Official Newsletter of the

Verbum Dei Catholic Missionaries Luzon

Issue 20 September 2016

Welcome
Greetings to all our readers! Its been a long time since our last newsletter, so we are glad
to share with your the journey of Verbum Dei Luzon in this time, hope you enjoy!

A pilgrimage of mercy
On the 23rd of July 2016, members of the Verbum
Dei Missionary Family completed a pilgrimage to the
five Holy Doors of Mercy of the Archdiocese of
Manila. This activity opened the hearts of the
members of the family, filling them with mercy and
inspiring them to answer the call to open the door of
their hearts for all those in need of the love of God. It
was a prayerful and joyful day, full of surprises, for
the pilgrims who enthusiastically participated in the
event.

#dontjustpassby
In July, while on their school break, the community
of

missionary

students

had

the

wonderful

opportunity to minister to younger students! They

gave recollections, entitled, #dontjustpassby to
the tenth graders of Immaculate Conception
Academy in Greenhills, San Juan. This allowed the
participants to be immersed in the mercy of God
through the passage of the Good Samaritan. They
also deepened on the sacraments of reconciliation
and the Eucharist. Certainly, God, did not just pass
by in their lives.

Spiritual Exercises
As the body needs some physical exercise, so the
soul also needs spiritual exercises! For this reason,
once a year, the Verbum Dei missionaries do a
one month long silent retreat. It is a time of prayer,
of listening to God and allowing the Holy spirit to
mold and shape each missionary and the
community for the year ahead.
If you experienced certain graces and blessings
yourself during this time, it may be because we
were also praying for you! As part of their retreat,
the misioneros received two weeks of reflection in
Tagalog by Amy. Thanks Amy!
The misioneras also enjoyed their time with the
Lord and deepened on the theme We received
the grace of being apostles.

Push your boat further to the deep

A vocational weekend retreat was held at the
Columban Retreat House, and participated in by youth
CDO and Musuan last August 13-14. This was followed
by another group of youth from Manila, Cebu and
Tagaytay, held last August 20-21, 2016 at VD Retreat
House. It was a meaningful weekend allowing each
one to stop for a moment and ask: Who am I? Where
is the boat of my life now? Where is my boat is going?
How do I want to invest my life fully? For whom do I
want to live?
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Jesus answers all our existential questions in life through

his word. Jesus does not just want to pass by our life but
instead wants to enter into our boat. We should not
remain just on our shore let him lead us to look within
ourselves and to go beyond, to dream with him, to push
our boat further to the deep!

The beauty of evangelization through the sacraments

In their apostolate this year, the disciples of Tagaytay dedicated to prepare the children, teens
and youth to receive the beautiful sacrament of baptism. They gave an intensive catechesis
weekly as part of their evangelizing work in the different places in our vicinity: Las Brisas,
Mushroom, and Hagdangbato. This reach-out program continued after the three batches
received the baptismal rite celebrated by our parish priest, Rev. Fr. Bert San Diego, OFMCap.
Herein lies the beauty of working together as a
family in this task of evangelization: on the feast of
Corpus Christi the twenty-three newly baptized
members received their first Holy Communion. In
this work, we continue to see hope in these people
who are now in their journey towards maturity,
preparing

themselves

for

the

sacrament

of

confirmation to be held next year in February on the

feast of our Lady of Lourdes. We pray that Mother
Mary will continue to bless our evangelizing work in
and through the sacraments.

My Big Family!
This August we held a recollection for families. It was a day to deepen on the beauty and
value of the family. The Wee family opened the day with a warm welcome. Then Regner and
Mae, all the way from Mindanao, along with Francis, their 10-month old son, gave us a
formation on the gift of the family. Other inputs included an overview of some threats to
family harmony and happiness. At the same time, the teens had a separate activity with talks
and dynamics given by Lichel, Sherwin, Danilo, Jason and Angelyn. In the closing mass, with
over 150 present, we realized that its true we are part of a bigger family!

Matters of the heart

Verbum Dei offered a study morning on Same Sex Attraction (SSA). The seminar aimed to
understand more the person with same sex attractions, looking at incidence, proposed causes
and pastoral aspects. Fr James commented "Often the media today has its own agenda and
prejudice. Thinking we are already informed, many never bother to actually read Church teaching
on SSA. If they did, they would be surprised!"
The alarming HIV epidemic in the Philippines was
also tackled, citing the latest data of over 840 new
cases per month, the majority of which (85%) occur
in men who have sexual relations with other men
(MSM group). The overall feedback from the
seminar was positive especially to hear about the
group "Courage" - persons with SSA but who
found joy and deeper fulfilment in following Church
teaching and living chastely (see couragerc.org).

True Commitment
Chosen and Trusted, this was the theme of the Disciples
Retreat and Commitment last September 6, 2016 at the
Verbum Dei Missionary House in Pansol. In the morning Sister
Malou Tibayan deepened on what does commitment means in
the lives of a Verbum Dei Disciple. She cited a beautiful quote
from anonymous that says Commitment means staying loyal
to what you said you are going to do long after the mood has
left you. In the afternoon Sister Sarah Abellana talked about
the Rights and Responsibilities of being a Verbum Dei Disciple.
She even made an acronym of the word disciple which goes like this: D-Daily Personal Prayer, IInto Mission. S-Spiritual Exercises-C-Committing with Christ and the Church, I-If possible help
financially, P-Participate in Fraternal Activities, L-Life that is accompanied and for E-Explicit
Commitment.
The day ended with the Holy Mass together with the Renewal of Commitment of Disciples,
Renewal of Commitment of Disciples who has Stable Commitment and Commitment of New
Disciples. It was a fruitful day for the Verbum Dei Family. Once again it is a clear manifestation
that there is a God who is always there for us and whos committed to us first.

Pasig Apostolate Centre, almost two thirds done!

We are happy to update you on the on-going works of the Pasig Apostolate Center. As of
September 2, 2016, work completion had reached 64.35%. It has been a journey of progressive
teamwork - with the different engineers and with some of you who shared enlightening advice
and generous donations of materials for the construction. Thank you. Thank you so much. As we
near final completion we want to knock once again at the door of your generous hearts to help
us with the furniture and fixtures of the Apostolate Center. Hope that we can continue this
beautiful journey of working together till the Apostolate Center can welcome us all, helping us to
grow more in our faith by being a place of prayer for all people.

Conference hall on the second floor

Office with tiles and ceiling

Wall from reception area to chapel

Dining area and central patio

The construction of our Apostolate Center is ongoing. For more information about
how to help or in-kind donations please contact Sr. Malou Tibayan (09336270957)
or Sr. Sol Abala (09324290330).
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