving our are sins.” [15] For “to commit a crime brothers and sisters points to the loss of against the natural world is a sin against that sense of responsibility for our fellow ourselves and a sin against God.” [16] men and women upon which all civil society is founded. Paragraph 9 – At the same time, Bartholomew has drawn attention Paragraph 29 – One particularly serious to the ethical and spiritual roots of problem is the quality of water available environmental problems, which require to the poor. Everyday, unsafe water that we look for solutions not only in results in many deaths and the spread technology but in a change of humanity; of water-related diseases, including otherwise we would be dealing merely 2 June 28, 2015 RANDOM THOUGHTS The ABC’s of Catholic Doctrine Voices from yesterday and today… by Lianne Tiu By: Peachy Maramba ST. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA: Patron of Catholic Youth 1568 – 1591 June 21 Is Opus Dei Catholic? As of today, there are 13 Opus Dei members whose process of Opus Dei (Latin for “Work of God”) is canonization has been opened. Some an organization of the Roman Catholic of them are: Bishop Alvaro del Portillo Church that emphasizes the belief that (successor of St. Josemaria), Montse everyone is called to holiness and that Grases (a teenage Catalan student), ordinary life is a path to sanctity. Ernesto Cofino (a pediatrician and Opus Dei was founded in Spain in father of 5 children), Dora del Hoyo (a 1928 by the Roman Catholic priest professional homemaker), Toni Zweifel Josemaria Escriva. It was approved (a Swiss engineer), and Tomas Alvira by the bishop of Madrid in 1941 and and Paquita Dominquez (husband and by the Holy See in 1947. Since 1982, wife with 9 children). it has been a personal prelature* of the Yes, Opus Dei is Catholic. It is fully Aloysius Gonzaga was born on 9 March Church. It is neither a religious order, like legitimate and fully recognized by the the Dominicans, Franciscans & Jesuits, Church led by the Roman Pontiff. 1568 at the family castle in Castiglione nor a Secular Institute or religious in Lombardy, Italy. His father had great movement, like Cursillo or Charismatic. *Personal prelature - the prelate’s plans for him being honored as a great Opus Dei is made up of lay people jurisdiction is not linked to a geographic statesman or military hero.