The faithful were urged to imitate Mary’s obedience to God during the enthronement rites and mass for Nuestra Señora del Santissimo Rosario today, Thursday at the Santissimo Rosario Parish.

In his homily, Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Most Rev. Teodoro Bacani, Jr. D.D. said that we should listen and obey Mary for she is our queen and mother.

“The word mother is placed even before queen. She is indeed our queen but she is also our mother. The mother of the Son of God is also our mother. We ought to listen to her, to obey. What is she a queen for, what is she a mother for, if we do not obey?” said Bacani.

He added, “The greater reason for her blessedness was because she heard the word o God and said yes to it, not only with her lips but above all with her heart, with her actions.”

Bacani said that her obedience to her son can be seen during the wedding at Cana where she said to the servants to “Do whatever what my son tells you. Do whatever he tells you.”

Bacani added that Mary’s trademark response to God can be seen in the Annunciation story where she said, “I am the slavegirl of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”

“Mary stayed with the disciples in the upper room during Pentecost waiting for the Holy Spirit. And why did she stay? It was in obedience to the words of Jesus. She stayed until the Holy Spirit descended upon the land,” Bacani added.

Bacani also said that “The greatest of the crowns she have is when her children become her joy.”

“Love one another as I have loved you. That is what Mary desires also of her children. That they may be one. That is what Jesus desires of his brothers and sisters. That they may be one in God,” said Bacani.

At the end of his homily, Bacani urged the faithful to “Give our hearts while we live and until we die and our lives will be a gift to Jesus on earth as in heaven.”

Before the mass ended, Fr. Louie Coronel O.P., parish priest of Santissimo Rosario Parish led the traditional Dominican blessing of Roses which was later distributed to those who attended the enthronement mass.

According to Dominican tradition, blessed roses when kept may give divine protection to homes and cure for the sick, as it also represents the rosary.

The enthronement rites started with a procession at the UST Plaza Mayor joined by Thomasians from different colleges and faculties.

The said event marks the start of the nine day novena masses for Our Lady which will start tomorrow in preparation for the parish’s feast day on October 7.

This year’s fiesta the parish’s 76th year anniversary which also ends the three year celebration of the parish’s Diamond Jubilee Year.

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Hinimok ng UST Vice Chancellor ang Unibersidad noong Martes, Agosto 7, na ipagpatuloy ang gawain nitong paggabay sa mga Tomasino palapit sa Diyos.

Ayon kay Very Rev. Fr. Napoleon Sipalay, Jr., O.P., ang paggabay na ito ay gawain ni Santo Domingo de Guzman, ang ama ng Order of Preachers, noong nabubuhay pa siya.

“Nawa’y ang Unibersidad na ito ay patuloy na punan ang pangangailangan [na mas makilala ang Diyos] ng ating mga estudyante at ibigay ang sagot sa kanilang mga tanong sa sarili at sa mundong kanilang tatahakin,” aniya sa kaniyang sermon sa misang handog para sa pista ni Santo Domingo.

Pinuri rin ng Prior Provincial ng Dominican Province ng Pilipinas ang Unibersidad sa tuloy-tuloy nitong paglaganap ng salita ng Diyos sa pamamagitan ng edukasyon.

“Naniniwala ako sa ministeryong pangangaral dito sa [UST]. Ang prayoridad ng Dominikanong probinsya ng Pilipinas sa paglaganap ng ebanghelyo sa pamamagitan ng edukasyon, karamihan sa inyo ay katulong namin sa misyong ito,” sabi ni Sipalay.

Dagdag pa rito, ipinaalala niya sa mga Dominikano sa bansa na tularan ang ginawang pagsagot ni Santo Domingo sa pangangailangan ng mga tao sa kaniyang panahon.

“Tinugunan niya (Santo Domingo) ang mga pangangailangan ng kaniyang panahon, ito naman ang ating pagkakataon upang punan ang mga pangangailangan ngayon… Gawin natin itong paglilingkod na na ipinasa sa atin ni Dominic, ang pag bahagi ng magandang balita ni Hesus sa mundo,” aniya.

Dinaluhan ng mga pari, mga Dominikano, mga Tomasino at mga guro ang misang ginanap sa simbahan ng Santisimo Rosario bilang pagdiriwang sa pista ni Santo Domingo.

Ang pista ni Santo Domingo ay ginaganap tuwing ika-8 ng Agosto, ang pagkasilang niya sa Calaruega sa Espanya noong 1170. Walang pasok ang Unibersidad bukas upang ipagdiriwang ito. Beatrice Laforga

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A Catholic priest warned on Saturday that the Church is at stake if its number of attendees continue to go down.

“The Filipino Church is bleeding. Those Catholics who stopped going to church…it will continue. And given enough time, the very life of the Church, even in the Philippines, can be at stake,” Fr. James Mallon said during his plenary talk on the fourth day of the Fifth Philippine Conference on the New Evangelization (PCNE).

Last year, Social Weather Stations reported a 23-point decline in Filipino Catholics’ weekly church attendance from 1991 to 2017, stating the decrease is “highly significant,” statistically speaking.

Mallon, the episcopal vicar for Parish Renewal and Leadership Support for the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth in Canada, claimed this change was due to the Church’s negligence to acknowledge the dilemma and its refusal to change the system.

“Everything is okay, we know that there’s a decline but…the impact of parishes on the community is often negligible because the church has become inward-focused[.] We seek a simple fix and there’s [no] simple fix,” he said.

He added that the institution should not resist, as Pope Francis advised, the shift from a “maintenance mode” to a “missionary mode.”

“[The Church believes] we need to adjust something. What Pope Francis is talking about is not just adjustment. He is talking about the transformation of the entire Church to live out this missionary option,” he stated.

Mallon, however, said the country could change its system and attract more Church-goers without compromising their faith since it still remains to be one of the “most Catholic” countries in the world.

“You (the Philippines) have the luxury of time…to begin to change gears. Method or mission? This is what he (Pope Francis) was asking us. If we can let go of our method, our structures, our ways of doing things for the sake of evangelization of today’s world [without compromising] what is essential in our faith not at all…then there’s reason for great hope,” he said.

The fourth day of PCNE was held at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.

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