PREX - National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe (NSOLG)

About PREX

PREX Mission

Led by the Holy Spirit, we are a Christ-centered community of disciples, journeying with the Church, committed to parish renewal through evangelization.

PREX Vision

Through the grace of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we go forth to proclaim the love of God and share our personal experience of Christ with our brethren, generously giving our time, talent and treasure in the service of the Church under the pastoral leadership of our parish priests.

PREX Core Values

Church Belongingness

We are a welcoming community of Christ. With and under the leadership of our pastor, we promote Church as Family. We make every Catholic feel at home and deeply valued.

Caring Relationship

We care for one another. We call and treat one another as Kuya and Ate, members of the One Family of God. Together, we strive to learn true friendship and love, after Jesus - our Teacher and Brother.

Cheerful Giving

We give of ourselves generously. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we share our time, talent and treasure without counting the cost in the service of Evangelization and Church renewal.

Joyful Services

We serve the Lord our God. We serve Him in one another. We serve with gladness knowing that our loving God and Father has blessed us with kindness and generosity in Christ.

Mutual Spiritual Support

Like Mary, we give ourselves to prayer. We reflect on the Word of God and allow it to inspire and guide our relationships. We give to and receive from one another spiritual support and love.

About PREX at National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe (NSOLG)

Background / History (How PREX Started at OLGP)

Rev. Msgr Alberto Salonga, Founder

OLGP Parish Priest: 1992 - 1998

The Parish Renewal Experience (PREX) movement of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish (OLGP) began in August 1994 under the visionary leadership of our erstwhile parish priest, Rev. Fr. Albert Salonga Jr. (now Rev. Msgr. Albert Salonga Jr.), whose ardent desire to make OLGP a model of true and unified Christian community inspired him to introduce PREX to the parish. PREX is the only parish-oriented renewal movement presented in its most basic form in a weekend seminar.

Through PREX, participants learn and experience what it means to be a part of a community of God's people.

With the enthusiastic assistance of Rev. Msgr. Dan Sta. Maria, then the parish priest of San Roque Parish in Mandaluyong, and the members of the PREX outreach team, Rev. Fr. Salonga invited and formed a group of about 30 OLGP parishioners to attend three PREX seminars on May, June, and July 1994 at San Roque. These pioneering members belonging to the Seed batch piloted and spearheaded the very first PREX seminars when it officially started in OLGP right after their graduation from San Roque Parish.

It proved to be a difficult task to start from nothing. Obstacles hampered the seminar preparation, especially since the OLGP church was still being constructed at the time, leaving the venue as the biggest problem. Furthermore, only about 15 of the graduates-mostly students-became active and committed to serve.

Consequently, the earliest PREX batches (from batch #1 up to Class #3) had to be held in alternative locations outside the shrine, such as the Makati Anti-Drug Council (MADAC) Building along Kalayaan Avenue in Brgy. Pinagkaisahan, and the Guadalupe Elementary School (now Nemesio I. Yabut Elementary School).

A major milestone arrived with Class #4 in January 1995, which marked the very first PREX seminar held directly within the shrine grounds. It took place in the old San Juan Diego Hall, an unfinished space behind the altar that previously served as a storage bodega. Through cleaning, repairs, and the use of improvised dividers, it was transformed into a functional seminar room with an adjacent sharing hall and working area for the sponsoring class. From tile-less floors with borrowed electric fans and cutlery, that humble beginning blossomed into the vibrant community spaces enjoyed today.

Through the untiring efforts of Msgr. Sta. Maria, Fr. Noy Azupardo, the PREX Secretariat, Service Group, and Music Ministry of San Roque, alongside the overwhelming response of our parishioners, PREX has remained ever-moving and very much alive in our parish.

The PREX movement in OLGP has indeed helped in renewing the parishioners' commitments in serving the people of God.

As Rev. Fr. Salonga puts it: "Old Faces but new commitments."

Carrying this legacy forward, the PREX family has continued to journey with one another and unselfishly shared in building a community of God.

