News
Read the news from events, activities and other updates on the different communities here in the Philippines
9/14/2021
Drug Abuse Prevention WebinarThe Verbum Family in Cebu and Cagayan de Oro (in the Philippines) conducted a webinar titled DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION ON FAMILY MEMBERS on September 5, 2021, in collaboration with the Department of Health Treatment and Rehabilitation Center- Cebu City. Members of the Verbum Dei community from both communities attended the event, as did the majority of police officers from the Philippines National Police Regional Communications and Electronics Unit Region 10, which is led by Police Major July Love Galvadores, who is also a Verbum Dei disciple.
The event started planning in the second quarter of this year. This Department of Health advocacy aims to raise awareness, improve health, and prevent drug abuse, all of which we at Verbum Dei as a community of families totally support and believe in.
7/19/2021
School of Preaching in 2 PartsThe community in Mindanao organized a school of preaching in two sessions – June 18 & July 9, 2021 respectively, with special guest speaker Sister Cecilia Teo. The organizers thought that this is necessary as a response to an earlier mention of the need to equip the disciples in preparing, developing and delivering Guidelines in the Schools of the Word. It is imperative that being in this charism, one has to have the fundamentals in preaching the Verbum Dei way. We cannot yield to complacency & timidity thus it is recommended that coaching and training of this kind is indispensable adding growth and maturity in this charism, thus should be done recurrently.
The organizers would like to thank those who attended especially disciples coming from our community in Manila and some VD members in some parts of the US. “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” (Mark 16:15) Work is an integral aspect in lives of the people. It is also one of the major concerns of the singles. In line with this, the Ephphata Singles Group of Verbum Dei, Quezon City, Philippines, organized an online formation last June 12, 2021 entitled Beauty and Spirituality of work. The formation was headed by Fr. James McTavish FMVD and attended by 24 participants. Fr. James reminded the attendees that work is gift. He also shared that not all stress that a person experiences is bad, but that there is also “good” stress that can help the person to function better. He also shared that Jesus himself was a worker and that his example must be emulated. He said that work and spirituality can go hand in hand. By being good in work the person can give glory to God. Amidst the challenges that the world is facing, Covid-19 pandemic, unemployment and other factors that can affect the lives of the people and with singles in particular - it is very important to be connected to the source, God. He will give us the energy to survive the different challenges. Psalm 55:22 “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” Let us enjoy our work , and serve the Lord in this way. With thanks to Francis Jerome Santos and the WordNews team.
5/16/2021
Journey of FaithOn the 13th of October 2019, my wife Cecilia, my son Santino and I each received a small gift from Marisol and Antonio, a visiting missionary couple from Spain. Through a series of happy coincidences, our family was able to fly over to Cebu to witness the First Temporal Bonds of the second batch of missionary couples in the Philippines. I remember, we were seated directly behind Marisol and family at the church. At one point Marisol quietly turned and, with a twinkle in her eye, gave each of us a small wooden cross necklace along with a bookmark with the verse “Por ti me daré a conocer” (Isaiah 49,3). On that very day, I wore that simple cross and whispered a very small and happy ‘yes’ in my heart. Upon our return home to Manila, I wrote a short prayer on a small piece of paper. I folded it up and inserted it into my small statue of the ‘Sleeping St. Joseph’ with much confidence that my prayer will come to fruition. Fast forward to 2021 the Year of St. Joseph, and Cecilia and I are now on our 7th month of the Discernment Course. This totally new experience has allowed us to encounter our Lord in a deeper way and as a couple. We find ourselves getting closer to Jesus, our hearts desiring to know him even more. As we come to know Jesus in new ways, we also rediscover each other. Through our weekly conjugal dialogue, we are able to share how God is moving in our hearts and what is moving us in different areas in our life. Also, understanding that God has joined us together and in our union we are designed to be one another's helper, there is greater motivation to be more loving, sensitive and supportive. We are following God's call when we do all these and are joyful in the other's happiness. Through the different means: the weekly prayer guidelines, monthly revision of life and formation with other couples, our spiritual directors and accompaniment, we become more aware and responsive to God's presence in our married life and in our family. We are also able to learn more about the beauty and gift of marriage and God's plan for us and through us. We see in a different way the mission that we have in this vocation. From the start, we have