Christmas in a Barrio.

In the tiny town where my father grew up - up north in a province called Nueva Ecja - the houses that lined the street leading to the main Church were built of wood and nipas.

The barrio used to be called Papaya until 1957,  is now known as General Tinio. A first class municipality, it boasts of a population of 42,634 people.

The town is at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountain, adjoining the Fort Magsaysay Army Reservation on the east side.

Nipa comes from the palm family of plants, and because it is the major component of the house, the house built out of it had been called a Nipa Hut.  It is a type of  stilt house indigenous to most of the lowland cultures of the Philippines.


But these houses soon disappeared as families in our barrio slowly upgraded into modern structures built of cement and steel. Then the boom years quickly happened as residents found work overseas, and today, the houses leading up to the main church are big, grandiose and affluent.

What about the church?

The church which was located in the Town Plaza and where we attended mass during Christmas and town fiestas has become the second church. It is called Sto. Cristo. 

Sto. Cristo Church, where burial masses are now held

In the mid-90's,  the Holy Cross Church was built, farther from the center of politics (the Municipal Hall) and still farther from the nexus of trade (the local wet market). The new church is fondly called "simbahang bago," (new church) by the locals.

Holy Cross Church, bigger and newer church in General Tinio, Nueva Ecija

Interior of the Holy Cross Church

The Sto. Cristo Church and the Holy Cross Church are under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cabanatuan.

La Immaculada Concepcion.

La Immaculada Concepcion of Pasig

Yesterday, December 8th, the Catholic faithful commemorated the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is one of only three official Holidays of Obligation celebrated by the Catholics in the Philippines, the other two being Christmas Day and the Solemnity of Mary on January 1st.

I remember a story my mother told us when we were young, which revolved around this particular feast.

On December 8, 1941, my mother and my father, her two sisters, her parents and brother in law were in the house of a first cousin and they were happily dining with other relatives and friends. It was the town fiesta in Pasig, a town (now a City) east of Manila.

The center of the Fiesta in Pasig is the Pasig Cathedral which is called the Immaculada Concepcion, built by the Augustinians on July 2, 1573, some fifty one years after the Philippine Islands became Christians by virtue of the coming of the Spaniards in 1521.

The Pasig Cathedral built in 1573

Initially, the Parish was consecrated to the Visitation of Our Lady but in April 25, 1587, was changed to the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the Augustinians during that time. 

On August 21, 2003, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pasig was inaugurated and the Parish was elevated into the status of a Cathedral.

On that fateful day in 1941, the town of Pasig was, like in the past many years, focused on the day's festivities - mass, procession, parades, games, beauty pageant, eating, drinking and merrymaking. The Pasig fiesta was one of the grandest in the the province of Rizal, after all.

My mother said, " biglang nagkagulo at nagsigawan ang mga tao, giyera na, giyera na." (the people started to become restless and started shouting, " it's wartime, it's wartime"). Yes, it was the start of World War II, because the Japanese Imperial Army attacked without provocation the United States Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. ( The attack occured on Dec. 7 Hawaii- time and Dec 8 in Japan and the Philippines). The Philippines, being under the Commonwealth of the United States, was dragged into the destructive war.

US and Filipino soldiers during WW II in Manila

My grandfather and countless relatives and friends of my parents suffered and/or died during this War.

That was 73 years ago. My mother and most of the relatives who celebrated that 1941 Fiesta with her are all gone. But everytime the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated, the story as told by my mother comes to mind.

Discipleship

Bring Back the Pieces

There's an old song by the Spiral Staircase with the lyrics,

"Bring back the pieces of a broken man babe
He’s sorry can’t you see
Bring back the pieces of the broken man
you’re every part of me"

If you just read the lyrics without knowing the song, it could very well be a prayer, just  say "Babe Jesus, instead of just "babe."

When song writers write their lyrics and simple folks sing their songs, there's a lot of emotion into the action.  Lyricists draw from their experiences. Singers and ordinary people draw from theirs, too.

