Saturday, June 24, 2017

Third Courage Orientation Seminar 2017



Searching for true love?

We can only find it in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

If you have same-sex attraction and seek to know Jesus' love more deeply through His Church, sign up for the Courage introduction seminar on July 15, Saturday, 2-6 p.m. Find out more how the Church can help you in your struggle. Courage is the Roman Catholic Apostolate for persons with same-sex attraction.

Send us a PM on our FB page or contact the following to reserve slots and for more details:

Edwin 0916-313-7249

Olan 0936-932-6532

May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus draw us all closer into His love.


Monday, May 29, 2017

Obra Maestra: A Marriage and Family Conference



On the 36th anniversary of CFC (Couples for Christ), everyone is invited to discover the beauty of the family in light of St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body in a conference entitled Obra Maestra: A Marriage and Family Conference to be held at the SMX Convention Center on June 18, 2017 (Sunday). One of the speakers is our beloved spiritual director, Fr. Daniel Healy, who will deliver a talk on the topic of same-sex attractions entitled Living the Truth in Love.  For tickets/inquiries, please call or text Ms. Maia Tolentino at (0998) 9020426 or you can register here directly: https://www.cfchomeoffice.com/events/obra-maestra


About the Speakers




Damon Owens, an international speaker and evangelist for over 20 years, is the founder and executive director of joytob. Following four-years as the first executive director of the Theology of the Body Institute in Philadelphia, he served as Chairman of the 2016 International Theology of the Body Congress. In 2002 after 16 years in the technology sector, he sold out of his firm and founded Joy-Filled Marriage New Jersey, and New Jersey Natural Family Planning Association, non-profit organizations dedicated to building a marriage culture through training, seminars, and conferences. Damon and his wife Melanie taught Natural Family Planning (NFP) for 14 years, and served as NFP Coordinators for the Archdiocese of Newark (NJ).

A Certified Speaker for the Theology of the Body Institute, National Trainer for Ascension Press, and presenter at the 2015 World Meeting of Families, Damon keeps a full international speaking schedule at conferences, marriage seminars, universities, high schools, seminaries, and parishes on the good news of marriage, sexuality, Theology of the Body, Theology of the Family, adoption, and NFP.

Damon currently lives outside Philadelphia with his wife Melanie and their eight children.

(Source: www.joytob.org)





Our Director, Fr. Daniel Healy, was born and raised in Minnesota. In 1983 he graduated from the University of Dallas. While at the University, he met a couple of men who knew of the Anawim Community. He visited the Community in Corning, New York in 1980. In 1984, he moved to Corning and joined the Community. For many years he worked closely with Anawim’s founder, Fr. Francis Marino.

In 1994 he received an M.A. in Religious Studies at the Institute of Religious Studies, on the campus of St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, New York. Later that year he was sent to the Philippines to help establish a new Anawim Center in Las Piñas. While in the Philippines, he made a retreat, during which he became aware of his call to the priesthood. After completing his studies at Divine Word School of Theology in the Philippines, he was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Alaminos, Pangasinan in 2001.

With his health failing, Fr. Francis Marino stepped down as Director of the Community in 2002 and Fr. Daniel was voted in as Director. Along with his duties as Director and priestly duties serving the needs of Community members, Fr. Daniel serves the local parish, Mary, Mother of the Church.

For over fifteen years he has also been spiritual director to members of Courage Philippines. Courage is an international Catholic apostolate which ministers to persons with same-sex attractions. He is also on the staff of Anawim’s periodical booklet of liturgical meditations, Pondering the Word the Anawim Way.


(Source: www.anawim.com)

Saturday, May 13, 2017

The Five Fatima Prayers That Every Catholic Should Know About


Today marks the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima's first apparition to the shepherd children. This extraordinary event invites us to rediscover the relevance of the Fatima messages in our present day and age and we do so by incorporating these special Fatima prayers during our prayer time.

The apparition of an angel and Our Lady to three poor children in Fatima, Portugal in the early 20th century is one of the most famous miracles in the Catholic world.

The children received many messages, mostly calling for personal conversion and prayer, as well as the words of 5 new prayers.

The first prayer is one many Catholics are likely already familiar with, but the other 4 are not as well-known.

