Today is the Feast of the Lord’s Ascension unto Heaven, a Sunday we spent with our marriage and family life community, the Magis Deo Community. We gathered to celebrate God’s promise of peace fulfilled and love everlasting.
Every community celebration is truly special because grace in its varied forms are to be had. And for this, I am always grateful. This Sunday’s ComCel is made even more special because we bear witness to the stories of our Magis Deo Youth about their parents. Four members of our Youth participated with only three guiding questions to spur the conversation. Through the guidance and facilitation of Fr. James Gascon, SJ, we listened to three of our “children” share their journey. What wonderful graces we received because, embedded in their stories are the core values of Magis Deo: Service, Sharing, Stewardship and Simplicity. This is God, actively involved in our lives.
A humbling experience, indeed. An affirmation of faith in action. Parenting is never easy. And this is where community comes in to fill gaps, to empower and to be companions in life journeys.
Fr. James had a fitting closure to the session invoking the community to amplify these graces by listening to our children. After all, Parenting is Listening. And while 4 of the 5 core values surfaced in our youth’s sharing, one S seem to have been missing: Shepherding.
I would like to think, and claim, that Shepherding is present, too in Kuya Val leading the six volunteers of the Magis Deo Youth Choir in singing the songs in the Liturgical service this morning. Yes, you can call my bias. But to sing is an act of courage. And to push, guide and accompany young voices to sing songs for the Lord is shepherding too. Isn’t it?
Maybe. But one thing is clear: God moves in quiet ways, in humble acts of presence, in the gentle but firm guiding hand of a parent, a priest, a Kuya, a community. Shepherding does not always wear the mantle of authority. It sometimes takes the form of harmony, quiet encouragement, and the simple yes to serve.
Today, on the Feast of the Ascension, we are reminded that though Christ ascended, He did not abandon. He entrusted us to one another. He called us to be Church. To be community. And so, in the laughter of youth, the honesty in the voices that dared to share, in the earnest songs offered in praise, we find ourselves lifted not just our eyes to the heavens, but our hearts to each other.
This is Magis. This is grace.
May we continue to listen.
May we continue to accompany.
May we continue to shepherd.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
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