Mission
Provincialate, QUEZON CITY – Three Recollect friars were commissioned in a simple send-off rite during a holy mass in celebration of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8 here at San Nicolas de Tolentino Parish church. Prior Provincial, Fray Bernard Amparado, officiated the rite “to ask God’s blessing on the new heralds of the Gospel” to be sent to foreign missions in compliance with the Life and Mission Project (LAMP) of the Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno for this triennium 2022-25. The three missionaries, Frays Allan Jacinto and Helfrid Palmis, will compose the pioneering group to the…

2020 Marian Pilgrimage
Kaohsiung, TAIWAN—The month of October is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary specifically to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Hence, to manifest their deep devotion to the Mother of God, forty parishioners of St. Joseph Parish (聖若瑟堂) and Queen of Victory Parish (勝利之后堂), both in Xiaogang District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市,小港區)participated in a two days…

Santa Remedios fiesta in the midst of pandemic
SAIPAN—With everyone sitting in masks, six-feet apart, the parish of Nuestra Señora Bithen Delos Remedios, which is usually fully packed during its annual fiesta, saw some pews mandated to be left empty due to social distancing guidelines. The pandemic, however, did not prevent the success of this year’s celebration. Parishioners filled every available seat, including…

SARF-Sierra Leone is Province’s 17th Chapter, joins virtual fiesta celebrations
QUEZON CITY – Aside from the online celebrations of the solemn feast of St. Magdalene of Nagasaki, patroness of the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity (SARF) on October 20, the presence and presentation of “SARF de Sierra Leone” as the fraternity’s 17th chapter in the Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno turned this year’s assembly on an…

Foreign Missions Update: OAR Response to COVID-19
SIERRA LEONE Ubuntu Africa: A Recollect Response to Covid-19 Pandemic “Ubuntu” in the African culture (or “Osho” in Krio) describes compassion towards the other. It also connotes the belief in the intrinsic good of humanity or the universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. Concretizing this cultural value (which is also a Gospel value),…

Recoletos de Saipan celebrates feast of St. Nicholas
by Margaret de la Cruz “The Heavens are not pure in the sight of Him Whom I serve; how then shall I, a sinful man, stand before Him?” -St. Nicholas of Tolentine Saipan, CNMI–For most of us here in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, St. Nicholas of Tolentine is probably an unfamiliar saint to…

Augustinian Recollects in Sierra Leone open doors to help combat COVID-19
The Augustinian Recollects of Sierra Leone have made their BawBaw facilities on Peninsular Road, Freetown as a quarantine center for the Filipino community in the country who are suspected to have the coronavirus. The official request was made on April 6 by the Philippine Honorary Consul in Sierra Leone, Flipe Neri Velasco, to the head of…

OAR missionaries in Taiwan follow Church guidelines vs COVID-19 outbreak
Kaohsiung, TAIWAN – In cooperation with the church’s efforts to curb the outbreak of the novel coronavirus now called COVID-19, the Augustinian Recollect missionaries who are administering five parishes in the Diocese of Kaohsiung followed the pastoral directives of the Chinese Regional Bishops’ Conference (CRBC) in Taiwan. Recent news reports revealed that over 75,700 of…

Recoletos community in Indonesia formally established
QUEZON CITY – January 8, 2020 will go down in history as the “official birthday” of the first Recoletos community in Indonesia. That’s practically around sixteen months after the arrival of the pioneer group of Augustinian Recollect missionaries in this Muslim-dominated country. It was on September 19, 2018, feast day of St. Alonso de Orozco,…

Three young Recollects embark on new mission
QUEZON CITY – Pursuant to its Life and Mission Project (LAMP) on mission apostolate, the St. Ezekiel Moreno Province recently sent three young priests to two foreign mission stations of the Order: Brazil and Sierra Leone. Fray Roderick Deguit, the former parish priest of the Parish of Our Lady of the Abandoned in Valencia, Negros…