Cardinal Tagle Event: Full Version

it's a great race indeed that we can come to to rejoice in prayer in vibrant song and now reflection for the beautiful gift that the family is to the life of the social community and certainly to the church a saint john paul ii once wrote the way of the church passes through the family and as i hope at least most of you know among the priorities of the archdiocese in this year and for a few years to come is that of strengthening marriages and families and already tonight we have been inspired to do just that by providential design we have the long-awaited visit of the cardinal archbishop of manila to our archdiocese and family and it's on the Feast of the solemnity of st. Joseph the protector of the Holy Family and of our family those of you who were at Holy Rosary Cathedral for mass earlier today heard the call the Cardinals homily on Saint Joseph Joseph who cared so lovingly for Jesus and Mary a model of fatherhood for all of us I'm grateful and I want to express this in deed to add to Pavel's remarks want to express my sincere gratitude for the many many people working together with deacon Greg who put together tonight but the whole event to me it's a wonderful and beautiful sign of the communion of a church which when it works together is indeed able to accomplish as mother Teresa once said something beautiful for God but now it's my great pleasure to introduce of course this evenings keynote speaker the reason for our gathering today Cardinal Luis Antonio but more commonly known as cheeto Bagley inside inside the program you you can see a short biography of the Cardinal so there's no need for me to go into all the details but I would point out that he spent several years in North America in Washington DC studying theology at the Catholic University of America he also subsequently served on the as a member of the international theological Commission and on the Commission for doctrine of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines the list of his responsibilities for the Holy See make him a frequent visitor to Rome and I hope that on one of these other visits you'll pop by Vancouver again your eminence and in Rome he serves on many bodies which assists Pope Francis in his ministry to the church around the world he's a member for example of the Congregation for Catholic education evangelization of people's the Pontifical one time the Pontifical Council of the family pastor care of migrants and itinerant people the Congregation for institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life and now the Pontifical Council of the laity a long list but while he's a distinguished and even great theologian he has an ability to share that knowledge in a way which touches the heart as well as instructs the mind it has been said of him and I quote Tagle is a man of the gospel who knows how to talk about Jesus Christ because he knows him the Cardinal was ordained a priest in 1982 he served in as a pastor an assistant in many parishes on for his massive Thanksgiving after ordination he celebrated on the Sunday perhaps also the Saturday evening an amazing total of nine masses we all believe just telling what I read it was installed as the Archbishop of Manila on December the 12th 2011 the Feast of course of Our Lady of Guadalupe and it also marked his own 10th anniversary of ordination as Bishop of evils the following year was Pope Benedict who named him a Cardinal Cardinal tag li is known to most of you he's known above all as a priest and a bishop who accompanies his people in their daily struggles of life no doubt that's why he was chosen to head Caritas internationalist tonight he is addressing us on keeping families our families in faith in our faith we welcome you Cardinal Cheeto with our hearts and we keenly look forward to your talk on the domestic church of the family in an increasingly globalized world the microphone is yours and welcome welcome Oh thank you it looks like the end of the talk already why did you sit down please remain standing okay we we thank God for gathering us as one big family of faith we thank God for choosing Vancouver for this wonderful gathering and I would like to thank again our dear Archbishop Michael for his patience and persistence inviting me and now I I have no regrets I should be here and I hope one day I could come back here to be reviewed and if you get tired waiting for my return you can always go to Manila and we can meet there you know the I was not expecting something like this I thought I would be giving a talk to 200-300 pious people who have attended all the recollections available in the diocese but then having this gathering in this Great Hall and then you have people up there close to the heavens and then you have those there in purgatory [Applause] you see where it is happiest [Laughter] yeah I'm overwhelmed and I am humbled really humbled and the presentation before our short break really was a temptation to me I was tempted to say I don't need to give this talk what else what else do I have to say some of the deepest things in life should not be said they should be sung they should be danced and we are drawn to the beauty the beauty of humanity and the beauty of the gospel who did not want to sing with them who did not want to cry with them who did not want to jump with them who did not want to be part of their family a while ago I used to belong to a group like that when I was much younger and I thank God in silence for that group and most of them came from the slums of Manila they were the