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For God and People

The last thing I expected yesterday was to attend a consecration ceremony for two single women to the religious life in the Living the Gospel Community (LGC), founded by Monsignor Frederick Kriekenbeek and located in the parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Minglanilla, Cebu. The sisters who made their perpetual profession of vows--the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience--were Ma. Hazel Lastimosa, LGC and Ma. Dolores La Rosa, LGC.

I dropped by the parish church compound simply to visit the Blessed Sacrament and to check on the sales status of MorningSun booklets sold at the parish book center. But then before I even did any one of the above, my attention got caught by an ongoing Holy Mass concelebrated by a bishop (it turned out later that there were two bishops in that celebration) and around 20 priests. A soft and delightful invitation to attend the Mass came into my mind and my response was an outright "Yes!" as I walked into the church pews, joining the celebration.

The Eucharistic Celebration, performed in cantada using the Latin style of singing in English and adorned by Jesuit songs composed and performed by the Bukas Palad Ministry this time sang by the church choir, simply overwhelmed me with grace. The beauty of the music were to my ears songs of angels worshipping the Lord with a voice that my heart and will was able to join. With all the controversies hounding the Roman Catholic Church today, I watched two souls committing their lives to God in worship to Him and in the service of His people. How beautiful was it to fully devote oneself to the Lord, letting go of the normal previleges of having your own family--husband and children! It struck me with fresh beauty the act of committing yourself to a life where the Lord and the will of the Father was number one, above anything else.

It came home to me that the Lord's invitation for my joining the Holy Mass was to remind me that the only important thing in life was to place God before anything else in my existence, even above my family, relatives, friends and the community. And through this primacy of God in my life, the love to serve my family, relatives, friends and the community flows from.

Thank you, Lord, for this fresh reminder of a central Christian value that many Christians today tend to forget so easily. Amen.
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