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April 26, 2014

Dear Brother/Sister;

The Lord is Risen Alleluia!

It is a good to see the young people evangelizing to their fellow Kids and Youth. The coming May 23-25,2014 will be the Kids and Youth Encounter at the Lay Formation Training Center, Seminary Drive, Tagum City.

You could be part of this event through your generous assistance. 

Please call/text 09209697261(Bro. Joe) or 09498671034 (Kuya Jun) for more details.

           

With this gesture, you are taking part in the mission of spreading the JOY of the Gospel to the Young People of our times . Thank you and God bless. Rest assured of our prayers.

Sincerely Yours,         

Bro. Joe Alverio

Kids and Youth Servant

The Conversion Story of Michael Cumbie - Part 1

Friday, 31 January 2014 St. John Bosco, Priest (1815-1888) - Memorial
Other saints of the day
SAINT JOHN BOSCOPriest (1815-1888)         Born in the diocese of Turin in 1815, and brought up in poverty, John Bosco devoted his life to the education of working youth.         He founded religious congregations -the Salesian Order, and the Congregation of the Helpers of Mary -to carry on his ideals.         He fell asleep in the Lord on January 30, 1888 at the age of seventy-two.

Enero 30, 2014 Ebanghelyo Sumala sa Pagsaysay ni San Marcos 4:21-25

Ang Suga nga Gitagoan

(Luc. 8:16-18)

v21Ug mipadayon si Jesus sa pag-ingon, "Dagkotan ba gud ang suga aron lamang tagoan sa ilalom sa gantangan o sa ilalom sa higdaanan? Dili ba ibutang man kini sa tungtonganan? v22Walay tinagoan nga dili mabutyag ug walay gililong nga dili madayag. v23Kon duna kamoy dalunggan, pamati!"
v24Ug si Jesus miingon usab kanila, "Matngoni ninyo ang inyong madungog. Ang sukdanan nga inyong gamiton paghukom sa uban mao usab ang gamiton sa paghukom kaninyo ug labaw pa gani. v25Ang tawo nga may iya nang daan hatagan pa gayod. Apan ang walay iya, bisan ang diyutay nga anaa kaniya, kuhaon pa."

Thursday of the Third week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day 

Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Founder of the Friars Minor 
Admonitions, 19-22.28 (trans. ©The Classics of Western spirituality, 1982)

"To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away"

Blessed is the servant who attributes every good to the Lord God, for he who holds back something for himself hides within himself the money of his Lord God (Mt 25:18), and that which he thought he had shall be taken away from him (Mt  25,18.28; Lk 8: 18).

Blessed is the servant who esteems himself no better when he is praised and exalted by people than when he is considered worthless, simple, and despicable; for what a man is before God, that he is and nothing more...

Blessed is that religious who takes no pleasure and joy except in the most holy words and deeds of the Lord and with these leads people to the love of God in joy and gladness... Blessed is the servant who, when he speaks, does not reveal everything about himself in the hope of receiving a reward, and who is not quick to speak, but wisely weighs what he should say and how he should reply. Woe to that religious who does not keep in his heart the good things the Lord reveals to him and who does not manifest them to others by his actions, but rather seeks to make such good things known by his words. He thereby receives his reward while those who listen to him carry away but little fruit... 

Blessed is that servant who stores up in heaven (Mt 6,20) the good things which the Lord has revealed to him and does not desire to reveal them to others in the hope of profiting thereby. For the Most High will manifest his deeds to whomever he wishes. Blessed is the servant who keeps the secrets of the Lord in his heart.

Thursday, 30 January 2014 Bl. Columba Marmion, Abbot (1858-1923)

Bl. Columba Marmion
Third Abbot of Maredsous
(1858-1923)

    Bl. Columba Marmion was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 1 April 1858 to an Irish father (William Marmion) and a French mother (Herminie Cordier). Given the name Joseph Aloysius at birth, he entered the Dublin diocesan seminary in 1874 and completed his theological studies at the College of the Propagation of the Faith in Rome. He was ordained a priest at St Agatha of the Goths on 16 June 1881.

    He dreamed of becoming a missionary monk in Australia, but was won over by the liturgical atmosphere of the newly founded Abbey of Maredsous in Belgium, which he visited on his return to Ireland in 1881. His Bishop asked him to wait and appointed him curate in Dundrum, then professor at the major seminary in Clonliffe (1882-86). As the chaplain at a convent of Redemptorist nuns and at a women's prison, he learned to guide souls, to hear confessions, to counsel and to help the dying.

