Iglesia Filipina Independiente Celebrates the feast of the Sto. Niño

Iglesia Filipina Independiente Celebrates the feast of the Sto. Niño

Fellowship dinner. Fr Art Calaycay the celebrant, 2nd from left.

Members of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente in Toronto and in Montreal celebrated the feast of the Santo Niño over the past two weekends this month. Where there are Filipino diaspora communities anywhere in the world, the feast of Sto. Niño is celebrated with the same fervor and joy as in Aklan, Iloilo, Tondo, Pandacan, and in Cebu City, the origin and center of the devotion to the Sto. Niño.

Toronto’s Fr. Dante Coloma says this is a “joyous celebration, singing hymns and dancing with images of the Santo Niño (Holy Child)… a time for us to express our unending gratitude for the goodness bestowed on the life of our parish.” At the All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church, the Mass began with the members entering the church, dancing to the altar carrying images of the Santo Niño. Towards the end of the service, there were prayers and blessing of the children in the congregation. This was then followed by a hearty lunch and a simple program.

Migrante members Marisol Veridiano and Lourdes de la Peña with Fr. Dante Coloma

In his homily, Fr. Dante spoke of the Christ child “needing care and guidance from his parents even as he came into this world with a mission.”  He quoted from Luke 4:18 —  “… he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”  True to the orientation of the IFI as patriotic, pro-people and adhering to democracy and social justice, he spoke of the need for community — Fr. Dante likened the members of the church to individual “twigs bound together” and therefore stronger and helping each other — not only for each other’s well-being but also to fight the forces of “evil and injustice in society.”

Meanwhile at the St. Paul Anglican Church in Montreal, the service was followed by a fellowship dinner.  It was also an occasion for well-wishers to greet Fr. Art whose birthday was in that same week.

In his reflection, Fr. Art said: “This feast extends the spirit of the Christmas season when Christians reflect on the mystery of the incarnation, the Word becoming flesh.” What is celebrated in this feast of Sto. Niño is “our God choosing to be small, to be weak, to be humble.” The Gospel asks us to focus our attention to the smallest in our midst: the children.

“Who are the children in God’s eyes today? They are the poor who continue to be poor despite the massive display of wealth by the few, they are the victims of calamities–natural and human made, they are the victims of violence and extra-judicial killings, they are the powerless who are manipulated by powerful politicians and misled by fake news and misinformation, they are the sick and the dying who have no one to care for them, they are amongst us who are desperate and have no one to turn to but their fellow poor and God.

And he asks “how do we become a child of the Kingdom of God today? We become a child of the Kingdom of God today, by upholding the aspirations of the poor, powerless, marginalized, victims of injustice, intolerance and inhumanity in our own communities, parishes and the wider society. In the midst of all the calamities and miseries we experience today, the image of Santo Niño is a powerful symbol of protest against the values and conditions that contradict the Kingdom of God—power, domination, wealth, violence, pride, injustice, exploitation, inequality and poverty.”    

(PRESS RELEASE)