group that through song and dance evangelized so many people strengthening the family in faith keeping the family in faith but I think we also need to address the reverse keeping faith in the family some don't believe anymore in the value of family and so how can they keep the family in faith in our Christian faith if they themselves do not have faith anymore in marriage and in family life if we want to address the complex issues involved in this theme I need we need I think we need to reserve this hall for a full month but you have to go to work and you have your families to feed so I won't pretend to be able to give you a complete synthetic approach to the theme I would set for myself a modest goal I just want to tickle your imagination I would like to tickle your mind in your heart and hopefully you go home with questions and with the zeal that evangelizers the first apostles felt when they when their hearts were burning and they would go home not with an idea but with an experience we have seen the Lord we have seen the Lord so what we have seen have heard and touched we in turn share with you the family yes the family is a sociological cultural phenomenon but for us in the judeo-christian tradition it is part of God's plan it is part of God's design for creation for Humanity and for the history of the world from the very beginning from Genesis we see how God's creative love involved family a man and a woman looking at each other and the man exclaiming at last bones of my bones flesh of my flesh husbands when you wake up in the morning and you see your wife do you say at last parents of my bones flesh of my flesh or do you say alas what has befallen me but it was not that way at the beginning and God always created renewed families and involved families in God's covenant relationship with his people the family of Abraham family of Isaac Israel Joseph his brothers God loved families and one image that God uses in order to bring to Israel's attention the death of God's covenant relationship is that of marriage is that of family life and in the fullness of time which is also the fullness of love God sent his son he became human but part of being human is to be born into a family so the Incarnation involved also God touching this very human sociological and cultural phenomenon and transforming it into an event that is considered the fullness of time but the Bible is realistic when we look at the genealogy of Jesus Oh before Christmas you have this long reading with all those strange names that was the family of Jesus and how God prepared for the coming of Jesus with such a long long line of families but not all of them were good and righteous the patriarchs yeah Wow Abraham and all of those people but how come Esau who was cheated was not mentioned and the cheater was mentioned and then you have women mentioned that the women who were mentioned were all outsiders Rahab even a prostitute Ruth and outsider and then the closest to the birth of Christ were the unknown people even historians could not establish the identities of those people no wonder when Jesus was born and he started his ministry he had a heart for the broken he had a heart for women of ill repute he had the heart for the outcasts and the outsiders they were part of his family the Bible is very realistic I think even God would have approved of our theme how do we keep the families in faith and how do we keep faith in family God would have said that was my concern too that is my concern up to now thank you for making it your own we know the forces and the factors that in a way undermine faith in the families and families in keeping their faith poverty is the course of so much in an exploitation some parents sell their children online sexual exploitation online how could a mother do that but some of them with tears bitter tears say I need to feed my child because of poverty you have forced migration you have a mother working in Hong Kong a father working in Qatar the children living in Manila even without divorce they are de facto separated from one another not because they hate each other but because they love on another one Filipina whom I met in northern Italy told me but every time she prepared the meals of the two Italian children that she was taking care of she asked herself who is preparing the meals of my children back home this is the daily crucifixion of an overseas mother worker but then with a smile she told me but when I look at this two beautiful Italian children I promise I will give them the love that I want my children to experience what heroism but then what pain also we have international conflicts Wars natural disaster producing a lot of refugees separating people from their loved ones in a refugee camp in Greece I saw the refugees from Syria Iraq even Sudan coming in families but then I noticed one boy he was alone so I asked him where are you from he said Syria Syria said where are your parents father mother in Syria why why are they in Syria you alone he said parents said go go once in a while his face flashes to my memory and I wonder where is he now how are his parents will they meet again social communications what a blessing but then children would rather look at their cell phone than at their father they have time for infinite chatting but their social skills relational skills might be suffering but what is family family is relationship but they say texting is the new way of relating but if you are in front of me please do not text to me why can you not tell me good morning why do you have to send it