HCDC launched the Year of Faith

 The Holy Cross of Davao College community launched the Year of Faith last October 11, 2012 with a Eucharistic celebration presided by the school president Msgr. Julius Rodulfa.

The following article is taken from the Introduction of the Mass:

 

Today we have various reasons to be grateful and to celebrate as Universal Church for the grace-filled events and blessings for the Church.

First, today is the launching of the Marian Pilgrimage in our institution in celebration of the Month of the Holy Rosary and will culminate on December 7, 2012, during our celebration of the Immaculate Conception.

Second, today is the opening of the Year of faith declared by Pope Benedict the XVI which will conclude on November 24, 2013 during the Solemnity of Christ the King. This special year coincides with the Fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) and also the Twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). 

As a Filipino nation, we are favored indeed that on October 21 this year; the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI will add another Filipino to the Canon of saints of the Church, our very own Visayan proto-martyr Pedro Calungsod who gave his life for the faith on the morning of April 2, 1672 in Guam. The Canonization of Pedro Calungsod will take place under the brilliant light of these grace-filled blessings of the Church which includes the 13^th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which started last October 7 until October 28, 2012 with the theme: “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

How opportune indeed that today, is also the launching of the HCDC’s Evangelization Primer: Our journey… From Faith to truth, whose goal is to institutionalize the school’s thrust of Integral Evangelization.

And lastly, the year of faith also opens for the church in the Philippines a nine-year “spiritual journey” towards the 500^th year anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines on March 16, 1521. Thus, the journey starts October 21, 2012, ten days after the start of the Year of Faith today, and ends on March 16, 2021, a Jubilee Year.

We trust that our Blessed Mother, Stella Maris, and Mother of Evangelization, help us to welcome the Year of Faith.

The Mass ended with a final song entitled "Live Christ, share Christ", the theme song of the celebration of the 500th year anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines. The lyricist of the song is Archbishop Soc Villegas and composed and arranged by Ryan Cayabyab. The HCDC community sung it joyfully with animation headed by the John XXIII Catechetical Center Student Catechists. It was indeed a grace-filled celebration.