Christmas Chapters

Chapter #1 - Simple Celebration
12.30 PM - Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - Taize Secretariat, Makati, Manila

after had a simple yet beautiful midday prayer special for celebrating Christmas, all of the volunteers, the brothers, and the sisters gathered together in the secretariat to had a lunch together. today's lunch is special because the brothers cooked it, especially Br. Joseph because he just arrived in Manila last Sunday and i just know that he also the main cooker in the community. haha! so the lunch is buffet, we placed a table in the middle of the room and put all the food and soft drinks on top of the table. as usual, before we start the lunch, we sing a song. and then, the party begins! ;p and the funniest part is, after lunch some of us played a game which is quite not monastic game ahahahaha ;p

Chapter #2 - Blessed Bread
19.00 PM - Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - Arnaiz Avenue St., Makati, Manila

suddenly Florian invite me to join his little spontaneous project before we depart to Tondo, to buy some Pandesal (Philippines' bread) and give them to the beggars in the pavement near our secretariat. so after we bought a dozen packages of Pandesal, with the other volunteers who each of us holding two bags, we walked along the pavement near our secretariat and saw that there's many beggars sat. ok it's time! so while we walked, we gave the bags to the old women and the children and also didn't forget to greet a Merry Christmas to them. and at a glance, suddenly many children came from every direction and surrounded us but we don't have any bags left. it happened so quick, less than a minute! and after walked quite far from them, we smiled with joyful to each other. great!

Chapter #3 - Jesus Was Born!
21.00 PM - Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - Sto. Nino Parish, Tondo, Manila

we went to Santo Nino Parish, one parish in Tondo where Florian work with them...
it's one of our Christmas schedule, that we will celebrate Christmas Vigil Mass and afterward we will stay one night in one family in this parish. so when we came, it seems that the previous mass is still going on and there's a lot of people there! so we go to the back of the church and we found the youth members already in the costume because they gonna perform "Panululuyan", the play when Marie and Joseph knocking on the doors in Bethlehem to find a place to have a birth. they gonna perform it during the 21.00 mass. so we have a little conversation with them and took some photos.

so around fifteen minutes to 21.00, the youth coordinator accompanied us to find some places to sit because the previous mass is already finished. but surprisingly, all seats already occupied! so what we did?? we sat on the floor just in front of the front seat. ahahaha it's my first time experience to sit on the floor during Christmas Vigil mass! but the surprise didn't stop yet. Florian already know very well the parish priest and he's the one who celebrated the mass on that night. so after the Panululuyan show, the priest gave the homily. but it seems that this priest is use to approached the people and ask them some questions in his homily. so it's predictable that this pries begins to approached us and he asked our names and where we came from one by one. it's sooooo nervous! imagine! i sat on the floor and this priest with mic in his hands, came to me and asked my name and where i came from with thousands eyes looked at me! even we can see ourselves in the projector!
another interesting part is, after the priest gave final blessings, Maria and Joseph show up again bringing the baby Jesus and many many people surround them try to touch the baby Jesus. and those people followed Maria and Joseph until they reached outside the church, of course with more effort because it's not so easy to walk between the crowd. and also we followed them, and the youth coordinator invite us to bless the baby Jesus by kiss the feet, and so we did it.
afterward, the youth coordinator invite us to meet the parish priest and also the host family that will host us for one night in their house. it's nice, we took a photo together and have a little conversation. and afterward we have to go as soon as possible to our host family house because the food is waiting there.

Chapter #4 - Surprise, Surprise!
23.00 PM - Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - Host Family, Tondo, Manila

this host family is a surprise for us. first of all, their house. more than our expectation! second thing, apparently the whole big family, relatives, and their friends already wait for us for a Christmas Party! ooooh my, even it's already 11pm in the evening, they still waited for us and didn't touch the food yet until we came! so when we came, quite amazed with the decoration, so many people, the karaoke machine, and the foods, we start to have our very late supper with them. it was soooo nice there were many children so sometimes we played with them. and also some people already grab the mic and start to sing the karaoke.
after we finish our very fine dinner, apparently they have a game and session for us. so we played the game, one of them is we have to hit the pot which hanging on top of us with stick but in closed eyes. inside the pot it were powder and candies. i'm as the first person who attempt to hit it, successfully failed, haha! and afterward we were dancing together, yeah of course "Nobody Nobody but You!". then it was performance from some teenagers who dance and a ballroom dance by the grandmother and her dance instructor. then for the final session, we had a slow dance number. and we closed that party with giving gifts to the family and we went to sleep around 2am.

