The Joy is in the Serving.

In a strange new world, people become more individualists.  More and more souls live day by day in the confines of their rooms, with only their computers as friends.

A cousin told me "my son in his thirties, still doesn't have a girlfriend, yet late at night I hear him having a conversation in his room."  Perhaps he's chatting on line, or doing more.

It's a sad fact of the modern times; many are waiting to be served.

We are programmed to get instantaneous result, feedback and action from whatever we do.

We want instant gratification, always.

We have TV and cable on demand, we have 24/7 help desks, we have on line orders and purchases, we have medical and legal advice on line as well, even instant divorce.

Mothers cannot afford inaction, husbands and kids would complain.  So there's instant food or delivery for those juggling motherhood and career.

While some of these modern devices and conveniences make living easier, many become distractions and aberrations. For instance, instead of promoting family closeness or bonding, eating together becomes a joke when a family eats in front of a television set with their take out food as center piece.

Or when we send flowers to a friend in a hospital through FTD.com or phone in floral delivery, without actually visiting him or her.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

In Mark 10: 35-45, the brothers James and John asked Jesus for a big favour: Lord appoint us to seat in the right and left sides of your throne.  And when the ten other apostles heard this, they got angry at the two for they also wanted to ask for favours and were beaten to it by James and John.

Yet Jesus replied, " Who among you want to be great shall be a servant of the others. For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve."

There is joy in serving others.  Aside from serving the members of our family, we can move on to serve a bigger community.

In doing service to others, we discover our inner peace and strength.

Knighthood.

When a person from Church approached me and asked me to join the Knights of Columbus, I didn't readily agree.  Instead I went to the Net and looked for information about the organization.

What I saw affirmed my earlier hunch that the Knights of Columbus is an honorable undertaking.

My only contact with the Knights of Columbus was seeing its members in church events in which they participated donned in knight regalia, cape and sword and hat (called chapeau) and all.  It was a beautiful sight.

Even in my parish at Blessed John XXIII, I remember debating whether to join or not.

As I turned a new leaf in my Christian life, I finally decided to be a part of this Catholic fraternal service organization whose membership includes Carl A. Anderson, former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and the present Supreme Knight,  Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida, Denis Coderre, Member of Canadian Parliament, and Hilario Davide, former Philippine Supreme Court Justice.

To read more about the Knights of Columbus, please go to www.kofc.org and for the Philippine site, at www.kofc.org.ph/

Go go go.

Last Thursday, Oct. 4th, I went to check this blog and saw my last entry was on May 2009.  That was three years ago.

So I decided to post again.  I did on Friday, Oct. 5, when I posted "Bible as a Book."

I hope to post more.  Thank you for visiting and reading.

Neighbourhood Crusade.

In their effort to curb crimes, barangays and village groups in the Philippines have had watch crime groups established in their neighbourhoods.  In Toronto, Canada there are even sticker/badges you place in your main door signifying that you're an active neighbourhood crime watcher.

In another kind of neighbourhood watch, one aimed to promote peace through prayers, rosary crusades had been promoted by Catholic neighbourhoods in the Philippines and all over the world.

Yesterday morning, Oct. 6th, our Parish Church, the San Andres Apostol, held a dawn procession honouring The Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Manaoag.  

Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag (Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario de Manaoag)  is a 17th-century Roman Catholic ivory image of the Blessed Virgin Mary placed in the high altar of a shrine in Manaoag, Pangasinan. Under that invocation, Mary the mother of Jesus is locally venerated as the patroness of the town and is often referred to in both the Pangasinense and Ilocano dialect as Apo Baket (English: "Venerable Madam").

The 6 a.m. mass celebrated after the procession by Fr. Vic Flores was held in honour of the Blessed Mother,  St. Josemarie Escriva who founded the Opus Dei, and the BEC organization which brings the Divine Mercy and Our Lady of Fatima - into the homes  of Greenwoods residents.

Let's all together promote peace through prayers.

Bible as a Book.

Although I attended a Catholic high school and had been a practising Christian ever since I could  remember, I couldn't say that I understand the Bible, then and now.

Yes, there had been episodes in my life that I had taken to reading the Bible - those were the days when there were troubles and woes. But going to mass had been a constant.

In Jersey City, I attended Sunday mass at the St. Aedan Church near Journal Square and also at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church on Westside.

In Steubenville, Ohio, me, my sisters and their families went to the Holy Rosary Parish Church, a stone's throw away from our house.

In Toronto, I first attended masses at the St. Patrick's Church in Mississauga, then at St. Anne's in Gerrard, at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help near St. Clair and Mt. Pleasant, and finally at the Blessed John XXIII Church.

When I was working in Manhattan, I would walk to the Our Lady of Victory Church on William St. for its 12:15 pm mass, and then grabbed a bite before heading back to my office which was near New York's Federal Reserve Bank, where at one time,  I witnessed a man jumped to his death from one of the building's upper windows. Whew!

When our office moved midtown, I discovered a church called St. Malachy "the Actor's Chapel" at 57th Street.  Then on Wednesdays, I'd take a fast-paced walk to St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue and on to Macy's for its Wednesday special sale. Those were the days.

Back in Toronto, I attended some Sunday masses at the St. Michael's Cathedral located at Dundas and Church streets.

In my extended stay in Manila, I re-discovered the local church in our Village, the San Andres Apostol Paris Church. Ably shepherded by Fr. Vic Flores, San Andres Apostol is a young parish, going on its third year  this coming November  although it had been a chapel for some 19 years already.

Facade of the newly completed San Andres Apostol Parish Church at Greenwoods.

The San Andres Apostol Parish Church boasts of an active Catholic community with a vibrant Marriage Encounter group called IHHMEC  (Immaculate Heart of Mary Marriage Encounter) and several other organizations with adult and youth memberships.

Previous to my regular attendance at the San Andres Apostol, I had been hearing masses and novenas at the Eucharistic Chapel of the Risen Lord at the Megamall.

Lately, I longed to have a deeper understanding of the Word of God, and alas, barely a few days after, our Parish Priest announced that a Basic Bible Seminar I would be held at our parish. So for two consecutive Saturdays, I listened and heard.

•      That the Bible is a Book, and as a Book, it should be read, studied, prayed, lived, and shared with a larger community.

So now, a Bible is prominently displayed in the house's altar, and a candle perpetually lighted near it.

Graduation Photo, Basic Bible Seminar I participants. From the facebook account of San Andres Apostol Parish.  Author at top most row, second from the right.

It will be read, studied, prayed, lived and shared.  These were the promises we, the Basic Bible Seminar I graduates, made on Graduation Day last Sept. 29th, 2012.

Praise God.