Mama Mary’s birthday, SVD anniversary
By
ASTORY is told about two monks discussing about the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The younger said to the other: “There is something strange in this Gospel story.
* * * “It mentions all the members of the family: the father, the oldest and the youngest son. But why isn’t the mother mentioned?” And the older monk replied: “Perhaps, if the prodigal son had a mother, he wouldn’t have left home.”
***
A mother is indispensable in God’s plan. All mothers are special before God. Why? Because even Jesus Himself deemed it worthy to be born of a woman. He was formed and loved by a mother who is our mother, too, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
*** Tomorrow, September 8, marks the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The feast manifests a special veneration Catholics have for the Blessed Mother. Such veneration comes no less from God who honored her first by choosing her from billions of women to be the Mother of his own Son.
In her thanksgiving canticle, Magnificat, Mary prophesied: “All ages to come shall call me blessed” (Lk. 1, 48). ***
God explicitly commands us, “Honor thy father and mother.” Isn’t it only right that we honor the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
*** SVD FOUNDATION DAY. The Society of the Divine Word (SVD), to which I belong, marks its 142nd Foundation Anniversary tomorrow, September 8. The German founder St. Arnold Janssen had a special devotion to the Blessed Mother; thus, he chose to launch his mission congregation on her birthday in 1875 in Steyl, Holland.
*** The Society of the Divine Word ranks 7th largest among the male religious congregations worldwide.
To date there are 137 Filipino SVD priests and brother s working in 45 countries, making the SVD the biggest missionary-sending congregation in the Philippines.
*** SVD priests and brothers in the Philippines are involved in the apostolates of parishes, seminaries, justice and peace, and mass media.
They also run a chain of schools like the of Divine Word Colleges, University of San Carlos in Cebu, and Holy Name University in Bohol, and are active in the evangelization of the indigenous and ethnic Filipinos like the Chinese-Filipinos in Divine Word Dagupan and St. Jude Catholic School in Manila. ***
New mission frontiers in KalingaApayao, Bontoc, Lagawe have been added to the SVD Northern Philippines; in the Philippine Central Province, the Palawan far-flung parishes, stretching as far as Rio Tuba and Balabac have been turned over to the SVD. *** Readers are requested to pray for the Society of the Divine Word and its various apostolates.
***
DEATH OF SVD PRIEST. Fr. Herminio “Among” Ricafort, SVD, 78, from Sta. Rita, Pampanga, passed away last Sept. 3, 2017. He was supposed to celebrate his Golden Jubilee as priest this coming Sept. 14.
*** Fr. Among died of a lingering cancer of the liver. His remains will be interred at the Christ the King Seminary Cemetery today, Sept. 7, following the 3 p.m. Requiem Mass at the Shrine of Jesus the Divine Word (Christ the King Seminary compound), Quezon City.
REQUIESCAT IN PACE.
***
ST. JUDE. Got a serious problem with money, studies, sickness, or marital/family relationship?
Today, join our novena at the Divine Word Shrine, Christ the King Seminary, on E. Rodriguez Boulevard, Quezon City, after the 6 p.m. Mass.
A healing and anointing of the sick will follow.