ABOUT

THE SACRED HEART COMMUNITY

            The Sacred Heart Community is a Roman Catholic Charismatic Covenanted Community of  married and single people from all walks of life.

 

            Our spirituality is :  Eucharistic, Marian, Charismatic , devotion to St. Joseph, simplicity (Franciscan).

            EUCHARISTIC:  Jesus in the Eucharist is the heart of our spirituality.  The Mass with the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration is our greatest privilege and gift.  Through daily mass and frequent adoration we strive and we hope to become “the living tabernacles” bringing the presence of Jesus: His love, peace, healing and reconciliation to others.

            *OBEDIENCE IN FAITH TO THE AUTHORITY UNDER WHOM WE SERVE is also at the heart of our spirituality.  We stand in total submission to the Holy Father and to the Bishop of Baguio.

           

MARIAN: Mary is our Mother and Model.  She gave birth to us at the foot of the cross.  She is the first and the perfect disciple.  She accompanies us in our journey of faith into the heart of her son Jesus.  We are consecrated to the Heart of Jesus thru the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

            CHARISMATIC:  Our Community is born of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.  We have a special devotion to the Holy Spirit.  We are committed to the use of the charismatic gifts as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12.  Just as the Spirit is central in the life of Jesus the God-man so the spirit is also central in the life of every disciple of Jesus.  By the power of the Spirit we are enabled to live the life of Jesus – through the gifts of the Spirit we are enabled to do the works of Jesus.

            ST. JOSEPH:  We have a special devotion to St. Joseph as the Head, Protector and provider of our families and Community.  In the same spirit that he is the head, protector and provider of the Holy Family, he, too, is our model.  Although he is born in sin like us – he was able to love Jesus and Mary with a perfect love – truly a worthy spouse of the blessed Virgin Mary and foster father of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

 

            SIMPLICITY OF LIFE:  This is a call and a gift from God.  The more we become like Jesus, the more simple we become.  Simplicity is directed towards becoming one with the poor and serving the poor and towards making our resources available for the Kingdom of God according to our state of life and in our own way and time, we try to live the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

 

            HISTORY:

 

The Sacred Heart Community is a Roman Catholic Charismatic covenanted community. It started in 1972 when Rene Bonifacio Aguas and his wife Linda, were touched by the Lord in an ecumenical prayer meeting. It was the turning point in the life of this young businessman who was known by his friends and even his wife as an incorrigible playboy. Rene eventually had to part with his "ecumenical" friends. Though he may not have been "religious," he was bullstrong enough to resist any corrosion to his Catholic faith.  He found courage to approach the Apostolic Vicar of the Mountain Provinces, Msgr.  William Brasseur, CICM,  known to be one of the most conservative bishops in the Philippines in his time, and pledged his undying devotion to the Catholic Church with these words, "Monsignor, I came to tell you that I will obey you even if I do not understand." It may be noteworthy to add that during this time, the charismatic renewal was very new, strange, Pentecostal-influenced and, therefore, suspect. Rene's humble submission to the Church won over Bishop Brasseur's friendship. These famous words of Rene has now become a rule in the  Community—we  obey  the  Church even if we do not understand. This, too, was the start of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement in Baguio City, one of the first in the Philippines.

 

Rene and Linda's infectious faith soon found zealous adherents in their three elder children who were barely in their teens and in some household helps and high school dropouts. They started to live together under one roof at a house in Dizon Subdivision, Baguio City. Later they transferred to a garage that the St. Paul Sisters provided for them in Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet. They lived by faith, which meant literally relying on God's providence for their daily needs. Paul has given up his business, and upon him and Catherine were laid the burden of providing for the needs of the Community and its members, 17 of them. Inspired by the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi, they shared all things in common. They lived in simplicity, prayed much, fasted regularly and maintained silence in the lifestyle of a religious community. And of course, they shared the Good News and exercised the charismatic gifts wherever they were called.

