a n n o u n c e m e n t s - bld toronto · titos and titas from the bld youth ministry. they...

8 Living Water - April 17, 201 5

PLEASE WEAR YOUR BLD ID EVERY FRIDAY

A N N O U N C E M E N T S

Life in the Spirit Seminar #31

Friday, April 17th - Growth

Friday, April 24th - Transformation

Grand Reunion: Our Lady of the Assumption

Church Hall Saturday, TBA : 9:30 am – 3:30 pm

BLD Singles Encounter #18

Friday, May 8 – Sunday, May 10, 2015

Cost: $110.00

We invite all single (never been married)

individuals ages 22 and up in 2015

Sign up today!

BLD 25th Anniversary

BLD Toronto is celebrating its 25th Anniversary on September 19, 2015 and we are

coming out with a souvenir program that will help defray the costs of our 25th An-

niversary celebration and fund our community’s various programs. Let’s hold

hands, pray and rally together to solicit as many ads as possible so we will reach our

quota of approximately 34 pages per Apostolate.

We have early bird rates for those sponsors who will submit signed advertising

agreements and artwork before June 30, 2015.

You may contact Bert and Cecile Cruz at 416-298-4034 or e-mail cruzce-

[email protected] for more information.

Solo Parents Encounter #14

A Weekend Experience of God’s Healing Love

WHEN: June 19-21, 2015

WHERE: The Valley of the Mother of God (Mono, Orangeville, Ontario)

WHO: Single parents, widows, widowers, divorced, separated

Please see SPE #13 class shepherd Cora Montilla or any member of SPE #13 class at the

registration table in OLA Hall before and after Praise & Worship every Friday, or any one of

the Solo Tricord: Linda Canaria, Nilda Villa and Vicky Nisce.

Living Water - April 17, 2015

April 17, 2015

BUKÁS-LOÓB SA DIYÓS • OPEN IN SPIRIT TO GOD

www.bldworld.org www.bldtoronto.com

THEME

We seek what is above when we open our

minds to understand Scriptures.

WORD

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9; 1 Jn 2:1-5;

Lk 24:35-48

ORDER

“Repent therefore and turn to God.” (Acts 3:19)

“Obey His commandments.” (1 Jn 2:4)

DIRECTION

Repent and be reconciled with God through

the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Open our minds to the Word of God so we

can practice the message of forgiveness.

REFLECTION

Christian witnessing, humility, prayerful dis-

position, opening ourselves to the promptings

of the Holy Spirit, and understanding the

Word of God; These are the key virtues we are

exhorted to embrace in our readings today.

But let us first identify what hinders us from

embracing these virtues. Does our life reflect

the heart & character of Jesus? Are we hearers

and doers of God’s Word? Do we see ourselves

as the be all and end all of everything we have

accomplished? Do we share intimate time with

Jesus through daily prayer? Do we read and

understand, and are we guided by His Word

in the decisions we make each day?

We may all have different answers to the

above questions, but one thing is certain - in

varying degrees, we all fall short of the ideal to

which we aspire. But Jesus, in His infinite love

and mercy, does not condemn us for our short-

comings, but reminds us instead, not to remain

ignorant of His Word. “Now I know, brothers

that you acted out of ignorance, just as your

Third Sunday of Easter

www.bldworld.org www.bldtoronto.com


humility to accept our frailties and shortcom-ings are prerequisites to receiving the grace

of repentance and forgiveness ... “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins

may be wiped away” (Acts 3:19).

God’s love is perfected in us through the daily witnessing of our lives that testifies that

God is alive in us. When we reflect God’s love in our relationship with others and we exercise His mercy and compassion, temper-

ance and good will win over our own idio-syncrasies. In this way, we may say that we

are living the truth. On the other hand, when-ever we follow the way of falsehood, we lie about our faith in Christ Jesus. We deny Him,

the Holy and Righteous One (Acts 3:14). Yes, we become liars every time we sin because

we do not do what we profess to believe in. But belief in the Resurrected Christ, that He is alive in us, urges us to change our mindsets,

our wayward patterns of behavior and our wrongful lifestyles.

Nothing can be concealed from the eyes of God. Perhaps, we can deceive ourselves – and others - that we are His followers. But

there is nothing hidden that will not be re-vealed in the fullness of time. And so, broth-

ers and sisters in Christ, we need to be careful about what we cling to, or what we hold dear in our hearts. May we truly be faithful in fol-

lowing Christ, regardless of the cost. If we believe in His promise of eternal life, love will

be made perfect in us because of His contin-ued presence and nourishment of our spiri-tual lives through His Word. (Taken from the BLD-WSC Reflection Guide for April 19,

2015)

PROMISE

“But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is

truly perfected in him.” (1 Jn 2:5)

leaders did” (Acts 3:17). Rather, He gives us time

to repent and correct our ignorance. He knows

man’s weaknesses and man’s difficulty in accept-ing what he cannot see, including believing that

He has risen from the dead. Or, while a part of us believes, another part of us remains doubtful, even fearful of what is supernatural or unseen.

