Lenten Services

Beloved Friends and kababayans,

Happy Lenten Season! Today, Ash Wednesday is the beginning of our Lenten Journey. Masses were celebrated this morning and there will be more celebration in many different churches. The people were marked with ashes on their foreheads to prepare their hearts to receive the grace of God during this Holy Season. At Holy Trinity, the mass will be held at 7PM tonight.

Are you wondering what is going on in our community? Well, the 2010 Calendar of Events is now posted in our blog, click this link: http://filcomevents.blogspot.com/2010/02/2010-calendar-of-events.html.

As you can see, we will hold several events during this lent and you are invited to attend.

After the 10:00 am, Sunday Mass on Feb. 21, 2010, at The Grotto, there will be a reception in the conference center for Fr. Fred Biong. Please see this link for detailed info: http://filcomevents.blogspot.com/2010/02/farewell-to-fr-biong.html. Also, are you in the mood for a good crab dinner? The Grotto will hold their Crab Fest on Saturday, February 27th, at 5:00 PM. Kindly click this website for more info: http://filcomevents.blogspot.com/2010/02/crab-fest.html.

Saturday, March 6th at 10 AM, Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Vlasny at Our Lady of Sorrows and blessing of a relic of St. Therese. For more info: http://filcomevents.blogspot.com/2010/02/blessing-of-relic-of-st-therese.html.

Our community will host the St. Cecilia’s Soup Supper on Friday, March 12th at 6PM.

The Annual Pilgrimage for the Stations of the Cross at Mt. Angel Abbey will be held on Sunday, March 14th at 2:30 PM. We will be doing the prayer service in the St. Joseph's Chapel under the Church and a potluck reception will be followed in the St. Aquinas hall for our fellowship.

The 2nd Annual GSFAA Valentine's Party Dinner & Dance was a great success last Saturday hosted by the folks in Salem with the fine leaderships of John Alamarez and Maryann Gaviola. It was a well attended event.

And below is the Ash Wednesday reflection from Fr. John. Feel free to subscribe from his daily reflections.

May God continue to bless you and your families during this Lenten Season!

Maraming Salamat Po!
Monette

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After Carnival by Carl Spietzwig
Ash Wednesday
February 17, 2010

“Working together, then, we appeal to you to not receive the grace of God in vain.” 2 Cor. 6:1
The Infinite Blessings of God be upon you and all you met and pray for and this entire world as we begin Our 2010 Lenten journey together! I say “together” because we are on this journey to heaven together, helping each other to fully receive the grace of God, which perfects us in the image of Jesus. Imagine being one with Jesus who shines with boundless love!

May these reflections and this Holy Season in our church be a cause for valuable and specific growth in our spiritual lives. For the daily reflections, I am going with the format of a short challenge (I will try my best to be brief!!!) from the chosen Scripture verse and a prayer response. Sound good? OK, here we go…

Grace from the get-go. All of life is grace. We are made by grace, being saved by grace and grace will bring us to perfection in heaven. It is not what we do for heaven it is what heaven has done for us! This whole, Holy Season is about preparing our hearts to receive the grace of God. Jesus is the grace of God who has come to bring a broken world into the perfection of his boundless love.

Write down the grace. Name it. How is it that you are? How is it that you are forgiven? How is it that, for the Christian, death has no more sting? What has freed you from confusion, fear, selfishness and hatred and made you joyful?

Let us pray: “Lord God, you made me out of nothing so that I could live in your love forever. Help me to name and know and dance and sing your grace each moment of my life. Open the eyes of my heart to see that all of life is grace from the get-go. Amen”

We are all Blessed by the BEST- all the time,
+Fr. John
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To manage your subscription please go to http://www.holyfamilypdx.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=390&Itemid=178 and enter your email address and click "Add Me" or "Remove Me" If you have problems please email your request to frjohnmsgs@holyfamilypdx.org

Farewell to Fr. Biong

Hello,

Peace!

Fr. Biong is leaving for the Philippines on Feb. 25 after several months of service at the Grotto. After the 10:00 Sunday Mass on Feb. 21, 2010, there will be a reception at the conference center. The Grotto will provide coffee, tea, cake/cookies, fruits and we can add whatever food we can prepare.

Please spread the word and invite your friends, family and relatives to the Mass and reception to show our gratitude to Fr. Biong. Thanks.

God Bless,Marivic

"I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do".

Crab Fest at The Grotto

2010 Calendar of Events

Below is the 2010 Calendar of Events. Several members of the Filipino Community Core Team are involved in many different activies in their parishes and in their organizations which are included in this calendar. We are hoping this schedule will help us promote the affairs in our community and minimize assigning events on the same date. Double click the calendar for a better viewing.

Maraming Salamat Po!

2010 NWFASA Conference Sponsorship

Hello!