Here are the 5 prayers given to the children at Fatima:

1) The Fatima Prayer/Decade Prayer

“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.”

Mary told the children that people should add this prayer to the end of each decade of the Rosary.


2) The Pardon Prayer

“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I beg pardon for all those that do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee.”

This prayer was given to the children by the angel that visited them in 1916, the year before Mary appeared to them.


3) The Angel’s Prayer

“O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”

This is another prayer given to them by the angel. There was a Eucharistic host and chalice suspended in the air, and the angel led them in kneeling before it and praying this prayer.


4) The Eucharistic Prayer

“Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”

When Mary appeared to the children for the first time on May 13, 1917, she said, “You will have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.” According to Lucia, one of the children, a bright light shone all around them, and without thinking about it, they all started reciting this prayer.


5) The Sacrifice Prayer

“O Jesus, it is for the love of Thee, in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and for the conversion of poor sinners [that I do this].”

Mary gave the children this prayer, as well as the Fatima Prayer/Decade Prayer, on June 13th, 1917. The prayer is meant to be recited when you are offering up suffering to God.

So get praying!


[Source: Church Pop]

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Feast of the Divine Mercy



From Sr. Faustina's Diary: Jesus' Promise on His Feast of Mercy:

"Once, as I was going down the hall to the kitchen, I heard these words in my soul:

Say unceasingly the chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death.

Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation.

Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy.

I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy.

I heard these words:

"My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable Mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the Fount of My Mercy.

The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain COMPLETE FORGIVENESS of sins and punishment.

On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.

Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity."

The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter.
Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy. "


This year's Feast of the Divine Mercy is on April 23.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Litany of Humility


The Litany of Humility is a beautiful litany that will help us grow in the virtue of humility composed by Rafael Cardinal Merry de Val (1865-1930), the Secretary of State for Pope St. Pius X. Pride is one of the deadly sins and we should strive to do our best to root out this sin in our soul. Jesus Christ is our perfect model of humility. He asks us to learn from Him for he is "meek and humble of heart" (Matt 11:29). The picture above depicts the Crowning of Thorns when Jesus bore all kinds of insults, mockery, and humiliation in order to atone of this sin. 

Read also The Twelve Degrees of Humility by St. Benedict.


O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. 
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus. (repeat after each line)

From the desire of being loved, 
From the desire of being extolled, 
From the desire of being honored, 
From the desire of being praised, 
From the desire of being preferred to others, 
From the desire of being consulted, 
From the desire of being approved, 

From the fear of being humiliated, 
From the fear of being despised, 
From the fear of suffering rebukes, 
From the fear of being calumniated, 
From the fear of being forgotten, 
From the fear of being ridiculed, 
From the fear of being wronged, 
From the fear of being suspected, 

That others may be loved more than I, 
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. (repeat after each line) 
That others may be esteemed more than I , 
That, in the opinion of the world, 
others may increase and I may decrease, 
That others may be chosen and I set aside, 
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, 
That others may be preferred to me in everything, 
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should. 



Saturday, March 25, 2017

First Courage Information Seminar 2017


Courage Philippines will be having its first introduction seminar on same-sex attraction on April 22, 2017 (Saturday) from 2 to 6 p.m. Kindly refer to the poster above for details. You can also send us a message on our FB page.  Feel free to pass this around.

Friday, March 17, 2017

NOT Born That Way


Hi guys!

Turn up your speakers and listen to this round table discussion by Church Militant hosts on the subject of homosexuality. Also, kindly include in your prayers Joseph Nicolosi, a pioneer of reparative therapy, who passed away last March 8, 2017.

Here is the link: http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/gays-are-suffering-and-can-get-help 

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Lent 2017



Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of the Lenten Season. Let us make this Lent fruitful by reflecting on our life, performing works of mercy and acts of mortification, and spending more time in prayer. Today is also a day of fasting and abstinence.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Plenary Indulgences at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel


Last Monday, I had the chance to attend the Episcopal Coronation of the image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in QC and learned that the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel has been granted a Spiritual Bond of Affinity with the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major by the Apostolic Penitentiary last November 2016, which affords the faithful to gain Plenary Indulgences:

1. On the titular feast day of the Liberian Basilica (Aug. 5);

2. On the titular feast day of the Church itself;

3. On all the solemnities of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God;

4. Once a year, on a day to be chosen by every faithful freely;

5. As often as a group of pilgrims go there for reason of devotion.

(These indulgences are granted under the customary conditions.)