Chapter #5 - Christmas Charity
09.00 AM - Friday, December 25th, 2009 - Missionary of Charity's House, Tayuman, Manila

in the morning we woke up around 8am and took our breakfast. it's a very nice breakfast, with some rest food from the night. and the host parents drove us by car to the Missionaries of Charity house then we say goodbye to them. i can see the mother's eyes were sparkling, it's so touching.

after passing through the big blue gate written "Missionaries of Charity - Home of Joy", we asked one of the sister that we want to meet the Superior. so she introduced us to the Superior and she told us that we can help the lunch distribution but at the moment we can join the Christmas mass which will celebrated by Cardinal Rosales. wowh! so apparently on that time they held a Christmas gathering so they invite around thousands homeless people to come and celebrate the Christmas with mass and some performance.

it's like a double surprise for us! first, we really looking forward to work with the sisters of Charity because we adore them, especially me! and second, we didn't expect before that there will be a mass and celebrated by Cardinal himself!

so then we sat along with the other thousands homeless people and also with the other sisters of Charity to celebrate the mass. after the mass is finished, one sister took us to meet the Cardinal. so we have a very short conversation and took a photo with the Cardinal and the Superior. perfect!!
afterward, it's time to work! we put our bag and start to distribute the food. so all the people will keep sit to watch the animations while the volunteers and the sisters lining up and pass the food to the people. it's quite interesting to distribute the food and the drink because we only have to stand and pass the plates and the bottles to the person next to us. the best thing is when i pass the plates and the bottles to the people, it's nice to see how they smile with joy.

after around 30 minutes distributing lunch, we took our lunch. after i finished my lunch, i talked to someone and apparently he's a priest so he took me to visit the chapel. and the chapel is simple yet beautiful! we managed to have a short silence there and, it's beautiful.
just a second after i came out from the chapel, one sister greet me in Bahasa Indonesia. wooooooooowh! i met a sister of Charity who came from Indonesia! apparently she came from West Sumatra and we talked a lot. she took me to the place where they take care the homeless people who were sick. and it's very nice to see how they smile when they see me visit them.

afterward, we still thirst for work so we help the sisters to clean the area after all the people left. this is the best part because we can work together with the sister and manage to have some little conversation. i met sisters that came from Ireland, New Zealand, and India.

around 12 pm we have to leave not because the sisters want to have a prayer but also we have to catch the bus to go to Batangas, to visit Janice.

Chapter #6 - Night in Batangas
19.00 PM - Friday, December 25th, 2009 - Bauan, Batangas

it's 2 hours by bus from Manila to Batangas and around 3pm we arrive in Janice house after she fetch us in the bus station. apparently her cousin held a thanksgiving after get their house blessed just in the next of Janice house. so we join the early supper and suddenly Michio called Florian! so one by one we talked to Michio with joy! then Janice introduce us to her friends from her parish youth.
because six of us were craving to find a beautiful beach, Janice and her friends took us to the beach. it's already dark but it's nice to see water and rocks and spend our night there. we talked, we laughed, we shared. suddenly we forgot about our monastic life! ahahahaha ;p

around 11pm we decided to come home because among us volunteers want to have our time together to share. so when we get in the Janice house, we sit in the table and start to eat anything that we can found; chips, cakes, lasagna, ice cream, apple juice, etc. ahahahaha.

then we continued with midnight sharing. yeah after 2 months of being busy and never had a chance to be together, i think it's our first time to being together and have a deeper sharing about anything. we finished our sharing around 2am because many people already fall a slept.

in the morning we woke up around 8am and Florian was trying to drive a jeepney! ahahaha so cool! after say goodbye to Janice, we depart from Batangas by bus around 9am and arrived again in Manila around 11am. so we back to real world and also back to monastic life ;p

The Kingdom of God is Meetings and Papers ;p

hello there! i'm back from visiting parishes. and from 34 parishes i've assigned to, there's only 2 parish left that i still have to visit. but from now on i already can do the next step: meeting(s).

yes, either to have a meeting with the youth coordinator only, or with the youth officers, or with the parish priest, or with the parish council, or with all the youth members.

so what kind of meeting of it?

sometimes we call it an infomeeting, or informational meeting. a meeting that we inform about what is Taize and Taize Community (for those who never heard about Taize before) and the Pilgrimage of Trust and the more concrete about it.

so let me share about the simulation of one of our meetings here. at least these are what we always said (over and over again) in every meetings...

