Before dawn, Cebu Arcbishoop Jose Palma will get up for the road trip to south Cebu to celebrate today the first of nine-day Misa de Gallo masses that usher in Christmas.
He said he chose the parish in barangay Manlapay, Dalaguete town because it was remote.
Choosing a church far from the city is part of his “desire to reach out to those in the periphery”, he said.
As Christmas draws near, Palma called on the people to remember the poor.
In his official 2014 Christmas message, he notes that we begin the Year of the Poor, by celebrating the birth of Jesus in poverty.
The poor, he said, include victims of massive unemployment, prisoners, divorced individuals, the ignorant, those with disabilities, and the sick.
“The birth of the Lord in poverty invites us to be detached from things of this world, waking us up to recognize how much we need God for healing and enrichment, and challenging us to be generous like God towards the poor,” the 63-year-old prelate said.
Tomorrow, he will preside over the Misa de Gallo at the Cebu Catholic Television Network on Cardinal Rosales Avenue in Cebu City. On the next day, he will spend the dawn Mass with vendors at the Carbon Market.
On Dec. 23, he will go to the Virgen delos Desamparados Parish in Malapascua in Daanbantayan for the dawn Mass then on Dec. 24, at the Archbishop’s residence in Cebu City.
On the evening of December 24, Palma will lead the Christmas Mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.