felt that our journey is very much like that of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24,13-35). Cecilia and I have always treasured our own individual faith walk, each full of miracles and adventures. But this time, God Himself comes near and walks with us, as a couple. And maybe, we are just beginning to recognize the voice of Jesus in this unfamiliar exercise of conjugal prayer and dialogue, interjecting with a question here and making a subtle suggestion there. Often we don’t seem to be in synch or even on the same path, with many looming doubts and insurmountable fears. But always, the gentle wind on the road reminds us, “For you I will make myself known.” And so, like the two disciples we beg for the Word to stay with us, to grant us eyes of faith and hearts afire, as we forge onward on this road of discovery and great love. Resti Bautista is a physician and university professor, while Cecilia is director of Antioch School Manila. They are part of the Verbum Dei apostolate in Quezon City. Their 13 year-old son Santino Noel is an active member of the VD Teens Formation in the Philippines.
On April 1-4, we had our Easter recollection for the teens. The theme for this year was " There's no greater love than this," and our theme song, "No Greater Love," was sung by one of the teens, Angel Paguia. We played games, listened to songs, listened to talks, and learned about God and many of us enjoyed the time we had during the Recollection. We all enjoyed the recollection and felt really happy. The Holy Week Recollection was amazing and nice and I really liked it because I learned a lot of things and I enjoyed the games, trivias, and talks. I learn that God's love is not like human love because God's love is unconditional while human love may disappear from us. Holy Week is not only for external activities but it is also about the love that gives meaning to it all. One of our teens, Eunice Rama shares her testimony to us:
“Sometimes we are ashamed of who we are, but only a person who sacrifices you knows your true worth. God's love will never leave us and Jesus never stop find us even in the darkness. One passage that helped me during the recollection was: ‘The lord says, your thoughts are not like my thoughts your ways is not like my ways.’ (Isaiah 55:8) I understood that Jesus’ love is stronger than our challenges, and he gives us new life! Then it was said to us that, "Mission is the best way to pay it forward," so we have many chances to give God's love to other people, when other people help us, embrace us, loves us the only thing that God wants us to do is to pay it forward by being a missionary of life in our own little ways. Jesus made us a question during the recollection: "Do you understand how much I love you?” And my answer to this question was: “Yes Lord I understand your love for me because I can feel it the way you bless me, you give me happiness, and by giving me a family and love. And I know that God will never stop loving me until I die. That was the testimony of one of our teens, Eunice Rama. To sum it up all, the Easter Recollection was a fun and peaceful experience to everyone even if it was only held online, it was still successful and it helped us to get closer to God. Tim Cain from Verbum Dei England shares with us his experience in participating in Daily Shots Season 6, which has just ended.
When Margarida invited me to join a Daily Shot team, to make a reflection on the readings for the Day, I accepted happily but later, started to get a bit anxious. What if the readings said nothing to me? What if they didn’t relate to my life experiences? What if my life experiences were simply too boring to share with people? Fortunately, a solution soon came to me. When we were involved in the Married Couples group in England, I always gave talks with my wife, Ann. We prepared these talks together and, when I was not inspired at all, she helped me and vice-versa: when she was struggling, I helped her. So I asked the missionaries in charge of the Daily Shot, ‘could I do this with my wife?’ and of course, they agreed. And as we began to prepare for our first Daily Shot together, we started, for the first time, to really pray together. In the past, we had prayed family prayers with our children – thanking God for the good things that had happened during the day – and later, when the children grew up and left home, we prayed the Office of the Day together, but now we prayed the gospel reading of the day, in order to give to other people. We asked the Holy Spirit to inspire us – we asked him what he wanted us to say to the listeners. We tried to listen to God and then we shared together what we had prayed. What was new about this was that I now knew what Ann was praying to God and vice-versa. And through praying together, we have become closer to one another. We often hear people in the Verbum Dei community say that, when their prayer is something to be preached, it is more fruitful because God’s word is not only for us. And this is something we have found to be true, through our contribution to the Daily Shots. We invite you to listen to the new season of Daily Shots through our website. The Shots are also available in Spotify, Apple Podcast, or Google Podcast. You can also join the WhatsApp or Viber groups to receive the reflections daily.
