PANGWAKAS NA PAGDIRIWANG
Kumustahan sa Sub-Parish 2010

Pambansang Dambana ng Mahal na Birhen ng Guadalupe
Lungsod ng Makati

Padre Eric: Sa ngalan ng Ama, at ng Anak, at ng Espiritu Santo.
Tugon: Amen.

Padre Eric: Sumainyo ang Panginoon.
Tugon: At sumainyo rin.

Padre Eric: Sa maikling pagtitipong ating ginanap, nagkasama tayo bilang isang sambayanan dito sa ating munting kumunidad ng _______.

Nagbahaginan tayo ng ating mga pangarap, pinangalanan ang mga maaring maging pagsubok, at nagpahayag ng ating mga pangako para sa ating pamayanang Kristiyano dito sa Pambansang Dambana ng Mahal na Birhen ng Guadalupe.

Sabay-sabay tayong magbalik-tanaw sa ating mga napag-usapan sa gabing ito, samantalang nanalangin upang harinawa’y patatagin ng Diyos ang ating pananagutan at paglilingkod sa ating Simbahan.

Iikot ang sambayanan upang pagmasdan ang mga ulat ng napag-usapan sa maliliit na pangkat. Samantala, magpapatugtog ng angkop na musika at/o dadasalin nang marahan ang ganitong panalangin:

Panginoon, tanggapin mo ang aming mga pangarap.
Ikaw ang nagtanim ng mga ito sa aming mga puso.
Ibinubulong ng iyong Banal na Espiritu ang taglay naming pagnanais upang patuloy na palaguin at pagyamanin ang aming pamayanan.
Patuloy mo pong paypayan ang apoy ng aming mga pangarap.
Nawa’y hindi kami magningas-kugon
bagkus maging maalab sa aming pagsisikap
upang isakatuparan ang mga pangarap mo para sa amin.

Panginoon, tunghayan mo ang mga pagsubok na aming kinakaharap.
Nananalig kami sa iyong pangakong kasama ka namin sa tuwina.
Patatagin mo po ang aming pananampalataya at palakasin
ang aming pananagutan sa mga tungkuling kaloob mo sa amin.
Huwag sana kaming maduwag o panghinaan ng loob
bagkus harapin ang lahat ng mga ito nang may pagtitiwalang
makakayanan namin ang lahat sa lakas na bigay mo.

Panginoon, itinataas namin sa iyo ang aming mga pangako.
Ikaw nawa ang maging simula at hangganan ng bawat naming adhika.
Tulungan mo kaming pangatawanan nang bukas-palad ang mga ito.
Sa patuloy na pamamatnubay ng iyong Ina, ang Birhen ng Guadalupe,
sama-sama kaming naglalakbay tungo sa kaganapan ng iyong Kaharian.

O iniibig naming Pastol, gabayan kami at samahan.

Amen.

Padre Eric: Sa pagwawakas ng gabing ito, nagsisimula pa lamang ang ating pananagutan at ang ating sama-samang pagpupunyagi upang isakatuparan ang ating mga pangarap, harapin ang mga pagsubok at gampanan ang ating mga pangako, sa tulong ng biyaya ng Diyos.

Baunin natin sa ating paghayo ang mga salita ng ating Panginoong Hesukristo.

Rev. Willie: Pagbasa mula sa Mabuting Balita ayon kay San Juan 15, 1-8

(babasahin mula sa Aklat ng Salita ng Diyos)

Rev. Willie: Ang Mabuting Balita ng ating kaligtasan.
Tugon: Pinupuri ka namin, Panginoong Hesukristo.

Sandaling katahimikan. Maaring magdagdag ang Kura ng maikling pananalita, ayon sa mga naganap sa gabing iyon.

Padre Eric: Sumainyo ang Panginoon.
Tugon: At sumainyo rin.

Padre Eric: Pagpalain kayo ng makapangyarihang Diyos +
Ama, Anak at Espiritu Santo.
Tugon: Amen.

