News
Read the news from events, activities and other updates on the different communities here in the Philippines
As part of our desire to bring the Word of God to everyone, we have launched our national communications for our Verbum Dei family here in the Philippines!
You can reach us in the different platforms like our website, social media, radio and written word (e.g. newsletter, articles, etc). For any questions, suggestions or if you would like to share your talents, please let us know by sending us a message at our Contact Us page. Hello family and friends! Read the first issue of our Word News, our National Newsletter here in the Philippines. Read the embedded PDF below or download the PDF file and read it offline. Enjoy!
“Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs: 22:6) Recently we had a formation entitled “Parenting Children of the Third Millennium”. Many say that parenting is a lifelong job, and yet, proper parenting is never really taught. When parents raise their children, they often struggle with discovering what the do’s and don’ts are. This is a reality that even young couples themselves are facing nowadays. We were so privileged to have Yoyoy and Lucy, one of the Verbum Dei missionary couples, to give us the formation. Among the highlights were the importance of listening, memories and the beauty of discipline in handling our children. Listening is an active reaching out to another person’s attempt to express him or herself with all our antennae out. It is not just hearing words, in a passive way. Memories are the end product of parenthood; how much quality time we spent with our children matters most. And the beauty of discipline which lies in the parent-child relationship. Indeed parenting is one of the toughest jobs in the world but the heart-melting moments make it worthwhile. Oftentimes, we, parents, get so caught up with our responsibilities in raising our children that we sometimes compromise the quality of the relationship we build with them. As parents, we feel responsible and we want to raise our children right. We want them to become successful. Often we are afraid to make mistakes because we worry that these mistakes will stay with our kids forever. Many parents, like me, feel like the kind of upbringing we had needs to be altered for modern times. We attempt to learn to be better parents. We teach our children to share, say the magic words, proper behaviour in public places, right manners and so on…But is it really good enough? What kind of parents are we to our children? In continuation to this formation, another followed entitled, “Mom + Dad + I = The True Team”. Ate Aida discussed different parenting styles. Are we authoritarian? Are we permissive? Or are we authoritative? Our parenting style greatly affects the behaviour and attitudes of our children. Authoritarian parents are aggressive, lack warmth and comfort, are hostile towards the child and harsh and rigid in their discipline. While being permissive is a mix of authoritarian and uninvolved parenting. It also means not setting expectations and being inconsistent with rules. Authoritative parenting is listening to their children’s point of view and taking it into account, having a structured and secure environment and setting high standards of behaviour and achievement for their children. The relationship we want with our children is possible when we teach them to be independent of us. When we give them wings, they can soar. Parenting is the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings. As with any risk, we have to take a leap of faith and ask lots of wonderful people for their help and guidance. I thank the Verbum Dei Community for giving us such great formations which will help us in raising our children. And lastly, I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to be a parent. Written by Ellen Siarza.
