Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Divine Mercy patronage By Attorney Guerrero A. Adaza My Viewpoints
IN LAST Sunday's 3 p.m. Mass in the Divine Mercy Hills where Monsignor Rey Manuel Monsanto celebrated the Holy Mass in Ulaliman, El Salvador City, Misamis Oriental, the attendance went up to one thousand persons excluding children.
This is factual for the Foundation rents 500 chairs every Sunday with 300 chairs of its own 30 wooden and bamboo benches which can accommodate 5 persons on a bench were all taken.
In the first Sunday Mass 500 attended. And in the second Sunday 600 came.
In last Sunday's Mass 60 vehicles were parked outside of the Mass area which is one and a half hectare for the total area of the Divine Mercy Hills is 9.8 hectares.
When the Divine Mercy Hills Statue and church will be completed these will be turned over to the Archdiocese.
The land on which the Statue stands was donated by the Foundation a year ago when Archbishop Jesus Tuquib was then the Archbishop.
But he never saw the Divine Mercy Hills, for he was always indisposed during the remaining years of his tenure.
Monsignor Tony Ledesma two months after his assumption last year visited the site of the Divine Mercy Statue when 40% of it was completed then.
In last Sunday's Mass Monsignor Monsanto explained intelligently though in English the Gospel, why prayer is so important in our lives, for this is the faithful's link up with God. A conversation with God.
Many a times the believers in God work so hard for God's glory and the family’s subsistence that they fail to hear and take into heart God’s message for the day.
Just like Martha who unlike Mary listened to Jesus words, she was so enmeshed in the preparation of the food for Jesus.
This is so many times we overlooked, for we are more concerned of the works for the Lord instead of the Lord of the work.
Monsignor Monsanto is always prepared in his homilies, that’s why it is informative, educational and interesting, for it is applicable in our day to day challenges.
Unlike some priests who are boring and ill prepared in their homilies, for they do not read books which surely can help a lot a priest not only in his explanation of the Gospel but most especially his spiritual growth.
The priest who does not do anything to make his spiritual life vibrant and enhanced ends up stagnant, lazy and satan then plays around with his mind. An easy prey to satan’s wicked schemes.
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Azucena Cadiz is a widow who raised 3 sons who are now grown ups. Jun, Alex and Jinggoy.
Alex is a doctor who followed the footsteps of his late father Augusto Cadiz, who before his death was a competent and respected medical practitioner in our City.
Dr. Cadiz became a vegetable for 7 years after his stroke. He was confined to a wheelchair, but Zucene did her best to make his remaining years spiritually enhanced.
Why do I know this? For Zucene is a member of the Council of Elders of the Oasis of Love in our City, a director of the Divine Mercy Foundation and a former President of the Inner Wheel of the Rotary Club of Bay area.
Zucene and her family during my Head Servant years of the Oasis of Love in our City allowed the free use of her building beside her residence at Vamenta Boulevard in Carmen which was rented for P15,000 a month before she decided to let the Divine Mercy Foundation and the Oasis of Love used it for free for 4 years.
Being the Vice President of the St. Ignatius Hospice Foundation, she allowed such Foundation to occupy a big room for its office. The St. Ignatius Foundation for many years helped the indigent cancer patients in our City and province despite its meager resources.
The Foundation has a 3,000 square meters lot near the Divine Mercy Hills in El Salvador City. And when it will have enough money, it will build a structure to have the indigent cancer patients be housed therein.
The Foundation is headed by Mrs. Nieves Villaraza, who despite her ailments work so hard to reach out to the indigent cancer patients.
She is a retired registered nurse and the wdow of the late RTC Judge Rolando Villaraza, who died of cancer of the lungs after two years from his retirement.
She is the mother of Dr. Jun Villaraza, a dedicated hospice medical practitioner and a BCBP leader in our City.