4/4/2021
God’s love renews usThe Verbum Dei Tagaytay disciples had the possibility to facilitate a one-day face to face Lent Recollection to the 12 staff of one Center for abused girls in Cavite.
The recollection was held at the Verbum Dei Retreat House last March 14, 2021. With the theme: “God’s love renews us.” This was drawn from the Lenten message of Pope Francis to a call for renewal. It started with a mass together with our neighbors, after the mass Ofel one of the disciples welcomed the participants preparing them to dispose themselves with attitudes that can help them have a fruitful and grace-filled experience of the power of God’s love that can bring renewal. Lucille another disciple preached the second talk on God the Father. Sharing with strong conviction on the love of the Father that has sustained her difficult and challenging journey in life. God’s love has not only sustained her but has also changed her relationship with her family and also a powerful experience of reconciliation and forgiveness with her biological father. “Mountains and hills may crumble but God’s promise of faithfulness remains.” (Cf Isaiah 54:10) The third talk was given by Rachel a Verbum Dei Missionary in Tagaytay, the sharing was focused on the question: Who is my neighbor? Our neighbor are the concrete people that God has placed on our way each day. Our love for God can be shown in a practical way to our neighbor, to the person close to us and those far from us. Our love for God is not separated with our love for our neighbor. We were challenged to let Jesus renew us on our way of loving the persons around us and to learn from the way how he loved us. It was indeed a renewal of our concept of what perfect love is, it entails a compassionate heart that stoop down where our neighbor is and not running away from them especially when they need most the help. Renewed by the power of God’s love, we can make a difference in our world. Alice also a disciple shared on her talk that we are sent to tell the world of the love we received and experience from God. The whole day was indeed a gift of renewal, some participants shared the experience of coming back to God, being reconciled and forgiven and also renewed on their faith and hope in the midst of the difficult situations due to the pandemic. God’s love renews us with a new perspective of hope, faith and love in facing this challenging time. His love brings newness to the way we see the people and situations that surrounds us! Last March 27, 2021, the VD Youth of Tagaytay together with Sister Rachel, had a Lenten outreach to abused girls in one Center located at Gen. Trias, Cavite.
On this outreach we had a one whole day recollection with our theme "HOPE NEVER FAILS." A total of 37 teenage girls participated this event accompanied by two social workers of the Center. We started at 8 am until 4 in the afternoon. As a team we worked together putting our part to make the whole day recollection a worthwhile experience for all the teens. My part was to welcome the participants and with an enthusiastic spirit, I introduced them to our theme sharing to them that HOPE has a face! And we need this HOPE in all the different situations we encounter in life. This HOPE we are going to experience is already in us, it has been poured out to us since ever before. “Romans 5:5. The whole day was packed with different surprises like creative dynamics and moment of silence to pray and a fun-filled games. All the teens were very participative and expectant in every moment waiting what will come next. We listened to a video recorded testimony of one teen from Cebu about what is our hope and why we need hope, and Sr. Rachel gave a catechesis on "Jesus is our Hope, we need to connect with Him!” What was very helpful on this day was the penitential rite we had. It was a moment to go deeper on ourselves recognizing our sinfulness and entering to an experience of God’ mercy and loving embrace. This moment had a strong impact to all of us, some of the teens shared it helped them to be reconciled with God and they recognized his unconditional love and unfailing hope is always ready to welcome them back. We end the recollection with a very visual symbol of hope that gives new life and this hope needs to be nurtured and taken care. The teens with their respective groups planted a plant in a pot and were very happy to realize from this symbol that Hope is ever present in them and they need to give time to nurture and let it grow and flourish. Our Hope is Jesus and he promise to remain with us until the end of time and he never fails on his promise!
