shared resources
The Vicariate of St. Peter of which our parish is part of, is now holding an updating program for our catechists who are serving a number of public schools in the city and the suburban towns of Leganes and Pavia. This is a much needed updating, something that has been called for a number of times already but one that has been responded to only now. It is our hope that this collective effort among priests of the different parishes of the vicariate will redound to so much good especially in educating and forming the young in the faith. It is also hoped that this effort on catechism will, from now on, start the ball rolling, to discover further the many ways where the parishes of this one vicariate can cooperate, work concertedly, hand in hand and join resources for the good of this large segment of the local Church of the Archdiocese of Jaro. This is just a one week seminar updating for catechists in the city divided into two batches (the second batch of catechists will start their updating on Monday), but it is my hope that this good start will help the parishes to discover the advantages of working together and how life (and work) can be easier and lighter when we labor with shared resources.
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Based on the recommendations of a private accountant we have reshuffled some personnel in the parish, and in the days to come expect that services will be slow and mistakes will be made as our personnel are getting used to and learn more about their new responsibilities.
Elena Mejica, our public restroom attendant, has reached the age of 65 and has to retire after having served the parish for 12 years. She has been a familiar feature in our public restroom cleaning it on a daily basis, following after people who have yet to learn to use a urinal, a lavatory and a toilet with running water. Though people are not required to pay anything for its use, she was always there a few yards from the donation box encouraging and reminding some forgetful people to donate something for its maintenance (sometimes I get to wonder why we often forget to donate something, but we could not forget people who owed us something – the wonders of the human brain, indeed!). Since my room is very near the public restroom, I would hear a lively discussion once in a while when Elena in her fighting demeanor would insist that a person who has just used the restroom should at least donate something. Sometimes the verbal squabble would become feverish and would last for several minutes. But that’s how Elena was. Well, probably, staying in that station for many years now, after having seen Magdalena, the blind woman begging for alms (another familiar feature of the cathedral), and another old lady whom people labelled as mentally deranged, gladly drop a few coins every time they use the facilities provided by the cathedral, Elena would surely feel irritated and even offended at times when some people could not do the same. Well, we will surely miss her. In this column we would like to thank her for her love for duty (in my two years stay she was only absent once or twice because of sickness), for her humble service to our parish, for her meticulousness in reminding people of their responsibility, and for her dedication in caring for something most of us would not be so happy about much less be proud of. But she was for 12 long years! Thank you Nang Elena!
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Our Parish beginning the month of May (2010) will begin implementing regulations pertaining to the reception of the Sacraments. For Baptism we will suppress the rule for seminars because the priests who are going to baptize will be required to give a meaningful homily which will educate us on the duties of the baptized and the duties of godparents and parents. We will no longer allow private or special baptisms on Saturdays and Sundays since this practice is giving that less than ideal impression that those who are baptized apart from the common baptism are special and therefore different from the rest. Baptism as an incorporation and initiation to the Christian community should be freed from unnecessary distinctions and grades of service so as to emphasize our common dignity as children of God regardless of our social, financial, and community standing. Rich or poor, nominal or real catholic, boy or girl, DBF (de buena familia) or just a so and so, we can transcend these distinctions and imaginary boundaries by our common dignity as children of God baptized and made so by the same Spirit in the same baptismal font. We have after all many years ago abolished those special panyal or baptismal garments and used instead a common and uniform garment for the baptized to emphasize this common dignity – the common dignity as children of God and one Father. At the very least, with this rule, we can insist on something that could emphasize this reality. Baptisms on Saturdays will be held at 11:30 in the morning and on Sundays at 11:00 AM.
With regards weddings several things need to be put in order. First, from now on one has to register for marriage 5 weekends before the date of the wedding. As in the past we cannot accommodate weddings on Sundays although we made available two slots for Saturday s – at 10:00 in the morning and at 3:00 in the afternoon. However, couples are forewarned that funerals may be celebrated at 8 AM and at 1 PM – 2 hours before the slot for weddings. We have to do this to accommodate funerals – at least two on a Saturday because of the experience of one parish wherein people complained that they have to look for churches for a funeral because theirs could no longer be accommodated by the parish church because of so many weddings booked on a weekend months before. (Well, you could not book your funeral months before, can you?) So a parishioner from Jaro goes about looking for a church while somebody, may be from another parish, sequesters the parish church of Jaro for their own purpose. This we will have to avoid. After all, this is the church of Jareños, of the parishioners of Jaro and it has to establish a system that will fairly cater to the needs of its parishioners.