In prayer, we connect with God, Our Creator, the one who redeemed and continually forgives us for all our misdeeds and sins.

In private prayer, we are in a direct dialogue, we sing silently, giving praise, pleading for pardon, seeking favours.

God works miracles. If you are broken hearted, He puts the broken pieces back and makes you whole again. You can move on, you can go on loving and living again.

If you sinned, and ask for forgiveness, He says it's alright, my child, I forgive you. 

Please include GOD IN YOUR LIFE.  Without Him, you don't have a Father to protect you, to cheer you up, to mend whatever hurts you.

Homeless,

When I worked in New York many years ago, I saw the sad truth of homelessness. At the subway stop at 33rd, in the dark recesses of it, one could make out the presence of homeless people not through their shadows but through their stink. Smell of dried urine and of un-washed bodies and clothing.

There was a New York City woman who put a name to homelessness, who became its poster girl. Her name was Billie Boggs. She was forcibly taken into a homeless shelter and out of a ritzy Manhattan neighbourhood because she was considered a "loony." 

In Toronto, one such homeless person was Paul Croutch. He was beaten to death in 2005 by three Army reservists one night as he laid in a cold bench in a Toronto Park. Mr. Croutch had been the co-publisher of a weekly paper in northern B.C. in the late 1980s.  Nobody claimed his body, not  his daughter nor his ex-wife.

In Manila, homeless folks sleep under bridges and highway overpass, in sidewalks and even cemetery tombs. Recently, an 11-month old baby girl was abducted, raped and killed while she slept with her parents in a make-shift tent outside a bank building in one of Manila's congested cities.

Homelessness. No one notices it, until it hits the headlines. 

Shepherd.

If I were to draw the portraits of the priests that had made an impression on me, the very first would be that of the priest of my pre-teen.

He was the picture of a fatherly priest - bespectacled, in his early fifties, always smiling, and warm. He used to come to the house of my grand aunt to have lunch, listen to an uncle play the piano, and even go for some rounds of mahjong (Chinese card game played with ivory tiles) with my Lola, aunts and uncles. He was an Aglipayan priest.

Next is the priest who baptized me as a Catholic. He was a Dominican, and a friendly one whom the children found approachable. His name and that of my uncle-godfather were the same, Roberto.

Other priests who made an impression on me were two Belgian priests of my high school years. One was our principal, a rotund, expressionless, forty-something priest, rather stern with us students, whom we regard with awe. He was Belgian but spoke clear English.

The other was a teacher in our Religion class. He was tall, frail, with boyish smile and ways, and although his English was spoken with strong Flemish accent, we listened to him intently and found religion class very interesting. To high school students of those years, this interest in religion was rather news.

It took many years to find another priest who made quite a mark on me. It was a young priest in Ohio that stood out in my mind - an affable, Irish priest with excellent singing voice. His voice boomed as he sang "Bless be the Lord."  He delivered good homily and the last I heard, he was made principal of a Catholic school in an adjacent city to where I used to live.

A co-priest of this Irish priest was an Italian priest who was  an excellent homilist. He would come down from the altar and would deliver his homily at the centre aisle, making his sermon more intimate and understandable.

In Canada, there was a Filipino-Canadian priest who stayed briefly in our Parish, but whom I found remarkable. He was a corporate guy before he joined the priesthood, he told us one time we invited him for lunch in our house. He was witty, he was humorous, and his homilies were always something to look forward to during the mass.

Another Filipino-Canadian priest I came to admire was a priest who came from a rich family back in Manila. He was articulate, sang beautifully, and initiated many things in our Parish which made our small church vibrant and up-to-date in musical instrument, worship books, and parish attendance.

This priest was so good he was made Parish priest of a new church and he told the congregation that the Bishop asked him to personally choose the name of the church.

There are so many good priests around. Their task is so important and daunting especially in this era where man is consumed with material things and look for source of joy in the wrong places.

These priests are our new shepherds. We look up to them to bring us closer to God, not to alienate us from the Church.

One fine sunny day with our own little miracle.

