Easter 2016 Message

Jesus's death on the cross was a spectacle that made people leave Calvary beating their breasts (Luke 23:48). The act of beating one's breast signifies sorrow or contrition, the way we strike our breasts during the "I confess" part in the Mass particularly at the words "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."

Through the various acts of piety and mercy we have done in Lent, we have expressed sorrow for our sins. Through these various acts we have, figuratively speaking, beat our breasts.

And yet, the story does not end with Jesus' horrible dying. Three days later, He rose again from the dead as He has spoken.  Just when people thought that Jesus was a false Messiah, a hoax, a complete failure, lo and behold Him appearing to His followers saying "Peace be with you" (John 20:21). God is indeed a God of surprises. 

As Jesus killed sin and death by His self-sacrifice on the cross, His resurrection has given us new life, a life united with Him!  How great is God's mercy indeed!

And what should be our response to such great mercy?  It is summed up in a short, but meaningful prayer: Jesus, I trust in You!

As we celebrate our Lord's Resurrection let us strive to be more trustful of His mercy. Less beating of breasts, more beating of heart for Him and for others especially those who are still left in the dark, those who have rejected or doubted God's mercy, and those who have not yet known Jesus.

I would like to take this opportunity too to thank you for your continued support especially in our annual Holy Week special, The Seven Last Words. My special thanks go to Berwyn Bautista, Fr Judy Banez, Beth Dantes, Ana Payod-Balla, Carlo Malaluan, and Judith Castro-Songlingco for sharing their reflections in this year's devotion. 

Thanks too to Allan Dabu for designing our poster, Mike Flores for designing our layout, Grace Madrinan for posting the reflections in our Facebook page, and Vlad Reyes for liaising with Arzobispado de Manila and for writing the Epilogue.  Last but not least, thank you to His Eminence Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle for writing the Prologue. I hope that this devotion has enhanced your spiritual journey towards Easter.

In behalf of the web’s Editorial Board and staff, I wish you all a blessed Easter!

May the Risen Jesus, the Face of the Father's Mercy, bless you all!

Ang inyong manong,

Pietro S. Albano

Editor-in-Chief

A Rich Harvest, A New Life

These past few days, we recalled Jesus’ words that “unless a wheat of grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest” (John 12:24).


Christ is that unselfish grain who humbly subjected Himself to death so as to bear fruit abundantly. The great feast of Easter – 50 days in total – celebrates the grain’s new life.


As followers of Jesus, we too are like that grain. The struggles and failures, the betrayals and intrigues, the unrequited love. All these have brought a kind of dying to oneself, a fall on the ground for us. Yet, if we remain united with the Lord, these ‘death moments’ would actually be avenues to a rich harvest, to a new life.


This year, in our country, we celebrate the Year of the Missions. In the past, missionaries from Europe came to our islands to spread the Good News of Jesus. For most of them, it wasn’t an easy thing to do. They have had those dying moments, but literally and figuratively. Yet, their hard work – as we can see in a big number of Catholics, massive churches, etc. - has reaped a rich harvest.


May the Risen Lord inspire us to become ‘missionaries’ in our own small way. At times, all our work may seem fruitless. Therefore, may His abiding presence keep us hopeful, selfless, humble, and determined.


And if you feel being called to use your skills and talents in writing, web design, and the like why not join us at anluwage.com in our own special way of missionary work?

Happy Easter to one and all!



Vlad, Piet, Mike, Ana, Grace, Art, Ewha, and anluwage.com members of staff

I Know My Savior Lives

In my heart, I know my Savior lives

I can hear him calling tenderly my name.
Over sin and death he has prevailed
In his glory, in his new life we partake!

One of the famous characters I truly admire in the Lord's Passion narrative is St Mary Magdalene. Known as the "apostle to the apostles", this beloved saint has been often misidentified with the adulterous woman in the Gospel of St John or the sister of Lazarus who has the same name.

Unlike the disciples of the Lord, Mary of Magdalene did not hid herself from the shame and ridicule that would befall any follower of Christ that first Good Friday. The popular movie of the 70s, "Jesus of Nazareth" showed her crying for Jesus' release when almost all of the mob in Pilate's court were shouting the opposite. Mary was there at the foot of the cross together with the other Marys, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was there too guarding the tomb when Christ was laid to rest there and, she was on her way there to anoint the body of the Lord when she saw the stone rolled.

Mary Magdalene experienced how gracious this carpenter-turned-itinerant teacher was. She began to know Him more and more! From that knowledge she developed a love for Him, a love that prodded her to serve Him come hell or high water. She was privileged to be one of those faithful followers to whom the Lord appeared when He rose again from the dead. The Lord rewards those who would remain faithful to Him to the end, isn't it?

