Youth of the Verbum Dei Missionary Family spent a meaningful day last December 18, 2019 to celebrate the spirit of Christmas at the Pasig Apostolic Center. The day started with formation entitled “Konsensiya mo, Konsensiya ko” given by Fr James McTavish. He talked about the importance of the conscience and how a well formed conscience can positively impact their daily living. This was followed by a small workshop where the youth divided into groups and applied and creatively presented what they learned in challenging case studies.
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After recharging with lunch, the youth travelled to a nearby urban poor neighbourhood to spend some time with the children there. The youth sang and danced to Christmas carols, played games together, and shared a simple afternoon snack with the children. There was even a simple sharing by Shahani, a youth from the Pansol community, where she talked about her life and how she experienced blessings even amidst hardships. It was truly a beautiful afternoon of living out the spirit of giving. 

As part of Verbum Dei’s commitment to work with the universal church, each local community is asked to regularly update the Bishop of their corresponding Diocese. Recently, Cookie and Bimbo Abrio, the Local Coordinators of the VDMFa in Mindanao, accompanied by some disciples, made a fruitful visit to Bishop Jo Cabantan of the Diocese of Malaybalay and Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro last Dec. 7 and 8, 2019 respectively. One of the main purposes of the visit was to extend our gratitude for their unwavering support to Verum Dei’s existing apostolic works through the different Parish priests in the areas where we are working such as: Nazareno, the Cathedral, Barra in CDO, Musuan, Malaybalay, Aglayan, Kitam-is and Alae in Bukidnon.
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The team also gave an update on the different activities/topics and the people who are locally coordinating and attending the regular activities. Both Bishops were very glad of the continuing efforts of Verbum Dei to spread the word of God and even asked for more help as both also expressed the different needs of their diocese specially in terms of Catechism, Bible apostolate and working with the families. At the end of the meeting the VDMFa gave some autographed books written by Fr. James (the current Zone responsible), who also accompanied the visit to the Bishops, as a sign of appreciation, and also a way for them to get to know the community more. We really enjoyed our “Bishop hopping” and continue to pray for them in their ministry of shepherding.

Last November 9 and 10, members of the Verbum Dei Family of Cebu facilitated a silent retreat with the students of Nemesio-Epifania Taneo Memorial High School in Tingo, Olango Island, Cebu. This was the first retreat in the island, in partnership with their Campus Ministry, which we have been working with since February of this year.

Tweny-seven young retreatants from Olango, and three from Cebu City joined us for the two days, where we had four guidelines, longer times of silent prayer with the Word of God, creative/working prayer, shared meals and snacks, and afternoon icebreakers. It was beautiful seeing these young people discover Jesus so alive in the Word of God, and writing their prayers. At the end of the two days, where we deepened on Luke 5:1-11, we gave the retreatants a necklace with the cross, as a symbol of their newfound friendship with Jesus who is our greatest friend.

One of the young retreatants, Rgeane, shares her experience of the retreat:

"Sometimes in life, we feel an emptiness within us. We feel that we are alone in the four corners of the room engulfed by total darkness, but the truth is we're not. Our boat is full that is why God can't enter. Our life is more focused on earthly things that is why we can't entertain Him. ‘He allows us to feel our downs so that we can have a space for Him.’ He allows every obstacle for us to learn that he is just on our side, even if we don't notice his existence, and even if we are not willing to be his minister.

Have you gone in front of the mirror and asked yourself, "Who am I?" No one can tell us who we are. Our circle of friends, teachers, family, social media accounts, and even ourselves can't. There is only one person who knows us beyond what we know of ourselves. It is God, only God. We can talk to him without any hesitation. We can talk to him without any doubt that he might judge us. Talking to him is just like having a long, heart-to-heart conversation with an old yet unforgettable friend. ‘The more you know God, the more you know yourself.’ With him we are more than real and more capable to do things.

We think that every day is a normal day. We wake up, go to school or work, eat and sleep. ‘We don't recognize that the small things are miracles or a blessings in disguise. Being able to see the beauty of the world, to breathe, to talk and listen is a miracle.’ It's a chance that is given to us. We should appreciate the value of small things because not all of us have the opportunity to always recognize that value.

