500 Years

We are celebrating 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines.

It was a very touching and inspiring celebration led by the Holy Father Pope Francis in Rome. I actually shed a tear when the Filipino community sang the Lord’s Prayer, Our Father in Tagalog. Our very own Cardinal Chito read his words of thanks in behalf of Filipinos here and abroad. Here are some photos, highlights of the homily of Pope Francis for the celebration of 500 Years of Christianity here in our country.

Credits to EWTN VATICAN for the photos and the Servant’s Chronicles for uploading them.

Last night I attended an online recollection at the Manila Cathedral,very uplifting words from Fr. Regie and Fr. Kali. I watch their masses every day. Different versions of the theme song were rendered by some Filipinos abroad.

To Your Mission LORD, we give our yes.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Feast Day Of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

Today we celebrate the Feast Day of  our Lady of the  Holy Rosary.   Every year there used to be a procession of La Naval of the image at Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City. This year though, only a few participated but they brought out the image for a shorter route because of the  pandemic.

Have I  told you that the first time I’ve seen the image of Mama Mary up close was ten years ago when Fr. Lovell (still a seminarian then) invited me to join the Dominican community to pray the rosary with them when the image  was brought down from her pedestal in preparation for the annual procession? I can’t explain the feeling touching her magnificent and dazzling robe after praying the rosary. It was then a year after my chemotherapy. Back in high school at the university, we were all  required to wear our white gala uniforms and attend the procession every year.

Early this morning, I got this message from Fr. Lovell who is assigned in Iloilo at the moment.

Mapagpalang araw po. AS we celebrate today the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, I entrust you and your family to the protective and maternal care of our Mother. You will be remembered in the Holy Mass at 10 am to be celebrated at the Chapel of the House of the Most Holy Rosary Iloilo City. Keep safe.

He never forgets to include us in his masses since he was ordained eight years ago. How nice to be always remembered in prayers.

Happy Feast Day to all our Catholic friends. You are also remembered in prayers.

Read Full Post »

Those Days

Fr. Louie, the chief administrator of our page, Filipino Catholic is so fond of having those games online which he posts every day for his friends to answer. Sometimes, he just posts photos of sellers whose products are named and misspelled incorrectly and we just laugh. A few minutes ago, he posted some photos of our native fruits which are now seldom seen in the market nowadays. It reminds me of those days some years ago, when most members of our page enjoyed our group called Tambayan. We had those hot seats where most members are allowed to question one particular member – anything goes. It was fun.

Our page, the Filipino Catholic has been in existence for ten years now and I was appointed by Fr. Louie as one of the admins a few months after he created it. Back then, he was still studying for his doctorate degree in Rome. We are still at it until now and we have added another admin a few months ago. We are four in all taking care and running the site at Facebook. It’s one reason why I could not give up Facebook because I have to update daily Bible readings for our members. One good thing about it is that we have loyal followers.

Some of them have become my friends over the years and those who are residing abroad who are OFWs sometimes contact me and I invite them to visit me here. We always have those nice and lovely chats about their works and our families, serious discussions about our Catholic faith, food and many more. We had two previous gatherings at Santo Domingo Church – the joy of seeing each other personally and sharing our meager talents in making the events successful. What bliss!

I met a friend who used to work in the US but she has come back home and retired here. Odette is the one who regularly supplies me with those lovely favorite books over the years. She is a member of our page.

I miss seeing them personally, not just through messages on FB. I miss those days of laughter and sharing our lives with each other. Come to think of it, I haven’t ventured out of our gate for almost three months now. The number of those found positive of COVID-19 is still rising every day. May we be all spared from this pandemic.

Read Full Post »

Words To Live By

Made some memes when I still had my old camera. I have a whole album at FB. I miss my Canon Ixus.

Read Full Post »

Candelaria

Candlemas (also spelled Candlemass), is  also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ and the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a Christian Holy Day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. It is based upon the account of the presentation of Jesus in Luke 2:22–40 which is the gospel today.

We had a short procession after the blessing of candles outside the church.  We had to light at least one candle while going inside the church. It was a lovely celebration with our good friend Fr. Aly officiating.  All my candles at home were previously blessed and we usually use them at the altar during prayers at home.   It is better to light a candle than to stumble in the dark.

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Blaise. Blaise is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic church. A doctor, he is a patron saint of those sufferers from throat diseases. I told Nissa to hear mass too so her throat would be blessed.