With thanks to the WordNews team Forty young people from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao gathered together for “Vocation Animation” held in Dahilayan, Bukidnon, Mindanao last May 26-27, 2018 to discover our purpose and vocation in life. Our theme was "Be brave, be bold, be you!", where we discussed the process of disintegration that leads us away from our real identity and learned that vocation, is in fact, the secret of unity and integration of our whole life, seeing Christ as our maximum fulfillment. We also tackled the big questions of the young people of today regarding chastity, simplicity and obedience, which is, we believe, the path that all of us are called to walk and live out. Talks and activities were given both by missionaries and young lay disciples of Verbum Dei Cebu and CDO. We finished the camp feeling braver and more courageous about our vocation! With thanks to Gelo Balsita and the WordNews team
5/30/2018
Thank God It's Monday (May 6, 2018)On May 6, we held TGIM - "Thank God It's Monday," at the Verbum Dei Apostolate Center in Pasig. Thirty-four participants of varying backgrounds learned and reflected on how spirituality and work can be integrated. Sr Malou Tibayan gave the formation, inviting the participants to look at work from the perspective of God and to find Him present even in the seeming mundane-ness of everyday work. She also inspired the participants to view the workplace as a mission field where it is possible to serve God through the diligent and honest carrying out of responsibilities and through serving others. The participants also had the chance to share their experiences with one another. In the afternoon there was a panel discussion where six Verbum Dei disciples with diverse work backgrounds served as panelists. Facilitated by Gerry Dumancas and Sr Adriana Haro, the participants engaged the panelists in Q&A to understand better how the teachings could be put into practice in real world settings. Many questions were asked and answered on handling difficult work situations, being Christian in a secular world, standing your ground on moral matters, and other things. The Holy Eucharist concluded the activity as the congregation gave thanks to the Lord for the fruitful encounter. The Verbum Dei Missionary Family in Manila-Pasig had a day recollection last May 20, 2018 at the Verbum Dei Apostolate Center, Pasig in celebration of Pentecost. With the theme “With Power from on High,” the participants were invited to live by the Spirit through a lively and spirit-filled day of activities. The morning had Sister Adriana Haro start the day with guidelines on the Holy Spirit. She invited us to look at the state of the door of our hearts and to open it up to the Spirit, and to connect to God - the ultimate power bank of our spiritual needs. This was followed by a workshop on the different Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Participants were divided into groups of about 10 members and each group was assigned to receive a formation on a specific gift. The groups were then tasked to prepare a collage of the fruit of their workshop. These were then shared later in the day so that the whole body of participants could have a glimpse of the fruits of each of the separate workshop as a whole. The afternoon guidelines were given by Christel Mendoza, a lay disciple of Verbum Dei Manila-Pasig. She shared to us how to be faithful to the Spirit and so transform our realities. In between each activity, participants were engaged by several dynamics and animation prepared to truly bring out the festive experience of Pentecost. After a reflective sharing among the participants, the day’s activities were brought to a close with the celebration of the Eucharist presided by Fr. Bong Guinoo. And what a way to end the day, as in his homily, Fr. Bong continued to challenge the participants, to take that first courageous step to allow the Spirit to thus take action in our lives. Truly the call of the celebration was to live by the Spirit, not only for this day but for every day! With thanks to the WordNews team
The Lay Consecrated Missionaries (LCM) had their annual Spiritual Exercises last May 12-18 at the Verbum Dei Center of Evangelization in Tagaytay attended by 4 LCMs with promises (2 from CDO, 1 from Cebu & 1 from Luzon) and 3 (from CDO) in their formation or the “Triennium Stage”. The theme of the Spiritual of the Exercises was “Heirs of a Charism open to the dynamism of the Spirit”. It was a fruitful 7-day encounter with God, of discovering, deepening and enjoying the beautiful gift of our Charism through the life and self-giving of our founder, Jaime Bonet and also to see the beauty and potentials of the LCMs reality in the VD family and in the different realities. And as Heirs, we are called to “Fan into flame the gift that we received from God” (2 Tim 1:6) by living and sharing it to all peoples so the world may see the beauty of Christ through us. GO and SEE!!! (see Mark 6:38) the treasure that is in our hands. Go and see!!! the Charism of praying, preaching, testimony of life and forming apostles is the food that we can offer to the world. “Give them something to eat yourselves!!!” With thanks to Gams L. Gallega (Verbum Dei LCM) and the WordNews team