Rev. Willie: Humayo kayong taglay ang kapayapaan
upang ang Panginoon ay mahalin at paglingkuran.
Tugon: Salamat sa Diyos.

Padre Eric: Mahal na Birhen ng Guadalupe,
Tugon: Ipanalangin mo po kami.

Padre Eric: Ma...BUHAY!
Tugon: Ma...BUHAY!

Maaring umawit ng angkop na awit (kay Maria) halimbawa, ang “Birhen ng Guadalupe” ni Padre Carlo Magno Marcelo.



First Death Anniversary of Pres. Cory Aquino

Liturgical text for the First Death Anniversary of Pres. Corazon C. Aquino to be held at La Salle, Greenhills on August 1, 2010. Presider is HE Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas, DD of Lingayen, Dagupan.

Click here to download.

The Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Novena in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The novena in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe being used in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Makati City was composed by Msgr. Salvador R. Jose and published in 2005 by the Daughters of Saint Paul. While devotion to the Guadalupe per se as manifested throughout the world is not limited to any particular sector, its “Pro-Life” dimension is especially highlighted in the National Shrine, thus endowing the novena and other expressions of popular piety specific to the said shrine with a unique flavor.

Overview of the Novena

In this particular Novena, the Christian value being highlighted is first and foremost the respect for human life. The primary basis for this being that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Saint Juan Diego, an elderly man, as a pregnant woman carrying Jesus in her virginal womb. Thus she came to be invoked as the patroness of life “from womb to tomb” and venerated as the protectress of the unborn, sick, aging, disabled and others (USAD-O). The introduction makes clear this distinctive emphasis and its explicit objective:

One of the most basic issues today is the conflict between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death. Because of materialism and secularization, the respect for life has diminished and is threatened to be lost. Through the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of Life, the value of life will be uplifted and promulgated (sic). (page 10)

Other aspects of the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe are mentioned in the same introduction but are not given as much emphasis in the novena text. These include her being the Secondary Patroness of the Philippines as declared by Pope Pius XI on July 16, 1935, and her being Patroness of Indigenous Peoples, Nature, Elders and even of Photographers.

The structure of the Novena is loosely patterned after the Liturgy of the Word, beginning with a hymn and a penitential prayer. The core element of the Liturgy of the Word, however, which is the proclamation of the Word of God is optional and may be replaced here with the reading of a letter of petition or a letter of thanksgiving. After the opening prayer, the Magnificat, which is properly a hymn, is recited followed by another hymn which is sung. This is then succeeded by some reflection and the Prayer of the Faithful (sic). A concluding prayer and hymn ends the Novena proper, which is followed by a short prayer to the Santo Nino de Vientre (Jesus in the Womb).

Without the proclamation of the Word of God, the core of the Novena, it seems, is the “reflection,” which is actually a series of meditations on three events in the life of Mary followed by a prayer of petition. Using allusions to biblical and extra-biblical events in the life of Mary, the author tried to properly ground his petitions in anamnesis. After first recalling the Immaculate Conception, for example, he invites those praying the novena to ask God “to make our poor body and soul as his living sanctuary through holy acts of respecting and valuing life from the first moment of conception onwards”. and in recalling the Annunciation, he continues with a petition “for the grace to follow God’s will”. For the reflection on the Visitation though, he seems to forget this structure and ends with a brief praise of Mary as “co-mediatrix of God’s grace” and as “an example of true service to one’s neighbor”. The “Prayer of the Faithful” then follows with even more petitions, most of which concern the USAD-O. The concluding prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving and petition ending with a rather peculiar form of doxology: “Ma-BUHAY ang Makapangyarihang Diyos Ama, Anak at Espiritu Santo!” to which the people respond “Ma-BUHAY!”. The author himself explains this unique phraseology: “Everyone is encouraged to praise God through Mary by frequently saying “Ma…BUHAY” while thinking of the compassionate Mama Mary (Ma…) and Jesus the Life (BUHAY).” We shall focus more specifically on the devotion to the Santo Nino de Vientre at the end of this paper.

