A top Philippine church leader has called on Filipinos in the US to be agents of communion and solidarity with all people.
Addressing a group of Marian devotees in New Jersey on Aug. 6, Cardinal Jose Advincula asked them to let their devotion shape or even set the mission of their everyday life
“With Mary as our Queen of Peace, let reconciliation and solidarity win over our political, regional and economic divisions,” Advincula said.
The cardinal was the guest speaker of a gathering held in the city’s Edison district that was hosted by the Devotees of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag-New Jersey.
As the Philippines just celebrated the 500 years of Christianity, Filipino Catholics, according to him, are more challenged “to be missionaries in our own ways”.
“With our vibrant Filipino Christian faith, I pray that each of us may courageously and devotedly live out and witness to our Christian faith in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in,” Advincula said.
He also encouraged them to be “bearers of life and hope” to others, especially those “who feel alone, abandoned or alienated”.
“Let us bear Christ to one another, especially those among us who are forlorn, discouraged, and distressed,” he added.
New Jersey was like a ‘home’ to the cardinal when he was a young priest, having served in at least three parishes in the summers of 1980s.
In 1984, he served at St. Cecilia Parish Church-Kearny. In 1985 to 1989, he was at the St. Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish Church-Jersey City, and in 1988 at the Star of the Sea Parish Church in Long Branch.
“Coming to this part of the US is like coming home,” he said.