My Community, My Friends

What do you do to be involved in the community?

Define community!

Loosely defined, it may mean a group of people living in the same place or having particular characteristics in common. It may also mean a feeling of fellowship with others, with common interest and attitude that bind you together.

Thirteen years ago, I met a Dominican priest through Facebook. We met via UST.tv which is no longer in existence now. He saw that I am a friend of Lovell so he invited me to be a temporary admin of a Catholic page called Apostles Filipino Catholic Community which he put up. We personally met when he came back from Rome and had two meetings/ gatherings with some of our members at Bahay Dominiko. After a few months he made me a permanent admin. That started online communications with the group and when some of them came home for vacation, they came over to meet me. A whole day is not enough, we had repeated gatherings here at home. There were the crying sessions we had, some of them opening up with their family problems. Fr. Louie, our chief administrator was so happy about the turn -out of our membership through the page. He changed the name to The Filipino Catholic, we are three admins manning the site. We post daily Bible readings and masses online, reflections, inspirational quotes and some Catholic links which are helpful to our members. At present we have more than 133,000 members.

During the pandemic, the Society of St. Paul created an hour- online program called Sambuhay Interaktib which is aired live twice a week. It is still ongoing until now. One can participate through live discussions and comments. I used to share some of my reflections back then until I had this ear infection and I could no longer understand the three priests manning the program. Sometimes I could not understand everything. They create games, topics of the night and Bible quotes. Believe me, priests and seminarians are good singers too. Fr. Pao always called me their resident poet before. Met some of them last year, priests and seminarians both and we had a good exchange of thoughts and conversations mostly about books we have read. Eventually, we have this group on Facebook but it is private, by invites only and I am one of the admins too. I am enjoying posting there. Sometimes I share my earlier posts and some members asked me to keep sharing.

There you go, my Catholic community and I am happy about it.

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Lovely, Lovely, Lovely

Imagine meeting a friend again after more than twelve years, online that is.

One of my friends Ruvie tagged me yesterday about a photo I posted twelve years ago during our reunion at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) library where I spent three years of college life as a working student. I posted it on my wall and said I miss those days with colleagues and books of course. A friend on Facebook messaged me that he knows one of the guys in the picture, they were batchmates in Naga Parochial school in Bicol.

Mon and I were both assigned at the Asian Section of the UST Main Library for almost two years. He took up an engineering course while I majored in Economics. The last time we saw each other was in the year 2010. The reunion is held every ten years but I was not able to attend the reunion last 2020 because of the pandemic. We are friends again on Facebook….haha but how lovely.

Today is the presbyteral ordination of one of my SSP friends which I was not able to attend because of my early appointment with my internist. I was looking at some photos on his wall but it was not updated yet so I visited their page called Sambuhay. It’s a page created by the Paulinian priests and brothers at Society of Saint Paul. Two years ago, two friends and I had this Sambuhay Interaktib group based on the regular program they hold every week. Imagine my surprise when I saw various blog posts I shared with the Sambuhay Interaktib posted at their own page Sambuhay. I am one of the admins of Sambuhay Interaktib so time and again I share my writings. How lovely to look back at all the reflections I shared with them.

My internist said I will be back come January 5 next year, great, I’ll have enough rest with doctor appointments and lab tests although I ‘m going to visit my ENT on Monday.

Have a nice and lovely weekend everyone😉❤️😘

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Meeting Friends

This morning I went to the wake of one of my friends’ mom. My Sambuhay Interaktib family met me there. Malou is also a member this group which was organized more than two years ago. These priests and seminarians of St. Paul created a program three years ago to share reflections and bond with other online people who attend the former’s online masses during the pandemic. It was a concelebrated mass of Fr. Pao and Fr. Baste assisted by Rev. Ed who delivered the homily. They go online twice a week and they have gained loyal followers.

Malou’s family took a one-week vacation (they live now in Australia) to attend their mom’s burial. Her son is also a seminarian. He took a video of the mass. I took some shots after the mass.

With Fr. Pao

Br. Russel and I

Fr. Pao, Marian (Malou’s daughter), Br. Ronel and Fr. Baste at the back.

Fr. Pao, Rev. Ed and I

Love those funny and precious moments of bonding after the mass and while we were eating lunch.

When friends meet, hearts warm❤🧡💜💙💚💛

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It’s A New Page

We used to have just this group chat. Funny, but in all the months since Interaktib started, we have somehow formed a community of fellow Catholics from all over the country. Some are staying abroad, some are active in their respective parishes. We chat, post some feed backs on the twice-a-week program of Sambuhay Interaktib. Actually, we’re like one big family.

Yesterday, my friend Min formed a page for all of us including the priests and seminarians involved in the production of the program. Min is the one I have written about in my post Solitude. It is a private group and I am helping her with another member as admins.

I have been an admin at our Catholic page The Filipino Catholic for more than ten years now since its inception so it is a little easier to navigate our new page. We are actually growing as one family, sharing the same faith. I am glad I am gaining new friends in the process.

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