Evaluation and Recommendations

The author, and indeed the National Shrine, deserves praise for highlighting this particular aspect of the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Even if historically, her message of compassion and inclusivity was more prominent and central, this particular focus on Christian “pro-life” values makes the devotion more relevant to the needs of the Church in our time where the promotion of, and even insistence on, the respect for the dignity of human life is certainly among our most urgent tasks. There are however, some finer points and suggestions, based mainly on the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy that may be good to consider in case a revision of this Novena is to be carried out in the future:

1. A more central place should be accorded to the Word of God.

In enumerating the criterion for the evaluation and renewal of popular piety, the Directory puts as first in the list the concern that “a biblical spirit” (12) should permeate the devotions. Reading of Scriptures should not be optional but instead made compulsory. Indeed, the proclamation of the Word and meditation on it should rightly form the heart of the novena. The opportunity must certainly be taken to open up to the faithful the rich fare of God’s Word as envisioned by the Council.

2. A more holistic Mariology, based on Scripture, should be expounded in harmony with the liturgical seasons.

In connection with the first recommendation, an ample selection of possible Scripture readings may be prepared with at least some options suited for each liturgical season e.g. the Annunciation for Advent, the Nativity for Christmas, the Wedding at Cana for Ordinary Time, the Johannine account of the crucifixion for Lent and Pentecost for Easter. In this way, not only will the devotion be more easily harmonized with the liturgy but it will be able to present more holistically, in the interest of evangelization, the life of Mary as contained in the Scriptures, which includes not only her role in the Incarnation already shown in the Novena, but also her participation in the Paschal mystery and presence in the life and growth of the Church. With a fuller picture of Mary, especially as model and mother of disciples so dear to the Council, her role in the economy of salvation may be more clearly shown to the enrichment and deepening of the people’s understanding of her mission.

3. The structure and content of the novena should mirror more closely the structure and content of the liturgy.

The Directory envisions that popular devotions “dispose properly for or echo the mysteries celebrated in the liturgical actions.” This faithfully reflects the desire of the Council that popular devotions be so drawn up in relation to the liturgy so that they “in some way derive from it, and lead people to it, since in fact the Liturgy by its very nature is far superior to any of them” (SC 13). The structure may be made to follow more closely that of the Liturgy of the Word. Also, at least some of the prayers may be re-written such that they will now be directed to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit and not only just to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This suggestion refers in particular to the “Prayer of the Faithful,” more properly called (not even General) Intercessions in this context, which should be, as a norm, directed to the Father and only in some rare occasions directed to the Son but never to Our Lady. Even if the Novena is explicitly Marian, this does not mean that it should lack, after the manner of Our Lady herself, our essential Christological focus and Trinitarian prayer posture. If possible, the same Intercessions may also be expanded to include the more general concerns of the universal Church instead of focusing almost exclusively on specifically pro-life concerns, thus strengthening even more the ecclesial aspect of the prayer text. Finally, following also what is done in the liturgy, this form of prayer, even if supplicatory, is to be prayed standing instead of kneeling. Seasonal intentions, as well as space for more current intentions may lend more dynamism to the novena.

Some final remarks on the devotion to the Santo Nino de Vientre

Apart from the short Act of Contrition found at the beginning, the Prayer to the Santo Nino de Vientre (Jesus in the Womb) is the only prayer addressed directly to God in this novena and is quite remarkable because of its novelty. In its full-page picture of the Santo Nino de Vientre (page 35) the author himself describes this image of Jesus, who is shown as a fetus outside the womb of Mary, as “unique” and “non-traditional”. Certainly, Jesus as once being “in the womb” is a valid assertion of a Christological event, given that Christ truly became flesh and was conceived and borne in the womb of the Virgin. It is even more especially appropriate in relation to the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, who showed herself as a pregnant woman carrying the Lord in her womb and also in connection with the pro-life aspect of the devotion being advanced by the shrine. What seems to be disturbing however is not so much the name but the depiction of Christ under this title.

