CHARISMATIC PRAYER GROUP
If I were to pick out the institution that I felt most welcomed when I arrived here in America, then, I will have to say the Catholic Church . Not only did I feel welcomed but that I was part of it, as soon as I opened its door. It was like home away from home, where I felt good, happy and safe.
My first Sunday Mass in the U.S. was at the beautiful St. Cecilia Church in Englewood, New Jersey. It was at her altar where Vangie and I took our perpetual vows to commit ourselves to each other in Holy Matrimony on the 7th of August 1982. The same altar of this sacred church would later witness our children Osbert and Claire-Voe's baptism in Christ Jesus.
Three years after we settled in the Borough of Bergenfield, my wife and I decided to join St John the Evangelist Church because it was close to home. However, we didn't participate in church ministries because we were too busy running our retail and real estate business and getting involved in socio-civic activities of the Filipino community in New Jersey, as founder and first president of the Filipino-American Association of Bergenfield (FAAB, Inc.).
It took a near fatal car accident around the time of the 1st Gulf War and economic recession which drove my family to the brink of bankruptcy that I finally woke up and answered the Lord's call to know, love, praise, thank, and serve Him by joining a parish-based charismatic prayer group in our church.
And in 2003, I started serving the Lord in the prayer group as the overall servant coordinator, together with our pastor Monsignor Richard Arnhols, as our spiritual director. The group, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary next year in 2013, is registered in the Archdiocese of Newark's Catholic Charismatic Renewal and affiliated with the Alliance of Filipino Catholic Charismatic Communities in the United States and Canada. The goal of the prayer group is to bring people, including one's self, close to Christ through the workings of the Holy Spirit in the form of charismatic gifts that are fostered, cultivated and nurtured in the charismatic community through Life in the Spirit seminars, prayer meetings, healing services and spiritual growth seminars in the Catholic tradition, in order that these gifts may bear fruit in their lives, family and church .
We have about forty active adult members plus ten charismatic children (ages 4-12) in the prayer group. Every Friday, we meet (always with a priest or deacon) in the Main Church, at 7-8 p.m., for Confession, Rosary, Santo Niño & Divine Mercy Chaplets and Mass, in preparation for the Prayer, Healing or Teaching Service, Faith-Sharing and Fellowship in the Parish Life Center's Santo Niño Healing Prayer Room, at 8-10 p.m.
There are five teams within the group which allows more opportunity for each member to be actively involved in any of the group's ministries and activities so that they can develop their charisms and use them for service.
Team A---the Santo Niño Healing Prayer Ministry is in-charge of the healing prayer service on 1st and 3rd Fridays and the Catholic teaching service on 5th Fridays. Teams B & C, namely, Our Lady of Fatima Women's Ministry and St. Michael the Archangel Men's Ministry are responsible for leading the prayer meetings separately on 2nd and 4th Fridays and coming together during praising, preaching and fellowship. Team D--the Divine Mercy Children's Prayer Ministry takes care of teaching the children about Divine Mercy, praising the Lord in song in preparation for Divine Mercy Sunday, and gathering and dressing the children as angels for Mass and procession at Our Lady of Fatima Blue Army Shrine in Washington, NJ for the annual Marian Festival in honor of Mary's birthday, and every 13th of the month from May to October in commemoration of her apparition in Fatima, Portugal.
Lastly, Team E--the Santo Nino de Cebu Choir of St. John, is the Music Ministry of the group
The prayer group has quarterly retreats & core meetings for spiritual growth and to pray for the group, plan the yearly parish seminar or healing recollection, maintain unity and address problem situations, followed by preaching by a guest priest, deacon or lay preacher, testimony by a brother or sister in the community and fellowship dinner.
Every year, the group conducts either a charismatic Life in the Spirit, Healing Recollection or Marriage & Single-Blessedness Seminar in the parish, and does an outreach healing prayer service for the homebound and feeding of the homeless.
And, last but not the least, the brothers and sisters always praise and serve the Lord with a smile, and enjoy the group's monthly birthday celebrations, annual picnic, Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas party with family members.
