parishworks! 1Vol. 6 No. 40 January 08, 2011

Pastor’s MessageBaptism - Long Life Commitment to the Lordby: Rev. Msgr. Emmanuel Suñga

Sunday GoSpeL

Mt 3:13-17

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Dear Parishioners:This happened during the Communist take-

over in China. A Catholic mission chapel in the back-country was crowded to capacity. As Mass was about to begin a fully-armed soldier entered the front door. The priest turned to see what was causing the gasps, whispers and commotion. He saw the soldier, who seemed to sense the situation. With a friendly smile the soldier made a big sign of the cross. The priests smiled in return, nodded, and turned back to the altar to begin Mass.

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new year ...new prayer... new Hope by Corie Gomez

So many events in my life transpired this past year like a blink of an eye, that despite my involvements in them, I feel like a bystander who watched from afar, apart from everything that went on. This year, I am praying to God for the gift of presence and awareness.

Great men have always stressed the value of wonder. “Two things,” wrote Immanuel Kant, “fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe. . . the starry heavens above me, and the moral law within me.” Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” And of course, we know from no less than our good Pastor’s profound homilies that “mystery is the loving activity of God in us.” Thomas Carlyle pointed out that wonder is the basis of worship.

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new year new prayer... from page 1

How do we keep in the forefront of our minds, the simple fact that we live in an indescribably wonderful world? It is not easy. Routine dulls the eye and ear. Repetition and familiarity fog the capacity for astonishment. Yet even so, moments come to all of us when everything suddenly seems fresh and new and marvelous!

This gift of aware ness makes possible some of our happiest hours. We need to be receptive to it and grateful for it because, as the poet John Masefield once wrote, “The days that make us happy make us wise.”

A blessed, peaceful year of faith, hope and love to one and all!

Mini Maxims for 2011by: Corie Gomez

I must admit that I don’t have any very original thoughts of my own, but through the years, I’ve encountered a few ideas, sharp-pointed enough to stick in my mind. I hope these will be useful for you as well.

1. If you can’t change facts, try bending your attitudes. Check this one out for yourself, and you will see that faced with a given set of problems, one person may tackle them with intelligence, grace and courage; another may react with resentment and bitterness; a third may run away altogether. In any life, facts tend to remain unyielding. But attitudes are a matter of choice, and that choice is largely up to you.

2. Don’t come up to the net behind nothing. It is true that the tennis player who follows his own weak or badly placed shot up to the net is hopelessly vulnerable. And this is true when you rush into anything without adequate preparation or planning. In any important endeavor, you’ve got to do your homework, get your facts straight, sharpen your skills. In other words, don’t bluff -- because if you do, nine times out of ten, life will drill a backhand right past you!

3. When the ball is over, take off your dancing shoes. Not too long ago, I remember coming back from a fun trip, bemoaning my hum-drum existence, as back to the drawing board of endless chores and work I went. Then I read Iyanla Vanzant who wrote about peaks and valleys. She said: No one lives on the top of the mountain. It’s fine to go there occasionally --for inspiration, for new perspectives, but you have to come

parish youth Ministry’s Christmas 2010 party Celebration in photo

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pastor’s Messasge from page 1...

The sign of the cross showed that this soldier was a Catholic.

It was also a sign of his commitment to his faith as a Catholic more than to his commitment to his ideology. It was also a sign that he was willing to give up everything including his life for his commitment to Christ.

This is the last Sunday of Christmas and Epiphany. During these seasons, we had received Christ within ourselves the way Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds and the Magi did during their time. Now, one with Jesus, we are ready to face the world and all the challenges it may offer. But to succeed we must be totally committed. This is the message for us this Sunday i.e. COMMITMENT.

If we look at its root-meaning, COMMITMENT comes from two latin words;

cum = with mittere = to send committere = to send with

From the verb mittere comes also the word, mission from its participle which is missus. In Latin Missus sum means I am sent, i.e. I HAVE A MISSION.

Commitment is not just to stay bonded with someone to the very end but to be one with that someone in fulfilling his or her mission. One is sent by God for the other and vice versa, being one in accomplishing each other’s mission. As for Christ and the Father, they are one. The Father, the creator, wants a new creation

and for His Son to accomplish by His Incarnation and Redemption. Though equal in everything with His Father He accepted it with all humility.

How was this manifested? Though sinless He participated in the rite of baptism

by John which was only for sinners. Though superior to John the Baptist He submitted to his authority as a subordinate.

The Father verified this commitment they have for each other by proclaiming “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” with “the Spirit of God descending like a dove” Is it not that the Holy Spirit is the eternal and divine love or bond between the Father and the Son? This commitment is so strong that not even the suffering and death of Christ in His passion can negate it.

