Official Newsletter of the

Verbum Dei Catholic Missionaries – Luzon

Issue 26 – December 2017

Greetings
Welcome to our 26th newsletter! Advent greetings to all our readers. We pray this season can
help us to prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus.

You Are My Friends

Last November 12, Friends of Verbum Dei prepared a lunch for the sponsors. It was a way of
giving thanks to our dear friends who are generously helping us. It started with a Mass,
followed by a delightful and sumptuous international cuisine, prepared by the missionaries
themselves. The atmosphere was entertained with live classical music and surprise numbers
were also presented by the missionaries. Everyone enjoyed and eagerly look forward to next
year’s event.

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 Official Newsletter of the
Verbum Dei Catholic Missionaries – Luzon
Issue 26 – December 2017

Verbum Dei Missionary Family Day

One with the whole Church, we celebrated the World Mission Sunday as a Verbum Dei
Missionary Family at La Mesa Ecopark, Fairview. We began with a Eucharist, which is the
source of our communion with the Verbum Dei Family worldwide, celebrated by Fr.
James. It was a day of family bonding with zumba dancing, playing games, sharing meals
together, and enjoying the nature by going around the Ecopark. The missionary family
that prays together, celebrates the gift of mission together!

Reaching out to families with Mary

In this month of October, dedicated to the Holy
Rosary and also the month of Mission, the Pasig
missionary journey team prayed the rosary with
their neighbors in Palatiw, Villa Angeles,
Tambakan I and Villa Kabute. It was a great
experience to know more the children through
their families and also to introduce Mary and
Jesus to them in a more familiar way. “The
harvest is plenty and laborer’s are few. Let us
pray to the Master to send out laborers for His
harvest” (see Matthew 9:37).

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 Official Newsletter of the
Verbum Dei Catholic Missionaries – Luzon
Issue 26 – December 2017

Fix your eyes on Jesus

In Marla’s prayer God spoke to her of His project to love all
people; and seeing the map of the whole world Marla saw
the vast continent of Asia. “I want to go there, “she
exclaimed. “I want to help incarnate the Word of God in a
culture different from my own.” She is presently studying
English and enjoying her new assignment here in the
Philippines. Welcome Marla! She is a Mexican missionary,
currently assigned in Tagaytay.
Seeds fell in good soil, and the plants bore
grain!
The recent recollections of children, teens, and
youth, over different weekends here in Tagaytay,
were facilitated by the disciples of each of the
said realities. These disciples are like good soil
that the Word of God speaks of - they are the
ones who received the Word of God. It is now
growing in their hearts and bearing fruit in their
lives and in the lives of many others.

Keep alive the gift of God’s call

This was the theme for the Disciples Retreat on October 1, 2017 at Pasig Apostolate Center. It
re-enkindled the fire of the disciples to respond to the call of God by faithfully living out the
Verbum Dei Charism which the Holy Spirit
entrusted to us through the life of Jaime Bonet
and the first missionaries. The one-day retreat
culminated with the renewal of the commitment
of 14 missionary-disciples. Marissa Luna made
her stable commitment and four new members
made their first discipleship commitment.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR YES!

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Official Newsletter of the
Verbum Dei Catholic Missionaries – Luzon
Issue 26 – December 2017

I was hungry and you fed me

Seeing many malnourished children in our
barangay challenged us to respond. As
Mother Teresa said “If you can’t feed a
hundred, then just feed one.” With the help
of many volunteers and a sponsor we started
a feeding program for around 30
malnourished children who will be monitored
by our pediatric doctor friends, as well as a
dental check-up. This also gives us the
opportunity to reach out and evangelize their
families in a holistic way.

“I will heal your wounds.” (Jer 30:17) We held an overnight prayer vigil for five areas of
woundedness in the body of Christ today: poverty, addiction, human trafficking, war and the
family. Participants offered the sacrifice of a sleepless night, listened to formative eye-
openers on the five realities, and prayed before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, offering Him
lighted candles and humble resolutions. A movie on the abolition of the slave trade in
America, and the Holy Mass were special highlights.

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 Official Newsletter of the
Verbum Dei Catholic Missionaries – Luzon
Issue 26 – December 2017

Fighting Drugs with the Word of God

With OLLP Community Based Drug
Rehabilitation and Recovery Program

We decided to accept the challenge of Pope

Francis in his letter for the World Mission
Sunday 2017: To be street preachers!
Thousands of innocent people, most of them
poor, have been killed on the streets of our
country because of drug related issues. We
wanted to contribute to this war on drugs,
not by killing drug users but by giving them hope and a reason for their rehabilitation and
recovery, inspired by the Word of God, giving them a recollection with the theme: “You are
precious to my eyes” says the Lord (Is 43:4).

The Verbum Dei charism – a gift for the

Church and the world
The Verbum Dei charism is at the service of
the Church and the world of today. We were
asked recently to give the annual prayer
retreat to the Missionaries of Charity. In
addition, in these months we have also given
retreats to various groups and
congregations: Mercedarias de la Caridad
the Archdiocese of Manila Association of Hospital Ministers (priests and nuns who are
assigned in various hospital chaplaincies), and the Claretians missionaries. It is beautiful to
share the gift of our charism!

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Official Newsletter of the
Verbum Dei Catholic Missionaries – Luzon
Issue 26 – December 2017

“ Young man, get up!” – Launch of Verbum Dei radio in the Philippines
Verbum Dei Philippines wishes to welcome with courage and creativity the challenge of
building a more humane and fraternal society taking advantage of the new possibilities that
the digital world offers. With this desire, we are glad to announce the launch of our very first
Verbum Dei radio program produced in the Philippines, called “Young man, get up!” It will be
transmitted online at radio.verbmdei.org every Saturday at 10am starting on Dec 16.

Details of how to listen are below:

1. Via the Verbum Dei webpage: www.radio.verbumdei.org

2. Or you if you have an android phone you can download the free app from the same
webpage,

3. Or if you have other phones, you can access VD Radio station via the app Tunein at
https://tunein.com/radio/Radio-Verbum-Dei-s223775/

We bring you news of great joy, Christ our

Savior is born for us! (see Luke 2:10-11)