by text what's wrong with my presence maybe next time I will come to you dressed up like a mobile phone and through social communications some world views some of them even contrary to our gospel values and some traditional cultural values are absorbed by the present generation almost uncritically these are just a few but then say in the midst of all that we have our faith our faith there are many ways to describe the faith but for our purposes I just want to say that fundamentally faith is God's gift we cannot produce faith it is a gift that we should beg the Lord to give us but at the same time it requires a response in the end faith is a relationship that God wants to have with us and it is part of our freedom to say yes to God faith is a gripping experience of someone who has loved me unconditionally someone who has offered everything for me and I responded by abandoning myself to God that encounter with God in Jesus Christ and in the gift of the Holy Spirit this is nurtured and mediated to us by the Word of God faith comes from hearing so dear families what is the place of the Word of God in your family life do you even have a Bible don't answer every Christmas every birthday we were thinking what to give what to give there's the Bible even enter our minds the sacraments and the sacraments are events of God God present through symbols and rites giving us grace at every moment of our lives every stage of our lives unfortunately some of the sacraments are being reduced to cultural events they complain about the Faith Formation too long why three weeks why six months but it takes them one year looking for their gown looking for the best restaurant but what is a what is marriage is it a fashion show yes and then we complain how God the families are able to keep the faith because from the very beginning marriage was the faith central or was it Oh what's the first dance and that the wedding coordinators you know the wedding planners you know I had even one experience we were 45 minutes late already so I called the groom is the bride already there he said yes the other members of the entourage are they there yes what's keeping us is a bishop please talk to the wedding planner imagine so the wedding planner came to me and said yes Bishop I said hey I don't have the whole afternoon I have another mass why have we not started everyone is there he said but we're waiting for butterflies Jesus said better flies said yes when the bride starts processing we will release the butterflies so that has that to do with the faith and you spend a lot of money on that and remotely remotely connected to the faith I don't even know if it is legal to catch those butterflies just to be released and then I said but we should start he said Bishop I am the wedding planner so I stood up and said I happen to be the official witness of the church so I ran to the the altar area and I said let the the procession begin but the ordinance was not there I did there's no electric organ I have my throat I can produce the sound but really you wonder why is the family not keeping faith but let us review baptism is it an event of faith or is it simply a social event and we take for example a witness's sponsors not among the family members anymore but we choose the mayor the richest businessman and everything and so what is it is the baptism now is baptism or a fundraising event is it a power trip you're laughing and angry and then service the service of charity the Word of God sacraments serving because the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and then we say as an excuse charity begins at home yes it begins at home but it must get out it begins there but it should not stay there should not stop there God wants to nurture God's relationship with us called faith God offers us the opportunity to encounter him in his word in his sacraments in his service and hopefully through our constancy in listening to the Word of God in celebrating God's presence active presence in the sacraments by participating in God's love for Humanity the faith will be internalized the relationship with God this is internalized and it becomes a worldview so that I may not be in church but I live according to the faith I may not be in the chapel I might be in school I might be in my workplace but my mind my heart my ears have been trained by the Word of God by the process of God in the sacraments and by the love that I see other people sharing with one another and so my perspective my horizon is that of faith it can happen it can happen that I do not ask for the grace and I don't exert the effort to internalize the relationship called faith so for example during consecration as the sacred host is shown to the people some are very pious they're already kneeling down they still bow and they hit they strike their breasts louder than the bells and then they say my lord my god and then the communion time comes no he or she returns to the seat and find someone already see that are they doing here where is the reverence you just and I'm not taking people around where's the faith perspective but this is a journey why are you laughing aha we see ourselves you know I don't attack frontally I make people laugh when we realize we're laughing at ourselves and then you will get angry with me when you reach home okay may I be given now a time to illustrate what I've been saying again not in a comprehensive manner but I want to focus on a few things first how the faith the certainty that Jesus is with us that jesus is risen from the dead that God is triumphant