If that is the case with God and Jesus so also it is with Jesus and the Church, meaning you and me.

By this celebration of the Baptism of Christ as we start the New Year, we are being reminded of our commitment we made in our own sacramental baptism. We are committed to Christ as well as we are committed to each other. God sent people to our lives so that we can be one in fulfilling our God-given missions. Together with Christ, the first step was done during our own baptism.

Baptism is but a planting of seeds not the last but the first step in a life long commitment to the Lord.

Do we have this sense of commitment as we start travelling this Year 2011?

St. John neumann Feast day: Jan 5

John Neumann was born 1811,in what is now the Czech Republic. After studying in Prague, he came to New York at the age 25 and was ordained a priest. He did missionary work in New York until he was 29, when he joined the Redemptorists and became its first member to profess vows in the United States. He continued missionary work in Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, where he became popular with the Germans. At 41, as bishop of Philadelphia, he organized the parochial school system into a diocesan one, increasing the number of pupils almost twentyfold within a short time.

Gifted with outstanding organizing ability, he drew into the city many teaching communities of sisters and the Christian Brothers.

Neumann took seriously our Lord’s words, “Go and teach all nations.” From Christ he received his instructions and the power to carry them out. For Christ does not give a mission without supplying the means to accomplish it. The Father’s gift in Christ to John Neumann was his exceptional organizing ability, which he used

to spread the Good News.

Well-known for his holiness and learning, spiritual writing and preaching, on October 13, 1963, he became the first American bishop to be beatified. Canonized in 1977, he is buried in a shrine in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia.

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Ria Salvaña Matthew LizaresParish Works StaffEllie Medina, Angelina Poe,Emilio Medina, John David OngAnnouncements CoordinatorsPia Sanedrin, Rochelle Pineda Bulletin Board EditorEJ CarlosPowerpoint CoordinatorGing Santos, JayR PaduaContributor: Corie Gomez

Spiritual AdvisorRev. Msgr. Emmanuel Suñga

PublisherSt. Andrew the Apostle ParishN. Garcia St. cor. Kalayaan Ave.Bel-Air II, Makati CityPhones: (632) 890-1796 / 890-1743 media@saaparish.com

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Mini Maxims from page 2...

down. Life is lived in the valleys. . . or something like that. And it is true because that is where the farms and gardens and orchards are, and where the plowing and the work are done. That is where we apply the visions we have glimpsed from the peaks.

It is a steadying thought when the time comes, as it always does, to exchange your dancing shoes for your working shoes.

4. Shine up your neighbor’s halo. This is probably the best formula for getting along wiith people that I have ever heard. I like it for its implication that everyone, in some area of life, has a halo that is worth watching for and acknowledging. I like it for the celestial picture it conjures up: Everybody industriously polishing away at everybody else’s little circle of divine light. I like it for the firm way it shifts the emphasis from self to interest and concern for others. Finally, I like it because it reflects a deep psychological truth: People have a tendency to become what you expect them to be.

5. Keep one eye on the law of the echo. Is there really such a thing? Is the universe actually arranged so that whatever you send out - honesty or dishonesty, kindness or cruelty - ultimately comes back to you? It’s hard to be sure, and yet, since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has had the conviction, based partly on intuition, partly on observation, that in the long run, a man does, indeed, reap what he sows.

6. Don’t wear your raincoat in the shower! What a ludicrous image - a person standing in a shower with a raincoat buttoned up to his chin! Creation is all around us. The best way to discard that raincouat is to expose yourself to new experiences. It’s a routine that dulls the eye and deadens the ear; novelty sharpens both. So if you want a heightened sense of fun, excitement or expectancy in your life, don’t be a buttoned-up person. Get rid of that raincoat and let creation in!

All these phrases that I’ve been trying to recall really urge us to the same goal: a stronger participation, a deeper involvement in life. This does not come naturally by any means. And yet, with marvelous impartiality, each of us is given exactly the same number of minutes and hours in every day. Time is the raw material. What we do with it is up to us.

A wise man once said that tragedy is not what we suffer, but what we miss. This coming year, do let’s keep that in mind!

Triduum masses in honor of the Sto. Niño will be held at 6:30pm starting Thursday Jan 13 through Saturday Jan 15. A mini-procession for children, in honor of the Sto. Nino will be held around the church grounds before the 6:30pm anticipated mass on Saturday, Jan 15. Assembly time is at 5pm.

On the Feast Day, Sunday, Jan 16, there will be blessing of children and distribution of goodies after every mass. For those who would like to make a donation, in cash or in kind, kindly send in your donation to the parish office by Friday Jan 14.