Pilgrim's Pitstop: When Love Live 2 is Lovelier the Second Time Around

            Let me begin by telling you a story.

            In 2021, the Prietos invited our BCGG as auxiliaries in the Family Encounter Weekend. Back then, we were known as BCGG Mt. Olivet. Present as couple auxiliaries were the Macalalads and the Antonios. The four of us, myself, Domeng, Nico (otherwise known as Val) and Zoe were tasked to assist particularly in the Music Ministry. This Family Encounter Weekend was very meaningful to me because of many reasons. One of them is due to the fact that our children, Nico and Zoe, took part in the singing of praise and worship songs, as well as the love songs which Tito Eli carefully chose as opening for the ten sessions of the two-day Family Encounter Weekend. Domeng and I did not expect our own children to be a part of what we were doing in Magis Deo. One of God’s many surprises. A given grace to which we accept gratefully.

To this day, I remember this image of Fr. Reuben Tanseco talking to Nico, his right hand hovering over his head in blessing. Later on, I learned that Fr. Reuben told him how well he sings and that it is a gift from God. This is a core memory I keep. It has helped us guide our children when they make choices and in charting and creating the roads they can possibly take in life. For the past twenty-two years, the Magis Deo Community has been our companion in our married life, as well as in our journey as parents.  

So, when the Reantaso’s invited us to sing again for Love Live 2 a week after our days of isolation were over, we said yes despite my fear and our limitations. It was one of those leaps of faith. If last year’s Love Life opened us unto many graces, this year’s run overwhelmed me with so much more.

Love Live 2 is lovelier the second time around because it invited me to take courage by singing to an audience, albeit online.

Love Live 2 is lovelier the second time around because we were able to express our gratitude to the community in the manner and in the language we know best.

Love Live 2 is lovelier the second time around because Domeng and I witnessed how Nico and Zoe have developed their confidence to communicate and work with the couple leaders of Magis Deo, particularly the CSM team.

Love Live 2 is lovelier the second time around because our Magis Youth sang with their friends and family. Their loved ones, pets included, cheering them on.

Love Live 2 is lovelier the second time around because it was bread and fish multiplying continuously!

The pandemic is far from over. It has damaged and disturbed many aspects of our lives. But the human spirit endures. And in Magis Deo, we remain companions in this journey of love and joy.

Pilgrim's Pitstop: Who is the God You Encounter in Prayer?

In many an Ignatian retreat, the spiritual director would often ask retreatants at the last session of the day of the God they encountered. This is a beautiful, often poignant experience. The God that one discovers during a time of selected silence and reflection in prayer lends great consolation to the searcher. Knowing God strengthens one’s spiritual moorings as he or she sets out into the world once more.

In Magis Deo, after fifteen years of spiritual journey of prayer and service, I found out that I need not wait for the scheduled Annual Ignatian Retreat to encounter God. Though, attendance to the AIR once a year can be life affirming indeed -- opening up to more growth in discernment and in developing a deeper, more personal relationship with God. The daily prayer and journaling, the Examen and the sharing of fruits of reflection, insights and the response to action during BCGG prayer meetings are processes that involve the finding of God in every possible way.

I once asked myself a long time ago the reason and the necessity of finding God. Why is there an emphasis in finding God in all things? Isn’t God, like love is, all around us? Such is the line in a popular Beatles song.

Over time, I realized that there is grace in the act of finding God. It is hard work. It is discipline. It is faith in action. It is fidelity. It is, in itself an act of love. Opening and offering these graces during a BCGG meeting makes God real, authentic, living and moving. There lies the affirmation of His unending love and presence in each and every form of life. Creation is awash of His magnanimity. His generosity is overflowing that it squashes the ego and pride.

Recently, in a joint BCGG prayer meeting, I was struck at the God I encountered at that moment. How I share this image of God to the rest is awe inspiring as it gave me an assurance that I am not alone in this relatively new journey known as midlife. The following days inspired me to lengthen my prayer time and to consistently develop an awareness of God moving in my life.

What I discovered there, in that process of prayer and reflection was surprising even for me.

There is a sense of calm in the midst of chaos. Detachment. Being painfully honest to myself and to others. A new meaning of true love. A desire to understand and experience the peace in God’s presence.

And so, as a pilgrim, I continue to journey on with a grateful heart as companions in prayer and service are plenty to meet at every pitstop. In each step, at every turn and at rest there is God. 

God is with us. Emmanuel.

 

Pilgrim’s Pit Stop: Living and Loving in A Masked World

And so I am back after a long hiatus from writing and contributing to the Magis Deo Newsletter. One text message from Cesar Sangalang made me turn around. It was a reminder on the value of community involvement given the circumstances. As if living is not complicated enough, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everything I know as normal and manageable.

 Suddenly, distance and physical space took on a whole new meaning. Facts and information need to be verified and validated by critically examining the source and the intent of its authors before sharing them to the public. Divisions among people and culture have all been magnified and gaps appear to grow wider as science and technology push for cures and solutions to this virus as well as the illnesses that malign society today. To hear news from the Inter-agency Task Force every day does not help alleviate anxieties and fears in a time of uncertainty and unprecedented change. School campuses remain close but there is a need to continue learning most especially at home and from home. We all find ourselves in this predicament. But, strive we must to survive. And it is in the struggle where we thrive and find grace.

Take for example the basic health protocol of frequent hand washing, the observance of social distancing and the wearing of mask when going out. It all sounds simple to do but these health practices require generosity and kindness from each of us. It is about personal care, interior freedom and the challenge to continuously “be”. This is the call of the time and the teaching of Ignatius no less.

Of the three health guidelines, it is the wearing of masks that fascinates me to no end. Wearing a surgical mask, we protect ourselves from the coronavirus and those we get in contact with. Wearing a mask pre-COVID-19, however, had a different meaning. In the Marriage Encounter experience, wearing a mask is an act that prevents us from being authentic and real, but now it is considered an act of love. What remains as constant is God’s call to continue building a relationship with Him with or without a mask. Because our ways of loving differ from one another, the response to the call of nurturing this relationship varies too.

In my quest to find a quiet and scared space to be with God, I discovered Fall in Love, a poem by Fr. Pedro Arrupe.

Nothing is more practical than finding God, than

Falling in love

In a quiet absolute, final way

What are you in love with

What seizes your imagination, will

Affect everything.

It will decide

What will get you out of bed in the

Morning.

What you do with your evenings,

How you spend your weekends

What you read, whom you know,

What breaks your heart,

What amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love

And it will decide everything.

This poem helps me work through the Examen as I reflect on my desires and the grace asked and received especially in this time of pandemic.