Greenbelt Chapel celebrates silver jubilee

09/07/2008

At the center of the country’s busiest business district lies a refuge for the mind and soul. For 25 years, the Greenbelt Chapel, dedicated to the workers of Makati, has been a bastion of God’s excessive love for a community constantly dealing with office stress and concern for material gain.

What started as a dream by founders Atty. Nordy and Fanny del Rosario Diploma in 1979 has now become a stronghold for God’s presence. Inspired by St. Patrick’s Cathedral of New York City, the Greenbelt Church is shaped as a sanctuary that provides a breather and symbol for lasting gift for the busy working people of Makati.

The celebration of the chapel’s silver jubilee is a renewal of the chapel’s mission of God’s presence and presents.

“We cannot have the ‘presents of God’ apart from the ‘presence of God.’ A believer only fully accepts the gift of God as he likewise grows and matures in the presence of God. A follower of Jesus can truly have the presents because of being in Jesus’s presence. Our presents are only meaningful insofar as we remain in God’s presence” explains Fr. Sescon.

Highlighting the celebration was a pontifical mass on Aug. 13 with His Eminence Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales as main celebrant and co-celebrated by Greenbelt chaplain Fr. Jun Sescon plus guest bishops and priests.

The faithful who participate in the liturgical services of the chapel with proper observance of penitence may receive God’s present of Plenary Indulgence. By that, churchgoers receive remissions of the entire temporal punishment due to sin already confessed so that no further expiation is required in purgatory. This special gift was bestowed by Pope Benedict XVI as supreme head of the church and who alone can grant plenary indulgences for this occasion.

The observance of the celebration started last July 2 with thematic masses held every Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. Special priest presiders are former chaplains and after the mass, spiritual talks follow which highlights CHILD (Communio, Holiness, Involvement, Love and Docility) values of the chapel.

Aug. 4 marked the start of the novena masses, which is still part of the spiritual formation activities. Special priest presiders are bishops from all over the country representing the different dioceses ail over the country.

On Aug. 12, eve of the anniversary, the Greenbelt Chapel was given a special jubilee treat to the Sto. Nino de Paz Community. This featured their very own singing priests and to be joined by the chapel’s homegrown charismatic group called the Emmanuel Catholic Charismatic Community.

And just as presence and presents are inseparable, celebration and sharing went together.

Greenbelt Chapel’s silver jubilee celebration is also a calling for everyone to become God’s presence and presents.

The Greenbelt Chapel has a continuing outreach program to the poor parishes in the Philippines extending monthly financial support to 407 parishes, and still counting. The Love-A-Parish-Program benefits parishes and institutions like Caritas Manila, Missionaries of Charity, Poor Clares, Little Sisters of the Poor, and other religious and charitable institutions.

God’s presents of mercy also abound through the chapel’s other activities. The chapel has whole day confession introduced during the great jubilee year of 2000. The chapel also offers counseling services and regular Christian formation programs for the faithful.

As dedicated, the busy office employees and working people of Makati have a home of spiritual communion and celebration with God, self, family and the society, an oasis of tranquility and spiritual sustenance, that is the Greenbelt Chapel.

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