I am not an expert singer but I will sing about his greatness. I am not a good dancer but I will dance just to show to the world that he is flexible enough to cater to a lot of people, good or bad. I am not a talented person but I can shine because I have my light - God! I made and will make mistakes but now I am with God. I'm not so fully equipped with wisdom, knowledge, and experience to defend him, but I can be a living testament that he is not dead; he is surely alive and he is writing my story. I am a stone in the shore, not that important and precious, but God offers his hand to lift me. I am a solitary bird on a flight to nowhere but now I am home because I am with him. I was once lost but now I am found."

Here are some photos of the event:

Last November 17, 2019 some of the TGIS (“Thank God It’s Saturday” SOW of the Pansol Community) attendees headed by Fr. Iwao Ikegami had a visit to the “Tahanan ng Pagmamahal” (Home of Love), an orphanage at Pasig City. It is a non-government organization which originated in the year 2007.

We were welcomed by Ms. Faye, the person in charge of the institution. She explained the institution’s history and it’spurpose: “What we do is not a job but a ministry.” At the moment the institution is catering to 36 kids. A combination of babies and kids up to 9 years old. The group were able to meet some of the children and experienced a lot of fun. The TGIS group gave some groceries for the children.

Going there was a great experience for the group. They were able to exercise the mission to love which is our universal mission. 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now abide faith, hope, these three but the greatest of these is love.”​

Here are some photos of the event:

On the third day of November 2019, the Pansol Youth Verbum Dei conducted their second mission trip at San Agustin Church, Intramuros Manila with the collaboration of the Missionaries of Charity. The 13 youth facilitators, headed by Kuya Bong, facilitated 125 participants, aged 12-23 years old, from Antipolo City and different areas of Tondo, Manila.

Both the facilitators and the participants gained a fruitful experience from the talks of Ate Elaine about love for life, and Kuya Bong about conversion. The Sacrament of Reconciliation was explained thoroughly by Kuya Bong at his homily, he stated that “if you reconcile your sins to God. He will forget and forgive you, you just need to accept that we are sinners and forgive ourselves for being weak”.
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Little by little we the Pansol youth are really getting a taste for mission to other youth!

Here are some photos of the event:

September 22nd of 2019, and the venue for the formation of conscience was jam-packed. This formation made me more curious as to what or how really the conscience works. It made me ask more questions like if I am really hearing the voice of God?

This formation taught us the importance of having a well-formed conscience. In our journey of life, we have heard so many voices, and we might not be able to identify which is the voice of God. Fr. James said it is like playing “Pukpok Palayok”. We are blind folded and hearing too many voices. There are voices that leads us to the wrong way, so that we will not be able to hit our goal which is the clay pot full of candies (palayok) but there are voices that will lead us to our true goal.

A well-formed conscience is able to process all the voices that we hear and identify which is the voice that comes from God. Yes, “process” is the word. We were told that it takes the combined work of our heart and mind to process the voices we hear, because conscience is not only about feelings. It is like seeing a car at a huge discount price, and we feel that we will be very happy if we are able to get the car at a huge discount, but we should also ask questions about that car - we have to do engine checks, check the mileage, durability and other specifications essential on buying a car. The same goes with every decision we will do in our lives - we don’t just rely on the feelings. We also need to think about the pros and cons of our decision. From every voice that we will be hearing, we process it with both our hearts and minds.

Forming our conscience is a life-long process because new issues arise and the world keeps changing. We need to be aware of these changes, the technical aspects also, and the impact of these changes so that we are able to make the right decision, especially today when we don’t know if the news we are reading is fake or not. When we have a well-formed conscience then we will be able to respond righteously.
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It was a fruitful formation indeed, a vital formation in our everyday life that will help us in making the right decisions.

Cagayan de Oro family got a surprise visit yet again from the General Responsible of the Married Couples Branch, Alfonso Luna Martinez (without Adriana) last October 18, 2019.  It was for him a short break from his jam-packed schedule - an opportunity he would not miss for it would be his last visit for a long time to the city he considers his second home.

However, a man on fire could not keep himself hidden. His missionary heart and spirit led him to the ‘deserts’ of the those who heard him give a formation on Mary, Mother of evangelization, which was timely as most of us were to go on a mission that weekend.

As the visit days ended, we bade Poncho goodbye and wished him all the best as he continues his journey into the deep waters looking for people better than him, forming them so that in turn they too can form others to be disciples of this charism and of Christ above all!
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Safe travels dear friend, from your Verbum Dei family in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines. Many thanks or as we say “Daghang Salamat”

Here are some photos of the event:

Here are some photos of the event: