A Date with the Lord

Thanks to God I had a very nice slept during the night, though the weather was so cold, I just wore jogging pants, jacket and socks to keep me warm and comfortable. It was good to stay in bed because of the weather but I have to prepare for the first session of our retreat. I ate first my breakfast and after I took a bath to feel fresh during the session. Before we started, we heard murmurs and even me that the priest who will facilitate us was a Jesuit Priest and we already experienced how a Jesuit Priest handled a retreat as we have from our previous one. As soon as we were seated to the hall, a man arrived. He was a simple, in his 50’s already as he told us. He did not even introduced himself to us and just begin with a reading from the Gospel of Luke 10: 38-42. We all behaved of course because we all expect that he was that strict, but he was not, all our expectations were the opposite of who he was and what we expect from him..

In every passage and topic that he gave, he related a personal experienced or an experienced of other people and we all laughed with it. By the way, his name was Fr. Rex Mananzan SJ., a Canon Law Lawyer. I really learned a lot from him especially the divine law and human law, the manifestation of God’s love through our crosses in life, the concept of sins – how to obtained forgiveness of our sins from God and importance of receiving communion in the mass and many other views he shared to us during the session. I could say that the 3-day was not enough to really know God to the fullest and know the changes in the institutional law of the church which was based on the people who make the law which is opposite to the divine law and purpose of God. I was so grateful for Fr. Rex for imparting to us his knowledge to us and I have a renewed life now through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Thank you very much.

The Day of Our Departure

Everyone was so excited including me of course because the day of our departure to our much awaited venue of our retreat has come which was in Baguio City. I already packed up my things to bring in my luggage. I set up my alarm clock at 3:45 am to prepare myself in going to the airport. My two companions already texted and called up because they too were excited. So I rode up a taxi and fetched them. At last we arrived at the airport, almost of our officemates were there already at the check-in counter. We deposited our baggage and went up at the departure lounge waiting for the time. A few moments later we were called to enter the plane. Everyone was so excited especially for the first timer to ride a plane; they were curious and observant to the people around and to the feelings inside the plane. We departed from Davao airport at exactly 7:30 and at exactly 9:15 we arrived at the Centennial airport in Manila. In a few moments the bus that would bring us to Baguio City arrived but the excitement and happiness turned into loneliness because one of our officemate lost her baggage. The airport personnel cannot locate it. We waited for almost 3 hours but the baggage cannot be located. She was already crying and so we decided to proceed to our way to Baguio City and we just let her borrowed clothes and other belongings to be used for the retreat. It was already 7:30 pm when we arrived in Betania Retreat House Baguio City. The Sisters were waiting for us. The weather was so cold and we have to wear our jacket to warm ourselves. We took up our dinner and after a brief orientation of the house rules, we went up to our respective room to rest and prepare for the first day of our Retreat. Despite of what happened to us along the way God is always with us because we arrived safe.

April Fools Day

April 1 is being commonly called “April Fools Day”. The date is observed on the first day of the month of April. It is a day in which people do something fool to create a lot of fun. On this day many people make jokes and tell false stories and later found to be false. But why it’s called April Fools and where it originated? There are several explanations for the origin. It was believed that April 1st was once New Year’s Day in France but later on Julian calendar came out and Pope Gregory officially declared that it will be changed to January 1st. It took some time for the people to accept the changes and continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on the 1st of April. That is why it was called April Fools meaning it was a false celebration. And it becomes a tradition until now of fooling somebody just for fun and enjoyment.
I can remember during my younger days when a relative told me that I have to bring something I guessed that’s a broom and I have to swept the playground after I finished, they all laughed at me telling that I was a victim, I was then a fool to follow what they have told me. I just make laugh at my actions and enjoyed with what happened.