GREETINGS FROM. BOY & AGNES YAMBAO AND FAMILY 35TH BIENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION CFM BECOMING GOOD NEWS AT HOME AND TO THE WORLD OUR MISSION Our mission is to be evangelized and to evangelized families and communities through our family and life programs and advocacies. OUR VISION We are a community of evangelized families witnessing to Christ, sanctified by the Spirit in building the Father’s kingdom. OUR CORE VALUES Evangelization Stewardship Servanthood Family Spirituality Pro-life CFM 3 PAGE 35TH BIENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION CFM BECOMING GOOD NEWS AT HOME AND TO THE WORLD CFM Logo The symbol for the Christian Family Movement is made up of four component parts: the ancient sign for man, woman and child with the Christian symbol for Christ, joined in beautiful harmony to form a single unit, indicating the most basic characteristics of the Christian family. Christ - Superimposed upon the whole is the symbol; for Christ, the Chi Rho, who holds the center place in the family unit. Man - Shown with arms lifted up to Gods, standing as a tower of great strength, exemplifying his place as head of the family. Woman - Reaching toward the earth, beautifully demonstrating her likeness to the earth in her fertility - the place she holds in the divine plan of creation fulfilled in the family unit. Child - The circle, as a sign of life, represents the child, showing the closeness of the power of man and woman to God’s power of creation. CFM 114 PAGE 35TH BIENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION CFM BECOMING GOOD NEWS AT HOME AND TO THE WORLD CATHOLIC BISHOP’S CONFERENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES Message With a shepherd's joy, I cordially greet the members and officers of the Christian Family Movement (CFM) of the Philippines on the occasion of your 35th Biennial National Convention on 25-27 October 2019! Your theme “CFM Becoming Good News at Home and to the World” expresses clearly your being in communion with the Church on this Year of the Youth (2019) here in the Philippines, and CFM's vision “to bring the Good News to our neighborhood and nearby communities as well as in other areas where we may be of service”. I hope and pray that the members and officers of CFM will be inspired by the intercession of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph to hold on together with faith, hope and love in your hearts, even as you continue to proclaim the Good News by being channels of God's love, peace and joy to all men and women of every race and religion, especially the young people of the third millennium. Congratulations and God bless! + ROMULO G. VALLES, D.D. Archbishop of Davao CBCP President GENERAL SECRETARIAT: 470 Gen. Luna St., Intramuros, Manila P.O. Box 3601, 1076 Manila, Philippines (+632) 527-4054, 527-4138 • (+632) 527-4063 • www.cbcpwebsite.com • [email protected], [email protected] CFM 5 PAGE 35TH BIENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION CFM BECOMING GOOD NEWS AT HOME AND TO THE WORLD CATHOLIC BISHOP’S CONFERENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES EPISCOPAL COMMISSION ON FAMILY AND LIFE Message I am one with the Christian Family Movement (CFM) in its 35th Biennial National Convention with the theme "CFM Becoming Good News at Home and to the World." The gathering of the CFM Family Ministers in Zambales which will be on October 25-27, 2019, is but an expression of that burning desire to reflect on the reality that truly the "family continue[s] to be good news for today's world" (rf. Pope Francis letter to Cardinal Farrell, in preparation for the World Meeting of Families, Ireland) The desire to share your being a CFM is a spirit filled initiative. This reminds me of what the recent Papal Exhortation speaks about in Christus Vivit, "Jesus grew in a relationship with the Father, in awareness of being part of a family and a people, and in openness to being filled with the Holy Spirit and led to carry out the mission God gives to Jesus - personal vocation." (No. 30) As Chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, I encourage you to share this desire and the spirit of being "Goodnews" at home and to the entire country. My blessings! Most Rev. Gilbert A. Garcera Archbishop of Lipa Chairman, Epsicopal Commission on Family and Life, CBCP 470 Gen. Luna St., Intramuros, Manila, Philippines Telefax: (02) 527-9385 / 0632 • E-mail: [email protected] CFM 6 PAGE 35TH BIENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION CFM BECOMING GOOD NEWS AT HOME AND TO THE WORLD Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas (Council of the Laity of the Philippines) CATHOLIC BISHOP’S CONFERENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES EPISCOPAL COMMISSION ON FAMILY AND LIFE Message I congratulate the Christian Family Movement (CFM) on