BOAC, Marinduque, Oct. 29, 2012—The Diocese of Boac in Marinduque officially ended its year-long celebration of the Year of Pontifical Mission with a mission assembly attended by 200 lay brothers at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Boac, last October 20.
Fr. Ian Retardo, Boac’s diocesan mission director of Boac said the mission assembly was a gathering of lay brothers from different organizations within the diocese.
“The objectives of the assembly was to gather and enhance the camaraderie and unity of our lay brothers, opening their understanding and commitment in the mission of the Church as baptized Christians and living and sharing the experience to Christ and to others,” Retardo said.
He said it is a known fact that women are the most active members of the Church so the assembly had only men as participants to entice them to participate more actively in Church activities.
Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) National Director Fr. Socrates Mesiona, MSP, was one of the guest speakers at the event.
Aside from giving input about the PMS, Mesiona also talked about the significant role of man in the Church.
Retardo for his part discussed the topic of faith, echoing a talk from Fr. James Kroeger about integral faith as informative, transformative and performative.
“Informative is an integral faith in our mind, transformative is a faith in our heart and performative is a faith in our hands. Mission demands committed faith as well as demands committed mission. The 2nd Filipino Saint Pedro Calungsod is a perfect example of integral faith,” he explained.
The culminating activity of the Year of Pontifical Mission also opened the diocesan celebration of the Year of Faith, which was launched on October 21, the second day of the assembly.
Boac Bishop Reynaldo Gonda Evangelista in his homily commended the participants and urged them to revitalize their faith and continue to be active in service to the Church.
He also invited the congregation from different parishes to rediscover the content of faith and be an active missionary for the Church.
Evangelista asked for the active participation of the clergy in giving adult catechism, to be diligent in giving confessions and the parishioners to be active in bible sharing and values formation.
The prelate also encouraged everyone to go to mass daily to foster greater faith and to join all the activities of the diocese for the year of faith.
He also designated the pilgrim churches within the diocese. (Jandel Posion)
