

SLRAA will begin the 9 days Novena Mass in honor of the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary - Lady of Manaoag today, April 27, Friday @ 7:30 P.M. and everyday thru May 5 at the San Lorenzo Ruiz and Scalabrini Center in Jamaica.
The FPM group will sponsor the the Novena Mass on May 4, First Friday.
The feast day celebration is on May 6, 2012 to be held at the Immaculate Conception church
See you there,
Cely
To all who will join the POMPEI GROUP for the Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge on Good Friday.
The Archdiocese of New York announced that Cardinal Dolan and Bishop DiMarzio will join the participants of the Way of the Cross at the St. James Cathedal. And with their participation, more people will be expected to come and there will be tight security also.
Please be prepared to come early to St. James Cathedral on Friday before 10:00 A.M.....
thanks, Cely



You are invited to the annual Pabasa ng Pasyon tomorrow Friday, March 30 starting @ 8:00 P.M. see details below:
Thanks,
Cely
This is an invitation for all of you to watch the Consistory at the Vatican on TV - CBS Channel 2 tomorrow morning 4:30 A.M. It is an important event...... see Bro Adolfo's detail e-mail below.
Tita Cely,
Kindly e-mail blast this information po to those who wish to watch the Concistory live at the Vatican tomorrow. Concistory is a gathering of all Cardinals in the Vatican, and beginning today till Sunday, a consistory is being held in Rome and the highlight of this consistory is the MASS OF THE POPE tomorrow which will include the Rite to elevate bishops to the College of Cardinals. One of the bishops to be elevated is our very own Cardinal-designate TIMOTHY DOLAN.
The consistory can be watched at Channel 2 CBS beginning 4:30AM. Fr. Luke Sweeney (vocation director) together with Maurice DuBois will be the commentators of the said historical event.
Please watch and witness another historical event in the life of the Church especially in the life of the Catholic Church in America.
Adolfo
P.S. ARCHBISHOP DOLAN will be addressing to all Cardinals gathered in Rome tonight.

Reminder: the Cenacle prayer session at the FPM Community room is at 6:00 P.M. followed by the Bible Study Session conducted by Bro. Adolfo Novio. Please come early so that we could start on time. thanks.
The Cenacle prayer session starts at 6:00 P.M. followed by the Session 3 on the Scriptures (ang Bibliya) conducted by Bro. Adolfo Novio on Feb 4. See below the overview from Bro. Adolfo.
This particular session aims to answer the following questions:
-Questions 1 & 2 review-
1. Who is the author of the Bible, particularly the First five books? (sino ang sumulat ng unang limang libro ng bibliya?)
2. Is the creation story a legend?myth? and how did it happen?
(paano nga ba naisulat ang kwento ng simula ng sandaigdigan?)
-continuation of the lecture-
3. What really happened in the Noah story?flood? What is the role of Abraham in our faith today?( paano maipapaliwanag ang mga pangyayari mula kay Adan at Eba hangang kay Abraham?paano dumami ang mga tao?)
4. What is the importance and how is this related to our life today? (sa tuwing tayo ay may problema, depressed, may kaaway, nawawalan ng pananampalataya sa Diyos at kung minsan sa palagay natin ang mundo ay galit sa atin....di ba't natatanong natin sa sarili kung may Diyos nga ba?...dito sa unang libro ng bibliya malalaman natin isang kasagutan sa maraming katanungan..)
5. Then, we will be introduced to the life's story of Israel. (pagtawid sa dagat na pula, unang salaysay ng kanilang pagtawid sa unang desyerto, pagdating sa Bundok Horeb (SInai), Sampung Utos, at ang salaysay ng paglalakbay sa ikalawang desyerto.....)
Kindly bring your Bible preferably New American Bible or Revised Standard Version...
See you all.
Adolfo
We have two Poon Hesus Nazareno Fiesta celebration this weekend to start the New Year 2012.
JAN 8, SUNDAY at 3:00 P.M. - The Filipino Pastoral Ministry's 13th Annual Poon Hesus Nazareno sa Village at Our Lady of Pompei Church in Manhattan, NYC and
JAN 9, MONDAY at 7:30 P.M. - The 6th Annual Poon Hesus Nazareno sa Jamaica at the Immaculate Conception Church - Jamaica, Queens sponsored by the San Lorenzo Ruiz Association of America,Inc. (SLRAA)
See details on the attached flyer for your info.
Please invite your family and friends to celebrate this religious tradition that is dear to all of us.
See you all,
Cely
Your are Invited to the FPM Annual Christmas Party on December 18, 2011 Sunday after the 3:00 P.M. Filipino Mass -
The event is free...bring your friends and join the FUN... If you want to join in the Exchange gift, please bring your gift (minimum of $20).
