Continuity

The river of time flows smoothly through the years: past, present and future. We bade goodbye to what was an eventful 2011 as we looked forward to this year with hope. I spent the New Year’s first day and last month’s Christmas Day here in Cebu. I used to spend both with my youngest son and his family in Manila after my husband passed away. Now that they have immigrated to Canada, and with my other three children having already immigrated to the States long before, it’s Christmas and New Year’s home here at last.

It was a quiet New Year’s Eve for me, after I attended anticipated New Year’s Day Mass in the late afternoon. Llater, I watched the coverage of the early New Year’s Midnight Mass at 8 p.m. on the Catholic Television Network. Traditionally in earlier years, I used to attend the Midnight Mass in church. Now it is celebrated earlier in the evening, considering the safety risks to churchgoers from firecrackers and pyrotechnics in the city late at night.

On New Year’s Day, the Church observed the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Much later in the day due to the East-West time difference, I watched the Mass officiated by Pope Benedict XVI covered live on EWTN from St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on this 45th World Day of Peace. The Papal Mass in Latin was translated to Italian, German, Spanish and English to the congregation in St. Peter’s piazza as well as to world-wide viewers.

In the Chinese calendar, the Lunar Year starts on Jan. 23rd, the Year of the Water Dragon, a celestial creature and symbol of good fortune.

Last Tuesday, the 3rd, was the Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. Wednesday, the 4th, was the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint, a convert from the Episcopalian Church, who laid the foundation for the parochial school system of America. Speaking of saints, later this year, we will have our second Filipino saint after St. Lorenzo Ruiz, when Blessed Pedro Calungsod will be canonized by the Pope.

We used to observe this day, Jan. 6, as the Feast of the Three Kings. This we will observe on Sunday, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord to the Magi, earlier referred to as the Three Kings, who followed the heavenly Star that led them to the Baby in the Manger.

Today is also the bicentennial or 200th birthday of Katipunan’s heroine and “Grand Old Lady”, Melchora “Tandang Sora” Aquino. At the age of 84, she tended to and nursed wounded revolutionaries despite the risks during the Philippine Revolution which broke out in 1896. Her remains will be exhumed at the Himlayang Pilipino and re-interred at a private shrine in barangay Banlat, Tandang Sora, Quezon City. This year has also been declared Tandang Sora Year in Quezon City, where she was born in 1812.

Here in Cebu City yesterday, a solemn penitential prayer “Walk with Jesus,” a religious procession by devotees of our Sto. Niño, opened the celebration and novena for the Feast of Señor Sto. Nino, which falls on Sunday, the 15th.

Last Tuesday, Jan. 2nd, with my son-in-law, Jing (Amador) Villalon, we drove to Moalboal town in southwestern Cebu to attend the first death anniversary of his wife, my second daughter Raquel. Jing, his three children and I had been to Moalboal just last Dec. 28th (not 18th as I mistakenly wrote in my column last week) for the interment of his father there. This time, his children had gone back to Australia to conclude their visit to their married sister there. By the time I write this, Jing and his two unmarried children will have returned to San Diego in California where they live and where I used to visit them during my almost early trips to the States.

Afternoon Mass was celebrated in the new church in Moalboal next to the historic stone church with only its façade, bell tower, and altar site still standing. The walls and roof had been torn down for “modern” remodeling with hollow blocks and a zinc roof that did not stand the test of time. So that had been torn down too, leaving the original façade and the rear portion. The current church, contemporary in design, had been put up by an architect brother-in-law of Raquel and Jing.

The Mass celebrant was Moalboal parish priest, Msgr. Danny Sanico, one of Raquel’s former seminarian friends in Moalboal. Towards the end of his homily, he paid tribute to Raquel, who had quietly and generously assisted financially in the construction of the church. I was struck by the fact that as a mother, I learned a lot more about my daughter from her friends and associates, God rest her soul!

At the evening family reception in the residence of Raquel’s parents-in-law, my comadre Yengyeng and the late Compare Ado, I got to meet friends, including my late husband’s remaining three cousins in Cebu, with one of whom I spent the night, before returning to the city the following day.

There is more to share from happenings last month, which will hold for next week. Tomorrow, I host my monthly second-week radio program “Women’s Kapihan” from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. over radio station dyLA with our Cebu Women’s Network officers ad members on the theme “Looking Back, Looking Forward.” Then on Sunday, I am attending our monthly meeting with fellow members of Cebu Union of Radio and TV Artists, Inc. instead of last Sunday which was New Year’s Day.

Next week will be Sinulog Week in honor of Cebu’s Sto. Niño. This week in Manila, devotees are honoring Jesus as the Black Nazarene, whose image is venerated in the historic Quiapo Church. I have memories of visiting there when my late sister was brought to Manila at the age of 3 to pray to the Black Nazarene for her cure from meningitis, and to return days after when our prayers were answered and she recovered.

In this prayerful week honoring Jesus as the Sto. Niño and the Black Nazarene, we thank God who continues to gift us in these trying times with His Grace.

Till next week, then, may God still continue to bless us, one and all!