It's always good to start the day on a positive note. Then your song will be on key all day long and at bedtime, you'd be whistling as you turn the lights off.

One fine sunny Sunday, I drove my co-navigator, La Veya, (Vicky) to her Zumba class and on my way home, I stopped by our local church, the San Andres Apostol, to say a prayer to the visiting Image of the Blessed Virgin Mother, the Our Lady of Piat. 

Then a little miracle happened. 

Our Lady of Piat, enshrined at the San Andres Apostol Church, May 16 - 18, 2014

Our Lady of Piat came visiting our Church all the way from the northern province of Cagayan, a valley. I'd been to Cagayan many years ago. It is a lovely place - clean and charming, but very hot. These summer days, it's temperature hovers between 32 - 39 degrees Celsius.

Our Lady of Piat, a bronzed image of Our Blessed Mother carries in her arms the image of the infant Jesus. She is said to have originated from Macau.

ORIGINS. 
"The itinerary of the Blessed Image of Our Lady of Piat started in Macau from where it was brought to Manila in 1604. Its first home was the convent of the Santo Domingo in Intramuros.  From Manila she was taken to Nueva Segovia (now Lal-lo) to aid in the evangelization of the Itawes region, covering the towns of Tabang, Malaweg, Tuau (now Tuao) and Piat until it was brought to and stayed on Piat for five years.

No description of the image is given by any of the historians, though it is often mentioned that is "of talla (sculpture)" made from paper-masche. Eventually the image was taken to Piat, and erected on a side altar. It was not long when the people felt special manifestations of divine favors through Our Lady. Their love and devotion to Our Lady had grown with the years, and attachment to her image bordered fanaticism. This was clearly seen when Fr. Juan de Santa Ana sent the same image to Tuguegarao in 1622 and ordered another one more beautiful from Manila to replace the image.

In no time, the people rose up in public protest and asked to the point of insistence that the original image be returned to them. Knowing the peculiar character of the people, Fr. de Santa Ana finally gave in, and the image was brought back amid great rejoicing of the people. There arose, however, a dispute between the people of Piat and Tuao as to where the sanctuary should be constructed. Happily, solomonic solution was found, and it was agreed to have the sanctuary built between Piat and Tuao."

BASILICA MINORE. 
The lady is enthroned at the Basilica Minore Nuestra Senora de Piat which was recognized as a shrine by the Vatican on June 22, 1999.   It celebrates its feast every July 2 wherein the Lady is drawn for a procession.

The Basilica Minore Nuestra Senora de Piat in Piat, Cagayan.

Today, Our Lady of Piat is considered one of the oldest Marian images in the Philippines. On June 20, 1954, in a ceremony led by papal delegate Egidio Vagnozzi, she was named “Queen of Heaven and Earth.” The Ibanags call her “Yena Tam Ngamin” (Mother of Us All) and to the natives of Piat, Cagayan, she is known as “Apo Baket” (Grand Matriarch). Many miracles had been attributed to her.

On that fine Sunday morning as La Veya emerged from her Zumba class, she passed by the San Andres Apostol Church to buy souvenir items of the Lady. There were just two images of the Lady remaining, and she didn't have enough money in her coin purse. The cost of the image was 350 pesos.

She implored the Manang (lady vendor) to reserve one for her and that she'd come back for the payment later that day.

About the same time, another church worker came out of the church from  rosary prayers, saw her and told her how she felt a prompting to go home.  This church worker had bought a T-shirt uniform weeks earlier from her and had not paid yet. So when the church worker saw La Veya, she immediately said she'd go to her house to get the money. The cost of the T-shirt: 350 pesos.

La Veya was able to buy the image of Our Lady of Piat, who was scheduled to return home to Piat in Cagayan that evening of Sunday.

In the early afternoon on our way to run errands, we passed by the church again to bid Our Lady of Piat our last farewell.

ADIEU Our Dear Mother, Our Lady of Piat.

Be safe on your journey home and grant us safety, too, in the journeys of our lives.