Compassion

My whole family had to move to Palawan when I was 4-years old. We had to leave our house and that includes our pet, a one-eyed orange cat. I can still remember that cat. After a year, we came back. The house where we stayed was not there anymore, and also our cat. I overheard from the stories of our neighbour how the cat stayed on that place where he used to until he’s gone. Learning about the cat, I felt pity for it and eventually, missed that cat. From pity to compassion, I learned the feeling of being abandoned and how to take care of the abandoned, I learned the word compassion in that experience, not knowing the term, but I experienced it. 

The Blood of Christ

Every Sunday, my grandmother would bring me with her to a Pentecostal Church. I was 5 years old. During the bible service, there was a part when a small cup of a wine is given to each member of the congregation. My grandmother managed to let me sip a little of it. It was a grape-juice! It was part of the communion rite which I learned later as I grew up as a Catholic.

First Bible

My grandmother (mamang’s aunt) was also influential to my religious awakening. She belongs to a born-again denomination. At early age, maybe I was 13 years old when I bought my first Bible from Back to the Bible Society worth 5 pesos. It was a Tagalog version that includes Old and New Testaments. For one year, I was able to read it from cover to cover, an opportunity that, I can say, a beginning for me to know about the different bible personalities and stories. I admit that I was confused of the different Old Testament stories, of their inconsistencies yet I was just satisfied to learn about them.

Flores de Mayo

Together with my sister, we used to attend Flores de Mayo every summer in our barangay. Maybe it was out of nothing for a while yet from there, I learned the basic prayers and catechism. Eventually, I became a catechist as young as 13 years old every FLores de Mayo.

I still joined the group of young catechists during my high school days as my extra-curricular activity, and as an altar server at the same time.

Knight of the Altar

Since my first year in high school, I already served as an altar boy. Together with other servers, I served during our once-a-month Mass and every time the bishop visits us. The opportunity of being an altar server extended my service as prayer leader sometimes during our Wednesday novenas to the Mother of Perpetual Help. I even almost memorized the whole booklet of the novena.

A Catholic among the Protestants

Even if I was attending basic catechisms during Flores de Mayo, I seldom attend the Sunday Mass or Bible Service at the Catholic’s chapel. Instead, together with my sister, we go to a Protestant’s Church until I received the sacrament of the First Communion. We’ve been always accepted, and they were quite happy of our presence. I can still remember how we outwit them every time we have Bible Quizzes or Bible Drills. I was happy attending the Sunday school until the day I began to join the Catholic Masses after my first communion.

Every First-born Son is intended for God

After reading the bible for quite sometimes, I have learned from it how special the first-born sons of the Israelites are. Every first-born son is to be offered to God, just like the prophet Daniel who served Yahweh. I believed it.

That is how special I am also to my parents as they call me by a nickname, “Balong.” The nickname Balong is intended for the first-born son in ever Ilocano family.

My Father Was a Former Seminarian

Aside from being the “Balong” in the family, I also believed that my parents will allow me to enter the formation for priesthood. I had a strong inclination to become a priest. And yet since my father was a former seminarian and he knew how difficult it was to become one, they didn’t allow me.

It Will Just Come Back

It was very sharp in my mind that while I was crying for not permitting me to enrol at the pre-college seminary, my mother told me that my inclination to become a priest, if ever God is calling me to become one, it will just come back to me. I stopped crying and prayed instead, asking for forgiveness in behalf of my parents for not offering me as their first-born son to serve him.

World Union of Deists

May it was out of frustration that I have almost forgotten my desire to enrol at the seminary. I enrolled as a DOST-SEI Scholar taking up Industrial Technology major in Electricity. As a college student, I became more fascinated with books. I always spent most of the time at the library, and was even awarded as best book borrower one semester. Yet the books I’ve been borrowing were too far from my course of study. Those were philosophical books, anything from 0 to 100 in Dewey Decimal System. Later on, I found myself subscribing to newsletters and became member of World Union of Deists. It was a society that uses reasoning to prove God’s existence. It has a principle to defend God from the Bible. Since the organization believes not to the cruel God of the Bible, but to a God of reason. That was for almost two years. I received reading materials to read from them until I became passive with it. I had so many questions about God, his existence, and I was so confused of my faith. I stayed like that even until I graduated and worked in Davao and in Gensan.

