Mission
Fr. Ismael’s visits to Mindanao highlighted the growth of faith and community spirit in these mission areas, and his encounters with the local people left a lasting impression. Visit to San Nicolas de Tolentino Mission Station At 5:30 AM on October 13, 2024, Fr. Xuruc, accompanied by Fr. Albert Pellazar, traveled to the San Nicolas de Tolentino Mission Station in Los Arcos, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur for his second visit. This mission, the newest Recollect community on the island of Mindanao, was established just two years ago, on September 10, 2022, during the feast of the Patron Saint. The first…
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…
OAR Missionaries as Instruments of Peace and Reconciliation
Kamalo, SIERRA LEONE—In the rural place of Sierra Leone Africa, petty disputes usually ends up as a tragedy. Youth riots, burning of houses and properties and murders due to this actions happens from time to time, and because of their strong communal ties, incidents of this kind usually end up as a village or town…