Seed PREX graduation at San Roque Parish

PREX Class #1 graduation in Aug 1994 at Makati Anti-Drug Council (MADAC) Building

PREX Class #2 graduation in Sep 1994 at Guadalupe Elementary School

PREX Class #3 graduation in Oct 1994 at GCS

The Pillars and Leadership of Our Foundation

The growth and survival of the movement through its crucial formative years relied heavily on the steadfast dedication of its early leadership pillars:

Kuya Roman & Ate Ellen Masancay

(Chaircouple, 1994-1997): As the first appointed chair couple, they stood as witnesses to the early, overflowing graces of the movement, helping lay down the foundational tracks to bring parishioners closer to God.

Kuya Nuel(+) & Ate Choy Pagulayan

(Chaircouple, 1997-2000): Steering the community into its next chapter, they kept the mission burning brightly, witnessing firsthand how the movement transformed families and allowed kuyas and ates to rediscover the boundless goodness of the Father.

Kuya Raul & Ate Landa Sauz

(Chaircouple, 2001-2003): Guiding the community with dedication, they helped steady the flock through its challenges and unified the community to stand together as one under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Kuya Boyet & Ate Belen Quiambao

(Chaircouple, 2004-2009): Presiding over the momentous 10th Anniversary celebration under the theme "A Decade of Service to God in Building Community," they embraced the journey as true "Fishers of Men." Beyond their leadership, they have been the quiet strength and generous backbone of the PREX movement in NSOLG, maintaining a dedicated and active presence well past the movement's 30th year.

Historical Service Rosters (As of August 2026)

Chaircouple (1st 10 Years)

K. Roman & A. Ellen Masancay - Class 3
K. (+)Nuel & A. Choy Pagulayan - Class 2 (Ate Choy Active as of August 2026)
K. Raul & Ate Landa Sauz - Class 3
K. Boyet & A. Belen Quiambao - Class 16 (Active as of August 2026)

Secretariat

A. Lot Santos-Bisares - Seed
A. Rose Santos-Penaranda - Seed
A. Linda Santos-Samson - Seed
A. Ja Scott - Seed (Active as of August 2026)
A. Letty Austria - Seed
K. Roman & A. Ellen Masancay - Class 3
K. Nuel(+) & A. Choy Pagulayan - Class 2 (Ate Choy Active as of August 2026)
K. Boyet & A. Bedural - Class 4 (Active as of 2024)
K. Raul & A. Landa Sauz - Class 4
K. Jess & A. Vi Sanico - Class 5 (Active as of August 2026)
K. Mel & A. Irene Pasibe - Class 6
K. Gilbert & A. Leni Ramos - Class 10 & 3
A. Wowie Bandojo-Bermudez - Class 13 (Active as of August 2026)
K. Boyet & A. Belen Quiambao - Class 16 (Active as of August 2026)
A. Cora Pujante & A. Tess Zornosa(+) - Class 12 & 22
K. Egay & Grace Jusi - Class 36 (Active as of August 2026)
K. Gilbert & A. Gigi Juntalos - Class 43 & 42

Lead Couple

A. Lot Santos-Bisares & A. Rose Santos-Penaranda - Seed
K. Roman & A. Ellen Masancay - Class 3
K. Nuel(+) & A. Choy Pagulayan - Class 2
K. Boyet & A. Bedural - Class 4 (Active as of 2024)
K. Raul & A. Landa Sauz - Class 4
K. Jess & A. Vi Sanico - Class 5 (Active as of August 2026)
K. Mel & A. Irene Pasibe - Class 6 (Active as of August 2026)
K. Gilbert & A. Leni Ramos - Class 10 & 3
K. Boyet & A. Belen Quiambao - Class 16 (Active as of August 2026)
A. Cora Pujante & A. Tess Zornosa - Class 12 & 22
K. Egay & Grace Jusi - Class 36 (Active as of August 2026)

Music/Dance Ministry / Animator

A. Rose Santos-Penaranda - Seed (Active as of August 2026)
A. Lot Santos-Bisares - Seed (Active as of August 2026)
A. Linda Santos-Samson - Seed (Active as of August 2026)
A. Ja Scott - Seed (Active as of August 2026)
K. Peter & A. Ching Paras - Class 3 (Active as of August 2026)
A. Leni Ramos - Class 3
K. Jun(+) & A. Beth Balmes - Class 4
K. Boyet Bedural - Class 4
K. Egay(+) & A. Malou Lumanog - Class 4
K. Paul(+) & (+)Leng Hordejan Jr. - Class 4 & 5 (Active as of 2025)
K. Tom(+) Garces - Class 11
K. Nes(+) Garces - Class 23
A. Wowie Bandojo-Bermudez - Class 13 (Active as of August 2026)

