The Salt and Light

Historical Timeline of Sta. Rosa De Lima Parish Church Sta. Rosa de Lima Parish Church originated in 1792 with the arrival of Fray Francisco Favie of the Dominican Order. Prior to this foundation, our town was only a barrio of Binan, and was named "Bucol" because some of the southern and western parts were hilly.  The first “parish church or house of worship” was a"Bisita" constructed on the lot beside the Municipal Hall, then, known as the "Presidencia". The original Municipal Hall is now Museo de Sta Rosa. "Bisita" still stands and became the Police Headquarters and Municipal Jail in the old days. SPANISH ERA In 1780, the Spanish friars started the construction of the present Catholic Church and recruited labor from China who later became descendants of the old Chinese families in Santa Rosa like the Lijauco’s and the Tiongco’s. The old convent became the main building of the Canossa School. Both the church and the convent were comp...

The Santo Niño de Tondo is a Catholic title of the Child Jesus associated with a religious image of the Christ Child. The image was brought to the Philippines during the expedition of Andres de Urdaneta and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi in 1564, and is the second-oldest image of the Child Jesus in the Philippines after the Santo Niño de Cebu.  And in the year 1572 the first feast of Sto. Nino de Tondo was inaugurated. According to Histographers, the feast can be compared to the Mardi-gras festival. but others say that the first feast of the Sto. Niño de Tondo can be compared to the Ati-Atihan Festival. The people of Tondo first did the practice of putting charcoal on their skins for the feast of Sto. Niño. Later, this celebration disappeared.  But when the Parish Priest Fr. Erick Santos was appointed, he gave color to the festival again and called it the Lakbayaw Festival in 2002. The Lakbayawa Festival is about traveling, dancing and praying to the Child Jesus. It is st...

According to the Catholic Church, the celebration of Easter of the Lord does not have an exact date in our current calendar.  This is because the celebration is based on the FIRST SUNDAY following the FIRST full moon during or after the MARCH OR VERNAL EQUINOX.  The equinox is the time when the length of day and night is equal. According to the Bible, JESUS ​​died on the cross on the day of the Jewish Passover; and this feast is celebrated on the first full moon after the MARCH OR VERNAL EQUINOX.  If you look up at the sky tonight, you will notice the moon turning. This means that the TURNING OF THE LORD is approaching where Jesus himself is the spotless lamb who will sacrifice himself for our sins.

Padre Pio was once asked what was the problem with clapping at Mass? He replied: "At Calvary, there were also who applauded the death of Christ's death: the soldiers and the demons." "Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, when He was about to offer Himself once on the altar of the Cross to God the Father, making intercession by means of His death, so that He might gain there an eternal redemption, since His priesthood was not to be extinguished by death, at the last Supper, 'on the night that he was handed over', left to His beloved Spouse the Church a visible sacrifice, such as the nature of man requires, by which the bloody sacrifice achieved once upon the Cross might be represented and its memory endure until the end of the age, and its saving power be applied to the remission of those sins which are daily committed by us."

Lent  is the 40 days before Easter in which Catholics pray, fast, contemplate, and engage in acts of spiritual self-discipline. Catholics do these things because Easter, which celebrates the Resurrection of Christ, is the greatest holy day of the Christian year (even above Christmas) and Catholics have recognized that it is appropriate to prepare for such a holy day by engaging in such disciplines. (Archbishop Fulton Sheen noted that the Protestant attitude is summarized by the line, “First comes the feast, then comes the hangover,” while the Catholic attitude is “First comes the fast, then comes the feast.”) The reason Lent lasts 40 days is that 40 is the  traditional number  of judgment and spiritual testing in the Bible (Gn 7:4, Ex 24:18, 34:28, Nm 13:25, 14:33, Jon 3:4). Lent bears particular relationship to the 40 days Christ spent fasting in the desert before entering into his public ministry (Mt 4:1-11). Catholics imitate Christ by spending 40 days in spiritual dis...

Lent , in the Christian  church , a period of penitential preparation for  Easter . In Western churches it begins on  Ash Wednesday , six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides a 40-day period for  fasting and  abstinence  (Sundays are excluded), in imitation of  Jesus Christ ’s fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. Almsgiving, the practice of giving money or food to the poor and performing other acts of  charity , is also encouraged. In Eastern churches Lent begins on the Monday of the seventh week before Easter and ends on the Friday that is nine days before Easter. This 40-day “Great Lent” includes Saturdays and Sundays as relaxed fast days. A period of preparation and fasting likely has been observed before the Easter  festival  since apostolic times, though the practice was not formalized until the  First Council of Nicaea  in 325 CE. It was a time of preparation of candidates for  bapti...