Although the Church has always asserted the legitimacy of depicting the Lord who by his holy Incarnation became for us “the image (eikon) of the invisible God” (Col 1: 15) at the same time she has also seen fit to lay down necessary limitations in this regard. For example, in the twenty-fifth and final session of Trent, the Council admonished the bishops to see to it “with great care and diligence” that “that there be nothing seen that is disorderly, or that is unbecomingly or confusedly arranged, nothing that is profane, nothing indecorous, seeing that holiness becometh the house of God.” The Code of Canon Law also clearly states that “images are to be displayed in moderate numbers and in suitable fashion, so that the Christian people are not disturbed, nor is occasion given for less than appropriate devotion.” (CIC 1188) The First Plenary Council of the Philippines is even more explicit and specific in saying, “Ordinarius loci sacras imagines publice ad fidelium venerationem exponendas ne approbet, quae cum probato Ecclesiae usu non congruant… damnatae sunt imagines sacrae, quae insuetis formis horrorem quemdam pariunt et sensus violenter commovent.” (570) That Council banned, for example, the public exposition of images of the heart of Jesus without the rest of the body. Therefore, without precluding potential developments in iconography, the Church nevertheless forbids images that are incongruous with her doctrine and customs, as well as those that are potentially horrifying and offensive to the sensibilities of people.

It therefore has to be reconsidered whether the novel and non-traditional image of the Santo Nino de Vientre is truly conducive for the piety and edification of God’s people. Or if perhaps the already explicit even if delicately subdued presence of Christ, inside rather than outside the womb of Our Lady of Guadalupe, better fosters prayer.

In the end, Ignatius of Loyola’s principle tersely encapsulates all of our criteria for evaluating popular piety: TANTUM QUANTUM—as far as it helps—to lead us to God.

To Play With God Who Plays with Us

To Play with God who Waits for Us*

*A Reflection on the First Chapter of Pope Benedict XVI's "Spirit of the Liturgy"

Seeking some phenomenological springboard to appropriate Pope Benedict XVI’s application of play-theory to the liturgy, I decided to stroll around Barangka, Marikina trying to observe children at play, while at the same time reminiscing my own experiences of play. One thing that struck me immediately was that most, if not all the children in the streets were playing. In contrast to most of us adults who stride to our destinations in a serious, straightforward way, the children seemed to be passing time with less stress and more spontaneity. This made me nostalgic about how I was during my early years as a student when I would just sit in the classroom savoring experiences as they came instead of worrying about how well I would perform in upcoming assessments.

Liturgy, according to the Pope, has “something healing, even liberating about it” because like play, it has meaning but no set purpose. He therefore images liturgy as an “oasis of freedom” where life flows freely as in the world of children and their play. Away from a world that pressures us to perform and to produce, liturgy transports us to a sacred time and place where there is no need to show merit or prove worth before gauging eyes but simply to be, before our loving God. This is the sursum corda of liturgy, a lifting up of our being to God, in order to ascend, if only for a brief glimpse of eternity, from the banality and drudgery of our mundane existence.

With this definition, some may perceive liturgy as useless daydreaming or a mere waste of time, perhaps even as a cowardly escape from a harsh yet stark reality. But without reclaiming, what I would dare say is our right to dream, and more importantly, to waste time with those we love, are we not being mere slaves to our utilitarian preoccupations? Freely “wasting” time in the liturgy helps us recuperate not only our freedom but indeed our humanity as well. For it is the times that we seem to waste on simply being and loving that are most precious and in the end “useful” because they do not only heal our harassed bodies and minds but also build up our yearning hearts and souls. We humanize the time we spend for liturgy and this time in turn humanizes us. For are we not more than just bodies breathing, working and suffering in this vale of tears but also spiritual beings yearning for transcendence, for eternity, for God? We shall return to the question of escape shortly.