The above song entitled "Song of Mary Magdalene" sums up Mary Magdalene's belief in the resurrection and its effect on all who would share in her belief. We ask her intercession and inspiration that our lives would truly bear witness to Jesus' triumph over sin and death; that our lives would truly be a message of hope of that new life in union with our Lord.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and participation in our online Lenten and Holy Week projects particularly The Seven Last Words. Through this journey we hope that the lessons we learned in Lent would make us more knowledgeable of who the Lord really is in our life and from that we may truly love Him and dedicate ourselves wholly to His cause. If we have died with Him on the cross, we'll surely rise with Him to new life, a life to the full!

This May we welcome a new staff writer: Ms Herminia "Grace" Jamandri-Flores. Grace will be writing the God-speak reflections for the coming month. We hope you stay tuned so we could all continue to know more about our Lord, nurturing ourselves with His Word so we could ensure that the new life He has breathed on us at Easter would be as vibrant and inspiring to others as possible.

A Blessed Easter to you and your loved ones!

God bless.

In behalf of www.anluwage.com


Pietro S Albano
Editor-in-Chief

Be Faithful!

Filipino religiosity would not be complete without the Salubong, that renactment of the encounter between the Risen Christ and His Mother Mary. The Bible didn't mention if anything like that occured, but it seems already obvious that it is no longer necessary to mention it at all.

I enjoyed watching this event as a child and as an adult. My late aunt, who used to organise the repertoire of 'angels' taught me the song Regina Caeli, which these 'angels' would sing during the Salubong. So much have I learnt it that I sang it when it was performed!

Easter dispels that sadness and pain that was felt in Good Friday. Easter breaks away the death that almost stole Our Lord from us. Easter shows us how faithful Jesus was.

If you go back to The Seven Last Words, our Holy Week Special, you would notice that almost all our priests mentioned the need for and importance of faithfulness. In fact, the theme we chose for this year points to the same thing. Fr Ranhilio Aquino wrote in his column in Manila Standard Today that God the Father wasn't glorified with Jesus' bloody death on the cross. How could a loving Father be pleased with that? Even human fathers, no matter how bad they are, couldn't stand seeing their children suffer like that. God was pleased with His Son's faithfulness even to the point of losing His own precious life!

We who have been saved by Jesus's blood should do the same. If we claim Jesus as Savior and King, then we too must imitate Him. Snatched from the hands of Satan, we must now put on the cloak of faithfulness!

As we celebrate the Lord's triumph over sin and death, let us be mindful of our vows as Christians, our vows as spouses/parents, our vows as priests/religious, our vows as leaders of nations and communities. And as we bear these in mind, let us keep ourselves focused on this. Temptations of every sort would come, but let us continuously trust in Christ's abiding presence in us. Let us confide to Mary our Mother.

Fidelity should be part of our criteria in choosing our nation's leaders. If we vote for someone who has proven to be unfaithful - in either public office or private life - then we are putting our country in danger. It's high time we give the Philippines a taste of Easter!

Holy Week has been a time to look back at what Jesus has done for us. It has been a worthwhile time for us at anluwage.com to have done our share in this journey. We thank our seven priests for their generosity in sharing with us their reflection on The Seven Last Words. We also thank all other benefactors and friends - that includes you! - for giving us this chance to be of service. You will all be remembered in our prayers, sacrifices, and good works; particularly in the Holy Mass that will be celebrated for you at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church (Bulwell, Nottingham, UK) on 11 April 2010, Divine Mercy Sunday.

Refreshed by the Lord's Easter blessing, we keep up the good work; we proclaim without fail that He is indeed risen!

May you and your loved ones have a Happy Easter!

On behalf of Tanghalang Anluwage, Inc. I remain

Sincerely yours in the Risen Lord,


Pietro S. Albano
Editor-in-Chief

Thank God it's Holy Week!

Hello everyone!

Please allow me to start this message by inviting you all to walk with us as we take that spiritually satisfying journey with Christ this Holy week and Easter. The spiritual journey includes meaningful reflections from our several invited guest priests through our special feature, The Seven Last Words; personal reflections from our writers in God-speak and other readings and videos related to Holy Week. May you encounter Christ and grow in Him as we go through this journey together, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Week might be the busiest time for the Church with the most meaningful events as we relive Jesus sufferings and victory over death. I remember how we in Anluwage, way back in the 1990s, are working double time to lead and participate in the different Holy Week activities while trying to renew and recharge our faith with the Lord. We have held street Senakulo, done visita iglesia on foot, participated in "Pabasa", Stations of the Cross, "Salubong", and many more. Indeed, Holy Week is filled with soul saving activities. It is the time fully dedicated to our Lord, to purify our souls and to strengthen our faith. It offers a lot of opportunities for us to reunite with the Lord, to repent and be renewed, to further strengthen our connection with Him and to savor the so many blessings we have received and are continuously receiving from Him.

Let us grab that chance to walk with Jesus this Holy Week and with Him, celebrate Easter, His victory, which won us the eternal life in heaven! And as we honor the gifts of Easter, may Jesus resurrect and reign in our hearts forever!

Mabuhay si Jesus!


Anabelle Payod-Balla
Faith Section Editor