To celebrate its pearl (30th)
anniversary, PCJ Parish had several activities
lined up which addressed not only the spiritual
dimension but also the protection of the
environment, outreach programs as well as fun
activities for the whole family.
Novena Mass and
Area Visitation of Our Lady of Candelaria -
The various activities in celebration of the
Pearl (30th) Anniversary of PCJ Parish
officially started last January 24, 2012 with the
start of the nine-day novena in honor of our
patroness, Our Lady of Candelaria. During
this 9-day novena, the image of our Lady was
brought to the nine designated areas in the
parish, where she was warmly welcomed by the
residents. For each day, after the
novena mass in the evening, a procession
was held to herald the visit of the image of Our
Lady of Candelaria to the specific enclave,
where she stayed overnight. The
following day, a procession was again held to
bring back the image of Our Lady back to PCJ
church in time for the novena mass. The
various parish organizations and
ministries took turns in sponsoring each of the
novena masses, presided by different invited
priests.
Mariology Talk by Fr.
Melvin Castro - Last January 26, 2012
(Thursday) a Mariology Talk was given by Rev.
Fr. Melvin Castro at around 8 p.m. at the PCJ
Church, right after the 7 p.m. novena mass.
Fr. Melvin is the
Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission
on Family and Life, and has been designated the
spokesperson of the Catholic Church on the issue of the
Reproductive Health Bill. In his talk on
the Blessed Virgin, Fr. Melvin emphasized how
God, thru His boundless love and mercy has
promised the salvation of mankind from the
darkness of sin, thru Mary as set forth in Gen.
3:15 when he told the devil in the form of the
serpent - "I will put enmity between you and the
woman, between her offspring and her offspring.
He will crush you heel...." Since a woman,
Eve, caused the fall of mankind, another woman
will bring salvation to mankind. Mary, as the
woman promised in Genesis 3:15 is the new Eve,
who thru her Fiat, has brought salvation to
mankind thru Jesus Christ. It was quite
fitting that in our parish we have the image of
our patroness, Our Lady of Candelaria holding
the baby Jesus with a lighted candle in her
hand. Because of Mary, the light of God
dispelled sin and darkness in the world - she
was an instrument in bringing light back into
the world, when she agreed to be the mother of
God. That evening,
Fr. Melvin not only shared his knowledge of and
devotion to Our Lady, but he also showed his
lighter side thru his various jokes which kept
the parishioners laughing all evening. We
wish to thank the Marian Circle for spearheading
this event.
Healing Mass by Fr. Jerry Orbos - Last
January 27, 2012 (Friday), the fourth day of the
9-day Novena mass was presided by Rev. Fr. Jerry
Orbos, SVD. The said mass was also a
general healing mass. In his homily, Fr.
Orbos emphasized the need to simplify one's life
and to let one's life be guided by these 4
important principles: First, money can always be
earned, so one should not waste time
worrying about financial matters. Second,
stupid quarrels can be resolved.
Forgiveness is an important part of inner
healing. Third, the lives of loved ones are
irreplaceable. Hence, the fostering of
relationships amongst family members and loved
ones should have primary importance over
everything else. And lastly, the loss of one's
soul is one's greatest failure. After his
homily, Fr. Orbos proceeded with the general
healing by guiding the congregation in praying
for healing, forgiveness, and letting go of
hurts and anger, which are integral components
to one's inner and physical healing. We
wish to thank the Light of the Holy Spirit
Charismatic Community for spearheading the
healing mass.
Family Fun Run "Puno Para Sa Parokya" -
Last January 28, 2012 (Saturday) at around 5:00
a.m., about 150 runners joined the Family Fun
Run "Puno Para Sa Parokya" in a 3-k and 5-k run
in the vicinity of the parish. The said
activity has a two-fold objective. For
each participant, a tree seedling will be
planted in their name in the Ipo Watershed
and at the same time, they will be
contributing to the seed money for the Light for
Life Scholarship Program of the parish.
Under the said scholarship program, deserving
but poor high school students will be given
subsidy for their educational needs. The
event was organized by the PCJ Commission on
Youth, headed by April and Ailee Dionela.
Community Bingo - The parish, under the
leadership of the Knights of Columbus held a
very successful afternoon bingo last January 28,
2012 (Saturday) at around 3 p.m. at the church
plaza. A bingo ticket which costs just P100
entitles the holder to play 10 games and a
chance to win cash prizes with the following
major prizes: First prize - P50,000.00,
Second Prize - P20,000.00 and Third Prize -
P10,000.00. Parishioners and guests, young
and old alike, trooped to the church plaza that
afternoon to try their luck and at the same time
support the many programs of PCJ.
Adopt A
Tree /Light for Life Scholarship Program
- Last Jan. 29 (Sunday) in all masses
that day and in the anticipated mass the
previous day, those church goers who were not able to
join the fun run "Puno Para sa Parokya" were
given the opportunity to support the parish'
Adopt A Tree and Light for Life Scholarship
Program. For a donation of P300, a tree
seedling will be planted in the name of the
donor at the Ipo dam watershed area. In
addition, the said donation will send indigent
student-parishioners to school. Once more,
parishioners showed their generosity by their
overwhelming support for the twin programs.
As a small token of appreciation for their
support, the donors were given a Mexican petunia
plant and a souvenir card (shown below) as
donor.
