Be a friend of Blessed Pedro Calungsod on Facebook.
The Cebu Archdiocese’s Commission on Youth yesterday launched the ‘Barkada Ni Pedro’ fan page to introduce the Visayan martyr to online users and to promote prayer.
“If cyberspace is connecting people, prayer is also connecting ourselves to everyone and to God. If Pedro Calungsod were alive today, he could have been a Facebook user too,” said Msgr. Arthur Navales, the commission chairman.
One can post a prayer intention in the field ‘What’s on your mind’ which is transformed into a ‘pray box.’
Click the ‘like’ button to commit to pray for the person calling for help.
Each prayer intention in the fan page will be printed out and offered during the 5:30 p.m. Mass every Friday at the Archdiocesan Youth Center on P. Gomez Street beside the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.
Navales said the fan page transcends modern technology. “I believe he (Calungsod) will help our cause to proclaim the Lord since he was also a teenager like the young men behind this fan page,” he said.
He said Pedro “simply intercedes for us” and that devotees seek his help, and not to worship him.
The fan page presents different features everyday:the Gospel (Sundays); Catechism of the Catholic Church (Mondays); inspiring quotes (Tuesdays); dare/challenges for Pedro (Wednesdays); parish intentions (Thursdays); catechesis on Calungsod (Fridays); and comics about Calungsod’s life (Saturdays).
“To me, the consciousness about God should remain. Blessed Pedro may have lived 400 years ago, in a different time. But the values remain. The environment changes but not God and His teachings,” Navales said.
Marlito Cabigas, who created the Calungsod fan page, said clicking the “pray button” can be a source of consolation for believers.
“Can you image if you write a prayer down and after a few days, you see that 280 people have prayed for your intention? The psychological effect it will provide you, when you see that a lot of people, even those who don’t know you, have prayed for your intention, is an amazing feeling,” he said.
Cabigas said “Barkada ni Pedro“ offers a chance for people to pray for one another.
“Barkada Ni Pedro makes impossible things happen through prayer. It is through the social network that one prays to change the world,” he said.
Calungsod, a young missionary worker who was killed in 1672, will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Oct. 21 this year.
A national thanksgiving Mass will be held at the South Road Properties in Cebu ity on Nov. 31, 2012.
The groundbreaking forthe templete or small temple is set this morning. /Ador Vincent Mayol, Reporter