I Celebrated Mass Today -- In Latin

As promised, I pledged to my mom today
that I'll be her driver this morning.
Destination: San Beda Alabang Chapel
to attend a Latin Mass with her kumares.
Since they are currently forming a Latin choir for ladies,
they wanted to observe how the mass is celebrated
and to listen to the all men's choir as well.
Uh-oh. This is gonna be fun. Haha.

We arrived 845am, early for the mass at 930am.
Not too excited huh?
The chapel was spacious, air conditioned,
austere yet magnificent.
The small congregation gathered is mostly composed of
older women wearing white or black veils.
I was surprised to see that the altar setup
was for the priest with his back turned away from the congregation.
Wow. Never heard of something like this since Vatican II.
Mama told me that the Latin Mass
was being revived by instructions of the Pope.

The Gregorian chant of the all men's Latin choir
signaled the start of the high mass.
Amazing! They were majestic throughout the mass.
I felt like I was in a monastery, back to the olden times.
I don't understand the lyrics, but the well practiced voicing
and sheer musicality was enough to give me goosebumps.
From the prayers to the readings,
almost the whole mass was sung in Latin.
Good thing the sermon was in English.
It was also notable to see 13 altar boys assisiting in the mass.
So many!
They all played an active role in the celebration.
Though the mass took 90 minutes, I didn't get bored
because my curiosity was suddenly up.
My senses were all observing because for the first time,
I get to witness and participate in a Eucharistic celebration
that was not practiced for the last 40 years.
Good thing there were Missals distributed,
so that we could read Latin and join in reciting the prayers.
I was busy looking through the translation of the prayers,
from left (Latin) to right (English) of the missal
just to understand the mass.
I had a hard time trying to keep up with the words.
And there were a lot of moments when I have no idea
of what part of the mass we are in.But after my experience today, I'd say it's worth the interest.
It was great and very memorable.
And if opportunity comes next time, I'd say yes again.
I experienced the Eucharist in serenity and and peace.
It moved me into silent prayer and deep reflection
that I haven't done for a long time.
And I realized, this was just what I needed.
Plus, I was able to express my love to Mom.
She too shared her feelings and stories to me.
The Lord led me to Him in a new majestic way today.
I'm in awe.
Thank you Lord.

-Didoy

'Roadtrip'

This Christmas, Mayi and I made a radical decision.
Instead of giving gifts to our dear loved ones,
we reserved our simple treasures
and planned to give it to the poor in the streets.
We felt the Lord leading us to do this, so we obeyed.
We initially planned to clothe the poor since we wanted to do
something new, a gift that would last longer than a meal.
So we ordered 100+ customly printed shirts
with our message for our dear bros and sis in the streets:
"Ikaw at ako, mahal ng Diyos".

We knew that the Lord blessed our initiative because when people
learned about this, donations started pouring in.
So instead of just clothing the poor, we were able to feed them.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who shared
what they had, their time and treasure,
to make this activity a success.
The Lord will surely give you back more than you gave.

On Christmas Eve we drove around
Makati and Manila streets on a 'Roadtrip'.
With Mayi and I are our dear friends Jem and Christine
who volunteered to help us in the gift-giving.
Our rally point was in Sanctuario de San Antonio at 8am.
We started with a prayer of thanksgiving
for the overflowing blessings
that gave us the grace to give.
When the backdoor of the Revo was opened,
we were amused to see that there were a lot of people
running from several directions already expecting us.
It was funny because even some average passersby
also lined up for the goodies.
"Just give it all," I said to myself.

Afterwards, we drove through the following areas:
Ayala Ave., Kamagong Area, Osmeña Highway, Quirino Ave.,
Nagtahan, UST Area, Quiapo, Lawton, Roxas Blvd.,
CCP Area, Buendia Ave.

At the end of the trip, sweaty, smelly and tired,
we treated ourselves to lunch in Tokyo Tokyo.
Nagutom din, kaya rice all you can. Haha.

We met a lot of our brothers and sisters in the streets.
And we felt that the Lord was happily with us.
We experienced again a miracle,the gifts were multipied.
There was lot more to give than we estimated.
Though our hands were giving, our hearts were full.
I loved the roadtrip because it proved
that a random act of kindness from a stranger is possible.
It was a priceless gift to see them with their genuine smiles.

By the way, we also gave to the people who go unnoticed
like the security guards, the Pulis Oysters who clean up our roads,
and the 'takatak' boys (vendors who do business near stoplights).

During the trip, there were moments of silence in the van
because we were all touched with what was going on.
We all went home to our families to spend the rest of the day.
With the fullness of heart after the roadtrip,
I must say I was able to sincerely feel the joy of giving.
That it's really better to give than to receive.
In fact, once you fully give, you won't think of receiving anymore.
At the end of the day,
I presented this simple offering as a welcoming gift
to the only one whom we need to receive in life, our dear Jesus.

Oh, it was a perfect day.
Thank you Lord.

-Didoy