Serving the Church

The Primary Call

Being faithful to God by living out its life as a covenant community is what the Ligaya considers the primary service to the Church. Being men and women corporately committed to loving and serving one another is its greatest witness to a world bitterly divided and skeptical of the Gospel.

Community Building

Given our years of experience in developing as a community, Ligaya feels called to help other groups seeking to move towards becoming stable Christian communities. Over the years, we have helped other communities in their years of formation on the way of becoming full members of Christ the King Association International. Today these formed communities work with Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon in the task of evangelization and community building in the Asian Region of Christ the King and The Sword of the Spirit. These are:

Kahayag sa Diyos (Light of God)
Buhing Pulong (Word of Life) in Mindanao, Philippines
Jesus, Light of the World Community in Bombay, India.

Ligaya assists in the formation process of a number of other communities as they prepare to take their place in The Sword of the Spirit and/or Christ the King Association:

The Risen Christ Catholic Community in Metro Manila
Servants of the Lord in Singapore

Former members of the community and its outreaches who had immigrated into the United States and Canada turned to Ligaya for help in forming communities in their new homeland. Thus Ligaya now assists in the formation of:

The City on the Hill — a young covenant community on the way to becoming a member of Christ the King Association.
a number of related groups at various stages of becoming communities in Vancouver, Washington, Texas, and New Jersey.

Over the years the community has sent out members to work as lay missionaries in other Asian countries. At present the community has members living and working in Thailand and Indonesia.

Proclamation of the Gospel: Partners in Mission of Christ the King.

While Ligaya has extensively served various covenant communities in their search for formation and growth, Ligaya has consistently responded to the basic call and mission of the Church: the proclamation of the Gospel.

The different evangelistic movements that Ligaya founded served as its arm in evangelizing the varied milieus of Philippine society:

Christ’s Youth in Action (CYA)
FAMILIA
Ang Lingkod ng Panginoon (ALNP)
Women for Christ (WFC)
Tahanan ng Panginoon (TNP)
Word of Joy (WOJ)
Institute for Pastoral Development (IPD)

These movements have respectively grown into mature and autonomous organizations for carrying out their evangelistic mission across the country and other nations as well. Together with Ligaya they serve as a network called Partners in Mission of Christ the King.
A couple of other evangelistic movements that Ligaya founded have now taken on full fledged community status, and are very active in their respective milieus:

Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen & Professionals (BCBP)
Couples for Christ

Other Services to the Church

The community was instrumental in organizing the first and second National Charismatic Leaders’ Conference in 1976 and 1978 respectively. Fr. Herbert Schneider, S. J. served at that time as secretary of the Archdiocesan Secretariat for Catholic Charismatic Renewal and later as chairperson of the National Secretariat.
In 1978 Mr. Vic Gutierrez was chosen as the first Southeast Asian representative to the Council for the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office (ICCRO) in Rome.
In 1980 the Ligaya helped organize the first Asian Leaders’ Conference of Charismatic Renewal in Manila.
In 1984 the late Rogel Plata, then CYA national director, was chosen as a representative to the World Youth Day, one of the high points of the Holy Year of Redemption.
Later in 1994 CYA was key in the organization of a colloquium of Asian Catholic chaplains. This colloquium was sponsored by the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) through the Office of Education and Student Chaplaincy and held at the Loyola Angono Retreat House.
One year later in March 1995, CYA was elected as the coordinating organization of the Federation of National Youth Organization (FNYO) under the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines for the next two years.
During the 10th World Youth Day held in January of the same year, CYA was given charge of all catechetical events in the mornings of January 11-13 at the International Youth Village in Intramuros, Manila.
IPD was the key support institution for the BIBA (Bishops Institute for the Biblical Apostolate) sponsored conference on the Biblical apostolate for Asian Bishops. The conference was held in March 1995 in Manila. Fifteen bishops out of 31 participants attended this conference with the theme “Spreading God’s Word in Asia.”

Nurturing Vocations

Through the years the community has helped nurture the vocation of some of its members:

Ching Achas is now Sister Rafaelie, a Carmelite nun of the Carmel in Laoag, Ilocos Sur.
Sister Arlene Macalintal is with the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate in New York, USA.
Tony Caspellan is now a Salesian brother assigned at the Don Bosco Provincial house in Makati.
Fr. Bogs Tapiador, S. J. was ordained April 16, 1994 and at present working in Bukidnon, Mindanao.
Sr. Beth Lantaca is in Rome as Assistant Novice Mistress of the Handmaids of the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Andrei Querejero, OCD is awaiting ordination to the priesthood in the near future.

Fr. Dave Concepcion has been ordained. He is presently the Dean of the Holy Apostles Senior Seminary at the San Carlos complex in Guadalupe, Makati City.