News

Group launches Book of Spiritual Bouquet

MANILA, July 1, 2009—A church-based organization recently launched an initiative where the lay faithful can participate in the celebration of the Year for Priests.

Signing in the Book of Spiritual Bouquet means that people commit themselves to pray for priests, especially on this special year.

At least three books were symbolically presented at the Mass to open Year for Priests in the Manila Cathedral last June 29, which also coincided with the celebration of Pope’s Day.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales was presider, while Papal nuncio Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams was homilist.

The concelebrants included Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, archbishops and bishops and priests of the Ecclesiastical Province of Manila. 

Ambassador Leonida Vera, former envoy to the Vatican and now Ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and the heads of the Society of St. John Mary Vianney, presented the giant books to Cardinal Rosales, Cardinal Vidal and Archbishop Adams for the first signatures. 

For this purpose, Vera said they have printed 300 books to be distributed to the different parishes of the Manila archdioceses.

“We encourage the people of God, the lay faithful to please join this campaign for prayers for the clergy,” she said.

In his circular announcing the Spiritual Offerings for Priests, Rosales acknowledges “our (the priests’) own need for their (the faithful’s) prayers and spiritual support,” even if “it is our responsibility, virtue of our ordination, to pray for the People of God.”

 
The cardinal encourages all those in the archdiocese’s parishes and Christian communities to sign up and indicate their commitment and spiritual pledges for priests.

 
All the Spiritual Offerings from the whole archdiocese will be gathered and presented at the closing celebration for the Year for Priests on June 2010.

 
The Year for Priests was declared by Pope Benedict XVI to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the “dies natalis” of St. John Mary Vianney, the Cure of Ars and the patron saint of parish priests worldwide.

 
Series of activities are being lined up in the archdiocese to celebrate the year.

Rosales said that “these activities, however, will mean nothing if they will remain external celebrations devoid of spiritual content.”

 
The Year for Priests in the Philippines is also the Year of the Two hears of Jesus and Mary for peace-building and lay participation in social change. 

(Roy Lagarde)