Vita Nostra

TO 75 YEARS OF JOURNEY TO FAITH AND RESILIENCY Sem. Saturcito Velasco, Jr. T his year 2016 marks the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tagbilaran. From the Christian faith has come over since 1595 here in the province of Bohol until this 21 st century, it has grown much and advanced into the erection of the twin dioceses in the province. As heart of the Diocese, the seminary official publication which is the heart of the seminary featured her mother. As we journey towards this Holy Jubilee Year of Celebration, let us have a view on what happened more than 75 years ago. Pre-Spanish Period In the seaside village of Bool, three kilometers from the center of today’s Tagbilaran City, DatuSikatuna with Miguel Lopez de Legaspi has sealed the first international treaty of friendship in Philippine territory. It has been sealed and immortalized in the diocese’s coat of arms and the province’s official seal. Spreading the first missions o...

SATURATED Sem. Saturcito Velasco, Jr. E very time I do my vocation campaign in schools, I always ask the students on how they define love. Some students say that love is like a bubblegum, when it sticks to you, I will make you crazy. Others say that love is a strong feeling towards man and woman and vice versa. Others say that love is no forever. Others say that love is God. Youth nowadays keeps on finding love wherever they go. Including me, I made my posts on my facebook and instagram but still don’t find love. If I could find love it is just ephemeral.             I remember a 50-year old churchman on one of the parishes where I was assigned. He is a lay minister, an altar server, an organist, a catechist, a speaker, a flower arranger and a meek and humble man. He’s incredible. He’s a father of three sons and a one daughter. All of his children are successful on their life. His eldest son is a seaman and ...

VOCATION TO SERVE Sem. Saturcito Velasco Jr. It has been my passion to serve our young leaders of today — kids.  I started my mission in 2010. I served as a volunteer youth catechist to the kids in our parish during summer. I preferred to teach the senior kids ages 10-12. I also served as a heart champ servant to the kids in the Couples for Family and Life- Kids for Family and Life. We went to the different mission areas of the CFC to hold a Kids Assembly. We taught the kids some songs, animations, and the basic catechism of the church. When I entered the seminary, my ministry to the kids was halted. In the seminary, service is also a part of our life, but it is not particularly for the kids. In our apostolate I have served a lot of people even those whom I do not even know. My happiness is great, but deep within me has stayed my longing to serve the kids once more. The opportunity for me came when we were planning how to celebrate the feast of our dormitory’s patron...

STORY OF MY LIFE Sem. Saturcito Velasco, Jr. I remember in my Summer Apostolate, A young “Inday” of St. James the Greater Parish in Batuan came and asked me, “Why are you a seminarian?” I had answered that question, hundreds of time before… after all, I have been a seminarian for three years… but this time, I wanted to give a better answer to a young “Inday”. “I am a seminarian.” “Yes.” I finally said, “I am a seminarian because God wants me to become a priest.” For the first time, I had felt at peace with my answer. In the past, I would say something like “I am a seminarian because I am called or because my father don’t want me to become a nun.”(Something weird) And then I would launch upon my story about when I was 11-years old. For when I was eleven, a catechist in our school began brainwashing me. I was studying at Bool Elementary School. She told me “Satur, why don’t you learn how to serve the mass?” I thought it was a good idea but the problem is wh...

And the greatest of these is LOVE             Young like us already felt how to love since we were a child, to love our parents, our siblings, our grandparents and friends. To the youth, they had intimate relationship with opposite sex and to the couples out there, by virtue of their love to one another, they were bound in marriage. Love is like rosary that has full of mystery. We felt love and to be loved but we cannot diagnose in our self the beginnings of that affection. We tend to love just to satisfy our bodily needs, to give warmth at night or maybe Cupid pinched one’s heart to love him or her. There is only one such thing, where we could trace the ultimate reason why we love and it is because of love too.             I remember on my elementary years, our classroom in St. Therese School has this sentence written above the board saying: “GOD IS LOVE”, also in our pr...

Language and its Resemblance on Philosophy             Philosophy is derived from two Greek words, Philos and Sophia which means, love of wisdom. Philosophers tend to understand philosophy in order to explain the probable cause of somewhat or something. Philosophy requires a medium in order to understand what a person wants to express his feeling or sentiments. And the medium is called language (wika).             Communication is the transmission of words, thoughts, ideas from one person to another, and language is considered as man’s effective medium for communication. Language is expressed in oral or verbal, in written or printed, in signs or symbols like what the deaf do, by non-verbal like body languages and gestures and by informal expressions like what they do in social media and mobile world. Language do depends on many factors. First is geographical where the ...