News
Read the news from events, activities and other updates on the different communities here in the Philippines
Starting a new apostolate here in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao is quite a blessing considering the stay-at-home mandate due to this pandemic. However, nothing is stopping the Word of God reaching out to many even to our trusted ‘Servants’ of the Philippine Police who are in front of this Covid 19 battle safeguarding our safety. We launched a School of the Word to the Regional Communications and Electronics Unit 10 Division last June 4, 2020, and every Wednesday at 9:30am thereafter through online and once a month face-to-face meeting. Let us pray that the Word of God can guide their lives, and may the Holy Spirit teach them how to build up a Kingdom of love and justice here on earth. Here are some photos of the event:
8/10/2020
Love Never EndsBringing couples to the sacrament of matrimony In the month of July we celebrated a meaningful, significant and joyful moment in the lives of nineteen couples whose long dream to receive the sacrament of matrimony came true. The theme of the celebration was “Love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:8), and it was a fulfilling moment to see couples wedded in holy matrimony at last. This is part of the Pasig Urban Poor Program that started three years ago, to respond to the concrete reality of many couples living together for many years outside marriage. We congratulate the happy couples for their option to receive the sacrament in the midst of the challenges of processing their documents, receiving the formation online and sourcing out of the funds for the expenses in this time of pandemic. They are part of the 38 couples whom the community and our couples core group have accompanied in their preparation and formation collaborating in the dream of God to build their lives and relationship with each other and their families in His faithful love. Indeed, God’s love is stronger than the Covid 19 bearing fruit of a life changing experiences to these couples and their families, a spring board to an integral change in the society. We are grateful as well to all our mission partners who have been generous in their self-giving supporting and making this cause possible. Here are some more photos of the event:
8/10/2020
Remain in MeReflection on Night of prayer and Vigil with the Lord On August 1st, we, the Verbum Dei Missionaries, organized a night of prayer, songs and silent reflection open to people from all walks of life. The theme of this night was “Remain in Me as I remain in you” John 15:4. The objective was to awaken the call and be reminded of Jesus’ promise in our vocation - a life of loving especially in this time of pandemic when there are many uncertainties be it in our career, our dreams and choices in life. There were about 55 participants who signed in on Zoom individually and as a family. It was an experience of how many are hungry for the time and space to be with Jesus whether personally or as a community praying together as one. It reassured us to keep holding on together on the certainty in life believing and knowing that Jesus walks together with each one of us on our unique journey towards the same goal. A time also to strengthen His love for us was when we sang the song “No greater love.” We invited the participants to type in the chat the word or phrase that spoke to their hearts. I recall reading many of them that wrote “No greater love than a man would give his life for a friend” and “there’s no higher sacrifice than a man would give his life, he has paid a precious price for me.” These two sentences really spoke to my heart there and then, the greatness and value of our friendship with Jesus, that nothing can be exchanged for. Our Lord and God calls us his friends and invites us to the call to share this special friendship to others. As it was shared in the introduction before the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament that “Many are awakened by an alarm while some are awakened by a call.” Though we may not always get the response immediately, we know to whom we can find the answer to our many questions in life. We ended the night with a couple of sharing from the participants on their experience and fruit of the prayer vigil. The fruits on this night were gratitude for the time and space that was provided and the awareness of hunger and thirst of many to be with Jesus. The personal invitation was to listen to Him in the silence of our hearts where He is able to speak to us. With thanks to Priscilla Su and the WordNews team
The on-going pandemic is causing continued unemployment leading many poor families to go hungry. With the help of generous sponsors, we were able to provide 75 families with rice, monggo beans and vegetables. Our feeding program ministry is supported by 7 generous volunteers. We continue to pray for those who go hungry in this time remembering the words of our Lord, “I was hungry and you fed me” (Matthew 25:35).
Calling on all our VD artists!
😀👨🎤🎨🎼🎹 Join our Logo and Song Writing Contests for our Online National Family Encounter 2020, with the theme "Gifted to Give." You may want to draw inspiration from the CBCP's guidelines for the celebration of the 500 years of the arrival of Christianity to our country. Check their website! Deadline for submission for Logo Contest entries is August 15, 2020 and for Theme Song Contest is September 1, 2020. Forming Apostles OnlineIf the Verbum Dei Missionary Family is a ship, many understand that the cutting edge is to form apostles. With this awareness we have tried to be active in pursuing our School of apostles, even in the time of lockdown. This weekend, in our Zoom SOA (Saturday 9am-11am), Marichelle, a Verbum Dei apostle, shared to us the talk of “To Be Christ.”
The core of tis truth of faith is that we are called to be Christ in the world of today. The secret is the loving dialog with Jesus which TRANSFORMS US. She emphasized that in the middle of a challenging moment in her life, she was doing an outreach to children and realized that to be like Christ is the MAXIMUM FULFILLMENT. She also reminded us of the importance of PERSEVERANCE and to “fix our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). Finally, she underlined that we can be good shepherds and help form Jesus in others. The dynamism of the School of Apostles is vital as our mission. Our Verbum Dei founder, Jaime Bonet, would often state “Jesus does not need more adorers or admirers only, he needs imitators.” There is hope for us all that God will transform and change us from caterpillars to beautiful butterflies!
