FPCAP National Convention

The Family and Pastoral Counseling Association of the Philippines (FPCAP) is currently having its 1st National Convention at the Little Theatre of Miriam College, Quezon City, the school right beside the Ateneo de Manila University. It's theme is "Bridging Family & Pastoral Counselors Together," and will run until tomorrow. I was invited to do the Invocation, and here is my prayer there:

Father, Son & Holy Spirit,
You Whose Divine Life has created and molded each one of us in Your Image,
You Who shared our nature and being,
You Who abide by us and lead us to eternal life:

We gather before your most holy presence and before our fellow Family and Pastoral Counselors.
We thank you for the gift of this day and this event
We praise you because you have crafted us so well.

You have given us yourself as a model of our family life
Where the love of our parents became the root of our own loving the other
Yet in the midst of our human frailties and imperfections
You still call us again and again
Back into the Trinity: your unconditional salvific love for all.

You have become like one of us, Jesus the Beloved Son
Our Brother Who has shown us how to serve:
To live in God, in the Truth, in love and service
Always caring, giving, guiding us back to our loving Father,
We call on You today to be alive in our midst.

You Who were sent to abide by us
So we will always remember where we came from
And where we'll end up in:
Holy Spirit, come and fill us with your sevenfold gifts
So that our service as Family and Pastoral Counselors
May always lead us to model our very onwn families in You
That having understood what we live by and have learned
We may generously serve you in the people you send us to serve.

Abide by us so that we may listen to our families and communities -
Persons who come to us for Guidance and Counseling
So that we may build, rebuild and reconcile families and communities -
Persons back to each other
So that together we can build the Kingdom of God in our midst
And be constantly re-created and led
To You, Who live and reign forever and ever.

Mother Mary, pray for us and lead us to love and serve as loved Jesus our Lord. Amen

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What was very interesting in the first hour that I was there was the Keynote Speaker. Their choice of the couple who did the Keynote Address was one witness of the effectivity of Counseling. It was my first time to see a model couple who've passed by broken lives that have been given a boost in rebuilding it: constantly aware of their backgrounds, their needs and statuses. It was indeed a booster for all Guidance and Counseling practitioners for here came, particularly the husband who had that "show me" attitude prior to Counseling. In fact, as he related his not-too-different from many of the modern family backgrounds we often have among our clients in the Counseling Room, he himself admitted that Counseling may actually have been the right choice to do. And he with his wife and children did their individual, couple and family counseling sessions.

Before I had to leave them, I went and shook hands with the couple, thankful that for once I have seen the effectivity and thereby the possibility of successful Counseling outcomes. I am involved with the Marriage Encounter and have seen couples grow. And here is another case, this time from Counseling, growing into better persons, better lovers, couples and parents, very much conscious of God's presence in their lives. All the best to this couple, Mr. & Mrs. William & Marie Geraldine Velasco.

Towards the end of their Keynote, the couple further challenged Counselors attending the Convention to do their best because this profession has come of age: for there are about 20 million (families & persons) in need of Counseling in order to deal with their brokenness, particularly those who need to go abroad for economic necessities.


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FPCAP has the following Vision:

We, as Family and Pastoral Counselors, integrating psychotherapy and spirituality, work to empower a Filipino society where families in right relationship among their members, with other families, and God, are highly functional and are effectively contributing to the growth and development of our nation.

The FPCAP Mission include the following:

- To uphold a high ethical and professional standard in the practice of family and pastoral counseling;

- To empower families to live by the values of faith, integrity, compassion and service-orientation;

- To be a driving force for the continuing professional development of family and pastoral counselors;

- To enrich the unique faith perspective in pastoral counseling in its distinctive role as a listening and companioning ministry.

God bless you all, Family and Pastoral Counselors here in the country. May your tribe increase so that our families can find alternatives of being than simply break up or rot in meaninglessness and despair.