3/31/2021
Taking Care in the Time of COVID-19As the global pandemic continues, key aspects of prevention include focusing on how to keep people safe and healthy and ensuring the understanding of accurate health-related information. To help meet these needs among our Verbum Dei missionaries and the VDMFamily, two virtual formation sessions were conducted with guest resource speaker Dr. Resti Bautista, a Verbum Dei Disciple who is part of the community at Pansol, Quezon City. The formation centered on the main theme: Take care of yourself to take care of others. Philippians 2:4 says, Do nothing from selfishness… Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
The first session was organized on February 6 by Sr. Adriana Haro and Jay-Anne Désabelle for the Verbum Dei Teens, who gather every Saturday for their online “Praise Jam.” The Zoom meeting was packed with 100 teenagers from Manila, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro City. Angel Paguia from Cebu shared, “When Sister Adri informed us about this formation in our group chat, we were very happy because it could help us know COVID-19 more and learn how to prevent the spread of this disease.” Angel also added afterwards, “I was very amazed because in this formation there were bible verses so that we would remember that we must not be afraid because God is with us always. I was happy because we were not only talking about the disease, but we were also talking about God.” The second session was done especially for the missionary sisters at the Pasig Apostolate Center on March 25, the Feast of Verbum Dei. Aside from the formation, the sisters actively participated in formulating and refining a Plan of Action for COVID-19 Prevention specifically for their household. “It’s a personal responsibility to take care of our health, our body as God’s temple and in the same way each one of us is responsible to take care of the bigger community,” said Sr. Jovita Tenorio. “This pandemic reminds us that we are interconnected with each other, so I may contribute to the spread of the virus. If I do my part properly, I can also contribute to the stop of its spread and help save lives.” We continue to pray that we learn to take care in this time of COVID-19. We look to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, two disciples who took care of themselves, who took care of their minds, hearts and bodies, and who also took care of Jesus. For three Saturdays, from March 13 to 27, we had a series of youth online encounters entitled “You are loved.” A total of fifty (50) young people from age 16 to 24 joined the event and for the majority of them it was the first-time to meet the Verbum Dei community.
The first session was given by Gelo Balsita with the theme “You are loved.” Through his prayer and personal experience, he shared how God the Father loves us. Some of the participants expressed their gratitude to God that amidst the pandemic, He has been so generous and caring. One of the fruits also was to experience the unconditional and merciful love of the Father as we prayed the passage of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). The guidelines on the second session were from James McTavish with a theme “You are love.” He shared to the youth that our truest and most profound identity is “love”. We were invited to “update” not only the application of our mobile phones but our faith! The idea of “investing” our time in important things such as to discover our real identity struck some of the youth. The youth also enjoyed the moment of prayer in silence which is yearned for during these challenging times. The third session was an encounter with the Word themed “You are for love” guided by Jojo David. He shared with us that true happiness can be found in God. We were reminded that God is with us especially amidst loads of studies and being just quarantined in the house. Despite sometimes feeling lonely, God wants us to be happy. This reminds us of the prayer of young Jaime Bonet, “if you exist, make me happy”. One female participant powerfully shared that her joy comes not from material and external things but from her deep interior relationship with God. Despite the range of ages, including both teenagers and youth, the environment of the encounter was light, joyful, meaningful, and the insights from both groups were enlightening. After finishing the series, some of them expressed their desires to continue having these kinds of encounters once or twice a month. The Lord has been gracious to the youth during this time of Lent. We pray that these young men and women continue this path that they have begun, of knowing and creating a relationship with God through His Word. To join more youth online encounters, you may contact Gelo Balsita at angelobalsita@gmail.com or 09615353162. |
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