Ugnayan
C2 George Campos
“Behold and Ponder” Couples for Christ 2014 Theme The IC Discernment Weekend last September 6-8 was a deeply moving personal encounter for me with our God who has faithfully provided CFC with the guiding spirit that inspired all our themes that moved CFC forward according to His will and plan. The last day of the weekend fell on September 8, the Birthday of our Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother. Together with all the IC members and our respective spouses, we felt that the Lord gave her to us once more as a gift. She is the Lord’s gift to us, but He also wants us to be a gift to His Mother. For the past 2 years, the Holy Spirit gave our Blessed Mother to lead us closer to her Son, Jesus Christ. We were called to “Proclaim the Greatness of the Lord” by embracing ON FIRE Missions in 2012. It was a call to proclaim. Then in 2013, it was a call to discipleship when CFC was challenged to “Obey and Witness” inspired by Mary’s prompting to “do whatever He tells you”. This coming year, 2014, Jesus is entrusting us to His mother. Inspired by John 19:26-27, “When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to her, ‘Woman, behold, your son’. Then He said to the disciple, ‘Son, behold, your Mother’. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” CFC is being called to a deeper relationship with Jesus and Mary. Mary received her new mission at the foot of Cross – to be the Mother of the Church. From that moment on, she became our own Mother, validating our identity as sons and daughters of God. And for us to embrace our true identity, we are to follow Mary from Cana to the foot of the cross. Significantly, 2014 is CFC’s 33rd year, the same number of years of Jesus’ earthly life to fulfill His mission of salvation. It is the same number of years from the Annunciation, when Mary became the Mother of God, up to His death on the cross when Mary became the Mother of the Church.
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CFC as Christ the Beloved Son – 2014 is the Year of the Laity. God is calling all of us, His faithful, lay people, to reclaim our identity as His sons and daughters. “I am another Christ, the son of the Father.” Col.1:15-16, with Mary as our Mother.
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CFC as Christ the Loving Spouse – 33rd year as a community and our 3rd year journey with Mary. Christ as the Bridegroom, is the ultimate proof of self-giving love as reflected in the mystery of the crucifixion, while Mary’s fiat teaches us of spousal love between Christ and the Church.
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CFC as Jesus the Son Sent by the Father – It is the era of New Evangelization. Put into the deep our relationship with God, with our spouse, and with our family. Furthermore, it is responding to the challenge of building the future of CFC.
And so with much awe to our Lord and gratitude to our Mother, we embrace our theme for 2014 “BEHOLD and PONDER”. May it bring us to PONDER our identity, establish a deeper relationship with Christ, a fearlessness to go out into the deep, and to BEHOLD the wonder of God’s plan for CFC!
Digital Communications:
An Effective Tool for New Evangelization
1. Sharing our activities/events throughout our global CFC Community; and 2. Building a culture of innovation with digital communications. Sharing our activities/events throughout our global CFC Community We in CFC make it a point to share what is happening in our “neck of the woods” so to speak in order to spread awareness about our CFC Community across the world. We do this by identifying three content areas that answer different audience needs: a) CFC On Fire, b) Spreading God’s Word, and c) Uplifting The Poor. Since we are in a 24/7 nonstop news cycle, we cannot afford to allow critically precious hours or days to slip by without sharing our events/ actions. This also requires us to increase our efforts in social media, as increasingly people no longer look to traditional information gatekeepers as they did in the past, considering the access that everyone has via the worldwide web. CFC USA together with Europe, Middle East and Manila through the Ugnayan are forming an alliance to deploy monthly newsletters, and up to the minute Facebook and Twitter integration that will allow us to share information among ourselves and with the rest of the world. Also, we are taking up the call of the New Evangelization with a renewed focus on resources that offer both solid teachings and tender encouragement that focus on marriage and family life. Building a culture of innovation with digital communications Who knew that our CFC community will adapt to iPads and other gadgets, as well as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social network platforms? Therefore, we cannot just be like sitting ducks, waiting for everyone to adapt to technology. Therefore, we need to think out of the box and embrace a CFC culture of innovation and experimentation in communications. Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” But how do we make disciples of all nations? The evangelization strategy used
Vol. 17 No. 19
September 16 - 29, 2013
The Great Mongolian Adventure
