Fulfillment

One can never catch the many months that passed by so as to write it down here. Indeed, it’s more than half a year since I last posted and how I miss gathering my thoughts.

Ever since returning home to Manila last February, I was even busy with my life. Still, I made it a point to finish my prayers. It has been a sense of fulfillment to me despite not being able to blog here.

Manila was indeed my home but Mindanao taught me many lessons. I was indeed grateful on my 7 long years stay there. Things aren’t costly and fruits are so abundant you can eat it everyday. I actually lost my appetite on fruits already due to this! Mindanao became my 2nd home and I definitely won’t get lost there if I were to come back again. People are charming there and would always love to chit-chat with everyone. My Mindanao experience was worth remembering indeed.

But Manila is awesome for this was the very root where I got converted to Sacred Catholic Tradition. Mindanao surely strengthened my Catholic Faith and I realized more than ever that I prefer to be with God’s presence than those entire tall scrapers rising amidst this country’s capital.

Fulfillment is something that we call our very existence of living. For if we do not live to fulfill it, we feel like not living at all. As for me, my fulfillment is to be everything what God wants me to be. And I might say that I’m half to fulfilling it. For with each day passing by, there’s a desire to fulfill. But if God doesn’t want it yet, we’d certainly ran out of course and end up waiting for the next day to arrive.

Such is my life these days. I live, knowing my goals and keeping myself at tracked. And if I but failed it, I may be distressed but in the end of the day, there’s a whisper echoing at me that tomorrow is there to attain it once more.

Life is not what we expect it to be but what we must accept and reflect it to be what God deigns it to be. Such should be our daily motivation that in this world, there’d be less evil and more good.

What can be nobler than to love Him Who loved us first? And what could be lovelier to do than to do what He wants us to do? But one cannot simply find it alone. One needs to get the grace which mostly can be found in the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. There and there, can only one realize the true meaning of life here on earth. It’s a war to wage - a spiritual fight against materialism.

Oh Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, grant me thy graces that I may find Our Lord comfortable in my heart. I am all thine, and grant that thy desires would also be mine! Amen.

New Year! New Me?

That was the first question I asked myself the moment I realized it’s already a new year. Can I really fair even better this time around?

Lest I’d be misunderstood, Id’ like to stress that I’m not after worldly honors e.g. new get up, new personality or even a new religion! Absolutely no! It’s about being a little step closer to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I know I scored better last year but still, it wasn’t good. Rather, I know it wasn’t my best yet. So now, I’m starting again eliminating the bad things in me. But which one is first? This impatience or that tepidity? This pop music or that nicey movie? It’s not easy to discern since somewhere along, I know I’d be falling on the same plane again - half half on either side. Well, there must be a remedy for this. And I better figure it out. I must figure it out.

In his sermon last Sunday, I was touched on how Fr. MacPherson related man’s gradual falling to something bad and eventually leading him to the wrong path. Without grace, man can easily be led astray. At first, you dread the bad thing, then you pitied it, then as time comes, you embrace it unknowingly. He sounded logical since human intellect tells us that you pity something that’s dreadful and of course, pitying something would naturally bring you into half accepting it and soon into wholly accepting it. [This can never be an act of charity since God is charity. And everything that belongs to God is good. Therefore, charity is asking us to love the sinner and not the sin. But in the previous formula, man ended loving both the sinner and the sin which again would bring us to contradiction with the meaning of charity.]

Such was the thing I needed most. And I felt like God was talking right exactly to my heart. He wanted me to pursue my plans of being more sanctified and pious. Never mind how many times I’ve fallen. What matters most is that sincerity of heart to ask pardon at the confessional and at the same time to strive harder to be better.

As this year commences, I shall always keep in mind his sermon. I know I might get easily distracted with all those worldliness around, but with his sermon on mind, I shall always look back to consider my soul very carefully. Things can be easier said than done - hence I wouldn’t be boastful that I’ll be doing my best now but just a little better this time. As hastiness makes waste, I shall only be glad to obligingly walk the speed Our Lady asks me to do so as to attain that holiness that Our Lord expects from me.

Oh Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, grant me the grace to keep the pace of sanctity constantly and wholeheartedly. I humbly beg thee to teach me when I’m confused, strengthen me when I’m tempted, and most especially to assist me wherever my feet tread on and whatever my life’s circumstances will be! Amen.