Monday Masses

Despite of passivity in expressing my faith, I started to attend Masses every Monday when I was transferred to Gensan. Sundays were working days for me and I find time to attend mass every Monday afternoon at OLPGV.

Sister’s Act

This part of my experiences maybe was just one of the answers to my questions in life, my contentment and discontentment as a young professional. I visited my family but this time became a turning point for me. The brochure that my sister brought home became instrumental how did I find the Marist Brothers. She, my sister, was an instrument. And through that experience, to make my story short, I joined the Marist formation in spite and despite of the opportunities waiting for me to be a comptroller of one of the companies at the seaport. I was call to report for duty yet I declined and told them, “I think I just found my happiness here.”

Pray and Persevere

This phrase became unforgettable for me. It was the words of Br. Larry during The ritual for our Postulancy stage. Indeed, those words I took as part of my daily prayer since then, “Let me persevere and ever grow in your love so that I will become and die as a good and faithful Marist Brother.”

Monthly Visitations of Papang

When I reached the postulancy stage, I noticed that my father would visit me once a month at the formation house. And I realized his support to my on-going quest for God. He was with me in my journey.

Admittance to the Novitiate

One of the happiest moments after a year of formation was when I was accepted to become a novice. Meaning, I will be experiencing initially the life of being a vowed person, as a preparation for a deeper commitment, the first profession of vows.

Taking the Habit

As I took my habit as a religious, my parents were here behind me while reciting a prayer of consecration to Mary, a prayer which I personally composed. It was an intimate moment when my father and mother were just behind me.

First Experience of Death in my Family

Just after a month, my father passed away due to illness. It was three o’clock in the afternoon of the first Friday of the month. It was our prayer day and I was at the chapel at that moment. I was just told during the evening prayer at six in the evening. How the events turned to be an opportunity for me to call God deeper love, it was one of the turning points for me to see God in that death experience.

Few days before he died, I was able to talk to him. We were both crying for he was giving his final blessing to go on for my chosen path of life. Dramatic… I felt I was a first-born son of an Israelite at that very moment.

Image of a Prodigal Father

After a year of gradual healing from my father’s death, the Holy Week retreat gave me a religious experience to realize how God takes care and longs for his son. The image from the story of the prodigal son in the gospel became a very vivid experience I had during my prayer time. He used the image of my earthly father, by expressing his compassion and longing for me. He hugged me and suddenly I felt the warmth of his love, of his joy. I didn’t hug back, I was confused. I became a beloved sceptic.

A Missionary Novice with a Family Problem

A year after became a test for me: mother-sister problem. I was in Jolo that time when the family problem happened. I was tempted to go home yet pondered about what I should do if I’m home, I was sure that going home would be useless. Being far yet with constant communication, God gave me the chance to detach myself from my mother’s and sister’s affair. They were able to resolve our family problem even I was far away from them.

Community – Jolo

My missionary novice-ship went well, in general. But the community was not an ideal community. That community must have given me discouragement and I would have just finished my novice-ship and went home for good. But it was the opposite that happened. My experiences in Jolo were so very reach of God’s intervention. The people who supported me, the reality I saw in my community and the daily Mass, strengthened me to profess my vows despite and in spite of what I have witnessed.

From the reflected experiences, I realized that God works in many subtle ways. He used persons, special events and even tragic or sad moments in order for me to see him. The first gift these different scenarios were the memory itself, that recalling and reminiscing them gave me a word to pray, and that is gratefulness. I am grateful for the gift of being reflective, for being able to look back and see these as part of my call to become a religious brother. He is a God of wonders, a familiar stranger to my daily struggles and joys; familiar because I believe that he was with me and still with me, stranger because he seems to be anything or someone whom I always encounter.

Note: Some lines were intentionally omitted/edited/removed from my original journal composition. Grammar not checked.

For almost four months of being away from my blog-site, I again realize that there are people who look forward for my another entry. Whether boring or interesting stories I got to share, they are, still, worthy to be shared, I suppose.

