Ugnayan
THE NEWS SUPPLEMENT OF COUPLES FOR CHRIST CBCP Monitor. Vol. 22 No. 11
May 28 - June 10, 2018 C1
It’s all about FAMILY at the first International Family Conference! By Alma Alvarez
POPE FRANCIS said during the World Meeting of Families in 2015: Love is shown by the little things, by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place to become life, and life to grow in faith. This may be a mouthful, but what the Holy Father is saying basically is that the family, the home, is where faith is learned and grows. As CFC Kids for Christ celebrated its 25th anniversary as a ministry, it also celebrated the FAMILY via the first International Family Conference, from May 26 to 28, 2018, 2018 at the IEC Convention Center, Cebu City. The Praise Parade was held on Friday night, where delegates from all over the world shared their talents via creative festival numbers unique to their areas. Since it was CFC KFC’s 25th birthday, International Coordinator Adrian Enaje honored the past leaders of Kids for Christ. The activity ended with the parade of 25 birthday cakes and 25 Cebu lechons. Everyone helped themselves to the birthday food as they enjoyed watching the colorful praise parade. On Day 2, the Tolentino and Mungcal families handled the first two sessions of the iFamCon. In the first session, the Tolentinos talked about spending time to pray as a family. They emphasized that prayer makes
the family’s relationship with God stronger, teaches members of the family humility, and prepares the children for the future. Since the family is the first Church where children learn about God and Jesus, Mama Mary and the saints, families must have specific goals how to help them pray together daily: • Families should create an altar at home. • Families must fill their homes with God’s word. • Pray the Family Rosary daily. • Practice family prayer time. The Mungcals, on the other hand, shared about spending time as a family at play. Daddy PJ presented three major reasons why families fail to spend time together: work time, study time, and screen time. Hence, the need for play time, as it fosters healthy and loving relationships in the home, and help create memories for the family. “Playing teaches love and discipline,” Mommy Abi said. The Mungcals enjoined all the families to spend time playing, not on electronic gadgets, but games which require physical activity, or board games that encourage critical thinking and decision-making. In between the sessions, both kids and parents went to separate workshops. The kids mainly had creative and fun workshops, while the parents sat through the parenting workshop given by Bobby Quitain, lay evangelizer from the Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon Community, and his wife Jeng. The workshop, titled The Heart of Parenting, talked about myths and truths about parenting, with breakout
Family is a gift indeed, clockwise from top left: Archbishop Palma celebrating the Mass; Bobby Quitain of LNP; the Tolentino family in the first session; the much-awaited fire hose bath; opening salvo; family verse; play time with Dad, Mom and the kids.
sessions for the moms and dads on motherhood and fatherhood. On the last day of the iFamCon, the Sotto family from Singapore talked about the delegates being charged to
be families for other families. They enjoined the 1,000 families present to go out and proclaim the love of God to other families. They also talked about becoming
Young Couples Learn How to Enrich Intimacy YOUNG couples, meaning those who are in the early years of their marriage, flocked to the St. Paul College Grade School Auditorium on May 19 to learn about how they can enrich intimacy between them. Manny Panagsagan, Sector Head for Central A of Metro Manila and his wife Grace gave the young couples valuable insights as well as practical techniques on how they could improve communication in marriage, and enrich intimacy. “Marriage is the only relationship that makes two people one. It is a relationship where communication must be given premium. It is the only union that makes the “Me” become “We”,” the Panagsagans said. While the first few years of marriage can be all lovey-dovey, the young couples admitted that the daily grind affects their emotional connection and causes them to be disconnected. The couples learned that the lack of communication is one of the three leading causes why spouses grow apart and that the way to confront this lack is to become a team.
The Panagsagans talked about the different types of intimacy, giving emphasis on the importance of communication intimacy. For effective communication the Panagsagan couple shared the 4 Ts: • Timing - Make sure that both spouses are in the right disposition • Tone - Understand and emphasize. Avoid shaming. • Truth - There should always be openness and honesty in what is said. • Technique – Use the intentional or Imago dialogue, which will allow couples to learn and master the art of listening. It was almost the first time for participants to do the Imago dialogue, and to give them an experience on how it is done, the couples were asked to do three cycles of the intimacy dialogue. Some basic rules in doing the Imago dialogue are: • Talk, one person at a time. YOUNG COUPLES p2
families for God, where lasting friendship, acceptance, joy, a father’s initiative to bring the family closer to God, love, and the desire to spend time FIRST iFAMCON, p2 with the fam-
Rekindling the Gifts of Learning and Teaching at the T.E.A.C.H Expo
MORE than 600 volunteers from all over Luzon and Metro Manila gathered for the Cornerstone Academy Teach Expo held in Singson Hall, Ateneo De Manila University last May 19. With its theme “Rekindling the Gift of Learning and Teaching”, the volunteers were able to re-establish their posture towards Cornerstone and re-defined their roles as teachers to the Cornerstone students, as well to the parents. Tina AligadaHalal, TEACH Core Member, gave Session 1: Rekindle the
Gift. She reminded the volunteers to keep their Cornerstone stories in their hearts and to rekindle the fire that motivates them to persevere in their work. Halal emphasized that being part of the Cornerstone is a blessing, not just for the volunteers but for the whole community. “We are in Cornerstone because we love the children. Of course, the willingness to help is always there, but it should be done out of love,” she said. She reminded the volunteers that Cornerstone is God’s
gift to the community, and as volunteers they have to take good care of that gift in order to become gifts to others. A series of workshops was then conducted in different venues within the Ateneo campus, among them Funterest (on discovering different techniques on how to make tutorial sessions easy, fun and interesting), Prep Time (guidelines in making instructional materials and examples which the volunteers can replicate), YOU ROCK (Appreciating the KVF T.E.A.C.H. EXPO, p2