Being care-free in play, however, does not equate to carelessness. Being “at home” with God in the liturgy does not make it a free-for-all where anything and everything goes. Rules have their rightful and essential place in the liturgy as in play. In my previous tasks of coordinating liturgies in San Jose Seminary and later on as moderator of altar servers in Xavier School, I saw tendencies in myself and in others toward two extreme attitudes with regard to the “rules of play” in liturgy: rubrical rigidity and rubrical apathy. Rubrical apathy seems to me an easier illness to treat. Once people are educated about the meaning and importance of the rubrics, they begin to appreciate their importance and so render unto them the measure of attention and concern that is due. Rubrical rigidity on the other hand is more difficult to cure and tends to corrupt even those who claim to be the best of liturgists. As Benedict XVI observed, “the trouble is that serious commitment to the rules needed for playing the game soon develops it own burdens and leads to new kinds of purposefulness.”

Rules are set at the beginning so a game could be suave and orderly. They are not the purpose of the play, for play would surely degenerate into performance or even travail by acquiring such purposefulness. Sadly, this manic obsession with rubrics and compulsion to spot delicts hinders instead of helping our prayer and injures the harmonious and convivial spirit so important for authentic play. Both attitudes rob the liturgy of its joyful air and obstruct its free and integral flow. While those who do not pay attention to rubrics can certainly cause great distraction, those who give too much attention to the rules, in being too distracted, can begin to mutate into distractions themselves.

Play, if it is to remain truly play, must remain unencumbered, more especially by its own rules. Only with such a disposition of freedom and peace, do we begin to experience liturgy as it truly is. Otherwise, what may appear to be worship can be nothing in reality but a repetition of the slavish and perfunctory temple sacrifices disdainful to God. The only worship that befits God, that truly anticipates and gives us a pledge and foretaste of the life that is to come is that which arises from the free and loving hearts of children who are calm, content and happy, not anxious and distressed, in the gift of being with the Father. However, liturgy cannot simply be equated to play in the ordinary sense of the word, which, for all the good we have been praising it here for, remains but a partial and limited aspect of our whole human existence. We cannot live life just “playing” which can sometimes only mean “superficial, utilitarian or humanly vacuous" play. Easily, one can propose that after play, we must ultimately “revert back” to reality. We are thus told to return to the “real world” as if liturgy, though “a kind of other world,” did not belong to one and the same reality. Within such a paradigm, liturgy is but another hat we may wear and take off at will. Taking here a different course, the Pope, in his reflection on the Exodus experience, further nuances our understanding of liturgy as play, such that it would no longer be deemed an escape from existence or a peripheral part of our lives, but would be seen as it truly is and should be: the very heart and soul of our lives.

Pope Benedict XVI here proposes worship, over the reclaiming of the Land, as the primary purpose of the liberation of God’s chosen people from their slavery in Egypt. “Israel departs, not in order to be a people like all the others; it departs in order to serve God.” This orientation to worship, he says, is what is “distinctive about Israel’s election” without which, neither their freedom not acquisition of the land would have meaning. God freed them—and now he frees us—for worship. It must be emphasized however that the worship pertained to here is not the empty ritualism which came to characterize the degenerate worship of Israel at the height of her corruption: the “thousands of rams and tens of thousands of rivers of oil” (Micah 6: 7) which clogged the heart of God not only with cholesterol but with sheer disgust because of their travesty and meaninglessness in the midst of widespread immorality and injustice. Rather, the prophet asserts, the true worship that God requires is “to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with (him).” (Mic 6: 8)

This “interwoven fabric” of worship, law and ethics is the unified, coherent liturgy that we ought to offer, not only with our lips but also with our lives. “Ultimately it is the very life of man, man himself as living righteously, that is the true worship of God, but life only become real life when it receives its real form from looking at God.” Such an integral “worship of life” therefore does not negate the importance of the specific “act of worship” but draws from it, even depends on it. Indeed, we are able to present to God the homage of our lives as a whole only because of the particular times we spend adoring him with acts of authentic worship. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, whose feast it is today, put it succinctly when he wrote: “The glory of God is the living man but the life of man is the vision of God.”