We are holding an Art Workshop at the DSWD, Home for Girls (4 to 21 years old) who have been abused. Every Sunday afternoon during May, Cha Cha and some Verbum Dei disciples, have been leading this art workshop, using some of the truths of faith of our theme set. Our desire is to integrate faith and arts, by sharing with the children the goodness and love of God through art and creativity; helping them gain self-awareness, confidence and appreciation of the preciousness of their life as a valuable gift of God; and letting the children experience, enjoy, learn and discover a sense of connection between life and art. Here are some observations from the girls attending it, after one of these workshops: ‘This is my life… I don’t want it to be wasted.’ ‘I will let light be stronger than the darkness I find in life.’ With thanks to the WordNews team
The singles reality had an outing last weekend, with two main purposes: team building and giving school supplies to the children in Olango. We had lots of fun and enjoyed very much the island hopping on Saturday. It was a great way to get to know each other better, and enjoy the beautiful sea. At the end of the day, we had team building dynamics, which many of us found it helpful. We were asked to write something positive about each person... some surprises were found!... On Sunday morning, after a short time of prayer, we set off to the local church in Tingo, Olango, where around 170 children met us. Arman was a great animator, leading the music and some animation songs. As it was Pentecost day, we performed a skit about the dead bones of Ezekiel 37. Margarida explained it being like our lives before and after welcoming God’s Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit given to us at Pentecost enables us to be friends of God and gathers us as a Christian family. The Holy Spirit is also the One who inspired people to be generous and sponsor the school supplies and snacks. So we prayed for them before the group sharing and the distribution of the school supplies. ‘It was a great joy to see the children’s happiness’ said Mark at the end of this activity. See some of the photos of the event: With thanks to the WordNews team
The Gift and Task of Sexuality for CatholicsA talk given by Fr. James McTavish, FMVD A commentary by Therese Gonzalez May 8, 2018, Discovery Camp, Montebello Hotel Cebu City It was such a relief to have Fr James McTavish give this Talk on a topic that came out in some of the discussions in our School of the Word group. Here below are some of the points explored in this formation talk. We needed to hear what he had to say about a video clip showing a Canadian News team reporting on children being taught in their public school that they could choose their own gender by the way they felt! In other words, if a 5 yr old boy felt like he was a girl, then it was fine to consider himself a girl, could dress like a girl and change his private parts. The same views with the girls! Fr James started with a quote from James 1:17 (coincidence 😊) “Every good and perfect gift comes from heaven. It comes down from God, our Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning.” What are the Catholic teachings on gender? A. You are offending God as the Creator if you change your sex. B. Gender is either male or female. C. Gender has roles. D. ‘Feelings’ do not determine nor do feelings define Gender ~ neither is gender dictated by society. E. Sex change operations are considered an act of mutilation to the body. So, our body’s sex determines whether we are male or female and not our sensuality. Are we living our sexuality to the fullest? How did we invest in this gift? The issue of intersex was also discussed. Intersex has nothing to do with transgender issues. Teaching children gender ideology will confuse the children. This is against the natural law of creation and will result in a disconnecion with the identity of being a man and a woman. So how do we speak out against this dysphoria without being discriminatory? How do we guide our children in today’s world, with Gender Identity Confusion issues of LGBT, two spirit, Gender-free or non-binary where babies are born and not registered in their birth certificate as either male or female? An interesting comparison was on the one hand, a survey of Gender Identity Disorder in the US and the United Kingdom which showed that people in this category are in the 2% of the population. On the other hand, a survey done by Courage, a Catholic organization based in Manila: in the Philippines of 137 males and 220 females, 21% suffer from Gender confusion. Perhaps this high rate is partly due to our local television shows that have gender confused actors and actresses as main role characters and models. One possible consequence of a lack of clear morality in the area of sexuality is that the numbers of HIV cases are increasing. The Department of Health in the Philippines came up with a comparative survey of HIV data in 2008 as having 1 case a day while in 2014, the cases increased to 17 cases a day. In 2017, the HIV cases have increased greatly to 35 cases a day with the vast majority (85%) due to males having sex with males. More than leaving us with solutions to this problem, we were also left with many questions; especially what can we, Catholics, do to help others not only become more aware of this reality but also help our fellow Catholics live the gift of their sexuality as God’s gift. We were also reminded of the call to chastity to all the baptised, stated in the Catechism of the Catholic church (CCC, no. 2348). Also in CCC no. 2520, “A chaste person is not self centered nor is he/she involved in selfish relationships with people. Rather, he/she is called to govern one’s passions and live in peace. With God’s Grace he will prevail by the virtue of the gift of Chastity, by purity of intention, by purity of vision and by prayer. Be pure in your thoughts and keep disciplined in your feelings.” Written by: Therese Gonzalez
With thanks to the WordNews team |
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