As most of you might know, I have been an active member in PSU's Fillipino American Student Association group Kaibigan planning the 16th annual Northwest Filipino American Student Alliance (NWFASA) Conference on April 9-11, 2010 at Portland State University. I would greatly appreciate it if you could take the time to look over the various opportunities and ways you can help make this event a success through various sponsorship packages that are available.

Please do not hesitate to pass this along to those whom you think might be interested in participating in our conference. Also, I apologize in advance to those who might receive this more than once.

Have a wonderful evening!


Sincerely,

Consuelo Rivera
welo.rivera@gmail.com Event Planner, Clowns Unlimited Secretary, Filipino American National Historical Society - Oregon Chapter Planning Volunteer, Northwest Filipino American Student Alliance Conference 2010
Member, PSU Kaibigan Filipino American Student Association

NWFASA Sponsorship Letter

Greetings!

Founded 16 years ago in Washington, the Northwest Filipino American Student Alliance (NWFASA) has grown to 16 student organizations from different campuses in the state of Washington and Oregon. Portland State University’s Kaibigan (FASA) is hosting the 16th annual NWFASA Conference on April 9-11, 2010, in Portland, Oregon on the campus of Portland State University. The conference is a weekend-long event for various Filipino-American student organizations from Oregon and Washington to gather and learn about leadership, networking, and team-building.

The theme of the conference this year, Isulong: Building, Creating, Forging Ahead, encompasses the whole objective that the NWFASA is trying to achieve – to empower Filipino American youth through workshops and speakers that will educate them about their history, identity, culture, and the important issues that are facing their community. By building a stronger community we begin creating a movement (Isulong) that will allow us to forge ahead towards social justice and social change.

With this in mind, PSU Kaibigan would like to extend a personal invitation to you and your organization to look into our group and our conference as vehicles to promote and strengthen the market positioning of your company brands/products. We believe that a partnership between (NAME OF COMPANY) and NWFASA will help you meet your marketing objectives which will be attained through the ingenuity of our promotional methods and the exposure that our upcoming conference will provide.

Please feel free to contact us for any specific queries that you may have. All monetary donations are tax deductible and we will send a receipt letter with our 501(c)3 Tax ID number. We are prepared to make reasonable concessions to facilitate any concerns that you may have in order to make our partnership more fruitful to both your company and our organization.

Thank you for your consideration. We sincerely hope that we will be able to work together as partners in making this event successful and are hoping for your immediate favorable response.

Sincerely,

Consuelo Rivera
Conference Planning Committee, NWFASA Conference 2010
welo.rivera@gmail.com

Irynne Padua
Conference Co-Chair, NWFASA Conference 2010
irynne_padua@hotmail.com

Greetings from Bishop Oscar Solis

My Dear “Kababayan”,

Greetings from Hollywood! Guess what – it’s been raining in Southern California and it feels I never left Portland, Oregon.

I apologize for this late communication. I long wished to extend my profound gratitude to all of you, the Filipino community in Oregon – Pinoy seminarians, the entire seminary community including the blonde honorary Pinoy seminarians as well as to the holy monks in Mt. Angel. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! You all have made my first visit to Portland awesome and exceptional – priceless! Memories of the event and your very warm hospitality are still vividly kept in my mind - from the day I sat foot at the airport till the last ride back to the terminal – superb and unforgettable in spite of the rain. You were such a gracious hosts and It was a blessing and also a privilege presiding and joining you in your celebration.

It was truly a joy to be a part of you Santo Nino celebration. I enjoyed every moment of it and was inspired by the spirit of solidarity among the Filipinos there, most especially our Pinoy bayanihan spirit very much visible in your endeavor. The Dambana ng Ina is a banner and a source of pride for us. I wish we can showcase this so many more people may come to discover this treasure at the National Shrine of our Sorrowful Mother.

Please know how grateful I am for everything you did for me during my stay in Portland. The visit was quite brief but filled happy and beautiful memories. As I keep you all close in my thoughts and prayers, I hope you include me in yours. Prayerful wishes of God’s blessings to everyone!

Mabuhay!
Bishop Oscar Solis
Auxiliary Bishop
Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Blessing of the relic of Saint Therese

Dear Family of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus -

Here is the flyer promoting our March 6 mass with Archbishop Vlazny - including the blessing of the relic of Saint Therese.

I pray that you can use the power of internet, and forward this flyer with a personal invitation from you, to all the people you know.

Let us use this event on March 6 as the grand debut of the Family of Saint Therese of the Chid Jesus, and I pray that God will bless our event with a crowded church, a lot of good publicity, and that many peoples hearts will be touched so that they feel moved to join our Family or support the good things that Deacon Vu is doing.

God bless you all!

your sister in Christ,

Kathleese

Rally for Life

Rally for Life on Feb 14th. Blessings to all. FYI


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