To celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, the Religious of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd (RGS) will hold a bazaar at 1 p.m. today, April 17, at its Philippine provincialate on Aurora Boulevard, Quezon City, beside the St. Bridget’s School.

 

Earlier, at 10 a.m., the RGS sisters, led by their provincial, Sister Regina Kuizon, will celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday Mass.

 

The Good Shepherd sisters are well-known for their Baguio and Tagaytay convents that produce the best strawberry and ube jams and other quality food products.

 

Proceeds from their food production go to scholarships, especially for the college education of poor young people from the Cordilleras who assist the sisters in food production.

 

RGS traces its origins to the 17th century order founded by St. John Eudes, although the RGS sisters were really canonically established as a congregation in 1835 with its founder, St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier.

 

Aside from hospitals and schools, RGS works with delinquents, wayward children and troubled women.

 

Concert

 

In memory of the late Inquirer columnist Josephine Darang, the concert “Melodies & Memories,” featuring internationally renowned pianist Raul Sunico, New York-based  tenor Rogelio Peñaverde, and Ambassadors of Light chorale, will be held today, April 17,  5 p.m. at the College of the Holy Spirit (CHS) auditorium, Mendiola Street,  San Miguel, Manila.

 

The concert is being organized by the San Lorenzo Ruiz Global Ministry headed by Fr. Erno Diaz with the College of the Holy Spirit Alumni Foundation, Inc. and College of the Holy Spirit North America Alumni Foundation, Inc.

 

Proceeds will fund the CHS scholarship program and promote the devotion to San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila and Companion Martyrs among overseas Filipino workers and migrants.

 

Call Maria Remedios Magpantay at Manila Manor Hotel,  523-3259, 0926-8386920, 0995-2580326; or College of the Holy Spirit Alumni Office, 7355986, 0917-8280700.

 

God’s tender mercy

 

Father Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, prior provincial of the Philippine Dominican Province and appointed by Pope Francis to the International Theological Commission, continues his Easter Sunday reflection:

 

In “Misericordiae Vultus (MV),” his bull on the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis urges Catholics to “place the Sacrament of Reconciliation at the center” of their lives.

 

A Dominican confrere confessed: “I finally came to love my priesthood in the confessional box. It was here that I discovered that ordination brings us close to people just when they feel farthest away from God. We are one with them, at their sides, as together we face human frailty, failure and sin, ours and theirs.”

 

I remind seminarians that when they become priests, they need to give their best in the confessional where a two-minute advice that directly addresses a penitent can have a more profound and lasting impact than a 20-minute homily in the pulpit.

 

As one priest rightly pointed out on his Facebook account, the door to the confessional box is the ordinary door of mercy in the Church.

 

All is not lost

 

“May awa ang Diyos.” This is the fundamental message of the Jubilee of Mercy.

 

We refuse, in faith, that there is a limit to what God can do for us. Our profound experiences of God’s great power are oftentimes experiences of God’s tender mercy as well.

 

Quoting Thomas Aquinas, Pope Francis asserts: “God’s mercy, rather than a sign of weakness, is the mark of his omnipotence” (MV, 6).

 

(To be concluded)