over sin and death that faith that faith which is not just professed and celebrated sporadically or once in a while but has become now my perspective in life and my vision in life affecting my speech my view of people my view of events and my relationships this is important when we experience difficulties in life especially within the family I realized that many times we look at difficulties in life as problems and because we see them as problems our approach is find a solution that's what a problem needs a solution but try to examine daily life specially family life very few problems there very few most of them are not problems but dilemmas and what is a dilemma a dilemma is a problem that does not go away husbands a show wife a problem or a dilemma wives your husband's are they a problem or a dilemma I'm joking when I was younger they said there was a song in the south of music how do you solve a problem like Maria but is Maria a problem she is a mystery but some people will say she is a dilemma how do you deal with dilemmas you don't propose solutions you tell stories right now right now stories stories of people of families who have gone through those difficulties but have survived gracefully those card they remain strong and then you wonder why why do they remain strong why do they continue persevering and then you will discover there is a story of faith welven into the lives of those families it is the faith that gives them a sense of meaning it is the faith that makes them see in a difficult person in a difficult relationship still the presence of God without faith how do you look at sickness without faith how do you look at the death of a mother a few hours before the graduation of a sign of a daughter and we need those stories as the world focuses on the problems that do not have solutions as the world focuses on the stories of gloom the faith enables us to see another type of story the stories of Valor the stories of perseverance and strength which is not a product of human effort alone but those stories need to be told stories of faith of meaning of love when your child starts appearing like a dilemma remember stories last month I celebrated my 36th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood and my mother wrote to me she's turning 88 my father turned 88 last January and she wrote to me and said oh yeah congratulating me and said but I always have a mixed feeling of joy and sadness when I remember you were three years old then and you woke up you told me in I know gogo Tomago mom I'm hungry I don't know why my mother remembers that I don't know why she tells me that over and over again and I don't know why it generates in her both joy and sadness I don't know if she looks at me and sees how busy I am how thin I am how how I lose sleep and and I wonder whether in her incapacity to help me she just needed to tell the story not only for me but for herself to assure her that that hungry boy of three years is now 60 years old don't worry don't worry he will have many hungers but don't worry don't worry when you see your husband like a dilemma remember stories and you will be rejuvenated that's a suggestion stories nurtured by faith another element that is part of our faith and this is related even to Pope Francis's laudato si encyclical on caring for our common home and Pope Francis says there that while we care for the earth our common home we should also care for human beings environmental ecology and human ecology must come together and that is part of faith the vision that God is the creator and everything and everyone all our gifts the moment the horizon of gift nurtured by faith provided by faith disappears and is replaced by another perspective family life is one casualty in our world today we don't see gifts anymore in creatures and in human beings the mindset of today is more transactional we see things we see objects we see commodities and we gauge the value of things and persons according to their use for me if they are useless I throw them away they don't look like gifts anymore and we do that with values we do that with human beings what Pope Francis calls the throwaway culture but have his pride when there is the horizon of gift we are humble we are just recipients of gifts and we are stewards of gifts you don't throw away gifts you take care of the gifts clear ring but if I pretend to be the owner I am a self-made man everything is a fruit of my achievement then there will be no gratitude there will be no caring if you serve my purposes then I love you but if you are a hindrance to my purposes I discard you at the La Congress I said I experienced that too I wonder whether I am still a human being or a commodity when I was a deacon going to the villages for Bible service with communion no altar boy no choir joined me because I was a lowly deacon then I became a priest my value went top it became more profitable to be associated with me because after the mass the community fed me so the choir the sacristy and also want to have a bit of the food and so father will join you then I became a bishop ah ha ha and went out so all of a sudden the people of my hometown all of them claimed you are my relative the market value just went up now I am a carved in her and everyone wants to have a selfie with me I was highly adult resolving the face has not changed it's the same face 35 years ago but how come they're all running to have a photo with me I guess my market value has risen husband's when you look at your wives do you see a gift of God no answer yeah wives look