The Mt. Carmel Church is the fourth Marian church in the Philippines to be affiliated with the Basilica of St. Mary Major after Caysasay, Manaoag, and Sto. Domingo churches. The shrine is located along Dona Juana Rodriguez Ave. (formerly Broadway Ave.) New Manila, Quezon City. It is a few blocks away from LRT-2 Gilmore station. I highly encourage everyone to visit this beautiful church especially this coming Lent.

Confessions will be available in the shrine on March 1, Ash Wednesday (Day of Fasting and Abstinence), at St. Joseph Bldg from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Masses will also be held on the same day throughout the day (6 a.m., 7:15 a.m. 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 5 p.m, 6:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.)

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Walk for Life 2017


February is not just the love month but also a pro-life month. Let us show our love and support by attending Walk for Life on February 18, 2017 (Saturday) at the Quirino Grandstand.  Support the pro-life cause by offering prayers and making a stand on life issues that are currently facing us. Refer to the poster above for full details and feel free to share this post on social media. Love life!

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

10 Forgotten Facts About Fatima


As we celebrate the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima this year, let us recall some important facts that will help us better understand the central message of Fatima which is that of repentance and conversion. Kindly offer a Hail Mary before you read this post in honor of our Lady.


1. A seventh apparition

Our Lady appeared six times at Fatima from May 1917 to October 1917. However, during the first apparition, Our Lady mentioned that she will return to Cova the Iria, the site of the apparition, a seventh time. In her own words Our Lady said,

“I have come here to ask you to come here for six months in succession on the thirteenth day of each month at this same hour. Later I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterward, I will return here a seventh time.”

Although Fatima specialists differ in their opinions with regard to its interpretation, nothing against Faith prevents a Catholic to hope and confide that this promise would be fulfilled in the near future. Certainly it is a glorious and most singular event a faithful Catholic could eagerly look forward to especially in our confusing and chaotic times. Perhaps, the seventh apparition would usher in the time of peace that St. Louis Grignion de Montfort described as the Reign of Mary and which Our Lady prophesied as the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.


2. The Rosary and Purgatory

Also on the above occasion, Our Lady revealed to the three children that Francisco must say many Rosaries before he will go to Heaven and that a certain Amelia will be in Purgatory until the end of the world.

Here, Our Lady reiterates the salutary practice of praying the most Holy Rosary as a means to save one’s soul and offers it as a guarantee to Francisco’s safe passage to Heaven - certainly an invaluable counsel from the Queen of Heaven and Earth.

She likewise points out the very reality of the existence of Purgatory and even cites a striking example of a poor yet already saved soul who will endure its purifying fires till the end of the world. According to the research done by Father Sebastião Martins dos Reis, Amelia died under circumstances involving dishonor in matters of chastity. Shocking as this fact may had been to Father Thomas McGlynn, O.P. during his own interview, Sister Lucia recalled that more tragic were those souls who suffered the fires of hell forever because of a single mortal sin!


3. The difference between the Angel’s and Our Lady’s apparitions

The children’s physical, emotional and psychological experience with the Angel of Portugal and Our Lady were different. In her memoirs, Sister Lucia writes,

“I do not know why, but the fact is that the apparitions of Our Lady had a very different effect on us. There was the same intimate gladness, the same peace and happiness. But instead of physical weariness, we felt a certain expansive liveliness, a sense of glee instead of that annihilation in the Divine Presence, a certain communicative enthusiasm instead of that difficulty in speaking…”

One stark contrast between the angel and Our Lady is their different natures. The former is pure spirit while the latter is flesh and spirit; body and soul. The angel’s superior nature drained much energy from the children which left them in a state of annihilation.

Since the children are of the same nature as Our Lady, one could surmise that this may explain why the children were more at ease with Our Lady. The human nature they shared with Our Lady found a pleasing and lively consonance with her. One could feel assurance and confidence in Lucia’s observation and experience that, indeed, Our Lady was assumed into Heaven in both body and soul – a dogma of the Faith.