7/22/2020
Zoom In, Bloom OutThis was my first camp experience ever. There were a lot of activities that helped me grow in my spiritual life through prayer and reflection. We had a number of talks and all of them helped me discover more about myself. Aside from sharing with each other about our prayer, we also had fun games requiring teamwork and creative thinking. We also had enjoyable workshops which included cooking, sewing, and origami. I am most thankful that I finally got to encounter plenty of people after a long time in lockdown. I realized I missed spending time and interacting with others. The camp gave me an opportunity to make new friends from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. As I mentioned earlier, there were a number of talks that helped me learn more about myself. These talks addressed the different parts of my life and led me to have a better mindset during this quarantine. The activities were also very informative - I learned about time management and effective communication among others. I was able to practice patience, problem solving and logical thinking. We also got to hear about what was happening outside the Philippines with the Global Teens Meet-up, sharing our experiences with teens like us from Mexico and the USA. When I entered the camp, I was confused about this pandemic. I felt insecure, sad, and distracted. But through all the talks and lessons, I feel more in control and at peace. I pray I continue to bloom by using what I learned through my camp experience to help share the word of God. “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14) My name is Glydel Mae Amoroto and I am from Olango Island, Cebu. Prayer Camp 2020, was one of the best. At first, I didn't expect it would be that nice because it's an online camp and I expected that there will be more hindrances but because of the most creative and passionate hosts with the help of Jesus, it was very successful. Though it's not the ideal camp we want where we can see each other personally, but, at least we did try our very best to communicate and interact with each and every one. I've experienced a lot of things in the five days of camp like, I was excited to wake up every morning because I am going to see everyone through video chat, and I also learned from fascinating talks and experiences from different people, sharing of other teens, and most especially the friendship that we created even though some of us haven't met before, but because of the camp we become friends/FB friends. One of my most memorable moments was the part where we tried our best to cook churros and that time was also my father's birthday. A lot of people were watching and waiting for the churros because they also want to taste it and it's really quite amazing because as we shared it to them fortunately, they also liked it. After all, I've realized that no matter what happens to the world, we must continue watering our faith with buckets of God’s words. I am hoping that it was not the end but rather the beginning of more camping, whether online or actual, but I guess everybody wants the latter one. I'm thankful to be with the people who helped me grow spiritually. See you soon guys. Stay safe. I love you all. Here are some photos of the online event: With thanks to Santino Bautista, Glydel Mae Amoroto and the WordNews team
5/31/2020
Married Couples on Fire!Spiritual exercises of the Verbum Dei missionary married couples The Verbum Dei Married Couples Branch (MCB) in the Philippines did a 3 day on line retreat recently from May 28-30, 2020.
The topic was the Holy Spirit and various themes were addressed including the Spirit helps us to pray, the Spirit battles for our consecration, and the Spirit gives fire in the mission. Guidelines were given via Zoom by Poncho and Adriana Martinez, the General responsibles of the MCB worldwide, Marisol and Antonio (Spanish members of the MCB with perpetual bonds) and by James McTavish. The couples were invited to “Seize the fire, missionaries of the Word of God!” (Fr Jaime Bonet, FMVD). The retreat was also a time for the couples to pause, reflect and breath in the Holy Spirit knowing as Pope Francis stated that families and “the Church urgently needs the deep breath of prayer” (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 262). The missionary married couples are also guided by our Verbum Dei directory: “We will strive to make real a contemplative-active life from our various personal, marital and family situations” (Directory, Married couples, n. 22). The couples experienced various fruits from the retreat such as joy, perseverance and boldness - “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). How great is the Holy Spirit - he is never in lockdown! We continue to pray for the growth and spread of the Verbum Dei married couples branch.
5/31/2020
Zoom of ApostlesDuring this time of extended lock down the Verbum Dei mission to form ourselves as apostles continues.
It is precisely in challenging moments when the world needs to hear good news, but as St Paul noted: ““Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:13-15). The Holy Spirit has gifted us with modern technology and we can use the apps like Zoom to contact friends, catch up with people, run our business and … have a school of apostles! Thousands of on line inputs are now available to listen to: masses, rosaries, inspirational talks – and all of them are great. But let’s not forget the thrust of our work, not to form more listeners alone, but to capacitate persons to become apostles! In this way we, as Verbum Dei, remain faithful to what the Church asks of us: “to form apostles of Christ from among people of every state of life, race, culture and social condition for the propagation of the Kingdom of God.” Amen!
5/31/2020
Feed the hungryDuring the period of quarantine, many of the families of our feeding program were in need of extra food. With the help of generous sponsors, we were able to continue to nourish the families and children of our feeding program in Pansol, as well as extending help to persons in Kaingin 1 and 2 nearby.
Over the course of the last 2 months, we were able to help over 100 families on a regular basis. We distributed various goods: bread, vegetables, yoghurt, pumpkin, tuna, eggs, and more than 5000 kilos (5 tons) of rice! It is true that “the Lord hears the cry of the poor” (Psalm 34). We are happy that the people can witness the integration of faith and charity, and find much needed support in our Verbum Dei community during these challenging times. |
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