The pilgrim relics of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus is for the fourth time in the Philippines. It arrived on January 13, 2018, and will stay until May 31, 2018, visiting different dioceses and parishes.
At the moment the relics is visiting the Diocese of Pagadian. On April 24, 2018, the relics, for a short time, visited the St. Isidore Parish in Dumalinao run by the SCJs.
The pilgrim relics of Saint Thérèse have visited the Philippines in 2000, 2008 and 2013.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, also called Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, was born on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, France. She died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24.
She is one of the most popular Catholic saints. As a doctor of the church, she is the subject of much theological comment and study, and as an appealing young woman, whose message has touched the lives of millions, she remains the focus of much-popular devotion.
Relics are the material remains of a saint or holy person after death, as well as objects sanctified by contact with his or her body.
Real or first-class relics include the skin and bones, clothing, objects used for penance and instruments of a martyr’s imprisonment or passion, while representative relics are objects placed in contact with the body or grave of a saint.
The Catholic faithful venerate the relics of saints because as intercessors with God for the living, through their relics—a record of the saint—God manifests his presence.
On April 19,2018, at the Butuan Doctors’ Hospital, passed away Most Rev. Zacarias C. Jimenez,D.D, an Auxillary Bishop-Emeritus of the Diocese of Butuan, and big friend of SCJs (Dehonians) in the Philippines.
On April 21, 2018, more than 750 youths coming from different parishes of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro attended the Vocation Jamboree prepared by the Directors/Directresses of Vocations in the Philippines (DVP) Cagayan de Oro Chapter, headed by the Rev. Fr. Roger Gabac, SSJV, the Archdiocesan Vocation Director with the cooperation of the members of DVP represented by different Religious Men and Women that works in the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro.
On April 9, 2018, more than 400 parishioners of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Aluba, Cagayan de Oro City made their “Walk with Mary.” The walk started at the “Our Lady of Snows” Parish Church in El Salvador City and ended at the Divine Mercy Shrine.
On September 29, 2017, faithful of the Sub-Parish in Balongating, Guipos, Zamboanga del Sur, celebrated their patronal feast of St. Michael, the Archangel. The main celebrant and homilist was Fr. Lukas Hadi Siswo Sasmito, SCJ, the parish priest of St. Isidore, the Farmer Parish in Dumalinao, and was accompanied by SCJs from the Zamboanga del Sur area and from Cagayan de Oro. The Eucharist was clebrated in a local Visayan dialect. As usual the celebration was preceeded by nine-day novena, organized and sponsored by different chapels, members of the sub-parish.The celebration was followed by a cultural show, common meal, and raffle draw, where the main prize was a Honda motorcycle. The money gained in this way will be used for the construction of new formation house for the lay leaders, which the community needs very much.
Balongating is a part of the St. Isidore, the Farmer Parish in Dumalinao and was declared as a Sub-Parish in August 1991 by Most Rev. Antonio R. Tobias, DD.
SCJ Philippines Region 