Taize is small small village, which even didn't exist in the map, which is located in France. in this small village, there's only around 40 families who live here. in 1940, a young man came to this village to build a community and be the sign of reconciliation. in that time, there's a lot of victim of World War II and this young man helped them and gave them refuge in this small village. then some young people came and join him to helped this refugees and later these young people became the first Taize brothers. years by years, a lot of young people from Europe start to visit this small village and this was not expected before. a large number of young people came every year, especially during the summer, to stay for a week and to have an experience of a monastic life, pray three times together, have a bible reflection, and the most important thing, to meet another young people that came from different background and different denomination to share their life. at the time, there are around 100 brothers came from 25 different countries welcoming around 10.000 young people came in every year from different part of the world; Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, Australia.

then the brothers think that they shouldn't wait the young people to come to Taize, but they will come to them, to their continents. so since 1970, the brothers held an European Meeting called the Pilgrimage of Trust in the end of every year in one of the big cities in Europe. and the brothers also held the Pilgrimage of Trust in other continent. in 2007 it was in Bolivia, Latin America. in 2008 it was in Kenya, Africa. and in February 3 - 7, 2010, they will come to the city of Manila, Philippines.

so this Pilgrimage of Trust in Manila is the second time we held. the first Pilgrimage of Trust in Manila is on 1991 and there was around 15.000 young people from different part of the world participate on the pilgrimage.on for the next February, we expected the same number that will come to Metro Manila.

the young pilgrims that come from outside Metro Manila, and also from abroad, will sleep in the local churches in the host/foster families.they know in advance that they will sleep on the floor. they expected nothing from the host/foster families except the two squared metres space on their house and a very simple breakfast. for lunch and dinner, they will have it on the venue, in John Bosco Makati. the pilgrims will take care their own transportation fare, each day to John Bosco Makati and back to host families.

the Pilgrimage of Trust it self will be held for five days, from Wednesday February 3th until Sunday February 7th, 2010. on Wednesday will be the welcoming day. so the pilgrims will come directly to the local churches, we called them a Welcome Center. so the young people from each parishes will welcome the pilgrims and then sent them to their host families. then in the evening, the pilgrims should come to John Bosco Makati to take their dinner on 5.45 pm and followed by evening prayer on 7.00 pm. the evening prayer is open for everyone and all generations. then they have to go back to their host families around 8.30 pm

the next three days, Thursday until Saturday, from February 4th - 6th, 2010, there will be a morning activity in local churches. so the Welcome Centers shall prepare for the morning prayer around 7.30 am and followed by morning program. the morning program on Thursday morning will be a getting know each other with the bible sharing, on Friday morning there will be a visiting the places or people of hope in the neighborhood, and on Saturday morning there will be a sharing with the parishioners or the parish youth members. then around 10.00 am the pilgrims and the participants shall go to the John Bosco Makati to have their lunch, then followed by midday prayer, then followed by an afternoon program. during the evening it will be the same like the other days, dinner, evening prayer, and around 8.30 they have to go back to their host families.

on Sunday, there will be no more morning activity in local churches, but there will be a Closing Celebration on 9.30 am in John Bosco Makati. and afterwards, the departure of the pilgrims.

yes, these things that we have to share with the parishes, well more or less. it's depends on each person in their style.

and after the meeting, we have to write the brief report to a paper of each parish. to make it easier for someone to track down what already happens in every parishes. because sometimes, one person can have two meetings or more in a same time, that means someone else have to substitute this person. for my self, this Saturday, December 12th, 2009, i have three meetings in three different parishes in the same time. so someone else have to go there to held the meeting. weekend is our most busiest day in a week. because most of parishes will have their youth meeting in either Friday, Saturday, or Sundar. so definately our weekend is not our holiday ;p for additional information, this weekend we have total 53 meetings. haha!

so far i enjoyed every meeting that i had. just last night i had a meeting, it's not the parish that i've assigned to, but i really enjoyed the time with the youth there. we never meet each other before but they are so welcome and we had fun together. each of us really interested to get know each other and sometimes we laugh together. and in the end of the meeting, it's a common thing for them that they have a sharing time. so each of us have to share about what happens in our life lately. and it was sooooo beautiful. with that sharing time, it's like getting us more closer to each other because we put trust on them to share our life. even it's my first time to meet them and vice versa! love it!

so that's all what i want to share lately.

see you later!

