Feast of the Black Nazarene is one of the most popular religious celebrations in the Philippines. Every January 9 thousands of people join the celebrations in Quiapo in Manila and in Cagayan de Oro City, where the replica of the original statue is. This year only around 5 million joined the procession of Black Nazarene in Manila and 120 thousand in Cagayan de Oro.

Black Nazarene is also the patron saint of the Chaplaincy in Dansolihon administered by the SCJs. The feast, which also is celebrated on January 9, was preceded with 9-day novena as a spiritual preparation for the main celebration. Each day, there was a special Novena Mass, celebrated by different priest, and procession with the little statue of Black Nazarene around the village of Dansolihon. The Masses due to increased attendance were held outside the chapel, which could not contain all the faithful.

The main celebration on January 9, 2015, due to the heavy rain, had to be celebrated inside the chapel. The main celebrant was the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, Most  Rev. Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ,DD. The Archbishop was accompanied by a number of SCJs, who just finished their annual assembly. Maybe, the number of people attending the celebration was not as big as in Quiapo or even in Cagayan de Oro, but surely it was proportional. The celebration besides the rain was nice and well prepared. Viva Señor Jesus Nazareno!

Every year in January, the Philippine Region holds its Annual Assembly. The purpose of this gathering is to evaluate the activities of the Region and plan new ones. This year the assembly was held in Cagayan de Oro City from January 5 – 8. As usual it started with short recollection, meditation and confession. The theme of the recollection was “The year of the Poor” in the Philippines and “Year of Consecrated Life” in the Universal Church and was delivered by Miss Venus Guibone, a lay formator at the St. Vianney Theological Seminary in Cagayan de Oro Archdiocese.

The second day was dedicated to the personal sharing of important events in the past year and our feelings as of now. Because of the big number of participants (31) it took almost a whole day. The personal sharing was followed by reporting of activities starting by different stages of formation, commissions and parishes, ending with the report from Taiwan and Vietnam. The second part of the third day and whole fourth day was dedicated to discussion of different topics that emerged during the reporting and planning new activities for the year 2015. Many nice ideas that came out have to be given due attention during our monthly meetings.

The meeting was well prepared and conducted in a fraternal atmosphere, even the weather was quite bad, most of the time it was raining.

“We desire to be able to welcome Jesus at Christmas-time, not in a cold manger of our heart, but in a heart full of love and humility, in a heart so pure, so immaculate, so warm with love for one another.”  (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

On November 18, 2014, six SCJ deacons were ordained priests. Four of them, Candido S. Bayron Jr., Joseph D. Muego, Christopher C. Alburo, and Jose Patro C. Gier Jr., belong to the Philippine Region and two of them Vu Van Phu and Tran Van Ngoc to the Vietnam District. The ceremony took place at the San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish in Quezon City and started at 9:30 am. As in the previous years, the ordaining bishop was the bishop of the Diocese of Novaliches, Most Rev. Antonio R. Tobias, D.D. The ordination was attended by all members of the Philippine Region, representatives from the Vietnamese District and U.S. Province. Also, there was a number of diocesan and religious priests from the Philippines and Vietnam, religious sisters from different congregations, members of the families of newly ordained priests and many friends. The celebration was beautiful and very well prepared. Until now the Philippine Region got sixteen native priests and the District of Vietnam seven. The ordination of our brothers is a very important moment in the history of the two entities, in the history of the Congregation and of the local Churches. We thank God for their vocation and entrust them to His protection.

The Philippine Region of the Priests of the Sacred Heart is barely completing its first three (3) years since its elevation last March 14, 2012 and this time, September 29 to October 3, 2014, the first regional assembly chapter is being held. A total number of 34 participants including 2 confreres on temporary vows, Fr. Rino Venturin from the Vietnam district and Fr. Paulus Sugino from the General Administration.

The chapter assembly started on Monday morning with a very meaningful recollection with Fr. Raul Dael, SSJV from the archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro. Fr. Raul emphasized on the mercy of God and the importance of being priests and religious after the Heart of Christ. In the afternoon, as has become traditional, we invited priests to hear our confessions. From the second day until the last, the assembly dedicated so much time on discussing the motions for the improvement of the Philippine mission that were pre-approved for discussion during one of the monthly meetings, the questionnaire for the General Chapter, the approval of the Regional Directory to be forwarded to the general administration and some other urgent matters not necessarily part of the chapter documents. Atty. Grace Escobia, a Lay Dehonian who represented the region in the recent meeting in Rome, was given a moment to share to the assembly on the Spiritual Path handbook prepared for the lay dehonians and discussed with the group regarding further propagation of the Dehonian spirituality to the laity.

Finally, at the close of the chapter, Fr. Sugino gave the assembly some points of reflection regarding the theme for the upcoming general chapter next year. He presided the closing mass and in the homily exhorted the assembly to awaken the world with the love and mercy of God citing the region’s chapter assembly theme, “Wake Up the World”.