Speaker

A. A. Lot Santos-Bisares & Rose Santos-Penaranda - Seed
K. Roman & A. Ellen Masancay - Class 3
K. Nuel(+) & A. Choy Pagulayan - Class 2
K. Boyet & A. Bedural - Class 4
K. Raul & A. Landa Sauz - Class 4
K. Jess & A. Vi Sanico - Class 5 (Active as of August 2026)
K. Mel & A. Irene Pasibe - Class 6 (Active as of August 2026)
K. Gilbert & A. Leni Ramos - Class 10 & 3
K. Boyet & A. Belen Quiambao - Class 16 (Active as of August 2026)
A. Cora Pujante & (+)A. Tess Zornosa - Class 12 & 22
K. Egay & Grace Jusi - Class 36 (Active as of August 2026)

Global Origin & Founder of PREX

Father Chuck Gallagher, Founder

Fr. Charles A. Gallagher S.J.

Entered the Society of Jesus: July 30, 1945

Ordained to the priesthood: June 21, 1958

Entered eternal life: July 21, 2013

Fr. Chuck Gallagher was a compelling and prophetic voice in the Catholic Church for the Sacrament of Matrimony and the joy of the incarnation for over five decades. He was the originator and driving force behind the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement that became a force of renewal in the church during the 1960’s and 1970’s changing the lives of millions of couples and priests while spreading to all 50 states and around the world to 56 foreign countries. A man of vision and relentless passion, Fr. Chuck shared his knowledge and experience of the gifts of the Catholic Church to inspire couples to live the Sacrament of Matrimony to its fullest potential. His work has had a lasting impact on our understanding of what matrimony is intended to reveal to the world as well as a legacy of significant leadership training and empowerment of the laity.

Fr. Gallagher was also the originator and author of Engaged Encounter, the Parish Renewal Experience (PREX or Called to be Catholic), and the Parishioner Empowerment weekend. He personally trained over 6,000 priests and 45 Bishops in the United States and more than 1,000 priests in other countries to give the parish renewal weekend in their parishes, applying everything he had learned from the witness of loving couples to the experience of being the Body of Christ. Father Chuck created a parish-based retreat that released a joyful sense of belonging and identity as Catholics. The Parish Renewal Experience became a major evangelization movement in the United States reaching over 1 million parishioners, but also reached Ireland, England, and Australia. PREX continues to spread rapidly to this day in the Philippines.

In addition, Fr. Gallagher was the founder and executive director of the Marriage Encounter Resource Community which later became the Pastoral and Matrimonial Renewal Center, a global network of specially trained couples and priests who helped Fr. Chuck to produce dozens of powerful, parish-based programs and retreat workshops including Evenings for the Engaged, Barnabas for singles, Celebrate Love, Living in Love, and Preparing to Live in Love. To help couples experience the presence of God in their intrinsically sexual conjugal love as a revelation and manifestation of Christ’s love for the church, he authored 10 major books and over 50 booklets. As early as 1975, he began to explore with couples the concept of the language of the body that was later so clearly articulated by Pope John Paul II in what is now known as the Theology of the Body.

Fr. Chuck’s seminal book "One Flesh" published in 1980 holds up the Sacrament of Matrimony as the living sign that reveals the church to itself. A brilliant Jesuit at once keenly insightful and disarmingly relevant, Fr. Chuck was an extraordinary public speaker whose warmth and humor captivated, thrilled, and roused audiences of tens of thousands, yet he was most at home in living rooms with the everyday Catholic families to whom he gave his life and to whom his only desire was to bring the Father’s joy.