______
Based on the recommendations of a private accountant we have reshuffled some personnel in the parish, and in the days to come expect that services will be slow and mistakes will be made as our personnel are getting used to and learn more about their new responsibilities.
Elena Mejica, our public restroom attendant, has reached the age of 65 and has to retire after having served the parish for 12 years. She has been a familiar feature in our public restroom cleaning it on a daily basis, following after people who have yet to learn to use a urinal, a lavatory and a toilet with running water. Though people are not required to pay anything for its use, she was always there a few yards from the donation box encouraging and reminding some forgetful people to donate something for its maintenance (sometimes I get to wonder why we often forget to donate something, but we could not forget people who owed us something – the wonders of the human brain, indeed!). Since my room is very near the public restroom, I would hear a lively discussion once in a while when Elena in her fighting demeanor would insist that a person who has just used the restroom should at least donate something. Sometimes the verbal squabble would become feverish and would last for several minutes. But that’s how Elena was. Well, probably, staying in that station for many years now, after having seen Magdalena, the blind woman begging for alms (another familiar feature of the cathedral), and another old lady whom people labelled as mentally deranged, gladly drop a few coins every time they use the facilities provided by the cathedral, Elena would surely feel irritated and even offended at times when some people could not do the same. Well, we will surely miss her. In this column we would like to thank her for her love for duty (in my two years stay she was only absent once or twice because of sickness), for her humble service to our parish, for her meticulousness in reminding people of their responsibility, and for her dedication in caring for something most of us would not be so happy about much less be proud of. But she was for 12 long years! Thank you Nang Elena!
--------------------
Our Parish beginning the month of May (2010) will begin implementing regulations pertaining to the reception of the Sacraments. For Baptism we will suppress the rule for seminars because the priests who are going to baptize will be required to give a meaningful homily which will educate us on the duties of the baptized and the duties of godparents and parents. We will no longer allow private or special baptisms on Saturdays and Sundays since this practice is giving that less than ideal impression that those who are baptized apart from the common baptism are special and therefore different from the rest. Baptism as an incorporation and initiation to the Christian community should be freed from unnecessary distinctions and grades of service so as to emphasize our common dignity as children of God regardless of our social, financial, and community standing. Rich or poor, nominal or real catholic, boy or girl, DBF (de buena familia) or just a so and so, we can transcend these distinctions and imaginary boundaries by our common dignity as children of God baptized and made so by the same Spirit in the same baptismal font. We have after all many years ago abolished those special panyal or baptismal garments and used instead a common and uniform garment for the baptized to emphasize this common dignity – the common dignity as children of God and one Father. At the very least, with this rule, we can insist on something that could emphasize this reality. Baptisms on Saturdays will be held at 11:30 in the morning and on Sundays at 11:00 AM.
With regards weddings several things need to be put in order. First, from now on one has to register for marriage 5 weekends before the date of the wedding. As in the past we cannot accommodate weddings on Sundays although we made available two slots for Saturday s – at 10:00 in the morning and at 3:00 in the afternoon. However, couples are forewarned that funerals may be celebrated at 8 AM and at 1 PM – 2 hours before the slot for weddings. We have to do this to accommodate funerals – at least two on a Saturday because of the experience of one parish wherein people complained that they have to look for churches for a funeral because theirs could no longer be accommodated by the parish church because of so many weddings booked on a weekend months before. (Well, you could not book your funeral months before, can you?) So a parishioner from Jaro goes about looking for a church while somebody, may be from another parish, sequesters the parish church of Jaro for their own purpose. This we will have to avoid. After all, this is the church of Jareños, of the parishioners of Jaro and it has to establish a system that will fairly cater to the needs of its parishioners.
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