at your husband's do you see a gift of God not convincing parents when you look at your children what do you see Oh a financial burden Arjuna go to college all balloons and everything and when the mother learns I am pregnant will she say a gift or will she say another problem then if it is a problem you discard it the elderly they are a drain to my budget they're not useful anymore so they can be discarded we want to keep the family strong let us recover that faith vision we have God as creator and generous God and God also saves and recreates let us open our eyes to the many gifts especially in the family and when you see a gift you care for it you nurture it you don't throw it away this watch of mine has been with me since 1973 this was the gift of my parents for my high school graduation some people tell me a Cheeto he was a cardinal now this car that there are new watches hi-tech and all of that no I said but this is not just a watch for me this is not an object this is a gift I know my parents worked hard to be able to give their son a gift I don't know how many months they paid installment just to be able to give their son a gift I will not discard it but it is easy for others who don't see a gift in it to say change it throw it away let us recover that faith vision gift grace may I still continue just two more points and that I will liberate you now but you you don't answer husbands with what do you see in your wife do you see a gift why do you sound angry [Applause] so when you go home oh the couples are here you tell each other hey sit down there in front of me let us look at each other and you say oh wow what a gift of God what a gift of God may not be he or she may not be perfect but that does not eliminate the quality of being a gift so my first point is with a faith experience and faith vision we can tell stories that will inspire people to be strong when they are in situations of dilemmas they don't just give up secondly the faith vision of gift the horizon of grace and then our responsibility you are a steward you are supposed to take care of gifts the third is the Paschal mystery at the center our faith the passion the death of Christ and also the resurrection new life one complete mystery and that faith vision and experience must be kept daily in our family life in our relationships for me one important biblical event was the apparition of the risen Lord to his disciples according to st. John he first appeared to them he was able to enter even if the doors were locked he was able to cross the the walls now and the disciples who were hiding because of fear when you are afraid you hide in close yourself but Jesus was able to penetrate showed himself no recrimination no a bad word from Jesus nothing but Thomas was not there and the disciples told Thomas we have seen the Lord and Thomas said all unless I see and put my hand into his wounds or I will not believe and then came the day Jesus appears to them again and Jesus tells Thomas come put your finger into the wounds of my hands and put your hand in the wound of my side and after that farmer said my lord and my god touching wounds looking at wounds touching wounds but with faith we should not deny the woundedness that is in us let us not get angry when we see our spouse our children our in-laws as wounded people all of us are wounded but Jesus shows his wounds and invites his disciples to look and to touch we are invited to look and to touch to look at and to touch the wounds of our family members and in faith to see the wounds of Jesus in faith to be able to say my lord my god you are present here in the words of my wife in the words of my daughter in the words of my child very often we become more judgmental when we see wounds when in fact in the vision of faith it calls us to solidarity communion forgiveness we can decide to remain angry imprisoned in the walls of bitterness resentment but Jesus crosses those walls and liberates his disciples he did not I always I always tell myself if I were Jesus I will really look for Peter and I will cross mountains hills and walls to find Peter and I will say Peter look look look at how you have winded me now tell me do you know me thank God I am NOT Jesus he comes shows his wounds cost by his friends France who had failed him and what does he say peace be with you from the wounds of anger and hatred could come the grace of peace and forgiveness yeah all of us are wounded we should all know how to touch the wounds of each one and in faith believe that Jesus wants peace from those wounds and that he wants us to forgive when I was younger there was a there was a beautiful song I wish they could still make songs like that that says a chair is still a chair even when there's no one sitting there but the chair is not a house and the house is not a home when there's no one there to hold you tight and no one there you can kiss goodnight a room is still a room even when there's nothing there but gloom but the room is not a house and a house is not a home when the two of us are far apart and one of us has a broken heart now and then I call your name and suddenly your face appears but it's just a crazy game when it ends it ends in tears then the beautiful part darling have a heart don't let one mistake keep us apart I'm not meant to live alone turn this house into a home when I climb the stairs and turn the key oh please be there still in love with me that's a hole there are some people with big fabulous houses that are homeless they don't have a home because the wounds are not touched and to