BALANGA City, Bataan: Two high officials of the Roman Catholic Church on Friday delivered here their greetings for the New Year with high hope that 2023 will be a better and more promising year.
Bishop Ruperto Santos of the Diocese of Balanga and Fr. Fabio Baggio, Vatican undersecretary of Discastery for Promotion of Integral Human Development of Migrants and Refugees, left messages of encouragement for the coming year.
Fr. Baggio, Scalabrinian missionary, was in Balanga City upon invitation of the Bataan bishop and visited some welfare institutions for the aged and the youth.
Bishop Santos described the coming year as beautiful and good. “Napakaganda dahil after two years tayo ay nakapagsisimba, nakapag-aaral, nakakapagtrabaho ng face to face, physically so maganda at mabuti. Let us make the most of it and the best of it.”
He urged every one to make themselves be felt by their family and friends. “Kaya nga gawin natin na palagi tayong nakikita at nakikita tayo na gumagawa ng maganda at mabuti at nakikita tayong nagmamalasakit at nagmamahal.”
“At ikalawa, isipin natin na palagi tayong naririnig at tayo ay magsalita na may pagmamalasakit at pagmamahal at palagi nating napapakinggan kasi ‘naconfine’ tayo ng two years kaya dapat mapakinggan natin ang mga dapat nating sabihin,” the Bataan prelate furthered.
“Namiss natin ang bawat isa kaya dapat tayong magkasama-sama, dapat nahahawakan dapat nakakamayan, namimiss natin ang pagmamano. Sa ngalan ng simbahan, Happy New year!,” Bishop Santos concluded.
Fr. Baggio said the approaching year 2023 should be of filial hope for everybody but unfortunately we are looking at different scenarios of war, national disasters everywhere, persecutions and violence.
But he urged every one not to lose hope. “We can not forget that the Kingdom of God is growing despite all the different signs that we are seeing. We have to look, we have to use our eyes of faith and look behind what we are able to look,” he said.
“Look at the spirit of reality and the strength, the power of God which is changing this world but not without us. We have to overcome, assist the good work in making this world, this earth, our nation, our province, our barangay better than the past year,” the Vatican official added.
“Forget all your pains, forget all your troubles and think about the merciful love of God. It is going to enlighten your life and give you new direction for 2023. Happy New Year!,” Fr. Baggio ended.