33 years for Couples for Christ… Where is CFC? We are called to reflect in silence. We need to ponder on all the things that have transpired for the past 33 years in our beloved community. Luke 2:19, 51 “And Mary kept all these things in her heart… pondered them in her heart.” It is the 3rd year of our journey with Mary and this time, she is leading us to contemplate where the heart of CFC is at this point. In order for us to determine where CFC is we need to examine our spirituality with Christ as our example:
Roger Santos
In the past 10 years, we have seen a big shift and great advances in communications. Today, we have a combination of smart phones, internet sites, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Face Time, etc that bring us up to the minute news. But do we realize how these devices are changing HOW we communicate? One of the more interesting questions being asked by the Catholic Church and our leaders in Couples for Christ is, “What does the New Evangelization look like in this world of modern communications?” To answer the question, we can break down the answer into two areas in the context of CFC:
CBCP Monitor
by the two apostles Paul and Barnabas tells it all: first, address the local Jewish community. Overseas Jewish communities were scattered all over the Roman Empire. They visited and wrote letters to the believers, and taught them as well. And then, they started to evangelize the Gentiles. This method of evangelizing used the Old Testament as the starting point to lead the Jewish audience to accept Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophecies. “We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.” (Acts 13:32-33) With this missionary spirit, “they preached from town to town across the entire island” (Acts 13:6). In today’s world, we make use of digital technology to spread the word of God. Without walking from town to town, we can reach people from around the globe. One way of CFC showing our work of reaching the world is through the use of tools like Facebook and Twitter and via e-mailing newsletters, which has a reach of 1.2 million. For instance, the CFC USA e-newsletter has an RSS feed of the daily Mass readings and Vatican media releases, and highlights the daily work ANCOP. Sharing these to our own networks allow our friends to share the materials in their own social networks, thus reaching more. Conclusion However, much still needs to be done. Our new CFC communication alliances have to increase content available to the community through the help of our members. The upbeat digital communication technology is spreading like wildfire across the globe and in our CFC community. This is our chance to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth, as stated in Mark 16:15-16, “Go into the entire world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” And, just as the Church learned how to use the book and film to proclaim the Good News to the ends of the earth, so today we must teach ourselves to learn these new tools to help people find the faith in their ordinary days and in their times of need. To quote from our Holy Father on the World Day of Communication last January: “Word and silence: learning to communicate is learning to listen and contemplate as well as speak. This is especially important for those engaged in the task of evangelization: both silence and word are essential elements, integral to the Church’s work of communication for the sake of a renewed proclamation of Christ in today’s world.” Roger Santos is a current member of the CFC USA National Council, Executive Director of ANCOP Foundation USA Inc. and Country Coordinator of Greece. He is married to Josie Santos with whom he has three children: Casie, Vons and Paulo.
CFC goes back to Mongolia, clockwise from top: The fruit of the Övörkhangai CFC mission; Raymond Bucu giving a talk while Isabel interprets; the CFC Mongolia Mission Team with the new graduates of Darkhan CLP; with Fr. Ronald (far left, in front of the majestic statue of Genghis Khan, the national hero of the Mongolia people; Anna Bucu with Sr. Lucchia Bartolomaci and Fr. Girogio Marengo.
By Raymond Bucu “Good luck sa inyo. Hayaan mo, I’m sure pagkatapos nilang marinig ang sharing ninyo, magsimula na rin silang mag-ipon ng pera pamasahe. Maganda ang team ninyo. Di masyadong seryoso at siyempre puro talented pa. Kaya enjoy at smooth ang takbo ng mission niyo. Maraming salamat sa full support ninyo para sa CFC Mission dito sa Mongolia!” Thus wrote Fr. Ronald Magbanua, the tireless parish priest of the Good Shepherd Parish of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in our email exchange following the second CFC Mongolia Mission held last July 25 to August 3, 2013. The mission, which was led by CFC Chairman Ricky Cuenca, was intended as a follow through on the earlier mission trip held last March, 2013 in the same city. That March mission yielded a total of 16 couples for the Lord, yet it was clear that a follow up mission was needed to sustain the community there. On July 25, the second CFC mission team composed of Gabby and Lily Ocampo, MM Central C; Ramon and Rose Cugal, MM West B; Jun Enriquez, MM Central A; and my wife Anna and myself, arrived in Ulaanbaatar. The objective was to conduct three new Christian Life Programs in three different cities, and to conduct the required first year formation teachings among those who became the first CFC graduates last March. As it turned out, while the mission was not without any challenges, it proved to be full of pleasant surprises from the Lord and from each of the missionaries. Upon arrival at the Chinggiss Khan International Airport, Fr. Ronald warmly welcomed us. Upon reaching the parish, our home in Mongolia, fond memories of the earlier mission immediately flooded my mind. Despite our initial misgivings, that first mission showed us that even an alien culture and an unfamiliar language will not be a hindrance for the Lord to choose to pour His Spirit upon His people. For the second time in this strange, wonderful country, Anna and I once again felt the delicious anticipation of experiencing God’s presence in
