one night...

December 6 2007 the Filipino SDB’s spent the night together just to experience the presence of everybody which everybody really miss so much because of the schedule of the seminary.

There we just shred stories of all the things happened in classroom, chapel, football field, basketball field that made everybody laugh. With this encounter one realize how bless we are to have such companions to be with.

my the community give us strength to continue the offering that we have made before God.

with God there is no room for sin

Immaculate Conception

I could say that in these years of my study of theology I experience one of the greatest crises of my faith. During this year of theologizing I question so many things concerning our Christian Catholic faith and the greatest burden I have is that some of the people to whom I expect to answer my wondering could only give the safest answer that they can think of …. “Everything is a mystery” and at the end it end up with faith. I could not really accept this answer believing that the faith we have is a faith seeking for understanding as human beings we are gifted with all the graces we need to attain answers to our questions. We as man have power to give meaning of the things around us thou limited as we are.

Just to let you know that I undergo a crisis once again as I prepare this sharing of mine. I was at a lost of what to talk about this feast of the “immaculate conception” a dogma which as Christians we are all to accept. Sorry if I could not talk about the dogmatic exposition of this feast for I myself just deposit it in my deposit of faith. What I will share to you is just a product of my reflection a personal understanding of what the whole reason of the church why she decided to celebrate this feast.

I believe that when the Church does something it is for something, everything has its purpose. Now celebrating the Immaculate Conception is for a reason.

We venerate Saints for we wish to imitate them in the way they live out their Christian faith they serve as the examples an idol of what Christianity is all about. Now we consider Mary as the greatest among all the Saints this makes her as the beast model of what and how to be a Christian what makes Mary special?

God from the beginning prepared Mary to be the bearer of Christ. God could not accept that the woman that will bear Christ will not be pure, pure as the one that she will be bearing. God take all the precautions to make sure that there is no little stain of sin to the womb were Christ will be born. As the angel Gabriel pronounced “Hail Mary Full of grace” God filled Mary with all the grace that she needs that there will be no room for sin but only grace.

No room for sin but only grace!!! I think this is what this feast is all about. We as Christians are being reminded that we accepted Christ as the core of our life during our baptism and reforce during our confirmation. An act were in we wish to be always in the presence of Christ. But if we wish Christ to remain in us we have to be clean we, have to be pure and full of grace to be worthy to accept Christ in our being. We have to do everything to keep our self in the state of grace like of Mary the first vessel of Christ. With her freedom she decided to be always in state of grace.

My dear brothers the reality is that we are not just an ordinary Christians we are a professed religious. We are individuals who promise to live always in and with the presence of Christ we want to be radical in fallowing the examples of Christ we want to be Christ for others. I think this reality asks as all the more to be like Mary. This is a reality that demands that in our life there should not be room for any sins but only rooms for grace. Grace should always fill us so that we can be worthy to bear Christ and be able to live the fundamental calling of the Salesian to be bearer of Gods love especially to the young people. I believe that this is a challenge that we could not fulfill with our own ability that is why from the very beginning of our congregation Mary was present to teach us, to help us, she was given to us as out teacher towards perfection, she is our way to fulfill our mission as salesians.

The feast of the “immaculate conception” is all about the calling for all Christians a call of renewing our baptismal promises: to turn away from all the works of Satan and be children of our heavenly Father. For us Salesians it’s a feast that reminds us of our vocation to be “bearers of Gods love to young.”

Again this is not a theological exposition of the Immaculate Conception instead this is my personal reflection of what this feast is all about. As one of our brother said; we are not to give answer but we are to give meaning not to understand but to believe.

I wish to challenge everybody to find your own meaning of this great feast so that when you were asks you will not only say the safest answer that you can give as of “everything is a mystery.” You have a power to give meaning of all the things you hold on this will make this feast something very significant for you and for others.

Almost all the Salesians gathered to celebrate the provincial day of the north province in Don Bosco Technical Institute Makati. The whole day was jam-packed with so many things. The celebrations began with the holy mass as thanksgiving to God for all the blessings He freely shared to this province. After the spiritual nourishment that the Eucharist bestowed everybody decided to answer their bodily needs…food!!!!! then fallowed by the program the moment were in you cannot identify who are old and who the young for everybody was enjoying to the full. In the afternoon its time to burn some of the fats that everybody developed after eating lunch. Basketball, football, badminton was the means of camaraderie.

Like what I said the whole day was a day of fun. A day were in we remember how fun to be a family. This is the day that we realized or remembered one of the greatest blessings that we have received form the day of our first profession and this is the presence of our brothers in Christ.

Today I can say to my self “how happy I am that I am a Salesian and how I wish to share it to others. We might be far for perfection as what others might see but what makes us happy and hopeful is that we know that in our search and journey towards perfection we are never alone we have brothers who are there to be our companion towards the road of perfection.