    In 1886 he received his Bishop's permission to become a monk. He voluntarily renounced a promising ecclesiastical career and was welcomed at Maredsous by Abbot Placidus Wolter. His novitiate, under the iron rule of Dom Benoît D'Hondt and among a group of young novices (when he was almost 30), proved all the more difficult because he had to change habits, culture and language. But saying that he had entered the monastery to learn obedience, he let himself be moulded by monastic discipline, community life and choral prayer until his solemn profession on 10 February 1891.

    He received his first "obedience" or mission when he was assigned to the small group of monks sent to found the Abbey of Mont César in Louvain. Although it distressed him, he gave his all to it for the sake of obedience. There he was entrusted with the task of Prior beside Abbot de Kerchove, and served as spiritual director and professor to all the young monks studying philosophy or theology in Louvain.

    He started to devote more time to preaching retreats in Belgium and in the United Kingdom, and gave spiritual direction to many communities, particularly those of Carmelite nuns. He become the confessor of Mons. Joseph Mercier, the future Cardinal, and the two formed a lasting friendship.

    During this period, Maredsous Abbey was governed by Dom Hildebrand de Hemptinne, its second Abbot, who in 1893 would become, at the request of Leo XIII, the first Primate of the Benedictine Confederation. His frequent stays in Rome required that he be replaced as Abbot of Maredsous, and it is Dom Columba Marmion who was elected the third Abbot of Maredsous on 28 September 1909, receiving the abbatial blessing on 3 October. He was placed at the head of a community of more than 100 monks, with a humanities college, a trade school and a farm to run. He also had to maintain a well-established reputation for research on the sources of the faith and to continue editing various publications, including the Revue Bénédictine.

    His ongoing care of the community did not stop Dom Marmion from preaching retreats or giving regular spiritual direction. He was asked to help the Anglican monks of Caldey when they wished to convert to Catholicism. His greatest ordeal was the First World War. His decision to send the young monks to Ireland so that they could complete their education in peace led to additional work, dangerous trips and many anxieties. It also caused misunderstandings and conflicts between the two generations within this community shaken by the war. German lay brothers, who had been present since the monastery's foundation by Beuron Abbey, had to be sent home (despite the Benedictine vow of stability) at the outbreak of hostilities. After the war was over, a small group of monks was urgently dispatched to the Monastery of the Dormition in Jerusalem to replace the German monks expelled by the British authorities. Finally, the Belgian monasteries were separated from the Beuron Congregation, and in 1920 the Belgian Congregation of the Annunciation was set up with Maredsous, Mont César and St. André of Zevenkerken.

    His sole comfort during this period was preaching and giving spiritual direction. His secretary, Dom Raymond Thibaut, prepared his spiritual conferences for publication: Christ the Life of the Soul (1917), Christ in His Mysteries (1919) and Christ the Ideal of the Monk (1922). He was already considered an outstanding Abbot (Queen Elisabeth of Belgium consulted with him at length) and a great spiritual author.

    He died during a flu epidemic on 30 January 1923. He was beatified by John Paul II on the 3rd of September 2000.

Thursday, 30 January 2014 St. Bathildes, Queen (c. 634-680)

SAINT BATHILDES
Queen.(c. 634-680)

        St. Bathildes was an Englishwoman, who was carried over whilst yet young into France, and there sold for a slave, at a very low price, to Erkenwald, mayor of the palace under King Clovis II. When she grew up, her master was so much taken with her prudence and virtue that he placed her in charge of his household.

        The renown of her virtues spread through all France, and King Clovis II. took her for his royal consort. This unexpected elevation produced no alteration in a heart perfectly grounded in humility and the other virtues; she seemed to become even more humble than before. Her new station furnished her the means of being truly a mother to the poor; the king gave her the sanction of his royal authority for the protection of the Church, the care of the poor, and the furtherance of all religious undertakings.

        The death of her husband left her regent of the kingdom. She at once forbade the enslavement of Christians, did all in her power to promote piety, and filled France with hospitals and religious houses.

        As soon as her son Clotaire was of an age to govern, she withdrew from the world and entered the convent of Chelles. Here she seemed entirely to forget her worldly dignity, and was to be distinguished from the rest of the community only by her extreme humility, her obedience to her spiritual superiors, and her devotion to the sick, whom she comforted and served with wonderful charity.

        As she neared her end, God visited her with a severe illness, which she bore with Christian patience until, on the 30th of January, 680, she yielded up her soul in devout prayer.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]