THE ST. JOHN BOSCO PARISH MAKATI SALESIAN COMMUNITY
Da mihi animas; coetera tolle. Give me souls; take away the rest. (Motto of Saint John Bosco)
SAINT JOHN BOSCO PARISH MAKATI COMMUNITY
 SAINT JOHN BOSCO PARISH CHURCH
Salesian Community Council Rev. Fr. Christopher Kennedy, SDB Rector and Parochial Vicar Rev. Fr. Romeo Agustin Ma. Miciano, SDB Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Dave Buenaventura, SDB Councilor, PUGAD Center Director, and Counsellor Rev. Fr. Dennis Paez, SDB Councilor and Parish Family Counselling Ministry Head Rev. Fr. Adolf Faroni, SDB Confessor Bro. Tony Caspellan, SDB Councilor and PUGAD Counsellor  www.donbosco.net The SALESIANS OF DON BOSCO is a religious community founded by St. John Bosco in the 1800's from Turin, Italy. The Salesians are 17,000 priests and brothers who dedicate their energies to working with the youth in more than 130 countries. Salesians are educators, working in schools, camps, parishes, youth centers, and retreats.
PARISH PRIESTS OF SAINT JOHN BOSCO CHURCH
Fr. Godfrey Roozen, SDB (1976-1988) Fr. Remo Bati, SDB (1988-1991) Fr. Rocky Evangelista, SDB (1991-1996) Fr. Gerry Battad, SDB (1996-2003) Fr. Bernie Carpio (2003-2005) Fr. Joey Paras, SDB (Jan-April 2006; Interim Parish Priest) Fr. Manny Domingo, SDB (2006-2009) Fr. Ting Miciano, SDB (2009 to Present)  SJB MAKATI PARISH PASTORS |
Message from the Parish Priest
Norman Rockwell's Christmas Homecoming
At Home on Christmas Day
Is it normal to be nostalgic at Christmas time? What came to my mind as I began to reflect on the message for this year’s last Simbahay issue is an experience I had 20 or so Christmases ago, as a young priest coming home for the Christmas holidays. Since I was still on “religious duty” up to Christmas Eve in the seminary (I was the Spiritual Moderator at that time), I could not leave for home till Christmas day ; worse, I was asked to say the evening Mass in our parish that day. So on the one-hour bus ride going home, I kept thinking of what homily to give when it occurred to me to talk precisely on coming home. Yes, the idea clicked that indeed Christmas is a homecoming of sorts! I was not wrong; it was one of the best homilies I had delivered in my young priestly life.
Like me, then, so many of us are “rushing” to come home on Christmas. The bus, ship and air terminals are full of vacationers wishing to get a seat; last-minute shoppers hope to reach home with their presents for loved ones; even the office workers who are scraping up as many overtime hours, as possible, are frantic to be home by midnight. It’s Christmas! There is no other time of the year that so tug at the heart to come home to our loved ones. It is everybody’s gut feeling that the only place to be on Christmas Day is at home with one’s family; while the loneliest experience is when one finds that he or she is alone on Christmas day. As they say, “Home is where your heart is”. There is a rush to come home on Christmas Day because we know where our hearts lie: with our family, with our loved ones, in the place where we treasure fond memories, among those we love and where we feel loved. I remember connecting this experience of rushing home on Christmas day in that homily of long ago with the unique “experience” of God Himself “coming home” to start dwelling “among us”, in the hearts of mankind. In the Incarnation, Jesus, the eternal Word of God, forever in the presence of God the Father, chose to be born to a poor but dignified family in Bethlehem. Ever-connected with His divinity, He nonetheless chose to share our humanity and make it His “home”, to be born to it, to live in it and to die for it. Greek philosophy considers man and his humanity as the imprisonment of the soul and that the moment of salvation only comes when the spirit will finally be liberated from the human body. God’s philosophy is different: the body that He created “was created in His own image and likeness” (Gn 1:26), thus assuming a human body is no longer slavery but a quest for freedom, the beginning of salvation, not for God but, for man. When God, through Jesus, became man, it was as if He was “coming to His own”, and that which He created in the beginning, was finally tasting the divinity of His only begotten Son. When Jesus became man, God came home to man and man came home to God. Indeed, the first Christmas day was Jesus’ homecoming. A blessed and joyful homecoming to everyone! I greet you all with a heart full of Christmas love! Fr. Ting Miciano, SDB for Christmas 2012 Simbahay |
Excerpts from the "CONSTITUTIONS AND REGULATIONS OF THE SALESIANS OF DON BOSCO"
“As each one has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace; …whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” (1Peter 4:10-11)
175. The local community is made up of confreres who reside in a lawfully erected house, and in it live a common life in unity of spirit under the authority of the superior, sharing responsibility as they carry out their apostolic mission.
176. The superior of each local community is called the rector. He is first in order of responsibility for its religious life, its apostolic activities and the administration of its goods. With the collaboration of his council he animates and governs the community according to the Constitutions and general Regulations.
178. In every local community there shall be a council composed of confreres in perpetual vows and no longer in initial formation, in number proportional to the number of confreres and to the requirements of their activities. The council is convoked and presided over by the rector, and has the task of collaborating with him in animating and governing the community.
“As each one has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace; …whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” (1Peter 4:10-11)
175. The local community is made up of confreres who reside in a lawfully erected house, and in it live a common life in unity of spirit under the authority of the superior, sharing responsibility as they carry out their apostolic mission.
176. The superior of each local community is called the rector. He is first in order of responsibility for its religious life, its apostolic activities and the administration of its goods. With the collaboration of his council he animates and governs the community according to the Constitutions and general Regulations.
178. In every local community there shall be a council composed of confreres in perpetual vows and no longer in initial formation, in number proportional to the number of confreres and to the requirements of their activities. The council is convoked and presided over by the rector, and has the task of collaborating with him in animating and governing the community.