Bishop declares 06-07 Jagna's Year Of Grace

YEARLONG blessings for the St. Michael Archangel Parish is Jagna's latest claim as the devotees spread out the kneeling pads and the banqueting table for the spiritual and socio-cultural preparations for its grandiose 375th Founding anniversary, is barely 27 days from now. Most Reverend Christian Vincent Noel, D.D., bishop of the Diocese of Talibon has declared a special year of grace for Jagna parish starting September 29, 2006 until September 29, 2007. The declaration by the grace of the Pope Benedict XVI, for St. Michael the Archangel Parish also comes with a twin; a declaration of the centuries-old St. Michael the Archangel Parish Church as a pilgrimage church for the entire duration.

The massive coral-stone church was built in 1809 by the Augustinian Recollect Fray Blas Muñoz de las Mercedes, Spanish records reveal. With such declarations, Bishop Noel encourages the faithful to come in pilgrimage for plenary indulgence under the usual conditions to those, on any day of the year, visit the said church and at least pray the Apostles' Creed and the Hail Holy Queen for the intentions of the Holy Father. The Christian dogma teaches that a faithful who visits a pilgrimage church must exercise penitential meditation as a way of sacrifice and self renunciation that will lead to a deeper understanding that life is a journey in search of the Highest Good, or the Summum Bonum. With the plenary indulgence, any pilgrim is temporarily cleansed of sin and its consequences under condition that full disposition and the necessary purification of the inner self is made. Meanwhile, Jagna parish priest Msgr. Orencio Jubac, E.V. told the Post that the grand gathering of the Jagnaanon priests, religious and sisters formerly assigned here in the spirit of ut unom sint (That They May Be One) would be on September 27.

This also forms part of the daily and nightly activities prior to the feast day. A sportsfest will be held during the day at the Colegio de la Medalla Milagrosa (CMM) Gymnasium, a concelebrated mass in the afternoon and a clergy concert featuring the Jeduthun Quartet follows in the evening. Likewise, Msgr. Jubac further said that Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, D.D. the Archbishop of Cebu will be coming on September 29 to officiate in the Pontifical Mass together with some eight Boholano bishops, priors provincial of the Jesuits and the Recollect Provinces. By that, the local shepherd expects more than a hundred Jagnaanon priests, religious and visiting Monsignori and clergies both from the dioceses of Talibon and Tagbilaran, outside Bohol and from abroad.

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