Visiting Parishes #3

yesterday, i went again to visit some parishes. but this time, Brother Jean-Jacques from France accompanied me. he's just arrived from Bangladesh one week ago and he still need to learn how to go around Manila. and this will be his first time of visiting parishes.

so at the beginning, i want to visit two parishes in Tondo. after i alight in the nearest station, it's already 5.30 pm and we were looking for a jeepney to go to the parish. but it's like 4 - 5 jeepneys just passed us because they're already full of people. then we decided to take a tricycle but the driver don't want to take us because he said it's quite far away. crap!

so then Br. Jean-Jacques suggests that i should find another parish that more closer because it's quite dangerous to go to Tondo after the sun goes down. so i choose a parish that 2 stations away from where we were. so we went back to the LRT station on going to our first parish.

first parish of the day, quite near from the station. this will be a perfect welcome center. haha. so Br. Jean-Jacques want to join the daily mass and told me that i can visit another parish while waiting him. then i went to the parish office and it's still open. i talked to the lady in the office and she's very nice. i gave her the brochure and she gave me the youth coordinator's number. and afterward we talked a little bit about what i'm doing in Philippines and i told her that i want to visit another parish afterward. but then she said that it's better not to visit another parish because it's already dark and it's quite dangerous for foreigner to walk alone in Manila. wowh, that's the second time i heard that! just yesterday i heard it for the first time. then i think to my self, is it that dangerous?? but so far i'm fine. ahahahaha. but then i went to visit the second parish of the day.

second parish, and seems will be my last parish of the day. it's two stations away from the first parish but i took a jeepney because i have around 1 hour until i have to go back to the first parish to fetch with the brother. so, to take a jeepney that going to somewhere we don't know exactly, we have to gambling. just see on the sign in the side of jeepney that contains more or less the destination where we want to go. so i took this jeepney and checked my map every we passed any intersection. it should be just go straight to my destination. but suddenly in the middle of the ride, this jeepney is make a left turn. argh! so i have to alight immediately and take another jeepney. ok, second jeepney and i was hoping this jeepney will go straight away and not making any turn. and finally i alight in the spot where i have to continue my journey by walking.

The Philippines' Jeepney

so it's around 5 minutes walking and i arrived in this parish. there were a daily mass there. then i asked one mother who holding her baby where is the parish office, and she said it's already closed. but afterward she lead me to another lady that seems to be one of the worker of the office. so i talked with her and she leads me to another lady whom a secretary of the office. then i talked to this secretary, gave the brochure and she gave me the youth coordinator's contact number. great!

so it's 15 minutes away from the daily mass will finish. then i took a jeepney back to the first parish. i took it randomly, pay it, and the driver asked me something in Tagalog which i didn't understand. luckily there were one nice lady want to become my sudden translator. apparently the driver asked me where to go and i said Abad Santos. then the driver said something again and gave back my money. and the lady told me that, this jeepney is not going there. crap! ok i alight and find another jeepney. this time i'm more clever, before i took the jeepney, i asked the driver already, "Abad Santos?" and he said, "yes, Abad Santos!". fiuhhh.

after i alight in the nearest turn to the first parish and walk in rush. later i found out that the mass isn't finish yet and i found a few young people hanging around the church. great! so i approached two of them and make a conversation with them. apparently they didn't speak a good English and getting nose bleeding (the phrase that the Filipinos always express if they have to either talk or listen too much in English). and they lead me to the young boy whom one of the officer of the Parish Youth Ministry and the leader of the Worship Ministry. he's getting nose bleeding as well. ahahaha. then i saw Br. Jean-Jacques is came out from the church as the mass is already finish. he called me and introduce me to the priest who celebrate the mass. apparently the priest is the parish priest assistant and he can speak French! yes, he's already went to Taize and stay for five years in Paris. cool! afterward we approached a bunch of the young people who gathered around the church and talked with them about Taize and Pilgrimage of Trust. they seems very interesting.

and around 8 o'clock we have to say goodbye because we have to come home at least 9 pm to get our supper.

well, once again it was a wonderful closing of my visiting parishes day. met the priest who can speak French and already went to Taize? there's can't be better than that! ahahahaha.

