The Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help: Our Love and Devotion

In July 2012, a Catholic Mission Station named after a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Our Lady of Perpetual Help, was founded in a peaceful Sitio of Lomboy in Barangay Linambasan, Jamindan, Capiz, upon the order of the Archdiocese of Capiz through Reverend Father Rowelyn Langurayan who was the outgoing Parish Priest of San Sebastian Parish during that time. 

Reverend Father John Denosta was the first-ever Priest assigned to celebrate masses and look after the faithful's spiritual needs.

Father Denosta served for 6 years until July 2018. He is well-loved by the people due to his sense of community and Spiritual leadership. For about 6 years, he built and transformed the Mission Station into a beautiful  Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish on June 27, 2018. Just a few days before his service ended, he witnessed and celebrated his success with the Parishioners, devotees, and hundreds of Catholic Faithful.

Today, June 27, 2019, on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, we have the successor of Father Denosta in the name of Reverend Father Jeffrey Estrella. For a year, he has been serving the faith community of Barangay Linambasan and people from different barangays of the town of Jamindan.

On this feast day, our Archbishop of Capiz, Most Reverend Jose Advincula, officiated the mass with our Parish Priest, Father Estrella, and other Parish Priest.

Reverend Father Krys Señeres, the co-Parish Priest, commissioned a large size iconic portrait of the Our Mother of Perpetual Help through the contributions of the faithful. The icon is placed on the left side of the front wall facing the altar and was blessed by Most Reverend Father Advincula on this feast day. 

The Redemptorist Fathers made the icon famous worldwide, and it has attracted flocks of devotees due to her known miracles of healing and granted special intentions.

I am a living testimony of the miracles of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and I am grateful for my blessings. Wherever I visit a church in her name, the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Cubao and the National Shrine of our Mother of Perpetual Help in Baclaran would never fail to grant my petitions.

We give the Mother of God the highest honor in her blessed Title, the Our Lady of Perpetual Help. 

Today and in the years to come, the Parish will continue to accommodate and serve the ever-growing faithful community beyond our generation. 

We will preserve this spiritual sanctuary so the next generations can witness its glory and miraculous powers to live in their hearts forever.

© 2019 Del Cusay

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The Pathway to Kindness

At any unexpected moment and wherever we may go, we may meet people who may be familiar faces or strangers to us. To travel far distances with fewer resources and feelings of emptiness, but relying on people's kindness.

Whether at home in the countryside or in a busy metropolis; on the chilly mountain top or the ocean's summer breeze; in our homeland and even in a foreign land; we experience a different level of kindness from the people we meet on the road.

Sometimes we feel the need for a soulful reflection in a different direction. Our desire to be alone lacks inspiration and motivation. There's a feeling of solitude and pity with doubts and fears that nobody is there with us willing to sit and hear, rescue, and care. 

Along the way, some may reach their helping hand while some may walk away. Others may listen, while others don't even care. It takes a little act of kindness to open their arms, listen, and embrace. Initially, the kind of person unknown to them may become someone with a heart as endless as it seems.

Some cultures totally different from ours make us seek kindness from their hearts. To be friends with them and to better know them. To plant a seed of service and to harvest gratitude with gladness. 

In our travels, some will challenge us, some will rob us, but there will always be someone who will teach us. To stand when we have fallen, to fight when we are frightened, to love and give hope from despair to gladness.

We take a different pathway on the road we choose. Sometimes we get lost but often have regained the cost. We may take a shortcut to reach the destination with ease and less stress. We may take the common and the known road. We may take the road less traveled and be the most traveled person.

All these experiences happen due to different people on the road, some that will hurt and some with a heart. We laugh, we cry, we jump, and we try. A shoulder to lean on, a back to carry on, a cheek to kiss, and the memories that will be missed.

Kindness in our hearts will always be the pathway to fulfilling our desires. An open heart, a big heart, and a great heart. You are not a stranger but a lovely dear and sweetheart.

© 2019 Del Cusay

World Refugee Day: In Memory of President Quezon

Photo courtesy of America Public Television 

A striking and heartfelt statement was uttered by President Manuel L. Quezon during the Philippine Commonwealth Period in the early 40s. And he said, 

"The people of the Philippines will have in the future every reason to be glad that when the time of need came, their country was willing to extend a hand of welcome."

That statement was in response to the firm intent of Quezon to accept thousands of Refugees during the Nazi Germany Holocaust, where millions of European Jews were persecuted under the powerful command of their leader, Adolf Hitler.

Although physically weak and dying due to a pulmonary disease during that time, Quezon chose to be a humanitarian to give social justice to those persecuted. Of the potential 10,000 refugees that Quezon would want to accept, about 1,200 refugees were given shelter. We have opened our doors and welcomed them wholeheartedly. They were given a piece of land and a livelihood for security and survival.

Quezon was right, after all. Fast forward to that future which is our present day. In 2018, a film was produced in his honor entitled "Quezon's Game," which was shown to the world in December and in the Philippines in May 2019. The film showcased our solidarity and compassion to others that we have an open-door policy in accepting refugees.

I watched the film this month, and it gave me a sense of pride as a Filipino that we are indeed a Nation of kind-hearted people with a sense of humanity and social dignity.

When the world turned down those refugees, only one nation embraced them with open arms: the Filipinos. We gave them not only shelter, but we have helped them regain their identity and sense of humanity. That goodwill was recognized by the Jews when a statue of Quezon was built in Tel Aviv, Israel, in his memory and the friendliness of the entire Filipino nation.

When some of our present-day leaders would utter words of killing his own people, President Quezon was different and indeed a gentleman with the highest regard for human life by saving more than a thousand lives.

Today, we need a leader who is tough and values and upholds the sanctity of human life. Hundreds of millions of stateless people are currently seeking refuge due to wars, armed conflicts, persecution, and even economic downfall. They are sick, dying, and unwanted by their own people. However, they are still hopeful for a miracle for the second life they deserve.

Today, June 20, is World Refugee Day and a celebration for Filipinos of our dignity and pride. May our sense of humanity be upon us all for those who are abandoned, unwanted, and persecuted. We are Filipino and a life-saver from our past and forever.

© 2019 Del Cusay

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