4. The importance of prayer, penance, sacrifices and mortification for the conversion of sinners.

While it is true that the above is the constant and recurring theme of Our Lady’s Fatima message, it behooves Catholics to understand how and why it is so; especially in modern minds where the notion of mortification and penance is watered down or simply brushed aside as archaic or medieval.

The gravity of the moral crisis pervasive in the world requires continued prayers, penances and sacrifices which prompted the three children especially little Francisco and Jacinta to practice them to an extreme and heroic degree. At the height of their innocence, the two younger children understood their necessity and offered themselves admirably as expiatory victims. But Our Lady’s appeal for prayer and penance made to the children also applies to the rest of mankind.

According to Father Fredrick William Faber, D.D. in his book, Growth in Holiness, much is to be gained by us lesser mortals in the practice of mortification for it tames the body and brings the unruly passions under the control of grace and our superior will. It increases the range of our spiritual vision and makes our conscience more sensitive to the discernment of the subtleties that separate not only those between venial and mortal sins but also those between what is faulty and imperfect.

Suffering easily becomes power in the things of God. For isn’t it true that Our Lord redeemed mankind through His bloody sacrifice and immense suffering on Calvary?

Leading mortified lives encourages us to persevere in prayer, gives us strength in resisting temptations, makes us unworldly and frees our heart from earthly vanities and attachments.


5. The persecutions suffered by the children from family and friends, people and media because of the apparitions

Lucia, in particular, was most aggrieved by the incredulity of her mother and kin as well as by the withdrawal of their affectionate treatment of her. Her sufferings were much more intensified given her tender age.

Francisco and Jacinta fared better within their family for their parents never held a hostile attitude towards the apparitions. Yet, they weren’t spared from the jokes and wisecracks of neighbors and from the laughter and sneers of by-standers along the road.

The skeptical and secular media of their day were no less forgiving in subjecting them to ridicule and sarcasm. Nationwide, newspapers staged a bitter campaign of hatred and denigration to discredit the apparitions.

Nevertheless, despite all these ill-treatment and vitriolic affronts, the children bore them with admirable patience and charity always mindful of Our Lady’s request to offer their sacrifices for the sake of poor sinners. An edifying example one should emulate in the daily inconveniences one encounters everyday. Here one is reminded of St. Therése of the Child Jesus’ little way.


6. Modifications to the Five First Saturday Devotion to facilitate its practice

The original request of Our Lady asks one to confess and receive Communion on five consecutive first Saturdays; to say five decades of the Rosary; to meditate during 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary for the purpose of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in reparation for the sins of men.

In subsequent private visions and apparitions however, Sister Lucia presented to Our Lord the difficulties that devotees encountered in fulfilling some conditions. With loving condescension and solicitude, Our Lord deigned to relax the rules to make this devotion easy to observe:

>> Confession may be done on other days other than the First Saturday so long as one receives Our Lord worthily and has the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

>> Even if one forgets to make the intention, it may be done on the next confession, taking advantage of the first occasion to go to confession.

>> Sister Lucia also clarified that it is not necessary to meditate on ALL mysteries of the Rosary on each First Saturday. One or several suffice.

With much latitude granted by Our Lord Himself, there is no reason for the faithful to hesitate or delay this pious practice in the spirit of reparation which the Immaculate Heart of Mary urgently asks.


7. Reasons for the Five First Saturdays Devotion

This may seem academic to some but it would be good to recapitulate here the reasons for they can be forgotten. Devotions have intentions attached to them and knowing them adds merit and weight to the practice.

The five first Saturdays correspond to the five kinds of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They are:

a. Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception
b. Blasphemies against her virginity
c. Blasphemies against her divine maternity, at the same time the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all men
d. Instilling indifference, scorn and even hatred towards this Immaculate Mother in the hearts of children
e. Direct insults against Her sacred images


8. A greater miracle denied

Sister Lucia revealed later in her life that the miracle of the sun could have been greater had the children not been abducted by Arthur Oliveira Santos, the cruel and conniving administrator of the Administrative Council of Vila Nova de Ourém. She originally expressed this remarkable detail in the interrogation done by Father Manuel Marques Ferreira on August 21, 1917, two days after the apparition but which she left out in her 1941 report.