forgiveness so when you go home as you climb the stairs and turn the key oh please please be there please be there still in love with your wounded wounded husband wife and I should touch the wounds say with Jesus peace be with you peace the one who gives peace is wounded wounded too well I had a professor an American missionary to the Philippines and he just died he passed away but before he died he asked if I could visit him so I went to his to the home for the Sikh Jesuits and it was Black Saturday so I went when I entered the room father started crying he was it was like a child he was sobbing and and the nurse told me every time our former students and friends visit father he gets emotional so I came close to him and started no stroking his shoulders head father father okay it's okay father obviously he was suffering then the crying subsided he looked at me and he smiled sweetly and said cheeto cheeto you used to sleep in my class so now I know the reason why he called for me if Jesus had his seven last words that would be the first word Oh father father please please forgive me I'm sorry if I had cost you distress no and when when you were teaching us and said oh no no no no don't worry you did well you did well and then he said but look at you you are now a cardinal no I I bore that comment in my mind my heart that whole day in meditations it what was God communicating to me what was father telling me and what I I sort of heard was Cheeto do not be proud we know you we know you you may be a cardinal now but we know you you just slept in class don't be proud don't be proud don't even think that it is your achievement you are wounded but you are a product of God's mercy and the mercy of so many people especially your professors and they were very good they saw my wounds but they they trusted in God that could heal these wounds and so when I see people sleeping during my whole melee I just told myself ah I slept through all my theology classes as I've done worse and so let them sleep no maybe an angel of God is communicating better earlier things know that I am able to yeah so yeah I see my wounds in them I told this to a group of priests in Manila and one of the priests approached me said you know your eminence when I was a seminarian I slept also in class do you think I have a chance to become a cardinal [Applause] that's not for me to give but again no in our world today the most wounded the most vulnerable the most needy are taken advantage of the refugees the migrants Wow they are already needy and vulnerable and wounded and they become victims of smuggling there is a billion dollar business that has arisen from the needs and wounds of people's that is not a family that is not a hole for us woundedness and vulnerability invites forgiveness peace and finally mission if we just focus on ourselves if we just focus on the internal life of the church we might become too self-absorbed too narrow and it weakens more the faith life of the community as we said part of the nurturance of the faith life of the family is to serve in love the way Jesus did when we are for others in a genuine sincere way we become what we truly are a family that eats together is a good family but the family that shares food with the hungry becomes more a Christian family a family that prays together is a good family but the family that prays only for its own needs will become weak after all while jesus extols the nuclear family Jesus also reminds us when he was told your mother and brothers and sisters are waiting for looking for you outside What did he say who are my mother brothers and sisters those who hear the word of God and put it into practice are my mother brothers and sisters Jesus expands also the vision of family to include those who are searching for God who are listening in spite of their woundedness to the Word of God and who are trying struggling to act on the Word of God seeing a brother a sister in them serving them a family that serves themselves is good but it will be a better family of faith if it starts serving also with a sense of mission other families and the wider family of society so maybe after this some of you would volunteer to go to Iraq or go on ah and then there will be another ceremony here where Archbishop Miller will Commission families this family will be sent by the Diocese of Vancouver - there are Aleppo as ho ho and that strengthens the nuclear family and strengthens also the wider family in faith okay did I leave you with problems or with dilemmas as I said no this will not be a comprehensive thing I was just trying to trick your imagination and I was your your faith imagination and see how fundamental elements of faith faith that gives a certainty to hope faith that makes a sea gives grace to be cared for the faith vision were the wounded rises to new life but in the resurrection the wounds remain and they become wounds of peace and forgiveness then the faith that says as the father has sent me so I send you let me end really and now really and now with a story I told this to some people already have told this but I think it merits repetition regarding mission and going out of once nuclear family again this comes from my encounter with people in Lebanon and so I saw how some of the Caritas Lebanon workers and volunteers how they have become weary and tired and I was afraid that they might lose their sense of mission lose theirs their perspective of faith as being sent by Jesus because you know you can you can absorb so much negativity and then lose no lose sight of the faith