Background / History (How PREX Started Globally)

In the early 1970's, Rev. Fr. CHARLES "Chuck" GALLAGHER, S.J., convened a group of priests and lay people for a reflection on Pope Paul VI's Evangelii Nuntiandi. As the discussion progressed, it became clear to all present that, for evangelization to become a reality, it required a "people focus". It should begin with a conversion experience that is oriented to the parish, the basic structure of the Catholic Church, and that it must start with the family, the basic unit of society.

With this in mind, the group developed some general directions and guidelines for a program to be conducted over the period of a weekend during which the participants could commute from their respective homes. Since that meeting, Fr. Gallagher piloted the Parish Renewal Experience (PREX) in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey. Since then, it has spread to more than a thousand parishes in the USA and Ireland. Around 1,200 priests in the USA and 600 in Ireland have trained in order that they could give the Weekend Experience to people in their own parishes. It has since been introduced into Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Fiji and the Philippines.

How It Started in the Philippines

The first Parish Renewal Experience Seminar in the Philippines was conducted at the Sanctuario de San Antonio Parish, Forbes Park, Makati by its Parish Priest Fr. Hugh Zurat, OFM, in the early 1980's. Fr. Zurat, an American, had a vacation in the United States where he took his PREX (then called PRE). Upon his return to his parish, he right away conducted the seminar to his parishioners.

The training of parish priests in the Philippines took place in Baguio City in 1983 under Fr. Chuck Gallagher himself, on invitation of His Eminence, Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, who was overwhelmed and inspired by the visible results of PREX that he saw in Sanctuario de San Antonio parishioners in Forbes Park.

The most active parish in the country today in giving PREX seminars in and out of its parish is the Good Shepherd Cathedral Parish of Fairview Park, Quezon City under the spiritual leadership of its former parish priest, Msgr. Fidelis Limcaco, and presently, its new pastor, Msgr. Gerry Tapiador. In Fairview alone, the Good Shepherd Cathedral Parish has already given more than 225 classes, conducted once a month for the last 20 years. It has outreached many parishes in the Archdiocese of Manila as well as in Northern and Southern Luzon, Batanes, the Bicol regions, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Inside the PREX Logo

In 1994, when the First National PREX Convention was held at Good Shepherd Parish, Fairview, Quezon City, Msgr. Fidelis Limcaco, the Founder of PREX in the Philippines, announced the PREX Logo Design Competition open to all PREX graduates nationwide. Kuya Joel Mercado, a graduate of PREX #1 at the Sto. Rosario Parish in Pacita Complex, San Pedro, Laguna submitted his winning entry.

According to Kuya Joel, the logo was shaped like a triangle with rounded corners to symbolize the Blessed Trinity, the three persons in one God. The image of God the Father with arms open, suggests that He welcomes all who would decide to follow His son and come to Him.

The logo also depicts the sending of Jesus Christ (the second person in the Blessed Trinity) who died on the cross for love of us. The white dove in white rounded shape that appears like a sun, represents the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Blessed Trinity.

The five liturgical colors symbolize the inner aspects of the Body of Christ: Red for power and authority of God the Father; Yellow for Jesus Christ as the Son of God; White for the purity of the Holy Spirit; Blue for the mantle of protection from the Blessed Virgin Mary; and Green as the sign of the Blessed Trinity as our hope and life-giver.

What is NAPPS

The National Association of Parish PREX Secretariats (NAPPS) Foundation, Inc. is a nationwide organization of Parish PREX Secretariats (PPS) dedicated to promoting evangelization through the Parish Renewal Experience (PREX) Weekend Seminar program/s.

Initially formed in 1990 as an association of 17 parishes, NAPPS was later formally incorporated and registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) as a Foundation (SEC Registration Certificate No. A200202229) on February 13, 2002. NAPPS now serves over 1,559 Parish PREX Secretariats (PPS) across the Philippines.

Its national office is currently located at Santuario di San Paolo Shrine & Parish, Casa Milan, Fairview, Quezon City.

NAPPS aims to unite, guide, and assist Parish PREX Secretariats (PPS), conduct outreach missions and speaker trainings, and organize a bi-annual National Convention. Guided by Matthew 28:19–20, NAPPS operates under the Episcopal Commission on the Lay Apostolate (CBCP) and works closely with the Diocesan Associations of Parish PREX Secretariats (DAPPS).