So this time, I would like to re-launch my blog. It’s time again to move on with my journey as a blogger. As the title of this blog, ‘Ot! This will be another entry that marks it’s new beginning. The Itinerant wants to move on, with more passion this time, marked with another new inspirations; experiences, simple spirituality in everyday life, the children, the people, in general. They are just some of the reasons why I do blog. Nevertheless, I do blog because I got something to share, too… Not necessarily I got to share something…

Let this be an expression of my prayers, Lord, in thanking you for helping me open my eyes to all my experiences every day of my short life…

Today’s celebration of the Eucharist was inspiring. Their was really a communion of faithful people.

Mass of the Holy Spirit and  NDDU’s anniversary tomorrow. This is the first Mass I facilitated as CMRE Coordinator of Espina Campus. But thanks God! The committees did their tasks well. The students also did their part. Thanks also to Fr. Vic who presided the Mass for us. It was successful.

Indeed, it was a rewarding day! Treat myself tonight.

Today, in 1817, in La Valla, France, Marcellin Champagnat founded the Institute of Teaching Brothers. He started with two young men, Brothers Jean Marie and Louis.

Marcellin’s inspiration in founding the congregation was rooted in the need of his contemporary time. He became aware of the extreme difficulty of the people especially the young in learning how to read and write, and the urgent need of creating a society to cope with those hardships. Moreover, His experience with the Montagne boy reinforced his desire to teach them in a Christian way of education. His dream, to send the Brothers to all dioceses in the world is now becoming a reality in our contemporary times.

With our theme in today’s commemoration, “Built Wisely, Living Today!” is the realization of our foundation as congregation of teaching Brothers. But indeed, “If the Lord does not build a house, in vain do the builders labour,” A wise man builds his house on the rock, so Champagnat too, our wise Father priest, inspired us to be here today to celebrate with him in thanking God for the graciousness in finding our own giftedness in the institute.

We pray for all the Brothers in the whole Institute, all those who have gone before us, and those who, in many ways, shared their lives as Marists in spirit.

With the spirit of Champagnat and with Mary our Good Mother, our first Superior, let us begin the celebration with joyful hearts and minds.

by Br. Vince, FMS

“Why don’t you join priesthood rather than just a religious brother? Same, you can’t marry, anyway” Same questions and statements I heard from my own parents and friends when I expressed my desire to join the brotherhood. My family was not ready to understand what religious life means. Even myself, I didn’t really understand the differences of being a lay religious and ordinary layman. It was difficult for me to weigh my intentions since I have always the option to help others as a lay man, same with what lay religious are doing; serving our neighbors in the same way a religious does. Being confronted with the realities of life; poverty, injustice, problems with society in general, I was asked if I was just trying to escape from these, and joining the group of people gathered together inside the intentional communities is one way of running away from these realities. I had the notion of being secured in life inside while enjoying the social structure, but attraction to religious life is more than these.

The earlier belief of security is also confronting young religious like me in general. Maybe this is the reason why we are always send to study more and even outside our seminaries, just like other students do. If before, the young religious were staying in their own cloisters to live the vows, my contemporary time is getting different and more open to change. Somehow there is the gradual change in formation. There are instances in my community to compare the formation between elder brothers and younger brothers when issue of differences and generation gap are raised. As if there is something wrong with the new generation of religious yet at the same time, wrongly understood that there is also something wrong with old formation. Indeed life is getting more difficult as the society changes too fast also. Technology now determine most of the peoples movement and there are difficulty with the Church people to “get in” to it. It seems that its more difficult to live a simple lifestyle just like before the second Vatican Council. Few years back, I was phoned by a nun in a monastery to fix their printer. I was honored to enter in a monastery of nuns, which I’m thinking, no man can ordinarily enter their cloister, I was wrong. Inside their parlor, I saw laptop, desktop and mobile gadgets used for communication. At least, the paradigm I had was getting clearer that spirituality in religious life doesn’t just mean a small life but a very real and challenging life but simple and liberating.