 

In 1977, the Community underwent a major shake-up. The members dispersed and lived with their individual families. Paul was very much dejected. But God had other plans. Paul was invited to live for a few months with the Word of God Community in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. He returned to Baguio with new insights—that members of the Community do not have to live like cloistered religious, but that they can live normal lives with their families. The Community has now reached the second phase in its growth. By this time, the  Community's apostolate increased. In 1981, it had its full-time  workers:  Ren  Bernardez , Vicente Guerrero and, later, Rolly Suclad. They held office in a narrow corridor of the Patria Building along Session Road. Prayer meetings were conducted in a number of parishes in Baguio and La Trinidad, Benguet, the biggest of which was in Saint Louis University campus along Bonifacio Street. Prayer meetings were also conducted in student dormitories. Under Paul's leadership, retreats, recollections, and seminars were conducted for lay people, bishops, priests, religious and special groups like teachers, students, married couples, etc. Teams were sent to Brunei to serve the fledgling Christian communities there.  Significant in the history of the charismatic renewal in the country were the retreats conducted by Paul, a lay, for some 700 priests (diocesian and religious) and bishops from all over the country, sometimes together with other leaders like Fr. Herb Schneider, Fr. Adorable, and Msgr. Gabby Reyes. There is no doubt that these retreats contributed to the eventual acceptance of the charismatic renewal in the Church in the country as more and more of the clergy opened the doors of their parishes to the movement. Paul became a nationally acclaimed leader in the charismatic renewal movement in the Philippines. He was one of the main organizers of the   national   Service Committee of the Philippines, the national body that serves the movement in the country.  He represented Asia in the ICCRO (International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office) which holds office in Rome. He was invited to be speaker in other countries like the US, France and in South America. Meanwhile the Community acted as the Secretariat for the Vicariate of the Mountain Provinces’ Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement up to the moment a priest was assigned as Spiritual Director of the movement in the Vicariate.

 

The Community entered the third phase in its history with the death of its founder, Paul Aguas in   1993. With the charismatic leader gone, would the Community also cease to exist? It was not so.  About two weeks after his death, the first consecrated brothers of the Community (six of them) made their one year commitment of poverty, obedience and chastity. They continued a lot of the work started by Paul taking care of the many cell groups in different parts of the city aside from the prayer meeting at the Baguio Cathedral.

 

Our Community is composed of members from all walks of life—young, old, students, professionals, housewives, married and single. It is our mission to proclaim the good news and to build Christian community. Our vision is to be a community of Christ-like lives.

We conduct recollections, retreats, and seminars (Life in the Spirit Seminars, growth seminars, Basic Bible Seminars, etc.) for various groups. Our Prisons Ministry has been in existence for decades  supporting the Prisons Apostolate of the Diocese of Baguio.  We manage a program for malnourished children from depressed areas in the City, initiating and sustaining livelihood programs for their families. We have a one hour program focused on practical Christian living aired through DZWT every Sunday titled, “In Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” Other ministries include healing, youth, music, children, intercessory, Prayer Meeting, Members are serve in parishes and in the diocese in various ways. Notable are the volunteer catechists and pre-Cana counselors in the Family and Life Ministry of the Diocese.

Our most precious gift of the Community is the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. It all began when the first full time workers in 1981 started the day with an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in a very small prayer room in the St. Paul sisters’ bookstore also located at Patria Building. When the Community’s office was transferred to a bigger room in the same building, Church authorities allowed the Community to have the Blessed Sacrament kept in a small enclosed area in the office. This became the prayer room. Whenever possible, full time workers took turns praying before the Blessed Sacrament during the day. In 1985, the Community transferred offices to Home Sweet Home along Governor Pack Road. A bigger room was reserved for the Blessed Sacrament. Here is where the Community, with the permission of the Church, started with the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. The 12:15 noonday mass every day except Sunday also started here. This was in 1985. Night adoration was particularly inspiring with groups from as far as Sablan, Twin Peaks, La Trinidad, Balatoc, and outskirts of the City like Irisan took turns at different days of the week. When the 1990 earthquake devastated the city, the Community at Home Sweet Home became one of the centers for food distribution. The adoration room became a refuge of prayer for many. A year after, renovation at Home Sweet Home compelled the Community to transfer to a house at Tecson Street. The garage was transformed into an adoration room where the noonday mass was also held.

In March 1994, the Community started the construction of its building on a Iot at Military Cut-Off Road, part of Mount Peace, owned by the Archdiocese of Manila. The lot was leased to the Community through His Excellency, the late Cardinal Sin. The Community transferred to the unfinished building the following year. This is now its permanent home.

 

2017 is the 50th year of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement. It is also the 45th year of existence of the Sacred Heart Community. We continue the legacy left by our founders, Paul and his family, enshrined in our way of life as a private association in the Church.

 

Will we continue to live for another forty five years? With God’s continuing grace through the intercession of Mary our Mother, we will!