April 2006
Vol 5 Issue 1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me
Mk 15:34
Dear brothers and sisters,
It has been several months since the last issue of Letters of Aquila and Priscilla. My assignment at the United Nations has ended and we have returned to Manila. Since coming back to Manila, I have been preoccupied with writing my fourth spiritual book, The Aquila and Priscilla Anecdotes, as well as my second technical/academic book, Introduction to Knowledge Management.
By the grace of God, I have been requested to participate in our church’s reflection on the Seven Last Words of Jesus from the Cross on Good Friday from one to three in the afternoon. I have been asked to give a 15-minute reflection and prayer on the fourth last words of Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.
I sensed that God wanted me to resume writing Letters of Aquila and Priscilla. Indeed, we have received numerous inquiries why they have not been receiving new issues of the Letters.
And so as we reflect on the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior and then celebrate his resurrection on Sunday, we would like to share with you the first issue of Letters of Aquila and Priscilla for 2006.
May God bless you bountifully!
With our love and prayers,
JUN and JEAN
August 2006
Vol 5 Issue 5
They led him to the Areopagus
Acts 17:19
Dear brothers and sisters,
As we mentioned in our July email, we will focus our reflections during the months preceding the GMA Regional Conference on mission ad gentes. In line with the Phnom Penh Framework Plan of Action adopted in 2004, mission ad gentes will be carried out through dialogue with religions, dialogue with cultures, and dialogue with the poor. Last month’s reflection was on dialogue with religions. This month’s reflection is on dialogue with cultures.
The theme of the conference is taken from Acts 28:28: “This salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” The conference will be held at the Baan Phu Waan Pastoral Training Center of the Archdiocese of Bangkok, which is about an hour’s drive from Bangkok. The Center has 4-star facilities.
While this is a conference among the five Greater Mekong Area countries, namely, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, we encourage and welcome participants from all predominantly non-Christian countries, as well as the Philippines, of course. Thus, we would like to invite our brothers and sisters from Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Korea, Japan, China, Middle East countries and others. Needless to say, participants are also welcome from Christian countries interested in mission ad gentes, e.g. Australia, Canada, United States, and others.
Since accommodation in Baan Phu Waan is limited, we urge you to register online early at http://cfcthai.net/conference2006. Or respond to this email and we will inform the organizers in Thailand.
May God continue to pour out His blessings on you!
With our love and prayers,
JUN and JEAN
2006
May 2006
Vol 5 Issue 2
Listen to him
Mk 9:7
Dear brothers and sisters,
When we went on mission to Bangkok and Jakarta a few weeks ago, Jun gave a teaching on traveling and listening addressed specifically to all the leaders of the community. He compared the journey of the People of God under the leadership of Moses to our own spiritual journey in the community of Couples for Christ. And then he focused on that particular incident between God and Moses when Moses was clearly not listening to what God was telling him. We would like to share with you our reflection on the latter. We hope that this reflection will encourage all of us to listen more, not to serve less, not to pray less, but to listen more. And to be more aware of the fact that sometimes God talks to us through our brothers and sisters. May God bless us all – and may we learn to listen to Him more closely.
With our love and prayers,
JUN and JEAN
September 2006
Vol 5 Issue 6
God chose those who are poor to be rich in faith
Js 2:5
Dear brothers and sisters,
In July, we shared with you our reflections on dialogue with religions, and in August our reflections on dialogue with cultures. This month we would like to share with you our reflections on dialogue with the poor.
As we mentioned earlier, these are all in preparation for the GMA Regional Conference on Mission Ad Gentes to be held in Bangkok, Thailand on 8-10 December 2006. We encourage all of you to come. Please register on line at http://cfcthai.net/conference2006 or send us your names, the name of your CFC community, your service in CFC and contact numbers and we will forward the information to CFC Thailand. Detailed information about the conference are also available from this website, including the outputs of the two previous conferences in Bangkok in 2002 and in Phnom Penh in 2004.
Asia is urgently calling for mission ad gentes. We can no longer ignore this need. Hundreds of millions of people in Asia barely know or do not know Jesus Christ. Asia is home to two-thirds of the world’s population. It has ancient religions and cultures. It has over half of the world’s poor. Thus it is imperative that the proclamation of the Good News be done through dialogue with religions, cultures and the poor. The aim is not so much conversion as to make known the Story of Jesus – and to let the power of the Holy Spirit that flows through the Name of Jesus take care of the rest. The medium is proclamation and witnessing.
May “God who has chosen the poor to be rich in faith” also choose you to be His instrument in proclaiming the Good News of salvation and in witnessing Christ’s preferential love for the poorest of the poor.
May God bless you bountifully, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Star of Evangelization, whose birthday we celebrate today, shower you with her motherly love and protection.
With our love and prayers,
JUN and JEAN
June 2006
Vol 5 Issue 3
Show his power and majesty
Tb 13:6
Dear brothers and sisters,
Happy 25th Anniversary! Our community is 25 years old and God has guided us throughout these years. We praise and thank God for His faithfulness and love. As we reflect on our own journey with the Lord in the community of Couples for Christ, we encourage you to also ponder your own journey. It was a blessing to have met many of you during your visit to Manila to participate in the month-long Anniversary celebration. May God continue to bless us as we go for Gold. We love all of you!
With our love and prayers,
Jun and Jean Uriarte
October 2006
Vol 5 Issue 7
This salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles
Acts 28:28
Dear brothers and sisters,
Our GMA Regional Conference 2006 is fast approaching! Please visit the conference website at http://cfcthai.net to get detailed information about the conference and register on line (or just click the underlined address). Do not miss this conference. The Lord is urgently calling all of us to mission ad gentes.
This letter is the last of the series on mission ad gentes in preparation for the conference. We hope that the four letters we shared with you during the past four months would serve to encourage you to participate in the conference. Starting next month, we will resume the usual kind of reflection that we have been sharing with you in the past.
May the Lord bless you, touch you, and bring you to the conference!
We look forward to meeting you in December in Bangkok.
With our love and prayers,
JUN and JEAN
July 2006
Vol 5 Issue 4
Not even in Israel have I found such faith
Lk 7:9
Dear brothers and sisters,
In preparation for the GMA Regional Conference 2006 to be held in Bangkok, Thailand on 8-10 December 2006, we plan to focus our reflections during the coming months on mission ad gentes. In particular, we would like to reflect on the three dialogues (Dialogue with Religions, Dialogue with Cultures, and Dialogue with the Poor) as means for carrying out mission ad gentes.
The theme of the conference in December is taken from Acts 28:28: “Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”
We would like to invite all CFC communities in countries that are predominantly non-Christian to participate in the Greater Mekong Area (GMA) Regional Conference 2006 and share their views on how we could tell the Story of Jesus to our brothers and sisters from different religious traditions.
Please visit the CFC Thailand website for on-line registration and other information.
May the Holy Spirit continue to guide us in this mission ad gentes. God bless.
With our love and prayers,
JUN and JEAN
November 2006
Vol 5 Issue 8
A time to be born and a time to die
Ecc 3:2