SA GITNA NG DESIERTO.

Sa gitna ng disierto from mrgene

Let's drink to that, Father.

I remember one parish priest who held a series of talks and one talk took place in a pub near the U of T. in Toronto. Yes, an Irish pub.

The priest was not even Irish; he was a Filipino-Canadian.  But yes, there are many Irish priests in Canada and the U.S.A.  In fact, a second cousin's daughter is married to an Irish-Canadian who has a priest for an uncle. And for an Irish, going to a pub (bar) is like going for a walk - it is the most natural thing to do.

I figured, that priest must have many Irish priest friends and that he was attending the University for post graduate studies and that the pub was the best place to hold a talk because it was populated by students from the nearby university whose attendance he probably wanted.

And then I read about "pub talks."  One Australian priest  in an article says,  "It is one thing to discuss key questions among ourselves as Catholics, it is another to go into the public forum and raise the issues that are current and important," says Bishop Julian. "Holding these talks in pubs in the city provides young people with an informal relaxed environment in which they can engage with the important questions that are currently being debated in newspapers, on talk back radio and on many television programs."

A typical pub talk.

My mind flashed back to this scenario because at a recent church group meeting I attended, someone admonished the members to avoid posting photos in their social networking sites which show them drinking in the presence of a priest.

According to the individual, others may misconstrue it and think that the priest was drinking.

What's wrong with a priest drinking beer during a ministry fellowship, anyway?

The warning by the group member was  a classic case of 'beauty is in the eyes of the beholder," or more like "sin is in the eyes of the sinner."

Vatican II changed the way the Catholic church treated the laity; the laity was made more involved with the Church through the various ministries and apostolates; it became a partner of the Church in spreading the kingdom of God. Corollary to this, the priests became more in touch with their parishioners.

As a Knight of Columbus, I became aware of how the laity should defend its priests. Instead of  worrying how others may perceive an ordinary photograph, I would take the positive action of  explaining (if need be) what's probably behind the image.

I won't take the high road of snobbery.

Here's another piece on  pub talks.  " Archbishop Donald Wuerl stepped onto the stage at the archdiocesan sponsored Theology on Tap on Oct. 17 to cheers and applause from the young crowd. "That's the warmest welcome I've ever received in a pub," he said. And then added, "That's the first welcome I've ever received in a pub." - from Catholic online (http://www.catholic.org/diocese/diocese_story.php?id=21800).

Is it a concert?

I remember a friend in high school telling me that he was a junior cursillista. My father, a sister and auncle were also cursillistas.

What is a cursillista? A cursillista is a member of the Cursillo Movement, or Cursillos in Christianity (in Spanish: Cursillos de Cristiandad, short course of Christianity), an apostolic movement of the Roman Catholic Church. 

" It was founded in Majorca, Spain by a group of laymen in 1944, while they were refining a technique to train pilgrimage Christian leaders.

Cursillo is the original three day movement, and has since been licensed for use by several mainline Christian denominations, some of which have retained the trademarked "Cursillo" name while others have modified its talks/methods and given it a different name.

The cursillo focuses on showing Christian lay people how to become effective Christian leaders over the course of a three-day weekend. The weekend includes fifteen talks, some given by priests and some by lay people, those talks are called "rollos". The major emphasis of the weekend is to ask participants to take what they have learned back into the world, on what they call the "fourth day". The method stresses personal spiritual development, as accelerated by weekly group reunion (after the weekend)."

It was in the mananita or dawn serenade that I first heard of the cursillo songs -  sweet and touching songs of praise to God. And then these spread like wild fire, and were incorporated in mass songs during the late 60's. In the early 80's, the Charistmatic movement whose prayer meetings were punctuated by the Holy Spirit slayings started to flourish in the Philippines and their stirring song-invocations drew more and more people into their groups and events.

Yesterday, we were at the Eucharistic Chapel of the Lord for the nine a.m. Healing mass and before the final blessing, Fr. Mario Sobrejuanite called on the sax player of the choir, Joshua Espinosa, to play a jazz number, while a second collection for the formation of young priests was being done.

I thought for a second that I was in a concert of Josh Groban until I heard the final blessing. 

Click here to view the complete mass.