Our Lady of Lourdes Mass and Services Schedule F. Llamas St., Punta Princesa, 6000 Cebu City, Philippines

Masses: (Monday - Saturday)
5:30 am (Cebuano)
6:30 am (Cebuano)
6:00 pm (Cebuano: Anticipated Mass)

Sunday Masses:
AM
5:00 am (Cebuano)
6:30 am (Cebuano)
8:00 am (English)
9:15 am (Cebuano)
10:30 am (English/Deaf Mute)

PM
1:00 pm (Cebuano Funeral Mass)
3:00 pm (Cebuano/Children's Mass)
4:15 pm (Cebuano)
6:00 pm (Cebuano/Youth Mass)
7:15 pm (English)

Confessions:
Daily: 4:30 pm - 7pm
Sunday: In every Mass

Baptism:
10:00 am (Sundays Only)

Common Adoration and Benediction:
1st Thursday of the Month 5:00 pm
Every Saturday 5:00 pm

Every 11th of the Month
5:30 am (Mass at the Grotto)
8:00 am Rosary and Confessions
8:30 am Benediction and Blessing of the Sick
9:00 am Holy Mass for Healing

Every Saturday
5:00 pm adoration
6:00 pm anticipated mass
7:00 pm Candlelight Procession around church premises and ends at the Grotto (With a short Good Night talk and blessing of the People/Candles/Flowers and Water)

Pilgrimage at the Shrine:
Any time of the year or you may call the parish office for assistance: To receive the plenary indulgence granted by the church, ideal pilgrimage day is on Saturdays.
(032) 261-5393 local 105 look for Glenda, Laila or Angel

Donations: (for feeding center, calamities, bundles of joy, scholarship, etc)

Shrine Office and Religious Store Hours
Telephone: (032) 2615393 local 100
Monday - Saturday
8:30 am - 11:30 am
2:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Sunday
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
2:30 pm - 5: 00 pm

Catering Services
Telephone: (032) 2615393 local 118

Mortuary Reservations
Telephone: (032) 2615393 local 100

Gymnasium Use and Tarp Posting
Telephone: (032) 2615393 local 116

MASS SCHEDULE: Sto. Rosario Parish,P. del Rosario St., Cebu City

MON-SAT:

AM
5:00-Cebuano
5:45-Cebuano
6:30-English
7:00-English
8:00-English
8:45-Cebuano
12:15-English (Mon-Fri only)

PM
2:00-Cebuano
3:15-Cebuano (Wed @ 3:00pm)
4:00-Cebuano
4:45-English (Wed & *Sat @ 5pm)
5:30-English (Wed & *Sat @ 6pm)
6:15-English (except Wed & Sat)
7:00-English (except Thur)
note: * - anticipated mass

Additional Mass Schedule:
10:00am & 1:00pm (Wed-Cebuano)
10:30am (Fri-Cebuano)

Sunday Masses:

AM
4:45-Cebuano
6:00-Cebuano
7:15-English
8:30-Cebuano
9:45-English
11:00-English

PM
2:00-English
3:15-Cebuano
4:30-Cebuano
5:45-Cebuano
7:00-English
8:15-English

Confessions: Mon-Sat
8am-9am
4pm-7pm

A Short Prayer in Urgent Needs

I have employed a short prayer formula that worked in very urgent situations. This formula is the set of one "Our Father", one "Hail Mary", and one "Glory Be". This formula is just the combination of the usual short prayers we have known and recited from grade school. I have tried it a few times and it did worked to my advantage.

The way to say it is to dedicate the prayers for a certain soul to benefit in purgatory. Alternatively, you may offer it for the sake of the sins of the world. Mentally say to God that you offer it in exchange for a very urgent petition. You don't just recite them like we used to do in grade school. You need to say them, even just mentally, but you need to mean every word that is in them. In my case, I tried to pray with them repeatedly every time I was bothered, dedicating each set to a soul in purgatory. That way, you are not only helping yourself but also making other entity benefit from your effort, in this case, the soul.

On one hand, the prayer, "Our Father" is supposed to be a very powerful prayer because it was taught to us by Jesus in the Bible. On the other hand, the "Hail Mary" is a meditation of God's plan of salvation and deliverance through Mary and Jesus. The "Glory be" is the proclamation of praise and honor due God in the person of the Trinity. These prayers, however, are often taken for granted by us Christians most probably desensitized of their importance because of their prevalence in usage. We need to remember, though, that they are not ordinary prayers but ones which summarize the story our salvation.

At times, at the end of each set I would include a short prayer of offering taken from the chaplet of mercy:

"Eternal Father, I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the atonement of our sins and of the whole world. For the sake of Jesus' sorrowful passion have mercy on us and the whole world.Amen".

Bear in mind that you do not abuse the prayers to a petition that you think is against the will of God.

When One Falls

Throughout our whole life, we always have fallen in terms of our spiritual life. Even though living in the grace of light has always been a desire there never was a time that we haven't fallen in the holes of darkness. Literally, there were always times that we sinned grievously, then doubted. It usually results from our weak and selfish human nature. As a consequence, we tend to lag behind in our pursuit of the spiritual grace. In other words, we stop attending church, we cease to pray and we pretend that we are alright. However, deep in our hearts we do feel remorse yet we tend to fight back because of our pride. At times our guilt would have us say "I'm too ashamed even to talk to God!". By this, we are assuming our own fate as sinners, that we no longer deserve to have a place before Him, that we have no hope and that we will, for the rest of our life, rot in hell being sinful. However, this attitude is not going to help us in any way, and that for being steadfast in these assumptions, we surely will rot in hell! To sum up, we make our pride rule our life and this pull us backward from God's grace. For sure, none of us wants to be in the eternal fire but forget the simple truth that we can actually escape that punishment. Well, we do know how to be spared from condemnation - that we just need to get up, feel sorry, take the sacraments and try hard not to commit the same sins again. Nonetheless, we still find it hard and lose patience with the cycle that repeats itself. We lose count and think that God's "seventy times seventy times" have but all ran out. We go on living a wretched life, unable to regain the grace that's supposed to be free, abundant and impartial. We fail to get up from the fall and choose to crawl. We refuse to lift our hands to God always eagerly waiting to pick us up. We choose to do so, because we lack one basic attitude - humility, which is one thing that God wants from us.

The True Christmas

A country with a long christmas celebration, the Philippines, is currently in the mood for the season. Everywhere, there are a host of ornaments symbolizing the christmas spirit. Christmas trees stand in homes, government and commercial establishments differing in sizes from a few inches to incredible tens to hundred feet tall. It is good to see this tradition as a way of promoting goodwill. There have also been a lot of Santa stuff that are visible everywhere in the form of posters, toys, and individuals dressed in Santa clothes. Amazingly, there are motorized or automated santa mannequins smiling, waving hands, or twisting their robust body at the delight of the kids. They are something to be acclaimned in effecting temporary relief especially in these times of grim life brought about by the current world economy. However, what comes to my mind is that it would be a lot better, and of course, more meaningful if people would promote the real symbol of Christmas, the Nativity Scene. People should have erected Nativity structures as big as the towering christmas trees, and as splendidly lighted in the night. They should also have put some creative touch to them to capture peoples' hearts. Supposedly, people should have been amazed at them more than they should be with the other symbols because it is through the scene that we see hope. It is depicted through the scene that we are made the most significant creation, uplifted in spirit and branded as true children of God. The scene tells us the best and fitting story about christmas.