Waco has been our home for more than a decade now since I uprooted my family from Asia. Great things have happened since then. This blog will be our link to friends and hopefully, fellow educators.
1.Eggnog or hot chocolate?
Hot chocolate. But I also enjoy hot freshly brewed coffee.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
I wrap.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White on the tree.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No, it’s not a part of our Christmas tradition.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
Usually the night of Thanksgiving Day. We want to enjoy the tree and the decorations longer.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Christmas Eve dinner (Noche Buena) and (Media Noche, the New Year’s Eve feast) always had arroz caldo (porridge), elbow or shell macaroni soup, pansit (Philippine noodles), and tupig and bibingka (rice delicacies).
7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child
Attending the Misa de Gallo (dawn masses), and midnight masses on Christmas Eve and NewYear’s Eve; visiting godparents during the Christmas season expecting for presents or cash gift; caroling with friends from the neighborhood; giving treats, mostly cash, to the carolers, later.
8. Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve?
Yes, it is our family tradition. We never wait for Christmas morning to do it.
9. What tops your tree? A star made of Philippine capiz shells bought at Dillard’s
10. What is your favorite Christmas song?
“O Holy Night”
11. What is the most important thing about Christmas for you?
The celebration of the birth of Jesus (to our benefit), and humility – the King of Kings born
in a manger in the stable because there was no room at the inn.
12. What is the essence of Christmas?
Love, (give love everyday, especially to your own family), giving to the less fortunate (it is
in giving that we receive), forgiving those who have sinned against us, (it is in forgiving that
Put yourself in the beginning of the "greatest story ever told". Who are you?
Are you Caesar Augustus or Quirinius? You have some position of authority in the world on some level, in some small capacity. Somehow you rule. Perhaps news of this birth and its circumstance has reached your ears; but with your elite status, you quite don't know what to do with it. Are you going to dismiss it? Investigate it? Leave it to Herod?
Who are you?
Are you one of the myriads who went each to his own town? Wanting to be an individual, you still are lost in the crowd. You follow along, sometimes going along just to get along. You are just a number to someone. You hear of this story as well. It awakens echoes of what you were taught as you studied your religion.
Who are you?
Are you Joseph? Caught between doing what is right and doing the right thing, which are necessarily one and the same, you perhaps trust your head too much and your heart not nearly enough. Yet, you do what is your duty to God and others in a spirit of obedience and loyalty. You are right in the middle of this story. Intimately.
Who are you?
Are you Mary? Having to endure the physical challenges of pregnancy, you also have to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune brought about by your saying "yes". The echoes of "How can this be?" reverberate with every action. Yet, you are consoled by the words of Gabriel and Elizabeth as well as you carry deep within your body and soul. You are even more in the middle of this tale; in fact, it would not have gone forward without your participation.
Who are you?
Are you the innkeeper who could not provide room for even one more traveler? You are not mean-spirited in any way. Your accommodations were stretched to the limit and perhaps beyond. Practicality had to take precedence. Perhaps many years later, you heard a rabbi tell a parable involving another innkeeper in a small way and thought, "Was this directed at me from way back then and when?
Who are you?
Are you one of the shepherds to whom the angels spoke? Considered somewhat outcasts in society, in a job nobody with any dignity would want, you wander in your night watches where your place in the world is. Your reputation is tarnished by the company you keep, others who are only hired help and not true keepers of the flock. The "Glorias" you hear that night ring in your ears and your hearts.
Who are you?
The answer to the repeated question is the same, no matter who you are. "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has made known to us."
Venite adoremus, Dominum.
Hodie Christus natus est.
This should be our response when we meet the newborn King. We should welcome the Santo Nino with open arms and open hearts. He does nothing less.
The Word was made flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory: The glory of an only Son coming from the Father, filled with enduring love.
But the better question is not who we are at the beginning of the Christmas story.
In December of 1993, I left my family and flew to the United States on a working visa to be employed as a teacher. With financial backing from my sister-in-law's family in Australia, it was an opportune time to venture into improving the family economically, and as the proverbial quote, "search for a greener pasture".
This was the second time I had been in the U.S. In 1986-1987, I obtained my master's degree at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, as a Philippine government fellow. It was truly a blessing from God to have been granted the rare opportunity to be among the chosen few out of a nationwide screening of teachers to pursue graduate degrees in a foreign university. I had to be away from my family for seventeen months, but my wife and I welcomed this free ride to graduate school. It was like winning the lottery.
Coming back, this time as a teacher, I arrived in Harlingen, Texas with 18 other Filipino teachers recruited by a teacher placement agency based in Houston. We came close to the middle of the academic year, at a time when employment, especially in the elementary level, was extremely scarce. In the eight months after our arrival, we were taken to job interviews in the Rio Grande Valley schools, to job fairs in Laredo, Brownsville, McAllen, San Antonio, and Dallas, while setting aside time to praising God by singing in the St. Anthony's church choir, at first braving the chilly December breeze on foot until new-found friends gave us rides to church. Hearing Sunday mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Valley in San Juan was a special treat to us. We sang at the Latin Mass in Weslaco on the first Sunday of the month. Every night, we met and prayed, sang praise songs, and lifted our petitions to the Lord. We supported one another in prayers. We put our faith in the Lord. Psalm 4:1 "Answer me when I call to You, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer."
