Family and Life Ministry Articles

(draft articles for Q4 2011 Family and Life Ministry Newsletter)


NFP

Renato Manzano (brother Along to his many friends), once gave an NFP seminar on the Standard Days Method (SDM) to Family and Life Ministry coordinators at the Cubao Diocese formation center. Brother Along spiced his NFP lecture with many interesting and humorous anecdotes that made the short seminar entertaining as well as very educational. He emphasizes that husbands should not move the beads two or three at a time beyond the wife’s knowledge - an amusing reference to the counting of beads that is a simple method in the SDM to keep track of fertility cycles.

Brother Along is one of the many Family and Life coordinators and NFP volunteer resource persons who have been trained under the auspices of the Cubao Diocese and its various parishes. In the Christ the King Parish of the Sta Rita Vicariate where brother Along is the Family and Life coordinator, he joins hands with 5 other NFP volunteer consultants to provide NFP consultancy to its parishioners. They have been trained in all modern NFP methods such as the Billings Ovulation Method, Standard Days Method, Two-Days Method, Thermal, and Sympto-Thermal NFP methods. Under the pastoral stewardship of Fr. Henry, these NFP volunteers are available on-call, anytime to render able assistance to those who seek NFP consulting services. This initiative is replicated in at least three other parishes of the Sta Rita Vicariate, where 11 others Parish NFP “consultants” likewise selflessly devote their time and effort towards reinforcing the promotion of NFP which is a major Diocese-wide thrust of the Family and Life Ministry. Brother Along’s group is set to stage an NFP seminar in their vicariate this coming October to beef up their resources, a strategy that is similarly meant to be sustained Diocese-wide.

This NFP program has been envisioned by the Diocesan Family and Life Ministry as a practical effort to counter anti-life forces in the country, a step beyond the usual campaigns of conducting pro-life forums which the Diocese has already undertaken many times in the past. So anytime any parishioner feels the need to get informed about NFP towards its practical use, they can always seek the services of Family and Life workers like brother Along and many others in the Diocesean NFP program who are ever willing to instruct, evangelize, and at the same time – entertain.
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PRE-CANA


The Christ The King Parish in Green Meadows is one of the busiest parishes in the diocese in terms of number of marriages solemnized. According to CK FLM coordinator brother (Doctor) Doy Lopez, they can average over 20 marriages in a month! It is therefore fitting that we chose them to share their experiences in conducting precana seminars.

CK’s precana team is composed of 12 couples who alternate in delivering 7 precana topics over a successive two-day, 8am to 5pm weekend schedule two months before the actual wedding. Each session numbers around 24 to 30 couple participants. NFP is delivered as the concluding topic to wrap up the seminar.

The husband and wife team of Dr Doy and Estrelle Lopez has been fully dedicated in coordinating the precana seminars, which is scheduled bi-monthly. They have been very active as coordinators of the Family and Life Ministry since 1996. With parish workers such as the Lopez couple and their precana team, those who tie the knot are assured of starting married bliss on the right path – with boundless blessings for a happy family devoted to God.
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SIMBANG PAMILYA


Lina Espina goes to Mass every Sunday at 7:15am. She actually arrives 15 minutes before the Mass to ensure the families that assigned to lead the Prayers of the Faithful as well as the Family offerors are all set and ready. When a volunteer family fails to show up for some unexpected reason, she approaches another family right there in the church to ensure that the Prayers for the Faithful and the Mass offering is covered. She not only does this for the 7:15am mass but for the rest of the seven Sunday masses as well.

Sister Lina, as parishioners fondly call her, has been at the service of the Family and Life Ministry at the Holy Family Parish Kamias, St Joseph Vicariate for over 20 years. For the past 5 years, she has untiringly focused her service to the “Simbang Pamilya” program of the Family and Life Ministry. She has well over 50 families in her “database” of volunteer families who serve either as Prayers for the Faithful leaders or Mass offerors.