When Jesus appeared to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, they did not recognize Him at first, thinking He was merely one of the many

travelers along the road. The truth is, even when we cling to our faith, there is always a part of us

that persists in unbelief - the side of us that needs a daily dose of nourishment in the Word, for our faith in the Risen Christ needs to grow and its

roots to deepen. Faithful reading and reflecting on His Word helps us to know Jesus Christ, His

works and His teachings. Knowledge of Scrip-ture, therefore, is the key to perfecting God’s love in us, because only through intimate knowledge

of His Word can we truly follow Jesus’ example, as 1 Jn 2:5 tells us. “But whoever keeps His word,

the love of God is perfected in him, whoever claims to abide in Him ought to live just the way He lived.” We also know from the Scripture that

Jesus lived a life for the good of others – He fed the hungry, healed the sick, defended the weak,

helped the poor, the outcast, comforted the af-flicted, and sought the lost.

In the 2nd Reading, John tells us that our faith

must be manifested in and through our lives, by following God’s commandments. What does it

say about those who claim to honor and revere God, but ignore, or make light of His command-ments? Are they not liars and hypocrites? But

salvation is not for a few but for all. Jesus came and died for us, to give us new life. However, if

we do not live this new life, how are we to receive the grace of salvation? Hence, openness and the


CONGRATULATIONS to our LSS #31 Graduates!

Dennis/Ever Venson,Freddie/Neth Arenas, Danny/Lynn Cancio, Fely Clark, Gerry/Jessica Muyargas,

Stephen/Annie Palalon, Mario Sacdalan,Ronnie/Alma Ferreros, Norman/Ginger Membrere,

Lisa Membrere, Bong Juson, Guelit Rivera

We praise and thank the Lord for the Spirit filled LSS#31 which was held at Cardinal Leger

Catholic School in Scarborough on April 11th and 12th and facilitated by Fr. Mike Semana. The

seminar yielded 19 candidates, who were all blessed and moved by the Spirit to share their ex-

periences. One candidate who was pregnant got double blessings as she and her unborn child

were both baptized in the Spirit. She was blessed to give birth to their son (who they named Em-

manuel) a day after her LSS graduation. Truly God is an awesome God!

The Spirit of peace, love and joy were all over the place as the volunteers worked hand in hand

tirelessly to make the weekend a memorable one! Thank you to all ministries that have helped.

God Bless you!

A heartfelt thanks to all the Shepherds who have given their love and care in guiding the lambs

all throughout the LSS preparation. A big thank you to Fr. Mike Semana and to our sharers Mon/

Len Carluen, Gerrard/Joy Del Castillo and Tito/Dora Bacungan, who shared their lives boldly

and selflessly to show us how Magnificent our God is and as their way of professing their love

for our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Kudos to LSA DLCs, Frank and Weng Perez and LSS #31

Coordinators, Jimbo & Bendette Prollamante. GOD is good all the time!

Life in the Spirit Seminar #31 bears 19 fruits



A PRECIOUS GEM IN OUR MIDST By Vicky Nisce

Having been a member of our community for a long time (almost 18 years), and being part of

Pastoral Services Ministry that often receives stories of the many pastoral challenges in our

community, it has become easy for me to overlook all the great things about us and become

focused only on those that need improvement.

The extraordinary things we do have become ordinary to me… just standard operating proce-

dure…no big deal. But the Lord opened my eyes this weekend to this gem that we have in

our midst.

We conducted our first ever Confirmation Retreat at my parish, St. Catherine of Siena in Mis-

sissauga, last Saturday. Because I was the one who suggested it to our pastor last year, it fell

on my lap to organize it this year. I knew we will be needing participation and assistance from

some youth groups but at that time, two months or so ago, it never occurred to me to ask our

BLD Youth Group. I was actually already considering another youth group that meets at a

parish nearby.

Somehow, I have come to believe, erroneously as it turned out, that we are so set in our struc-

ture at BLD that it would be impossible to even consider such an out-of-the-ordinary commit-

ment without at least a year’s notice and without going through many channels. I’m glad now

that I mentioned it casually to our Pastoral DCS, Ross and Rose, who in turn ran it by the rest

of the DCS. Within a week I was in conversation with our Youth Ministry Coordinator, Froilan

and Charito, and after two weeks, I received confirmation that our Youth will do it. Wow!!!

Really??? And that’s on top of their various YLSS commitments.

I never worked with our youth before. To my shame, I didn’t even know most of them. After

Saturday, they made such an impression on me (and on our priests, and on the few parishion-

ers who were there to assist).

They all arrived before the appointed time of 11 in the morning accompanied by some of their

titos and titas from the BLD Youth Ministry. They quickly set up their instruments and equip-

ments, and then started warming up and practicing, like real pros. They had a quick lunch and

then began playing praise songs as the Confirmation students started to arrive.