One Sunday afternoon I attended a concert of the traveling Celebrant Singers. At the end of the musical concert, I answered the call to go to the front to express my prayer request. I was overwhelmed with emotion when I confided to a member of the Celebrant Singers that I desperately needed employment. I said that I had been away from my family for about eight months without a job, and that I had a family to support. The singer prayed for me and I prayed with him.
(1 John 5:14-15) This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him. In August of 1994, after eight long months without an employment, I finally landed a job in Waco. Eight months later on the job, I petitioned for my wife and two sons to join me. It was a tearful but joyful reunion because we were one family again. The long lonely nights were over. No more tears.
But starting family life in a foreign land was not easy. By immigration law, dependents of working-visa holders could not be employed. With only one breadwinner, there were financial obligations to worry about, yet I trusted that the Lord would provide. It was unusual for my wife to stay home since she was a teacher of 15 years in the Philippines before she came. She did odd jobs like babysitting friends' children, cutting hair, alteration and sewing for which she was rewarded a token amount.
We became parishioners of St. Louis, then joined the sanctuary choir and sang at the televised mass. On alternate Sundays, my wife and I, together with a few other friends, provided music during the mass at the Regis chapel. The Regis was a retirement facility with a nursing home, St. Catherine's, in downtown Waco. For a while we developed attachment to the residents who kept their faith alive despite their age and incapacities. I saw how they deteriorated as they aged and eventually passed away one after the other.
In Waco, we found friends who have provided us with moral, as well as emotional and spiritual support.
I have learned to worship and praise God in many different ways. He deserves my continual praise for the rest of my life because of what He has done for me on the cross. This is the greatest reason for worship. Never should I even wonder what I have to be thankful for.
When my family was having a difficult time getting our green cards as permanent residents we never lost hope. We prayed more. The Lord made it possible for my family to migrate here. I do believe that I was put here for a reason. It had been a decade in the process. We had sought the services of two different immigration lawyers when the first neglected and missed time-sensitive deadlines, resulting in the delay when all the other Filipino teachers in my group had become U.S. citizens.
My wife went through the alternative certification program at ESC Region 12, got certified, and was hired with a work permit. Barely a month into her first job here, she gave birth to our third son. Her working visa was in order, but the approval of my permanent resident status was pending, so I was advised to not take a summer teaching job until the permanent resident card arrived. Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
The Lord touched so many people who helped me and my family. My lawyer friend, Mike, and Danny, a notary public, both of whom are my third child's godfathers, were very supported every step of the way. With followup by the office of U.S. Representative Chet Edwards, the permanent resident card finally came just in time for me to go back to the same job when the school year began. My employer did not drop me off the roster at all. I praise God for that. The Lord is kind and merciful. He answers our prayers.
Jesus says, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:34)
"For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:11-13)
I grew up believing that adoration was demonstrated by going to church on Sundays and receiving Holy Communion. In our humble abode, as common to every Filipino home, was an altar, a special niche or corner, where images of the Crucified Christ, the Virgin Mary, or most of the time, the "Sagrada Familia", the Holy Family, were enshrined and worshiped. We prayed for our dead family and relatives on All Souls Day. I made the sign of the cross whenever I passed by a church, and stopped and paused in reverence when the church bells tolled for the Angelus. I grew up to believe that I would be holy by keeping the commandments. I practiced my religion because I did not want to go to hell, as my catechism teacher taught me. I prayed, not to praise and thank God, but mostly to ask for personal petitions, believing that God had all the answers.
I attended the central (elementary) school and the local community high school. There were five children in the family, and I was the first to get a secondary education. My family lived in poverty. My father was a farmer, andmy mother did the laundry by hand for the wealthy families in my town. My parents did not have the means to send me on to a university, so I quit school, got involved in the church choir, sang at weddings and funerals, and rendered voluntary service in running the rectory office while my high school buddies were enrolled in universities in Manila. I prayed that whatever the Lord's plan was for me will be done. I was then offered a 4-year academic scholarship at a branch of the nation's leading teacher-training university. After four years of study, I was conferred a bachelor's degree in elementary education, then started a career in teaching.
Daisy and I got married in 1982. We started to raise a family - two sons born five years apart. At this time, we were now teaching at the same school, and all seemed to be okay with our teaching careers.
It is easy to worship God when things are going great in your life - when He has provided food, friends, family, health, and happy situations. But circumstances are not always pleasant. How do you worship God then? What do you do when God seems a million away?