Ever since 5 years ago when Bishop Ongtioco pioneered the “Simbang Pamilya” program for the Cubao Diocese, the Family and Life Ministry of the Holy Family Parish in Kamias has implemented it on all Sunday Masses (except the 6AM Mass). It has helped that 18 parish organizations have been tapped to invite families for the Simbang Pamilya either as readers or offerors. Each organization is assigned a mass slot every Sunday, with the encouragement of the Parish Priest Fr Ben Arceño. A similar approach is being practised Diocese-wide.

Sister Lina has many stories to tell in her service in the Family and Life Ministry. Once, she happened to invite a family where the father is not on speaking terms with the eldest son due to a long-standing argument. The family hesitantly obliged and went on to lead the Prayers for the faithful on one Sunday Mass. The reconciliation between the father and the son was sparked by that prayerful event and since then, they have patched up their differences and the entire family now goes to mass together consistently. Simbang Pamilya is truly a blessing to the Church, and parish workers all over the diocese like Sister Lina serve as powerful instruments of God to keep the family together.
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RH Bill Talk/Forum: "Why Catholics should oppose HB 96 (RH Bill)"

Well-rested

Sunday Gospel
(Lk 12:32-48)

"...That servant who knew his master’s will
but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will
shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will
but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating
shall be beaten only lightly.
Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,
and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more."

If one interprets Jesus' words here literally in isolation, it would seem that those who have been endowed with much talent and knowledge would have a bigger burden to bear. Much will be required of that person so endowed, or else "severe beating" would be due. Wouldn't it then be far more desirable to be untalented, stay uninformed and therefore be more relaxed, unperturbed, and carefree? To remain blissfully ignorant, passive and unresponsive just so one only deserves "light" punishment?

More than nine years ago before I became active in a Catholic Charismatic community, I was quite exhausted with the demands of my office work. I managed our company's IT department and I felt it was a very demanding job. The remaining spare time that I had was spent on recharging myself, and occasionally having late-night outs with some close friends to unwind. I felt I was maxed-out and there was no time left nor nothing much else to do. I was attending Mass on most Sundays (which was already fair enough I thought) but other than that, I simply neglected my spiritual life.

I was indifferent, cranky, much too busy, and much too tired anyway.

In the year 2001, my wife and I succumbed to a persistent invitation by a close friend to join the Couples For Christ (CFC) community. We gave in to the invitation more as a favor to that close friend rather than a real desire to attend a 13-Saturday CLP formation program - the entry point to CFC. I was a reluctant, nonchalant participant as the first few talks started, but as the formation program progressed, the spiritual passion was gradually stirred within me. To cut the long story short, my wife and I eventually became active members of CFC starting 2001. Since then we eventually became household heads and unit heads where we were entrusted various couples under our pastoral care. Since 2004 we have also concurrently served in the Parish Pastoral Council as Family and Life Ministry couple coordinators, where we pursue family-oriented programs for the parish as well as conduct pre-cana marriage seminars. We also joined the CFC ProLife Ministry where my wife and I got ourselves qualified as certified instructors to be able to volunteer in teaching Natural Family Planning courses. In all this time, my wife and I still held our full-time office jobs. She is an Associate Director in a large hospital. On my part, my responsibility in our office has more than doubled in the time being, since our CEO also assigned me starting in 2005 to head the HR department on top of my responsibility in managing the IT department.

There is much, much more on my plate right now compared to more than nine years ago, but I am not complaining. Wonders, but there is still much left for quality time with the family, plus some recreation on the side. Compared with the years before I became active in the church, now I feel much more organized, fulfilled, relaxed, and the most amazing thing is that I feel so much more...well-rested.

There is no irony when God is at work, after all He is the one arranging our schedules, managing our difficulties, and blessing us with time and resources to fulfill His will. When we commit ourselves to serve, it is God's work, and we are just instruments. It is God who makes things possible, and His handiwork becomes manifest in our lives. We are blessed and empowered and I understand why St Paul says we are going to be made prosperous in every way so that we can be generous for others in every way. I also understand why this Sunday's Gospel also says that to whom much is given, much is expected in return.

