Thank you, Pope Francis!

More than the sincere smile, the genuine care, Pope Francis is also leaving us with lots of nuggets of wisdom. My only prayer is that the wisdom remains with us even after he left.

On coping with loss and pain, message to Yolanda victims

So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you, but the Lord does know what to say to you. Some of you lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent, and I walk with you all with my silent heart. Many of you have asked the Lord, “Why, Lord?” And to each of you, to you heart, Christ responds from his heart upon the cross. Read more...

Message for the family

It is important to dream in the family. All mothers and fathers dream of their sons and daughters in the womb for 9 months. They dream of how they will be. It isn’t possible to have a family without such dreams. When you lose this capacity to dream you lose the capacity to love, the capacity to love is lost. I recommend that at night when you examine your consciences, ask yourself if you dreamed of the future of your sons and daughters. Did you dream of your husband or wife? Did you dream today of your parents, your grandparents who carried forward the family to me? It is so important to dream and especially to dream in the family. Please don’t lose the ability to dream in this way. How many solutions are found to family problems if we take time to reflect, if we think of a husband or wife, and we dream about the good qualities they have. Don’t ever lose the memory of when you were boyfriend or girlfriend. That is very important. Read more...

Message for the youth

The emarginated people, those left to one side, are crying. Those who are discarded are crying. But we don’t understand much about these people in need. Certain realities of life we only see through eyes cleansed by our tears. I invite each one here to ask yourself: have I learned how to weep? Have I learned how to weep for the emarginated or for a street child who has a drug problem or for an abused child? Unfortunately there are those who cry because they want something else... This is the first thing I want to say: let us learn how to weep as she has shown us today and let us not forget this lesson. The great question of why so many children suffer, she did this in tears. The response that we can make today is: let us really learn how to weep. Read more...

Pope Francis' homily in Quirino Grandstand mass

God chose and blessed us for a purpose: to be holy and blameless in his sight. He chose us, each of us to be witnesses of his truth and his justice in this world. He created the world as a beautiful garden and asked us to care for it. But through sin, man has disfigured that natural beauty; through sin, man has also destroyed the unity and beauty of our human family, creating social structures which perpetuate poverty, ignorance and corruption... We forget to remain, at heart, children of God. That is sin: to forget at heart that we are children of God. For children, as the Lord tells us, have their own wisdom, which is not the wisdom of the world. That is why the message of the Santo Niño is so important. He speaks powerfully to all of us. He reminds us of our deepest identity, of what we are called to be as God’s family. Read more...

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Today, we braved the rains (as umbrellas were not allowed) with only our hoodies and the crowd to see Pope Francis, and we experienced a miracle. 

You see, we didn't wake up at dawn as most may  have done, to go to Manila. It was already raining. We left the house around 10am, but we brought with us a lot of positivity. I posted on Facebook, "Going to see Pope Francis." 

Wizheart decided not to drive to the area, so we took the FX from Multinational Village (Paranaque) gate to Vito Cruz. To our surprise, we didn't have to compete for an FX as there were few people on the streets {Miracle #1}. The driver told us that that was the  farthest or the nearest to Quirino Grandstand that he could take us. We were very OK with that. What we only wanted was to be brought somewhere in Manila area, and we would just find our way. We planned to take the LRT first but we wanted to avoid the crowded trains. 

The FX driver dropped us at Hotel Jen. It was a nice clean hotel, huh, where we rested for a while, and made our first toilet break, lol. We were prepared to take toilet breaks in portalets or make do with whatever but there was a hotel {Miracle #2}. Around 11:00am we started walking along Roxas Blvd toward Quirino Grandstand. At the corner of Roxas Blvd and Quirino Ave, we stopped, surveyed the place and talked about where to position ourselves.

Our feet brought us to a Caltex station along Quirino Avenue, just a couple of blocks away from Roxas Blvd. It was the perfect spot. We stayed there for a while, as we found a temporary shelter, a 7-11 and a Nid's Balot restaurant. We had our lunch at Nid's. The place got packed after we took the last available table. In fact, due to the unexpected deluge of people, the resto ran out of some dishes and customers had to wait a little longer for their food to be served. But not us {Miracle #3}.  It was also here that we got some intelligence report that the Pope will be passing by the area. We already saw some people atop the planter/island facing us.

After we had our lunch, we went back to the Caltex station for some shelter, while looking at the increasing number of people climbing the planter/island. We caught a glimpse of a Union Galvasteel (UGC) umbrella, and got curious about the user. UGC is Wizheart's company, that's why. Well, guess what, it was Janette, his colleague! That encouraged us to join them on top of the planter/island {Miracle #4}. After a few minutes, that was around 1:00pm already, we knew that the Pope would really take that route as policemen in buses and 6-by-6 army trucks started driving by and some of them positioning themselves along Quirino Avenue. We stayed put atop for 1.5 hours, standing and getting drenched by the rain, waiting for Pope Francis. But we didn't mind. I for one didn't even feel drenched!

Around 2:30pm, Pope Francis passed us by, and he waved and smiled to our side so we got a full view of him. He could have faced the other side but he turned toward our side{Super miracle #5}!

It was surreal!

I am doubly happy because my kids also saw him and experienced this rare occasion. Here's our video of Pope Francis as he passed by us.

The walk back to where we can take a ride home was five kilometers. The rain didn't let up! Who knew we would walk the stretch of Roxas Blvd from Quirino Avenue, taking the flyover to EDSA? We didn't feel the long stretch. We didn't feel tired. We didn't fell drenched although we were super drenched already!

We are really blessed to witness this miracle. Praise you, Lord God!