Teetatea V: Simbang Gabi '11 --2nd day

WISDOM

To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depth of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom. Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

THOUGHTS TO PONDER

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus.---RALPH WALDO EMERSON

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Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.---ABRAHAM LINCOLN

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There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state to another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.---ALEXANDRE DUMAS

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“It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones" --- Alexander Solzhenitsyn quotes (Russian novelist, Nobel Prize for Literature (1970), b.1918)

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“Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.” ---Kahlil Gibran

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Simbang Gabi '11 --2nd day

There was a change of schedule at work today which made me finish my classes at six instead of half past five. I hurriedly walked out of Tesco to get a bus to ABAC for the mass. The ride was pretty slow as some schools in Navamin area have Saturday classes. The ride took quite long and worrying of not making it on time. I then decided to get off in another stop taking my chances of getting a motorcycle ride to get to ABAC and to save time definitely.

I was running on my way to the building and even climbing up the stairs with my heels and there, the second reading was just done. I settled then in in front next to my two friends I felt so relieved I could hear the gospel. There was a great feeling that I made it to the Gospel, however as yesterday, the mass didn't have any homily. I figured the mass would still be in half and hour and knew that very moment it would be as yesterday.

I felt incomplete, I know the homily connects the priest to the churchgoers, in that moment he can relate and the connection between him and the people is felt much it makes the gathering in a more "family" setting. Without it, the mass is similar to a DVD being played and just watched by the viewers. That is aside from the fact that the homily expands the message in the Holy Gospel which is a very essential part of the mass.

I couldn't help myself but approached the Fil. who primarily does the assisting in there asking if it was possible for the Priest (not Fil.) to have at least a Homily. He defended the priest doesn't give any homily on weekday mass and he considers the number of people attending the mass. I myself studied in a Catholic school in the past and attended the daily masses, it rarely happened for our priest not to give any homily in the half-an-hour mass. In a second I thought, we are not having an ordinary mass, Simbang Gabi is a devotional mass in anticipation of Christmas and we never do this everyday, we have this once a year. I think we miss something.

I believe it's enough and thankful, too that I learnt about it on the second day. I understand now better why there are very few people who came for the mass, in fact lesser than yesterday. And I've decided myself not to go back there for the Simbang Gabi anymore.