There should be nothing to worry about regarding the Master's will, because Jesus also tells us: Come to me all of you who are tired...and I will give you rest.
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Mission not impossible

Last Wednesday our Parish Pastoral Council officers were formally inducted in the church during the evening Mass celebration. My wife and I were reinstalled as couple coordinators of the Parish Family and Life Ministry, together with the rest of the PPC Executive Committee. We hadn't planned on being inducted as Family and Life Ministry coordinators this time, after all my wife and I have already served the council for the past three years. It was challenging work not without its share of hardship and frustrations, and I really felt there were other more capable couple parishioners who could do the work much better than we can. It just so happened that our colleagues elected us again (more like forced us) and the parish priest encouraged us to stay on. It was strictly voluntary work but alright, alright...maybe just one more year.

In this Sunday's Gospel (Luke 10:1-12;17-20), Jesus sent out 72 of His disciples as laborers to seek out and work for the "abundant harvest". The directive came out with a lot of explicit instructions: "Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals,...eat and drink what is offered...do not move about from one house to another...give your peace..shake the dust..". Jesus also made it clear up front that the mission was fraught with danger: "Go on your way and behold, I am sending you like lamb among wolves". This makes one wonder how on earth those 72 disciples could have developed eagerness for a daunting mission that gave them uncertain prospects, great danger, and zero provisions. In our office I am bound to complain that top management is expecting more and more from my department and yet my budget gets reduced more and more each year. But just imagine if you had no budget and resources at all, and yet you were tasked to deliver the most significant results for the entire company. In essence, that was what the 72 disciples were tasked to do - at first glance. We only see through it all towards the end of the narrative, when Jesus revealed: "Behold, I have given you the power to 'tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you."

It appears that the disciples had enough resources after all - Jesus' empowerment by itself was much more than enough. They had reason enough to be eager, and they had reason enough to rejoice that they were empowered. Our Lord made them realize however, that the real reason to rejoice was because "your names are written in heaven".

In this day and age, maybe we are all placed in a position similar to what the 72 disciples experienced a long time ago.The contemporary circumstances may be different, but in essence each of us are involved in the same mission one way or the other. The mission may be easy, it may be hard, it may produce the results we want, it may not, it may involve frustrations, and it may even involve danger. All of these should be secondary, for there is more than enough reason to rejoice when our names are written in heaven.
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USCCB - Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan

Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan is at once a refresher course, an inspired homily, a deeper exploration of marriage than you’ve ever seen in one place, and a call to turn away from false contemporary views in order to reinvigorate our culture through the vocation of marriage. It succeeds admirably on all counts. It should be required reading not only for marriage preparation but for all married couples, no matter how long their marriages have so far endured. - CatholicCulture.org

Excerpt from the introduction:

"While marriage is a special blessing for Christians because of the grace of Christ, marriage is also a natural blessing and gift for everyone in all times and cultures. It is a source of blessing to the couple, to their families, and to society and includes the wondrous gift of co-creating human life. Indeed, as Pope John Paul II never tired of reminding us, the future of humanity depends on marriage and the family. It is just such a conviction that has led us, the Catholic bishops of the United States, to write this pastoral letter. "
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OUTLINE
1. Introduction: The Blessing and Gift of Marriage
2. I. What is Marriage
3. I. Male-Female Complementarity Is Essential to Marriage
4. I. The Two Ends or Purposes of Marriage: Unitive
5. I. The Two Ends or Purposes of Marriage: Procreative
6. I. How Are the Two Ends of Marriage Related?
7. I. Fundamental Challenges to the Nature and Purpose of Marriage: 1. Contraception
8. I. Fundamental Challenges: 2. Same-Sex Unions
9. I. Fundamental Challenges: 3. Divorce
10. I. Fundamental Challenges: 4. Living Together Without Marriage
11. II. Married Life Affected by Original Sin
12. II. Marriage Restored in Christ
13. II. Christian Marriage as a Sacrament
14. II. Marriage as a Reflection of the Life of the Trinity
15. II. The Family as Domestic Church
16. II. Marriage as a Vocation
17. II. Growth in Christian Marriage
18. II. Growth in Virtue (introductory section)
19. II. Growth in Virtue: Chastity
20. II. Growth in Virtue: Gratitude
21. II. Growth toward Perfection
22. II. Marriage and the Eucharist
23. II. Marriage Fulfilled in the Kingdom of God
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Download full text here.
http://www.usccb.org/loveandlife/MarriageFINAL.pdf