May this Christmas bring love, joy and abundance blessings to you and your family as we celebrate the birthday of the Baby Jesus.
We wish one and all a Blessed Christmas and a pleasant New Year filled gladness, good fortune and happiness always.
Thank you for your continued help and support to the Filipino Pastoral Ministry.
From all of Us,
Msgr. Romy Montero,
the officers, members, volunteers and staff of the Filipino Pastoral Ministry
Today is the feast day of the Immaculate Conception - a holiday of obligation It is also the 8th year anniversary of the San Lorenzo Ruiz & Scalabrini Center in Jamaica.
Today is the feast day of the Immaculate Conception - a holiday of obligation It is also the 8th year anniversary of the San Lorenzo Ruiz & Scalabrini Center in Jamaica.
A Mass will be celebrated at the San Lorenzo Ruiz & Scalabrini Center tonight at 7:30 P.M. for the feast day of the Immaculate Conception and the anniversary celebration of the Center. Please come and join us tonight for the celebration
San Lorenzo Ruiz and Scalabrini Center 168-41 84th Ave Jamaica Hills NY 11432. (The SLRSCenter is at the corner of 169 St. and 84th Ave.)
A Mass of Thanksgiving and Remembrance to commemorate the 8th year death anniversary of the late Fr. Bobby Sison, Filipino Pastoral Ministry Founding director.
The Novena Mass to the Poon Hesus Nazareno in preparation for the feast day on January 8, 2012 started on November 6 and will continue every Sunday before the 3:00 P.M.Tagalog Mass. Please come and join in the weekly Sunday Novena Mass. This year's Hermano and Hermana Mayor are Nanding and Marilyn Castillo. If you have petitions or Mass Intentions that you like to be included in the Mass, please send it to the office of the FPM - Pompei church. Weekly sponsors for the Novena Masses are also welcome.
Here are some of the upcoming November Activities:
November 19 Saturday
1. 6:00 P.M. CENACLE to be held at the FPM community room
2. 7:30 - 8:30 P.M. Mini-lecture on Scriptures conducted by Bro. Adolfo Novio.
Overview of the course: Introduction to the Scriptures,The foundation of the Scriptures,The Pentateuch,The Creation Story, Abraham, Jacob, Exodus Story.
Each session will be for an hour after the CENACLE depending on the participation and interests of the community.
November 20 Sunday 3:00 P.M. FPM FOUNDERS DAY.
A Mass of Thanksgiving and Remembrance to commemorate the 8th year death anniversary of the late Fr. Bobby Sison, Filipino Pastoral Ministry Founding director.
November 23 Wednesday 6:30 P.M. Pre-Thanksgiving Mass Celebration
Novena in honor of Mother of Perpetual Help and the Pre-Thanksgiving Mass followed by the FPM Annual Pot-luck Thanksgiving Dinner at the Fr. Demo Hall.
You are invited to attend the Mass and also bring something for sharing with everybody.
November 27 Sunday November Birthday Celebration
All November birthday celebrators are invited to come and attend the Mass for a special blessing and fellowship after the Mass.
December 3, Saturday - The annual Parish CHRISTMAS BAZAAR of Our Lady of Pompei Church.
We hope that you will take time to come and participate in all the activities mentioned above.
See You All,
Cely
Father Augustine Thompson, O.P.,
We’ve all heard the allegations. Halloween is a pagan rite dating back to some pre-Christian festival among the Celtic Druids that escaped Church suppression. Even today modern pagans and witches continue to celebrate this ancient festival. If you let your kids go trick-or-treating, they will be worshiping the devil and pagan gods.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The origins of Halloween are, in fact, very Christian and rather American. Halloween falls on October 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result of medieval Catholic piety.
It’s true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on Oct. 31 — as they did on the last day of most other months of the year. However, Halloween falls on the last day of October because the Feast of All Saints or "All Hallows" falls on Nov. 1. The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved it to Nov. 1, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter’s at Rome . Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints be observed everywhere. And so the holy day spread to Ireland . The day before was the feast’s evening vigil, "All Hallows Even" or "Hallowe’en." In those days, Halloween didn’t have any special significance for Christians or for long-dead Celtic pagans.
In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the powerful monastery of Cluny in Southern France, added a celebration on Nov. 2. This was a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful departed. This feast, called All Souls Day, spread from France to the rest of Europe.