Visiting Parishes #2

on tuesday, the beginning of December, i've decided to visit 5 parishes in one day. it's because i still have more than 10 parishes that i don't have a contact with. so around 3pm i left by an LRT. and i don't have contact with these 5 parishes at all so i have to visit them to see if i can meet the youth coordinator or the parish priest at a chance. i was hoping if i brought enough lucky with me ;p and i decided these 5 parishes because their location formed into a diagonal line between each other and it's a walking distance around 10-15 minutes between each other.

first parish, after alight in the nearest station, i have to walk around 5 minutes to found the parish. quite difficult because i have to walk through the small street. this parish i already visit on my first week along with Michio but that time the parish office already closed. but now i found out that the parish office is still open. Thank God! so i talked to the lady there and pity that she doesn't have the youth coordinator or the parish priest number. she suggests to come back on Sunday to meet either the youth coordinator or the parish priest. and she gave me the office number. i also gave her the brochure of Pilgrimage of Trust along with my number written on that brochure. but i don't know why she just put the brochure in her desk, seems like she abandoned that small paper. ok then i went out and hoping let Holy Spirit encourage her to really give that brochure to the youth coordinator or the parish priest.

second parish, i walked around 10 minutes. this parish i also already visited on my first week and get the youth coordinator contact number, but she never replied my text. so i found out that the parish office is still open and i asked about the youth coordinator. surprised that the lady told me that now there's a new youth coordinator because the previous one is already in Australia. crap! ahahahaha. unfortunately she doesn't know the new youth coordinator's number. she suggests me to wait around 45 minutes because there will be a daily mass that gave by the parish priest himself. the problem is, i don't have that 45 minutes because i still have 3 more parishes that i have to visit and my latest hour is 9pm (because the LRT will closed at 9pm). so i waited there around 15 minutes and found two of the youth members. so i talked to them about Taize and Pilgrimage of Trust, got the youth coordinator number and gave them the brochure. yes, i was hoping once again let the Holy Spirit guide them to give the brochure into the right hand ;p

third parish, 10 minutes walking. i already visited this parish as well on my first week, that time me and Michio meet the priest and we shared about Taize and Pilgrimage of Trust. but the end of our sharing, the priest told us that he's just a guest priest. crap! ahahahaha. and yes he told us that he will relay it to the parish priest. so now i hope i can meet the parish priest or the youth coordinator. the time is already 7pm and the parish office is already closed. argh, ok i have plan b. i walked around the parish to see if i can ask someone if they know about the youth coordinator or the parish priest. this method SOMETIMES is working, of course with enough luck. but unfortunately that time, i asked 2-3 people but they don't know anything. waiting desperately, i saw a big poster told that there will be a Parish Fiesta on Dec 10. cool! i noted down the date and let's see if i can attend the fiesta. then i went to the next parish.

fourth parish, 15 minutes walking and almost get lost. haha. 7.30 pm and the parish office is already closed. but there's many young people hanging around near the church. bless me! i approach three of them and asked about the youth coordinator. one of them answered with a better English than the other two. she said that the youth coordinator is not around and unfortunately three of them don't have the youth coordinator's number. but then i asked their number i gave the brochure to them. then i sat down and talked with them about the youth activity and they interested with what i'm doing here in Philippines. i always interested how's the church activity of the Filipinos youth. and it was a nice conversation to exchange ideas. and apparently she told me that she quite amazed because there are foreigners walking around Manila alone only with Map because in her opinion, it's quite dangerous to walk alone in Manila because sometimes there's criminal activity. and i'm quite surprised that time because in these three weeks i feel fine and not experienced any bad things. but at least what she told me made me more cautious. then i went to the fifth parish.

the fifth and the last parish of the day. it's quite far so i took Jeepney. 5 minutes riding jeepney and i alight. check the map and found out that i'm too far from the parish. ahahahaha. so i walked back around 5 minutes of walking. then i found the church and it's already dark. and unfortunately there's no one hanging around in the church. but i saw there's a light in the adoration chapel so i came in and found one lady who doesn't speak English very well. she suggests me to come again tomorrow on 9am when the parish office is open. then i still hanging around in front of the church for couple of minutes and hoping i can meet someone that i can asked for. there's many people walked passed by in the front of the church but there's no one who really hanging around in the church except the flowers vendors. starving and exhausting, i decided to went home. 10 minutes of walking to the nearest LRT station, it's around 8.15 pm. i hope i can arrive in the brothers's place before 9pm because usually they still keep the dinner until 9pm.

so i took the LRT and enjoy the ride with music plugged to my ears. then i see the door near me is full with a people so i move to the other door so i can get out easily. while i was walking to the other door, i saw one blonde man sat in the floor and in a second i recognized him. florian! AHAHAHAHAHA. and we were laughing very hard! it's soooo wonderful! apparently we are in the same car only separated around a quarter metres between. then i sat with him and we took pictures together. ahahaha cool. what a nice closing for my not-enough-luck day.