Marriages are made in heaven

Our Family and Life Ministry coordinated a mass wedding early today. Well, it's not exactly a "mass" wedding, because we only managed to coordinate a grand total of two couples to receive the Sacrament of Matrimony. We hope and pray that more "live-in" couples respond to our frequent invitations. Anyway, it was a heartwarming sight to see the radiant and happy faces of the bride, the groom, ninongs and ninangs, ringbearers and sponsors. Our parish priest, who is always eager to administer free weddings, gave a touching and amusing homily. "Marriage has three rings: engagement ring, wedding ring, suffering... To the grooms, count your ribs, you are missing one...Christ died for the Church, are you ready to die for your bride?...No marriage is perfect, but when you pray often, the trials in your marriage will never be too heavy to bear... Do not focus on the trivial 10 percent that often leads to adultery, but focus on the 90 percent that you love and cherish... Let God be at the center of your union..."

A timeless and timely message especially at these times when God is often taken out of the picture in (non)marriages.

On NFP and St. Bernadine of Siena

What is the meaning of ovulation?

How does the woman know if and when she has ovulated?

How long is a woman fertile during her monthly cycle?

Does NFP-BOM apply to irregular ovulation cycles?

What is the scientific explanation behind sex determination?

Usually, my wife and I ask some of these questions upfront from our NFP (Natural Family Planning - Billings Ovulation Method) seminar participants to get a feel of how we should focus the seminar topics. We are not surprised anymore when nobody from the audience can volunteer to give quick answers or even guesses. The same is true during our conduct of marriage precana seminars when the topic of Responsible Parenthood-NFP comes around. Interestingly, even highly-trained professionals seem to be in the dark about NFP. All the more it gives us greater reason to believe that a bigger deal of attention and resources should be directed into promoting and advocating NFP. For example, it surprises (and disappoints) us that we did not get any response (as in zero, nada, zilch) to the seminar invitations that we had announced on all Sunday Masses for three weeks. The sparse attendees to last Saturday's free NFP seminar only came due to personal invites. I guess we need genius marketing people real fast. This led me into thinking if there was a patron Saint for advertising/ marketing, to bring about divine intervention and inspiration to the NFP advocacy. It appears there is: Saint Bernadine of Siena, whose feast day was recently commemorated on May 20. According to this site, his preaching skills were so great, and the conversions so numerous, that he has become associated with all areas of speaking, advertising, public relations, etc. The eloquent, energetic and charismatic St. Bernadine has often been compared to St. Paul. When he started out in a branch of the Franciscan order, there were 300 friars in the community; when he died there were 4,000. Got to learn more from this awesome saint. It also says that his surprising allies in his peacekeeping mission were the women who comprised the majority of his audience. Well, most of our participants are women. Hmm...

The wonders of Nature in a woman’s fertility cycle

Ovulation--the release of an ovum by the ovary--is the most important event of the fertile cycle; it occurs only once at a moment in time during the cycle, even when more than one ovum is released.

The ovulatory mechanism also produces the two ovarian hormones, oestradiol and progesterone.

Oestradiol is produced alone by the developing follicle before ovulation; it stimulates the glands of the cervix to secrete a particular type of mucus ("mucus with fertile characteristics") which is essential for the sperm to pass through the cervix and reach the ovum. Oestradiol also stimulates growth of the endometrium lining the uterus (womb).

After ovulation, progesterone and oestradiol are produced by the corpus luteum which forms from the ruptured follicle. This progesterone causes the abrupt change in the mucus which occurs immediately after ovulation and defines the Peak symptom.

Progesterone also prepares the oestrogen-primed endometrium for implantation of the fertilized ovum.