The Praise and Worship leader, Jean Caniedo, came prepared with a short and beautiful prayer

complete with three songs, and the Power Point operator, Angelica de la Cruz, began project-

ing the lyrics to the songs on cue. Pauline Valencia and Amiel Castillo came prepared with

their faith journey testimonies which were slightly adapted to the needs of the Confirmation

students just a week before the retreat. When they delivered them, the retreatants listened, in-

cluding the boisterous and troublesome ones who were impossible to quiet down.


It became clear after the second talk of Fr. Ben St. Croix that the retreatants could not handle

another talk. They needed more prayer. The program was immediately switched to a one-on-

one prayer ministry that was never part of the plan. Three prayer teams were quickly formed

at the back of the hall - Father Ben with Ed Fernandez at the centre, Froilan and Charito on one

side, and Tito Sanchez and me on the other side. Fe Sanchez directed the flow of the re-

treatants to the different prayer teams.

As the prayer ministry went on, the BLD Youth Praise sang one solemn song after another as

we usually do at BLD. Not long after, however, some of the confirmandi waiting to be prayed

with started to become noisy and restless. Seeing that the adults were all tied up, two of our

youth, Marylou Malicdem and Jean Caniedo, took it upon themselves to exhort the retreatants

and began leading them in prayer and song. This went on for a long time until it was time to

quickly go upstairs to the Church for Mass that was about ready to begin.

As the retreatants jumped to their feet and hurried to the Church, one lady from our parish

who was assisting started to fret that the there were a lot of garbage on the floor and that the

kids were not asked to stack their chairs neatly on the side. There was just no time. After as-

suring her that I will arrange for people to assist our custodian on Monday to clean up, I went

quickly to our BLD Youth to thank them and to apologize for the rush and then ran upstairs to

join the Mass.

The Mass was beautiful, the homily of Fr. Ben was animated and many parents were present

to hear the timely exhortations. Special crosses were handed out to the over 130 Confirmation

students who were present, and after Mass, the day was over.

When I went downstairs to the hall to gather some of my things, our BLD Youth and the

adults from the Youth Ministry who accompanied them had already left. I was surprised to

see that the chairs were stacked up neatly along one wall, the partitions were neatly arranged

at the back of the hall, and the garbage on the floor were gone except for several small ones

that would have required a floor mop to remove. I assumed it was George (Rudder, SPE1 and

a parishioner) who did it all, along with one lady from the parish whom I had asked to pack

some of my belongings. When I went to thank them, George cheerfully said, “Oh, I am

sooooo proud of OUR BLD Youth. They cleaned up without being asked and they returned

all the equipments that they borrowed, slowly taking them back one by one upstairs to the

sacristy while Mass was going on. I am very proud of OUR BLD Community!!!” He also

mentioned all the other great though small things he observed during the course of the retreat

that the BLD youth just automatically did. Praise be to God!

It's hard to say how the retreat, and the music support from the BLD Youth in particular,

touched the retreatants. If the survey forms we got back from the retreatants are any indica-

tor, I have to say that many of them have been touched by the music because a good number


(Precious Gem...continued from page 4)

of them checked the box that said, “I want to join the Youth Choir”.

However, the greatest indicator to me that the Lord was indeed doing something in the hearts

of the confirmandi was when I began to pray with them. One came who was heavily burdened

because of conflicts at home which could possibly end in the separation of her parents. She

wept as I prayed with her. Another asked for prayers to remove his deep anxiety and stress

regarding his grades in school. He explained that his grades are actually very good but not up

to the standard of his parents and that the stress becomes unbearable sometimes he feels he just

can't cope anymore. He, too, began to cry as I prayed with him. Then another one came asking

to be set free from her many fears. As I prayed for her to be released from these fears, she also

started to tear up. The Lord was truly at work although on the surface it wasn’t easily recog-

nizable and He used our BLD youth as a mighty instrument.

I once heard someone referring to our community as a well-oiled machine that is ready to oper-

ate at a moment’s notice. After my experience with the BLD Youth Ministry last Saturday, I

totally understood what this meant.

As I reflected on this experience later that evening, I was filled with gratitude to God for our

BLD Youth Ministry and our BLD Community as a whole. A deep desire flowed from my

heart to make this wonderful gem of a community known to the rest of the Church and the

world. That night, as I prayed to God to use our community to sanctify the world, I was also

moved to pray that He will continue to make each of us grow in holiness and become a truly

fragrant offering to Him. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit!

Through Prayers…

GOD hears more than you say. He answers more

than you ask. He gives more than you desire, all He

needs is your heart and time… And besides, TRI-

ALS are not a reason to give-up but a CHAL-

LENGE to improve ourselves. PAIN is not an ex-

cuse to back out, but an INSPIRATION to move

on. A Blessed Lord’s Day!!!

a n n o u n c e m e n t s - bld toronto · titos and titas from the bld youth ministry. they...

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