the work at hand. But unlike the first mission, which was held only in Ulaanbaatar, this second mission required us to travel and conduct the CLP’s in three cities; the first in Ulaanbaatar, then to the province of Övörkhangai, which is about 600 kilometers from the capital, and then to Darkhan which is about 350 kilometers to the west of the capital. After only a few hours of rest, the team, accompanied by Isabel Bayandorj, our interpreter for the entire mission, headed north for an eight-hour trip to Övörkhangai. The venue of the CLP is the Roman Catholic frontier mission outpost manned by Fr. Giorgio Marengo, a young Italian priest from the Congregation of Consolata Missionary in Turin, and Sr. Lucchia Bartolomasi. Upon our arrival, we met up with the first three couples who graduated in March: Paul and Anna, John and Rosa and Jaq and Magdalene. Together, we had a happy, though short reunion, but as the Övörkhangai participants were already present, we immediately got to work. At the end of the first day, the Cugals and the Ocampos had to go back to Ulaanbaatar because a third CLP was scheduled for the Filipino parishioners of the Good Shepherd Parish, leaving Anna, myself and Jun Enriquez to finish the Övörkhangai CLP. After the Övörkhangai mission, we had to go back to the capital for the trip to Darkhan. The next day, all seven of us traveled to Darkhan, where we conducted the next CLP in the Don Bosco Formation Center. The 17 participants were called in by Fr. Paul Leung, a Salesian missionary from Hongkong. Once again, our mission experience was enhanced by the kindness and generosity of these missionary priests and the religious sisters, who had dedicated their lives in the service of our Lord by living among His people, despite the fact that the Faith in that part of the country is a minority and that the cultural and spiritual difference was substantial. Afterwards, we went back to the capital where for the final two nights of our stay, where we held two more teachings as an introduction for future CLP’s among the parishioners of St.
Mary’s Parish led by Fr. Francesco Hu, a Korean missionary of CICM. Just like the first CLP in March, the issue to overcome during these missions was the language barrier. While we had interpreters, it was still a challenge to make the talks come across in the easiest way possible and yet make sure it is clear enough to minimize the chances of anything becoming lost in translation. It was also a challenge as to how to act within the bounds of Mongolian cultural nuances, which were many and quite alien to Filipino sensibilities. Also part of the mission was to establish CFC household groups in the various areas and to instill the first stages of CFC culture among the brethren. This was critical because the dynamism and the highly evangelistic nature of CFC need to be thoroughly explained to both the clergy and the lay. But the most challenging issue is that most of our participants are recent converts to the faith. We became acutely aware that we should come across more as witnesses of God’s goodness rather than speakers, being reminded of what St. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians as he described about those who are being fed with milk and those with solid food. But those who respond to God’s call, He equips. The CLP’s that were held were conducted very smoothly, with both the participants and the CFC missionaries being blessed as the talks proceeded to become sharings of God’s victories in the lives of His servants. At the same time, the participants were suddenly aware that each one of them had a story to tell, and could relate to the experiences that the CFC missionaries had undergone and the way that God has become in charge of their lives. The CFC mission team were simply ordinary CFC couples, whose burning desire to bring the Word of God to the ends of the earth is greater than their limited finances. Yet God, in His goodness, decided to honor the desire of His servants to serve Him by paving the way for us to be part of His great work and to fulfill our part of the mission.
The News Supplement of Couples for Christ
George B. Campos IC Oversight
Samantha C. Manuel Editor-in-Chief
Alma M. Alvarez Associate Editor
Deomar P. Oliveria
Claudine T. Itchon
Layout Artist
Intern
Evangeline C. Mecedilla Circulation Staff
The Ugnayan News Supplement is published by the Couples for Christ Global Mission Foundation, Inc., with editorial offices at 156 20th Avenue, 1109 Cubao, Quezon City. Editorial trunk line: (+63 2) 709-4868 local 23 Direct line : (+63 2) 709-4856 www.couplesforchristglobal.org cfcglobalcommunications@gmail.com facebook.com/CFC.Global.Mission
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