In the absence of pregnancy, production of oestradiol and progesterone begins to decline approximately 7 days after ovulation and this results in shedding of the endometrium as menstrual bleeding 11-16 days after ovulation.

The Billings Ovulation Method utilises the changes in cervical mucus production as observed by the woman herself for identifying the underlying events of the ovulatory cycle.
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Source: Pituitary and Ovarian Hormones of a Woman's Reproductive Cycle
by J.B. Brown D.Sc. Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne, Australia

http://www.woomb.org/bom/hormones/index.html
WOOMB - World Organisation of the Ovulation Method Billings
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MY SIDE NOTES:

- My wife and I, with the CFC Prolife Ministry, took a refresher/update teacher’s course for Natural Family Planning (NFP) conducted by WOOMB Phils. last weekend. I am sharing some material above and some other information here.

- The typical mentrual cycle is around 28 days, wherein ovulation occurs only once. At this time, the egg is available for fertilization from 12 to 24 hours, the only window where a woman is capable of conceiving within her entire menstrual cycle (of 28 days). NFP practitioners determine this fertile window by means of the Billings Ovulation Method (BOM) , in order to achieve or postpone pregnancy.

- BOM is effective regardless of the length/ regularity of a woman’s menstrual cycle.

- Mothers who fully breastfeed their child will not ovulate for up to 6 months. This is nature’s way of spacing births and protecting the health of the mother. I also learned that the act of breastfeeding also releases hormones for the fast natural healing of wounds and stress of child-bearing. Breast milk also contains natural ingredients that strengthen the baby’s immune system and food for brain development at the crucial 2-month period.

- I am amazed at the way natural hormones interact with the woman’s body for fertility, health, and child-care. It is a wonderfully intricate and amazing mechanism.

- Nature is great. God be praised.
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The Pope on Family and Marriage

As part of Pope Benedict XVI’s US visit, he gives a speech before the bishops of the United States. The text was provided by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops of family and marriage. Here are some choice excerpts regarding the value of family and marriage:
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…In the family home we experience “some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them” The family is also the primary place for evangelization, for passing on the faith, for helping young people to appreciate the importance of religious practice and Sunday observance. How can we not be dismayed as we observe the sharp decline of the family as a basic element of Church and society?

Divorce and infidelity have increased, and many young men and women are choosing to postpone marriage or to forego it altogether. To some young Catholics, the sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to live with another person. Hence we have an alarming decrease in the number of Catholic marriages in the United States together with an increase in cohabitation, in which the Christ-like mutual self-giving of spouses, sealed by a public promise to live out the demands of an indissoluble lifelong commitment, is simply absent. In such circumstances, children are denied the secure environment that they need in order truly to flourish as human beings, and society is denied the stable building blocks which it requires if the cohesion and moral focus of the community are to be maintained.

…It is your task to proclaim boldly the arguments from faith and reason in favor of the institution of marriage, understood as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, open to the transmission of life. This message should resonate with people today, because it is essentially an unconditional and unreserved “yes” to life, a “yes” to love, and a “yes” to the aspirations at the heart of our common humanity, as we strive to fulfill our deep yearning for intimacy with others and with the Lord…
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What a great addition to our precana material. Viva il Papa Benedetto!

Association of the Elderly

As Parish coordinators of our parish Family and Life
Ministry, one of our projects is to organize our elderly parishioners. We thought of organizing them to form their own support group,
providing focused support for their spiritual, physical
and social well-being. They formally organized recently by selecting
their initial set of officers.


We started out by conducting once-a-month informal assemblies every 2nd Saturday of the month, after hearing the 6am Mass. We partake of some morning snacks, then our parish priest provides some inspirational talk (as usual, laced with a lot of jokes) and then some sharing, fellowship and prayers. Most of the attendees are of the over-70 age group, but you can't tell judging by their energy and enthusiasm. Once I brought along a D.I. and we spent a couple of minutes swaying those sprightly limbs and hips (be careful now, take it easy...) to the tune of some funky music.

Now, every assembly, they are going at it with much gusto.



These folks are cool. I just love them.