So now the Church had feasts for all those in heaven and all those in purgatory? What about those in the other place? It seems Irish Catholic peasants wondered about the unfortunate souls in hell. After all, if the souls in hell are left out when we celebrate those in heaven and purgatory, they might be unhappy enough to cause trouble. So it became customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Even to let the damned know they were not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland, at least, all the dead came to be remembered — even if the clergy were not terribly sympathetic to Halloween and never allowed All Damned Day into the Church calendar.
But that still isn’t our celebration of Halloween. Our traditions on this holiday centers around dressing up in fanciful costumes, which isn’t Irish at all. Rather, this custom arose in France during the 14th and 15th centuries. Late medieval Europe was hit by repeated outbreaks of the bubonic plague — the Black Death — and she lost about half her population. It is not surprising that Catholics became more concerned about the afterlife. More Masses were said on All Souls’ Day, and artistic representations were devised to remind everyone of their own mortality.
We know these representations as the "Dance Macabre" or "Dance of Death," which was commonly painted on the walls of cemeteries and shows the devil leading a daisy chain of people — popes, kings, ladies, knights, monks, peasants, lepers, etc. — into the tomb. Sometimes the dance was presented on All Souls’ Day itself as a living tableau with people dressed up in the garb of various states of life. But the French dressed up on All Souls, not Halloween; and the Irish, who had Halloween, did not dress up. How the two became mingled probably happened first in the British colonies of North America during the 1700s when Irish and French Catholics began to intermarry. The Irish focus on hell gave the French masquerades and even more macabre twist.
But, as every young ghoul knows, dressing up isn’t the point; the point is getting as many goodies as possible. Where on earth did "trick or treat" come in?
"Trick or treat" is perhaps the oddest and most American addition to Halloween, and is the unwilling contribution of English Catholics.
During the penal period of the 1500s to the 1700s in England, Catholics had no legal rights. They could not hold office and were subject to fines, jail and heavy taxes. It was a capital offense to say Mass, and hundreds of priests were martyred.
Occasionally, English Catholics resisted, sometimes foolishly. One of the most foolish acts of resistance was a plot to blow up the Protestant King James I and his Parliament with gunpowder. This was supposed to trigger a Catholic uprising against their oppressors. The ill-conceived Gunpowder Plot was foiled on Nov. 5, 1605, when the man guarding the gunpowder, a reckless convert named Guy Fawkes, was captured and arrested. He was hanged; the plot fizzled.
Nov. 5, Guy Fawkes’ Day, became a great celebration in England, and so it remains. During the penal periods, bands of revelers would put on masks and visit local Catholics in the dead of night, demanding beer and cakes for their celebration: trick or treat!
Guy Fawkes’ Day arrived in the American colonies with the first English settlers. But, buy the time of the American Revolution, old King James and Guy Fawkes had pretty much been forgotten. Trick or treat, though, was too much fun to give up, so eventually it moved to Oct. 31, the day of the Irish-French masquerade. And in America, trick or treat wasn’t limited to Catholics.
The mixture of various immigrant traditions we know as Halloween had become a fixture in the Unites States by the early 1800s. To this day, it remains unknown in Europe, even in the countries from which some of the customs originated.
But what about witches? Well, they are one of the last additions. The greeting card industry added them in the late 1800s. Halloween was already "ghoulish," so why not give witches a place on greeting cards? The Halloween card failed (although it has seen a recent resurgence in popularity), but the witches stayed. So, too, in the late 1800s, ill-informed folklorists introduced the jack-o’-lantern. They thought that Halloween was druidic and pagan in origin. Lamps made from turnips (not pumpkins) had been part of ancient Celtic harvest festivals, so they were translated to the American Halloween celebration.
The next time someone claims that Halloween is a cruel trick to lure your children into devil worship, I suggest you tell them the real origin of All Hallows Even and invite them to discover its Christian significance, along with the two greater and more important Catholic festivals that follow it.
Be sure to check out -
All Saint's Day by Dr. D'Ambrosio
All Soul's Day by Dr. D'Ambrosio
As promised by Fr. Mike, he sent the Cenacle Reflections made in the Philippines. As you all know Fr. Mike left last Sunday to return to his Diocese in Novaliches. He asked for our prayers so that he will able to continue his ministry. He said that our prayers are the source of his inspiration and the beautiful insights in all the reflections he shared with us. Please continue to pray.
God Bless,
Cely
The Filipino Pastoral Ministry have a long weekend events at Our Lady of Pompei as follows:
Sept 3 First Saturday Cenacle at 6:00 P.M.
Sept 4 Sunday 3:00P.M. NATIVITY OF OUR LADY Feast Day celebration
Sept 5 Monday 2:00 P.M. - Despedida Party for Fr. Mike Lagrimas at Fr. Demo Hall Pompei Church
Please come and join us for all the celebrations. Invite your friends and family.
See you All.
Cely