SCJ Philippine District

Best wishes for Fr. Alosio Back, SCJ, who on December 31,2004 celebrates his 22nd Anniversary of Ordination to the Priesthood. May the Lord contine to bless you and be your strength!

On December 29, 2004, the General Curia in Rome received information regarding the beatification of Fr. Leo John Dehon. The Founder of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart will be proclaimed "Blessed" by the Holy Father John Paul II on April 24, 2005. It will take place during the Eucharistic Celebration at the Saint Peter Square in Rome.

According to the letter of the General Superior, Fr. Josè Ornelas Carvalho, this is a very important momemt for the whole SCJ Congregation and the entire Dehonian Family. The time left before the beatification should be for all the members a time of spiritual preparation and reflection.

My Lord and my God, you are Love itself, and the source of all love and goodness. Out of love you created me to know you, love you, and serve you in a unique way, as no one else can. I believe that you have a plan for my life, that you have a task in your Kingdom reserved just for me. Your plan and your task are far better than any other I might choose: they will glorify you, fulfill the desires of my heart, and save those souls who are depending on my generous response.

Lord, grant me the light I need to see the next step in that plan; grant me the generosity I need to set aside my own plans in favor of yours; and grant me the strength I need to put my hands to your plough and never turn back. You know me better than I know myself, so you know that I am sinful and weak. All the more reason that I need your grace to uphold the good desires of my heart, O Lord!

Show me your will for me, O gentle and eternal God, and help me to say with Mary, "I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word," and to say with Jesus, "Let not my will be done, but yours."

Lord Jesus, as You once called the first disciples to make them fishers of men, let your sweet invitation continue to resound: Come, follow Me! Give young men and women the grace of responding quickly to Your voice. Support our bishops, priests, and consecrated people in their apostolic labor. Grant perseverance to our seminarians and to all those who are carrying out the ideal of a life totally consecrated to Your service. Mary, Mother of the Church, the model of every vocation, help us to say "Yes" to the Lord Who calls us to cooperate in the divine plan of salvation. Amen.

-John Paul II

75 candidates from different places in Mindanao attended the "Search-in Seminar" in Cagayan de Oro organized by the SCJ Vocation Team. Majority of them come from high schools and the others are either 4th year college students or college graduates. They are from the following provinces: Zamboanga Sibugey, Zamboanga del Sur, Misamis oriental, Misamis Occidental, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Camuigin Island, Bukidnon and Cebu.
During the three days of activities they will discern their personal vocation and learn more about the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, its founder and spirituality. Those who will apply to the congregation will proceed to the next step which is individual interview. All accepted canditates will pass through the personal follow-up and hopefully next June 2005 will start their studies and preparation to the religious life at the Sacred Heart Formation House in Cagayan de Oro.

For more details, please see our Vocation Promotion Photo Album

Dear Lord, bless our family. Be so kind as to give us the unity, peace, and mutual love that You found in Your own family in the little town of Nazareth.

Saint Joseph, bless the head of our family. Obtain for him the strength, the wisdom, and the prudence he needs to support and direct those under his care.

Mother Mary, bless the mother of our family. Help her to be pure and kind, gentle and self-sacrificing. For the more she resembles you, the better will our family be.

Lord Jesus, bless the children of our family. Help them to be obedient and devoted to their parents. Make them more and more like You. Let them grow, as You did, in wisdom and age and grace before God and man.

Holy Family of Nazareth, make our family and home more and more like Yours, until we are all one family, happy and at peace in our true home with You. Amen.

National Catholic Rural Life Conference

Be born in us
Incarnate Love
Take our flesh and blood and
give us Your humanity;
take our eyes and
give us Your vision,
take our minds and
give us Your pure thought;
take our feet and
set them in Your path,
take our hands and
fold them in Your prayer;
take our hearts and
give them Your will
to Love.

Caryll Houselander

Dear Lord, calmness can be mine in the "busy-ness" of this Christmas season if I set aside time to be with You. Peace can be mine in my heart when I truly trust You, and joy can be mine when I share Your love with others. ... Even though darkness surrounds me, let me remember to walk in Your Light, secure in Your faithfulness. Help me to truly sense this in my spirit.

In Jesus' Wonderful Name, Amen.

The Vocation Director together with his team is organizing a Vocation Search-in. It will take place from December 27 - 30, 2004 at the Formation House in Cagayan de Oro City. The seminar is intended for graduating students from College and High School. For more information please contact Fr. Indra Pamungkas, SCJ at indralaurent@yahoo.com or via text message (0920) 6032436.

"...A new year is about to begin, a year that the Church wants us to live with a eucharistic spirit. The invitation is to come to a richer appreciation of this most important gift for the life of the Church, but particularly to contemplate it and allow ourselves to be as “broken bread”. As SCJs we welcome, in this appeal aimed at every Christian, a plea to allow ourselves to be penetrated by a eucharistic dimension such that to speak of Dehonian spirituality without it would be meaningless. In our daily celebration of the Eucharist and our daily adoration of the Eucharist we find a source that enriches our lives, our communities, our apostolic service, and our love.
In the next few months we have to have the grace of celebrating the beatification of Fr. Leo Dehon. This is a grace that requires our hearts to open to a personal acquiescence of God’s plan for the Congregation, a plan that will certainly take it onwards and that will discover new motives and energies in the forthcoming General Conference on the Missions and in the work done in preparation for it.

The God who comes to “visit us from on high like the rising sun” (Lk 1:78b) is the One who will bring to pass the wishes for peace and fullness of life that we have for you and for every man and woman on this earth."

Merry Christmas

Fr. José Ornelas Carvalho, SCJ
Superior General
and his council

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