My Simple Life

Lent Celebration... a personal encounter

The Lent season reminds me of my relationship with our Redeemer. It reminds me that Im a sinner and a special person died in the cross for my salvation from sin. The Lent also reminds me that despite the sufferings, there is always hope and joy. This is the time of the year that I have to rekindle and renew my trust and faith to Him - my faithful loving friend, Jesus.

This year, I have written two important journals on events that I did on the celebration of the season. Prior to the Holy Week, I visited Knock Shrine in Co. Mayo, Republic of Ireland; and on Easter Monday, I climbed the 3rd highest peak of Mournes Mountain.

If you are interested to find more about it, please click the links: Knock Shrine and Mournes Moutain. Briefly, Knock Shrine is a well-known pilgrimage place where the apparition of the Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John appeared to the residents in 1879, while Mournes Mountain is the highest land in Northern Ireland.

Photos taken in Knock Shrine and Mournes.

The Amazing Cross

Ash Wednesday is a very important day in the Catholic community as the start of the Lenten season. Last year, I was inspired to write my first celebration in Northern Ireland having attended a mass together with the rest of the students at my university. It was really a renewing experience in a new environment once to be a battle field between Protestants and Catholics.

At this moment while posting this, Im on my way to Heathrow to catch my flight to Manila via Cathay Pacific after spending 1.5 years in Belfast as part of my journey in pursuit of academic excellence. Im quite excited to see my home country again just for a short visit, to feel the warmth embraces of my beloved parents and the family members. While waiting at the airport lounge in Belfast City Airport (George Best Airport), I did watch a very inspiring video entitled: The Wonderful Cross...

I got the copy of the video thru the university church leader. Watching the video again reminded me once more the most precious presence from God to everyone, JESUS! It is an old story but sometimes we forgot about it as the passing times. Simple photos are flashed on screen having digitally done but with every slide symbolises the wonderful cross of Jesus as the words flashed on screen the short phrases but full of meanings. Looking back the old story of Jesus and reflects again what He did for us is just a simple way of recognising His undying and unconditional love for His sons and daughters.

Listen... Two Voices... Which one is louder to you? The Crowd  or The Cross?

The Crowd says follow us, The Cross says follow me,

The Crowd says rely on yourself, The Cross says rely on me.

The Crowd says earn your worth, The Cross says I am your worth,

The Crowd says bear your burdens, The Cross says nail them to me.

The Crowd says be happy, The Cross says be holy,

The Crowd says if it feels good, do it, The Cross says for love's sake, endure it.

The Crowd says honor yourself, The Cross says humble yourself,

The Crowd says do, The Cross says done!

"because of the cross my interest in the crowd died long ago"... Apostle Paul

Ash Wednesday - the start of Lent

I am not a devoted Catholic, but i fully acknowledge the existence of one God – creator of heaven and earth. I know that I have a loving Father who always there to give comfort and always at my side during the happiest and hardest times of my life. And I believe that He will never abandon His children, never, even His children disowned Him. Instead He will shower us His divine mercy to bring us back to His mantle of love and protection. And that is the basic reason why I maintain my son-father relationship with Him – an ultimate struggle everyday of my life!

Celebrating the Lent season this year is quite special because I’m here in the other side of the world. A place where religion is one of the talks of the town – even brings conflict among communities for many years. In the brighter side, it gives me a clearer understanding of the celebration and how I could improve my relationship with Him for the years to come. God always have plans for everyone and it is our task to work it out. Being away from home again is not really my plan, either. Having that, I think God has something prepared for me for the next 3 years of my stay in Northern Ireland.

I attended the Ash Wednesday celebration this month in a big lecture hall in the University of Ulster. The celebration was a good start of having a short chat with the priest who does regular mass at the campus every week which I have not attended for the past 6 months that I have been here (instead I attend the Sunday mass outside, 15 minutes walk from the campus). That day, was also memorable for me being asked to take part in the mass – to lead the ‘prayers of the faithful’ which was a meaningful act of leading the mass attendees (250 -300 students and staff) to pray and ask the guidance of our Lord. Having that, it also gave me some flashback memories of my AIT days as an active member of the Catholic community in the Institute for almost 3 years. I think my close involvement with the Filipino community in AIT (14 years ago) helped me a lot to strengthen my faith to God for the past 39 years and hopefully living my life in His guidance for the next 50-60 years!

As part of the homily, the priest reminded us the three important things to do, making our Lent a meaningful one! These are: PRAYING, GIVING and FASTING… As a personal reflection, PRAYING is a powerful tool to have a quiet and open communication with God. Having a few minutes of silence in the presence of God will not really takes much of our time. Aside from reciting the ‘Our father’ and ‘Hail Mary’, we could spend few minutes of thanking God for a nice day or even asking forgiveness for hurting other people’s feelings or asking even for help on a bad day! Or maybe, we could include a bit of asking for peace for our troubled world, especially our country, the Philippines or for someone we don’t really know – like victims of war, famine, hunger, poverty and epidemic (HIV and AIDS)…

GIVING is a sign of our complete acknowledgment of the blessings and miracles that we received everyday, and one way of giving it back to other people and to the ones we loved! Truly indeed, giving is a way of sharing our blessings, showing our generosity to others, not to expect in return! Sometimes, it is hard to share our material blessings in life because of our greediness and boastfulness… and to some extent we are not contented of what we have and we look for more to satisfy our selfishness… During this season, giving is not only for sharing tangible things, but it is more of giving out our talents to others, spare valuable time with our loved ones, and most of all doing good stuffs not for personal gains but for others’ welfare.

And FASTING is a hard thing to accomplish even within just a very short period of time. My understanding for fasting is the way the Muslim community practice during the Ramadan – less food intake! It is beyond that, it is more on how to change your lifestyle – buying/shopping, indulgence to material things and vices (to some extent addiction), and anything that is quite beyond the usual norm of living – in other words: EXTRAVAGANCE! It really struck me because, frankly I’m a kind of person who loves to buy clothes and accessories, do traveling and buy things for my hobbies! No regrets for doing that, but celebrating the lent season is only a reminder for me to slow down and be more sensitive to what I really need, and spending too much is not good for the pockets or even to my bank account, not to mention my credit card!

Overall, the Lent is always reminding us the never-ending love of Jesus, the son of God who spares His life for us – for the forgiveness of our sins! Indeed, what a noble act for Jesus, giving us the eternal hope for Heaven – a place for His Father’s beloved sons and daughters!