Play, whenever we engage in it, energizes us to live the rest of our lives with the same enthusiasm and joy we have while doing it. Those who play often imbibe the spirit of play, such that their work and even their suffering becomes light, pleasant and joyful—as if play, becoming part of play, truly play. In the same way, the play of the liturgy—which as we said is essentially none other than a loving contemplation of God our Father, ought only to overflow into our very lives and translate to sanctity and justice, service and compassion thus making of us a “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, spiritual worship” (Rom 12: 1). In other words, those engaged in true worship become wholly imbued with its spirit such that their life and very person become graced—as if worship, part of worship, truly worship. As envisioned by the Council, liturgy becomes for us a true fons, through which the very life of God flows into our own lives in our contemplation of him. Visio Dei, vita hominis.

Thus, the sublime vision of God, concretized in the sacramental encounter that transpires in the liturgy, becomes no longer an isolated aspect of our life but its very core. Not only our ritual but the entirety of our very lives sing the praises of God as a consilient and homogenous whole that finds but its culmen (SC, 10) in the celebration of the liturgy. Only then is God given true glory—when we live our lives fully as an eloquent testimony to his creative love which we touch, which flows into us, indeed which fills us and permeates our existence, when we enter the play of liturgy. Only then does such a life, “an indispensable part of true worship”, now become the matter now of one’s worship and find in the liturgy its summit and crown, to the praise of God. Gloria Dei, homo vivens.

And yet, our lives still remain imperfect, which can only hint at how much remains to be desired of our worship. As in the days of Aaron and the bull calf, of Micah and empty Temple worship, in our own time of rubrical rigidity and rubrical apathy, our worship falls short of that which God justly deserves and desires. What then could serve as our guarantee and guide, the objective content and the objective ground of our worship as well?

Here the Pope cautions strongly about what he calls “a festival of self-affirmation”—ritual devoid of real encounter with God posturing as liturgy. Man, in his longing for God, attempts in pride or in desperation to produce the encounter himself, to no avail. This “apostasy in sacral disguise” can only leave behind, notwithstanding all solemnity, rubrical perfection or apparent success, nothing more than deep frustration and enduring emptiness. For we know within that there had been no worship but only hypocrisy and self-deception—a show with all its shimmer and sham but not play. Going back at last to the play-theory where we began, we may take off from the Holy Father’s hint.

We do not need to invent liturgy or even produce it. Liturgy as play precedes us way ahead for God in his grace has initiated this play for us from the very moment of Creation. In the liturgy, it is God, not us, who reaches out to make the encounter possible. It is his grace and not out efforts that allows our compenetration. He is the true Master and Manager of the game, which he offers to us as pure and total gift, awaiting our acceptance. Though we have not always been responsive to his call, or perfect in our participation, his invitation ever remains extended for us, concretized in the outstretched arms of Jesus on the Cross.

Christ is the “objective content” of our worship—whom we re-member, celebrate and partake in the sacred liturgy. His Passover from death to life is the most wonderful play, now made accessible to us in the worship of the Church. We need only to enter with the trust and joy of children into this sacred mystery, which continues to flow copiously from his wounded side, spread for us in the abundant fare of the Church’s sacramental banquet. He is the promise that even our imperfect worship will be accepted with His perfect sacrifice which he himself lifts with filial confidence and love to the Father. As Saint John Vianney said, “To be with God and to rejoice in his holy presence—that is the best of all prayers.”

In the end, we need only to play with God who waits for us. †