Here is a fitting example of a transgression committed against the wishes of Our Lady which she left unpunished. Though no fault of the children, it is lamentably sad to note that the multitudes at Fatima on the afternoon of October 13, 1917 were deprived of a far greater miracle if not for the deception, trickery and malice of civil authorities.


9. Unknown light or Aurora Borealis?

Sister Lucia considered the extraordinary light that illuminated the skies of Europe on the night of January 25-26, 1938 during the hours of 8:45 p.m. to 1:15 a.m., as “the great sign” - the unknown light that Our Lady predicted that would signal that war was near.

Astronomers and skeptic brush it off as a mere aurora borealis though its character was remarkably unprecedented.

Interestingly enough, the book, The Secrets of Fatima explains:

"This aurora appeared as far south as Galicia, Spain, where Sister Lucy was then cloistered, and she, the only survivor of the three Fatima shepherds, recognized it immediately as the sign. Visible even to Pius XI in Rome, the unprecedented aurora was accompanied by a ‘crackling' sound, possibly attributable to discharges of atmospheric energy. Indeed, in many areas of Europe, panic broke out; as the populace concluded that the world was on fire and that the End had come."

The New York Times for January 26, 1938, carried the following:

"London, January 25th, 1938. The Aurora Borealis rarely seen in Southern or Western Europe spread fear in parts of Portugal and lower Austria tonight while thousands of Britons were brought running into the streets in wonderment. The ruddy glow led many to think half the city was ablaze. The Windsor Fire Department was called out thinking that Windsor Castle was afire. The lights were clearly seen in Italy, Spain, and even Gibraltar. The glow bathing snow-clad mountain tops in Austria and Switzerland was a beautiful sight but firemen turned out to chase non-existent fires. Portuguese villagers rushed in fright from their homes fearing the end of the world."


10. Jacinta’s last words:

Tempered and molded by extraordinary penance and sacrifice, 10-year-old Jacinta proved to be precocious and prophetic in her vision of things. She had many private apparitions and countless revelations. Such was her supernatural illumination and holy wisdom that Mother Godinho, the directress of the Lisbon orphanage where Jacinta stayed prior to her death in the hospital, could only ask in awe and wonder, “Who taught you all these things?” The following statements uttered by Jacinta showed her depth of soul in face of the moral decay ravishing the world:

>> The sins which cause most souls to go to Hell are the sins of the flesh.

>> To be pure of body is to keep chastity. To be pure in soul is not to commit sins, not look at what one should not see, not to steal, never to lie, always to tell the truth however hard it may be.

>> Fashions that will greatly offend Our Lord will appear. People who serve God should not follow fashions. The Church has no fashions. Our Lord is always the same.

>> Doctors do not have the light to cure the sick because they do not have love of God

>> Priests should only occupy themselves with the affairs of the Church. Priests should be pure, very pure. The disobedience of priests and religious to their superiors and to the Holy Father greatly offends Our Lord.

>> To be a woman religious, it is necessary to be very pure in soul and body.

>> Many marriages are not good; they do not please Our Lord, and they are not of God.

>> Confession is a sacrament of mercy. Therefore, one must approach the confessional with confidence and joy.

>> My godmother, pray much for those who govern! Woe to those who persecute the religion of Our Lord. If the government left the Church in peace and gave freedom to the holy Faith, it would be blessed by God.

>> Wars are nothing but punishments for the sins of the world.

>> Our Lady can no longer hold back the arm of her beloved Son from the world. It is necessary to do penance. If people change their ways, Our Lord will still spare the world; but if they do not, the chastisement will come.


Source:  America Needs Fatima

Monday, January 9, 2017

Courage Orientation Seminar Batch 1 2017


Courage Philippines will have its first orientation seminar this year on January 21, Saturday, at 2 p.m. onwards in Makati City. For those interested to attend, you may contact the following for reservation and more details:

Bro. Edwin 0916 313 7249, email: edwin.courageous@gmail.com

Bro. Olan 0936 932 6532, email: olan.st.bernard@gmail.com

A blessed feast of the Black Nazarene to all!