Dawn Procession -
On February 2, at around 5:00 a.m. PCJ
parishioners started the day's fiesta
celebration with a dawn procession along the
main street of Aguirre Ave. Donning the
yellow PCJ official t-shirt with its printed
30th anniversary logo and holding a lighted
candle in one hand and a rosary in the other
hand, the parishioners showed their devotion to
Our Lady by praying the rosary and singing
Marian hymns during the procession. After
the procession, there was a blessing of
candles in front of the church.
Radio Veritas Feature -Radio Veritas featured PCJ Parish in its
morning program last Feb. 2 and 3, in
recognition of PCJ's 30th parish fiesta
celebration. On Feb. 2, led by hosts
Angelique Lazo and Fr. Benny Tuason, the
early beginnings of PCJ was traced thru
interviews with the pioneers in the parish when
it was just being established led by PCJ's first
parish priest, Fr. Joe Cadusale. They
reminisced how 30 years ago, Sunday masses
were held in Phase III, usually at the lobby of
either the El Grande or Tropical Palace Hotel or
at any available unoccupied building, since the
only church in BF was in Phase I, about 3-4 km.
away. The decree creating the new parish
was issued by His Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin in
1982, with territorial boundaries north of De La Rama and Henares Sts., parts of Phase II and Phases III and IV of BF Homes Parañaque.
The following year, 1983, construction of the
new church began in its present site donated by
the late Don Tomas Aguirre. Fr. Cadusale
also shed light on how the parish came to be
known by its unique name of Presentation of the
Child Jesus Parish. He recounted that the
parish was formerly named Sto. Niño
Parish but the late Cardinal Sin advised against
it since there were already a lot of churches
named after the Sto. Niño.
Since the parishioners were devotees of Our Lady
and also of the Sto. Niño,
it was unanimously decided that the name be
changed to Presentation of the Child Jesus
Parish, with Our Lady of Candelaria, bearing the
Child Jesus in her arms, as its patroness.
The following day, February 3 (Sunday) Radio
Veritas had a live broadcast of the early 6:00
a.m. mass officiated by PCJ's Parochial Vicar,
Fr. Steve Villanueva. A brief interview
followed, wherein the various priority programs
of the parish were discussed by Fr. Steve, Noemi
Poblador (Parish Executive Assistant) and Albert
Buenviaje (Commission on the Family
Coordinator).
Fiesta Mass - PCJ
Parish' Fiesta Mass was held on February 2 at
7p.m. with Bishop Jesse Mercado as main
celebrant. PCJ priests led by our parish
priest Fr. Rodel Paulino, and parochial vicar
Fr. Steve Villanueva together with guest priests
and deacons concelebrated the fiesta mass. In his
homily, Bishop Jesse recalled how our parish
started from its humble beginnings of just a
simple structure of donated used G.I. sheets and
scrap lumber to its present parish complex.
Truly, PCJ has been an evangelized church
community and an agent for evangelization
with its varied ministries and formation
programs for its parishioners. Before the
final blessings, Fr. Rodel took the opportunity
to thank everyone for a very successful fiesta
celebration. He also led the renewal
of service commitment of leaders and members of
the different parish commissions, ministries and
mandated organizations.
Community Night
- The culminating activity for PCJ's 30th
anniversary celebration was the community night
held at the parish plaza after the fiesta mass.
It was an evening of fun and entertainment
provided by homegrown talents. The opening
number was provided by the talented members of
the Light of the Holy Spirit Charismatic
Community resplendent in their colorful costumes.
They rendered an interpretative dance number to
the music of the Lion King. Their message
in their dance number is that despite different
cultures, (or different charisms in the case of
PCJ) people can work together harmoniously.
Various song and dance numbers followed, presented by the members of the Commission on
Youth and the BEC-Geneva group. The most
applauded performance of the evening was the
song number of PCJ priests led by Fr. Rodel, Fr.
Steve, Fr. Raprap, Rev. Cito and others who sang
a medley of VST & Co. songs like Disco Fever and
Awitin Mo, complete with 60's afro look.
Not to be outdone, the parish staff presented a
comedy number featuring Lucing and Ate Phines in
a pseudo-boxing and dancing bout. In
between the performances, raffles of a variety
of prizes were made like baskets of groceries,
various food and household items. We wish
to thank the Fiesta Committee, led by Bro. Jojo
Dunglao for the very well planned and well
executed fiesta activities. Of course, our
heartfelt gratitude goes also to the members of
various parish organizations and ministries, and
to our parishioners for their continued support
of our parish programs and activities. Mabuhay ang PCJ
Fiesta!
The 30th anniversary logo of
PCJ, which is celebrating its Pearl Anniversary
in 2012 was launched amidst fanfare and dancing
during the 9:00 p.m. New Year's Eve Mass inside
the church. A brief video presentation of
the year-end review of 2011 was shown wherein as
we look back to 2011, we thank God for the many
blessings received. Then moving forward
to 2012, the 30th anniversary logo of the
parish was presented highlighted by 30 ladies
dancing to the tune of Celebrate Jesus,
Celebrate. The logo depicts the journey of
the parish toward's God's kingdom, thru the
guidance of Our Lady of Candelaria - "PCJ, A
Pearl of Great Price, Journeying and Praying
Together with Mary".