its 35th Biennial National Convention. It will be held in Zambales on October 25 - 27, 2019. A national convention is always a great event for an organization. It is a time of renewing the leadership and the spirit of the organization. Usually it comes out of the convention with a renewed sense of mission. The theme of the national convention is an expression of the mission of the group: CFM Becoming Good News at Home and to the World. The family is now being attacked in this country. There are threats of legislations that weaken the institution of the family like divorce, same sex unions and lowering of criminal responsibility of children. In these times we need the witness of good families to bring the Good News that strong families are possible and they make people happy. The CFM has a long history of helping families and witnessing to happy and strong family relations. In this Year of the Youth we are reminded that we cannot have good youth apostolate without good family apostolate. Good and stable young people come from stable and loving families. By working for families, especially the wounded ones, CFM does a lot to bring up the culture of life and to support work for the young. I pray that the CFM will be up to its mission in the family apostolate. God bless you all and have a nourishing and memorable national convention. +MOST REV. BRODERICK S. PABILLO, D.D. Chairperson, CBCP Episcopal Commission on the Laity National Director, Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas Laiko Bldg., 372 Cabildo St., Intramuros, Manila, Philippines Tel: +63.2.527 5388 Telefax: +63.2.527 3125 Email: [email protected] CFM 7 PAGE 35TH BIENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION CFM BECOMING GOOD NEWS AT HOME AND TO THE WORLD Diocese of Iba Message To the Christian Family Movement of the Philippines: Greetings of peace and love of Jesus Our Lord! I always thank the Lord for giving the Church a family who live the meaning of the Gospel at home. The family that make the Gospel their way of life is the best translation of the Word of God. Priests may deliver the best homily in the Eucharistic celebration but family deliver the best meaning of the Gospel at home. We remember that the Church began in the homes of the disciples. The Domus Ecclesia (house-church) was the first locus of the Gospel proclamation. The experience of encountering Jesus brought joy to the house of Jairus (Mark 5) and eventually the apostles continue bringing the presence of Christ in the homes of the believers like the house of Lydia (Acts 16:14). I hope and pray that the CFM Community will always encounter Jesus in their homes. May Jesus be the strength and inspiration of our youth today, the next generation of Catholic family living in the ways of the Gospel. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph Most Rev. Bartolome G. Santos Jr. D.D. Bishop of Iba CFM 8 PAGE 35TH BIENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION CFM BECOMING GOOD NEWS AT HOME AND TO THE WORLD CHRISTIAN FAMILY MOVEMENT OF THE PHILIPPINES Member: International Confederation of Christian Family Movements Christian Family Movement of Asia • Council of the Laity of the Philippines Message Once more we have this precious occasion to mutually inspire and support each other during our CFM 35th Biennial National Convention in Zambales this October 25-27, 2019 with the theme: “CFM Becoming Good News at Home and to the World”. Through this coming together we aim to bring the Good News to our neighborhood and nearby communities as well as in other areas where we may be of service but always starting from our homes. Pope Francis summarizes the core message of this Good News that we need to live out in our homes and everywhere in his recent apostolic exhortation, Christus vivit: • The first of this message is a “God who is love”. His love is one that “has to do more with raising up than knocking down, with reconciling than forbidding, with offering new changes than condemning, with the future than the past” (Christus vivit,116). • The second message is that “Christ saves you”. Never forget that “He forgives us seventy times seven. Time and time again, He bears us on his shoulders” (Christus vivit, 119). Jesus loves us and saves us because “only what is loved can be saved. Only what is embraced can be transformed. The Lord's love is greater than all our problems, frailties and flaws” (Christus vivit,120). And “His forgiveness and salvation are not something we can buy, or that we have to acquire by our own works or efforts. He forgives us and sets us free without cost” (Christus vivit,121). • The third of this message is that “He is alive!”. “We need to keep reminding ourselves of this…because we can risk seeing Jesus Christ simply as a fine model from the distant past, as a memory, as someone who saved us two thousand years ago.