In the blogging community and circle of friends, I find hard times to explain the state of life I am engaged with since being a religious brother who vowed not to marry and possesses property is a vague idea for many who do not understand what a “religious” means. But being part of the society, aloneness is giving a contrast and let the curious people seek what it means to be alone yet happy and lesser hang ups in life. While the technology is getting complicated and makes life easier, there is also a difficulty at the same time to live a simple and joyful life. Many of the youth today according to a survey about how happy and contended the new generations, are having much questions even in terms of relationship and identity. The world is getting more noisy, in and out of every individual. Yet being in the state of life that seeks for God without human interventions, the monks, nuns and people who vowed to be religious more or less, finds consolation to their experiences with the transcendent as they constantly seek for their significance in the community in the world, not separated from the local communities where they belong. One moment of aloneness with the Lord I have at this moment is sitting in contentment in the balcony while sipping a mug of tea, contemplating the end of the day, giving thanks for all the experiences I had today.

It is seems to be a difficult question for me if I try to understand what it really means. It is simply answered as, we need to get up to do our duties for the day by starting it with morning prayer and at the end of the day, we end by evening prayer, and the next day, we get up again. A routine. But I am sure that it means something about the existence of religious life in the modern contemporary time and its future.

When I was still in the novitiate, I learned that a religious congregation needs to evolve with time so that it will not die or being left behind. There is a cycle that sometimes, it is able to cope with the challenges of time and sometimes, questions the effectiveness of the charism which the founder adopted to answer the needs of his time. I have read couple of books about my own congregation from the start of its existence up to the latest circular of our Superior General and I found out that there are so many changes happened in the whole institute as time passes by. Soon as the Brothers started to become a congregation, they taught small schools in rural areas but these days, a lot of lay mission partners are being involved with the brothers’ works in big schools whether in rural or urban places and in mission places, as well. But the existence of religious life is still there as it is founded strongly and willingly evolved with time without losing its own charism. The Brothers still gather together as a sacred community and sustained its existence.

For me, re-envisioning religious life itself is important to every congregation as they locate themselves in the midst of new changes in the society, its structure and its needs. The challenge to evaluate the dreams of the founder and the first community is there, whether there is a dynamism and consciousness for the modern time. Attentiveness is needed and not only by sending missions. Even before I joined the formation, I asked myself of what would be my role in my own institute, and what can I share to my own community as I longed to live the religious life. It looked like, two sides or parts of me. Me, inside the congregation and me, outside the congregation. Inside the congregation, I am part of the intentional community that longed to pray together, work together and be with together. Outside the congregation, I am part of the whole church as I willingly vowed publicly to serve others. But the question I am trying to answer is, “As the Church continue to move on with time, up to what extent can I see myself in the religious life living my vows faithfully?” It is still the happiness to get up in the morning sharing the faith with the whole Church in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Institute of Consecrated life in Asia (ICLA) visited Marist Asia-Pacific Center last December 1 to share their prayers in remembering the spirit of the Mission Congress in Asia . They had originally prepared these animated prayers for the recent Missiology Forum in Manila . Br. Jeff Crowe, the rector of MAPAC, welcomed the 30 religious sisters and brothers (including priests) led by Sr. Patiola, OLN. The group presented three para-liturgies that led to the spirit of the occasion entitled, “One Story: Five Versions.” It was started with the interpretative dance “Song of the Body of Christ” about coming and sharing their stories led by the Vietnamese and Thailanders.

The graceful movements, simple gestures, and colourful traditional dress engaged us all at the level of the heart, in a sense of gratitude for the living p

resence of the Spirit in our people, and a desire to share this with our brothers and sisters evrywhere. In between the prayer parts were socialization among the different cultures and congregations, and the fellowship meal, the dinner. Including the Brothers, the participants came from Carribean , Micronesia , Solomon Islands , Kiribati , Papua New Guinea , Tonga , Fiji , Samoa and New Zealand , Australia , China , Vietnam , Thailand , Myanmar , Bangladesh , India , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , Korea , Philippines , Indonesia , Malaysia . The occasion of prayers w

ere successfully ended around half past 8 in the evening after the speech of thanks of Br. Vince Celeste, community councilor.

In behalf of the MAPAC community, I would like to thank you for your generosity of sharing the prayer of the mission with us, for the fellowship we had tonight. Indeed, the different forms pf prayer presented were appreciated and even more heard when they are integrated into different cltures here in Asia-Pacific. The spirituality of awareness and sensitivity may be developed by us here at MAPAC and we may be able to live them everyday. To you brothers and sister, our deep gratitude. Good evening.