+++++++Come and pray with us every Friday, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., at St. John the Evangelist Church located at 29 North Washington Avenue, Bergenfield, New Jersey.
My first Sunday Mass in the U.S. was at the beautiful St. Cecilia Church in Englewood, New Jersey. It was at her altar where Vangie and I took our perpetual vows to commit ourselves to each other in Holy Matrimony on the 7th of August 1982. The same altar of this sacred church would later witness our children Osbert and Claire-Voe's baptism in Christ Jesus.
Three years after we settled in the Borough of Bergenfield, my wife and I decided to join St John the Evangelist Church because it was close to home. However, we didn't participate in church ministries because we were too busy running our retail and real estate business and getting involved in socio-civic activities of the Filipino community in New Jersey, as founder and first president of the Filipino-American Association of Bergenfield (FAAB, Inc.).
It took a near fatal car accident around the time of the 1st Gulf War and economic recession which drove my family to the brink of bankruptcy that I finally woke up and answered the Lord's call to know, love, praise, thank, and serve Him by joining a parish-based charismatic prayer group in our church.
And in 2003, I started serving the Lord in the prayer group as the overall servant coordinator, together with our pastor Monsignor Richard Arnhols, as our spiritual director. The group, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary next year in 2013, is registered in the Archdiocese of Newark's Catholic Charismatic Renewal and affiliated with the Alliance of Filipino Catholic Charismatic Communities in the United States and Canada. The goal of the prayer group is to bring people, including one's self, close to Christ through the workings of the Holy Spirit in the form of charismatic gifts that are fostered, cultivated and nurtured in the charismatic community through Life in the Spirit seminars, prayer meetings, healing services and spiritual growth seminars in the Catholic tradition, in order that these gifts may bear fruit in their lives, family and church .
We have about forty active adult members plus ten charismatic children (ages 4-12) in the prayer group. Every Friday, we meet (always with a priest or deacon) in the Main Church, at 7-8 p.m., for Confession, Rosary, Santo Niño & Divine Mercy Chaplets and Mass, in preparation for the Prayer, Healing or Teaching Service, Faith-Sharing and Fellowship in the Parish Life Center's Santo Niño Healing Prayer Room, at 8-10 p.m.
There are five teams within the group which allows more opportunity for each member to be actively involved in any of the group's ministries and activities so that they can develop their charisms and use them for service.
Team A---the Santo Niño Healing Prayer Ministry is in-charge of the healing prayer service on 1st and 3rd Fridays and the Catholic teaching service on 5th Fridays. Teams B & C, namely, Our Lady of Fatima Women's Ministry and St. Michael the Archangel Men's Ministry are responsible for leading the prayer meetings separately on 2nd and 4th Fridays and coming together during praising, preaching and fellowship. Team D--the Divine Mercy Children's Prayer Ministry takes care of teaching the children about Divine Mercy, praising the Lord in song in preparation for Divine Mercy Sunday, and gathering and dressing the children as angels for Mass and procession at Our Lady of Fatima Blue Army Shrine in Washington, NJ for the annual Marian Festival in honor of Mary's birthday, and every 13th of the month from May to October in commemoration of her apparition in Fatima, Portugal.
Lastly, Team E--the Santo Nino de Cebu Choir of St. John, is the Music Ministry of the group
The prayer group has quarterly retreats & core meetings for spiritual growth and to pray for the group, plan the yearly parish seminar or healing recollection, maintain unity and address problem situations, followed by preaching by a guest priest, deacon or lay preacher, testimony by a brother or sister in the community and fellowship dinner.
Every year, the group conducts either a charismatic Life in the Spirit, Healing Recollection or Marriage & Single-Blessedness Seminar in the parish, and does an outreach healing prayer service for the homebound and feeding of the homeless.
And, last but not the least, the brothers and sisters always praise and serve the Lord with a smile, and enjoy the group's monthly birthday celebrations, annual picnic, Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas party with family members.
+++++++Come and pray with us every Friday, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., at St. John the Evangelist Church located at 29 North Washington Avenue, Bergenfield, New Jersey.
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