so I told them please open your eyes of faith see signs of hope see signs of goodness see signs of the presence of the risen Lord in the situation's that you are faced with and they will encourage you they will give you new life and one woman raised her hand and she said I have a story to tell this woman was test by Caritas Lebanon to serve illegal migrants especially those who who work without documentation permits and they are put in a detention detention center they do not call it a jail they they distinguish between a jail for criminals and a detention center for those who whose documents and permits have expired but you know it's it's still a detention center there are there bars now this woman she even brought me there she told us the story she was invited by carat Assyria to give a seminar training to are some of the volunteers of carat Assyria on how to minister to illegal migrants she lived in a convent of sisters and every day she would take a taxi to the site of the conference one day she reached her destination she as the driver how much will I pay you and the driver said no need to pay she said I have money I can pay you and the driver said no no need to pay she said but you are working you need to earn too and I have money I can give you and the man said no no need she panicked she panicked she said what will this man demand of me so she said she was almost screaming shouting tell me how much do I owe you I have money to pay you and the man said how can I accept money from Caritas she she she asked how did you know that I worked for Caritas the man said three years ago I was in prison in Lebanon I saw you there the day before I was to be released I had a terrible headache but the guards did not give me medicine you passed by and I asked you for medicine you gave me one and I was able to sleep well that night but I have not thanked you so now I want to say thank you three years for three years the face of that woman was embedded in his mind and heart filled with gratitude she was a gift and in his woundedness peace came through this woman and now God allowed their paths to cross after three years in Syria and what an explosion of love they were like family it was the birth of a new family a new humanity and it can happen when people go out go out of their shells go out and bring their family to serve and you will be surprised even even on the road on on the road in Syria a new family could be born so the woman ended her story by saying I may be tired but I will continue serving in Caritas the sense of mission and her contribution her contribution to a new family I will keep my promise I am here really and here thank you very much for your patience and their understanding thank you thank you [Applause] well I don't know about you but my imagination has certainly been tickled first of all I'd like to give gratitude and thank his grace Archbishop Miller for bringing us this wonderful gift as I listened to you your eminence I thought of my own experiences in Caritas and my work in Caritas and the joy it gave me and I also have to say that you know often we look at problems as problems and the need for solutions but when we understand them as dilemmas it's a very different thing I also have to say that you know you truly are the pastor for all of us in your job and in your work as president of the Catholic Bible Federation and also as president of Caritas internet and Internet analysis the understanding of the Word of God the Bible in action of good works in faith you bring that together so well and through and yes you've made us laugh because we did see ourselves in many of those stories that you told even those of us who are celibates we'll have to go home and think about the gifts of God that we have in our lives our parishioners and truly tonight you have been an inspiration to so many of us you are truly the pastor to the Philippines to the Filipino people throughout the world and today I think and today I think even those of us who are Ukrainian us Filipino [Applause] your eminence thank you so much for the gift that you have given us this evening I'm sure that all of us here will want to go out and tell stories our story about how we have experienced this wonderful gift and the impact that your presence with us today at Moss at Holy Rosary Cathedral and your presence with us in the wonderful Church of Vancouver headed by our Archbishop Michael Miller we want to thank you we want to assure you of our prayers for you and for all of the faithful in Manila and in the Philippines I think that it would be most fitting your eminence if we could pray with you together now before we leave and ask for your blessings as our Father as well if we could pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary for the intentions of His Eminence and for Archbishop Millar and then ask for his blessings upon us in the Father Son and Holy Spirit amen [Music] Hail Mary Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit maybe the three bishops give the blessing the Lord be with you may the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you may the Lord look upon you kindly and grant you peace and may the choicest blessings of Almighty God descend upon you your loved ones your families the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and thank you you you

Channel: Archdiocese of Vancouver

Views: 162,673

Keywords: Archdiocese, of, Vancouver

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Length: 87min 52sec (5272 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 28 2018