United in Christ

Over the past few weeks since February, our web was busy preparing for its annual Holy Week special The Seven Last Words. Priests, nuns, members of religious congregations were invited to write the reflections this year because it's the Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons. Members were tapped to do this or that task. As the weeks gradually led to Holy Week, preparations were taking shape and people who knew about it looked forward when it becomes 'live'.

Last week saw us all focused on a lot of religious activities. For our web, it was this time of year again to hold The Seven Last Words. It is heartwarming to see people coming together, contributing in their own special way to make our online devotion a success. Way back in 2005, when this devotion begun in our web, we started with our own members. Over the years, more people from outside have been involved. This, in spite of our distances.

What brought us all together? Perhaps it is our Lenten panata. Or our desire to share the Gospel with others. It could be our way to be more 'online' during Holy Week, For me, what brought us together is actually a 'Who'. It is Christ. As St Paul writes: "But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ" (Eph 2:13).

As we celebrate the great feast of Easter, join us in offering praise to our Risen Lord for making all these happen, for uniting us all. Together, let us bear in mind how Jesus joined us together this Holy Week. Together, let us bring further His Good News to all, Holy Week or not.

Thank you for your unrelenting support. God bless you all.

Happy Easter!

A Decade of Sharing the Good News

Happy New Year! I hope you and your loved ones had a great celebration of the Lord's Birth and welcoming 2015.

2015 is a special year for all of us in anluwage.com for it marks our 10th anniversary. It seems it was just yesterday when Art Reyes and Mike Flores created the web as an online ministry of Tanghalang Anluwage, Inc. Among its first items were "Before Sundays", the forerunner of what is now "God-speak", a regular feature of the web containing  reflections on the Sunday Mass readings are shared. 

There were also "The Nine Gifts" and "The Seven Last Words" special online devotions for Advent and Holy Week respectively. There were also columns such "Bits and Bobs" and "Tanggero".

Since then, more people and more items were added into the web. The vision and mission statements were drawn up. An editorial board was organized.  We also created a group page in Facebook to reach out for more people.

It is through your generous support that we have achieved such blessings. I could not thank you enough for all the help that you have given the web. 

Our 10th anniversary coincides with 2 important events: the Year of Consecrated Life in the Universal and the Year of the Poor in the Philippine Church. I hope our web would be able to contribute in promoting and supporting religious life and also in proclaiming the Good News of Jesus to the poor.  Sharing in Facebook of articles featured in the web would be a simple way of proclaiming that Good News to others. Another suggestion is to get to know more about our very own Fr. Shay Cullen who apart from being a religious, is also involved in reaching out to the poor via the PREDA Foundation. Finally, we would welcome more writers and other supporters to help us keep the fire of the Spirit burning.  

May Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, continue to be THE source of inspiration in our ministry. May the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and ours, and St. Joseph, our patron, intercede for us for a fruitful 2015.

God bless us all! God bless anluwage.com!