In 1990, on our way home from a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Manaoag in the province of Pangasinan and a side trip to the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Baguio City, the passenger jeepney we were riding in collided with a ten-wheeler truck. The mishap which happened in the wee hours of the morning resulted in the loss of several relatives and close friends. My wife suffered fracture of the sacro-iliac joints that temporarily incapacitated and confined her in a hospital for at least a month. My son's left and right femurs were badly fractured, and I was unable to walk for a month with almost the same injury as my wife's, only hers was much worse. Chester was in a cast from the waist down. We were both in the same hospital room, but it broke my heart into pieces to not being able to comfort him in his pain. Moreover, the thought that my wife was in a different hospital agonizing alone, pieced my heart even more. Chester and I were dismissed from the hospital after a month. Daisy stayed back for further treatment.
On the day Daisy was being transported from the hospital to the province where we lived, there was an earthquake with an intensity that rendered all mountain roads impassable. She had to stay and live with a mountain ethnic tribe before she was finally carried in a cloth hammock by the tribesmen through treacherous ravines and cliffs, to the roads that were not disturbed by the quake and on to our home.
Our home was virtually a hospital with beds in the living room. It was convenient for us to not climb to the bedrooms upstairs. At the age of two, Kevin did not really comprehend what was happening. It was a long road to recovery. My fractures healed in a month, and soon I was able to walk. But Chester had to undergo two more surgeries to put implants in his thighs and remove them when his thighbones totally healed. He showed so much courage and tolerance at a young age of 8.
Psalm 55:17 says, "Evening and morning, and at noon, I will pray and cry aloud; and He shall hear my voice." To ask God "Why me? Why us?" would have been my cry. How could I have worshiped God when He seemed to have abandoned me and my family? How could I have put all my faith in Him when the tragedy caused me to lose my relatives and friends? I found myself praying like I never prayed before. I thanked and praised God for saving us from a near-death experience. I continued to trust Him in spite of my feelings. I worshiped Him in the deepest way.
Psalm 55:22 "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you, he will never let the righteous fall." The outpouring of love from our friends and family was phenomenal. Aside from our Catholic friends, a group of Christian friends would visit us regularly and prayed over for my family. My family prayed constantly with relatives and friends. In those times of uncertainty, of physical ache, emotional pain, and mental anguish, I felt closer to God. I praised Him and talked to Him and trusted that these would soon be over. (Psalm 30:5) Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
I sometimes forget the cruel the details of the
agonizing sacrifice God made on my behalf. Even before His crucifixion
the son of God was stripped naked, beaten until almost unrecognizable,
whipped scorned and mocked, crowned with thorns, and spit on
contemptuously. Abused and ridiculed by heartless men, He was treated
worse than an animal.
As
Jesus took all of mankind's sin and guilt on himself, God looked away
from that ugly sight, and Jesus cried out in total desperation, "My God,
my God, why have You forsaken me? Jesus could have saved himself - but
then He could not have saved me. He could not have saved you.
My
personal relationship with God is deeper in the sense that I can talk
to Him anytime, even when I'm driving. My mind has found peace since I
put all my trust in Him. I don't worry about things anymore for I
believe that God will take care of them. He will make things happen in
His time.
When
we no longer worry, when we pray about everything, when we give thanks,
when we focus on the right things, the apostle Paul tells us the result
is, "The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7)
Adoration
is much more than church services with singing, praying, and listening
to the readings and the homily. Adoration is anything we do that brings
pleasure to God. The Bible says, "The Lord is pleased with those who worship him and trust his love." (Psalm 147:11)
If you look at the Lord's Prayer, you will see that it reflects praying together: Our Father...give us...our daily bread...forgive us our debts...as we also have forgiven our debtors...lead us not into temptation...deliver us...(Matthew 6:9-13)There is power in group prayer.
My
family belongs to a group that prays the rosary to our Lady of Fatima. On designated weekends, the image is brought to a home where we share
the gospel for the day, pray the Holy Rosary and litany together, and
the host family will continue the novena for nine days. After at least
two weeks in a home, we take the Image of the Virgin Mary to the next
home. We gather together with one purpose, that is, to praise God and
pray for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin in our petitions.
Praying
at meals is another form of group prayer. Our family holds hands;
sometimes we pray sentence prayers such as thank you prayers for what
God had done for us. When we are with friends, we hold hands in a circle
and pray before the meal. Praying together is another form of
worshiping God. The Lord says, "For where two or three have gathered in My name, I am there in their midst." (Matthew 18:20)
In Matthew 11:25-30, Jesus says, "Come
to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is
light."
Meditating on the verse, "Master, I want to see" (Mark 10:46-52), two thoughts jump out of me. First Jesus is asking us like he asked the blind man, "What do you want me to do for you?"
and 'What is the blindness that I possess?' In my contemplation,
perhaps what I really need for Him to do for me is to first identify my
blindness. I may not be aware that I am not seeing the truth in any
particular area of my life. Amidst all the happenings in my everyday
life and the calamities, conflicts, injustice, terrorism, moral
degradation, and frailties in the world today, will I call out to Him to
stop and have mercy on me?