I love these Catholic rituals that we observe throughout the year.  They strengthen my faith and beliefs.

 

Read Full Post »

Simbang Gabi

Last night was the start of our yearly Simbang Gabi or Dawn mass.  Back in the days, it used to be called Rooster Mass because  4am or 5am were usually when the rooster in your neighborhood crows.  Simbang Gabi is a beautiful nine-day novena masses in Thanksgiving for all the blessing one received in the year. It’s traditional for us Filipino Catholics. I think it is only in the Philippines where you could find this. Times has changed, nowadays these Simbang Gabi are celebrated early, usually the night before the next day to give way for those who want to attend the novena after office.  They are also brought to some malls where they are celebrated at noon and most offices also hold these masses during lunch break.

I was overjoyed seeing the Pope opening the Simbang Gabi tradition. The mass readings were read in Tagalog  but there was a translator in English. Even the songs were sung in Tagalog  by the Filipino community. I’d like to think we are special because they have adapted one of the lovely traditions in our Catholic life.

Although our country is now in the brink of…..how do you put it….the ship is sinking fast because of these non-performing powers that be in our government, I still have high hopes that this will end eventually and we will rise up again. It may just take one brave soul to start it, right now though, we are at the mercy of one man who holds everything from the Supreme Court to the Legislative Branch to our National Police down to the barangay level. I need not elaborate, perhaps you also read them online.

I digress.

We were talking about Simbang Gabi, right? There are many churches now and several congregations too that televise the celebration of the nine-day novena masses. They end the day before Christmas day.

Read Full Post »

Cristo Rey

Today is the Feast of Christ the King, conclusion of the liturgical year in the Catholic calendar.

“Feast of Christ the King, also called Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, is a  festival celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church in honour of Jesus Christ as lord over all creation. Essentially a magnification of the Feast of the Ascension, it was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925″.

Next Sunday is the beginning of another liturgical year in which we start with the season of Advent.  It is a time we look forward to as preparation of Christmas, four weeks of Advent Sundays before Christmas.  The word Advent comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “arrival” or “coming” from the word advenire (ad- “to” venire “come”).

Advent 2019 begins on December 1 and ends on December 24. The themes that correspond to each week are the following:

Week 1: Hope (or promise)
Week 2: Preparation (or waiting or prophecy)
Week 3: Joy (or peace)
Week 4: Love (or adoration)

It was so nice to meet our good friend Fr. Aly again who is now the Parish Priest and Rector of the the Shrine of Our Lady of Light here in our town. For eight years, I’ve missed listening to his lovely and meaningful homilies. He was the one who officiated on Nissa’s wedding eight years ago. Meeting old friends, what a wonderful treasure.

By the way, Cristo Rey are Spanish words for Christ the King. Have a blessed  Sunday everyone.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Good Morning July

Read Full Post »

Happy Easter To All

New life, new hope, new beginnings.

 

Read Full Post »

Enriching Lives, Knowing Yourself

Holy Wednesday ended up with a visit from our neighbor who is a good friend. We had a lovely and enriching sharing. She gave me a jar of pickled papaya.  Yum!

Last night I also watched the Sambuhay TV Mass Holy Recollection 2019  with Fr. Pao Asprer who is also a friend at FB.  Sambuhay is sponsored by the  Society of St. Paul. Learned a lot about faith, temptations and prayers. It was a very meaningful and inspiring Recollection. Fr. Pao is that good, a young priest who was ordained four years ago. I jotted some points which he discussed.

• Proximity to power is power in itself
• True prayer is listening.
• If you know yourself, that’s a sign of true wisdom.
• In the face of temptation, we’ll know ourselves better.

He touched on some quotes by Thomas Merton and I am glad I am reading one of his books at the moment.  The Seven Storey Mountain is a 467 pages book  with so fine prints.  I don’t read it at night because the prints are so small. Good luck to my eyes. It’s not that kind of reading that you have to finish in one go. There are so many words that you can reflect on.  This book has been on my wish list for quite a while. Maybe Grace (my friend from Canada) saw it on Goodreads so she gave me a copy.

By the way, Grace posted  the photos they took when she and her husband were here for a while last month.  She was the one who gave me a copy of the book. I grabbed this from the album she just posted, the two of us together at the lobby of Richmonde Hotel in Pasig City.

We’re getting old, imagine more than four decades of friendship. and I’ve always said that  “when friends meet, hearts warm”.

 

Read Full Post »