When Parents Listen to Their Children

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.

Advent, BTS and Cyanotype Printing

Inspired by RM of BTS’ full length album, Indigo, I ventured into learning Cyanotype printing early this year. With the help of Enzo Abalayan showing me how to make prints, I was further motivated to learn this new skill as my ARMY Glow Up 2025 project. Collaborating with the talented Sin So, my Tita ARMY chingu, we were able to design tote bags that were sold at the bazaar during the Pearl ARMY Festa of 2024. It was a special endeavor and personal project since part of the proceeds funded my parents’ medical care. Needless to say, being ARMY and my fangirling has led me to graces I never asked for. Believe if or not, I find God there in all His amazing glory.

Since then, I would make prints as a mental health break. Keeping a few in a portfolio that may lend to a new project in the future. When I received an invitation from friends in Magis Deo to share something for our kids, teens and young adults in the community, I immediately said yes.

I thought about conducting a Cyanotype printing workshop for our Magis Deo Youth. The idea made me happy. I looked forward to the activity during an exhausting but productive week in school. I was going to share a skill that began as an ARMY Glow Up 2025 Goal under AGU Recreation and proud that I learned it from a former student. What’s more, I was excited to connect Cyanotype printing with the message of Advent.

Advent is the season of waiting. Advent is the season of light breaking through the shadows.

Advent is a time when we are called to recognize and accept change.

Advent is an opportunity for transformation.

Cyanotype printing, with its vivid blue tones and shadowy, ethereal imagery, has a poetic resonance with the season of Advent. Cyanotypes capture light in a unique way, creating images through sunlight exposure. This parallels Advent’s theme of light emerging from darkness, as cyanotypes reveal delicate forms and shadows when exposed to light, symbolizing hope and revelation.

Since Advent is a season of waiting and preparing for light to break into the darkness, Cyanotype printing follows a similar process that involves anticipation, patience, change and transformation. Such abstract ideals, beliefs and concepts may be too far off to be fully understood by children — even adults. To enrich our context of Advent as we all prepare for this season of hope in chaotic and confusing times, an art activity such as Cyanotype printing may prove meaninfgul for the child and the child at heart.

Our Magis Deo Youth participants in this morning’s Cyanotype Printing activity brought home their hand made cyanotype greeting cards and “photographs”. Glad and grateful to learn something new as well as making art that restonates with the anticipation and joy of Christ’s birth.

MAGIS DEO Teens and YSA Program for February 2024

I used this plan for the Community Celebration of Magis Deo last February with the Magis Deo Teens and Young Single Adults.

A. Perking Up: Getting to know you game / human bingo / Evolution Game

B. Priming Activity

Prompt: Lights by BTS or Shadows and Lights by Joni Mitchell

Plan B: Show a photo of lights and shadows

Learning Experience: Lights and Shadows

- Think of 3 events in the past year that gave you light or you have been a light. Think of 3 events that led you to the shadows in the past year.

1.       What dominant emotions did you feel during moments of lights/shadows?

2.       How did you respond to your moments of lights/shadows?

3.       Who was there with you in your moments of lights/shadows?

C. Sharing or Posting of responses on the board

D. Group prayer

Part 2:  MAGIS DEO YOUTH AGENDA: YSA and Teens Activity for 2024

-          Present the activities done in the past year

Let’s dream together: what activities do you recommend that will allow you to be a light for yourself and for others?

Make a list of 3 activities. Write 2-3 sentences describing each activity.

We never walk alone: How can we make our dream activities for YSA and Magis Teens come true?

Next meeting, we will present what the group has put together and how Magis Deo can walk with us given the rules and resources available.

Refelctions: Art and Music Jam with Ouie Badelles

 

Pathways to God

After two postponements, the Magis Deo Youth Art and Music Jam with Mr. Jose "Ouie" Badelles pushed trhough.

Kuya Val led the group of 18 participants, comprised of four Titas and Tito of Magis Deo, one guest speaker and thirteen members of Magis Deo Teens and Young Adults in the opening song and music jam. Singing to Sunrise by Ben and Ben, Kuya Val kicked off the session on a positive and reassuirng note. This was followed by a reflection activity by Tita Zarahon the Examen. As a priming activity to Mr. Badelles' talk, she showed a video presentation about an artist, Makoto Fujimura who found God through art.

In Mr. Badelles' session, he shared his creative process and the sacred spaces of reflection one can carve out in the act of creation. By doing and demonstrating an art activity to capture feelings and memory, one is able to appreciate living in the moment. He also presented his art journal as a way to nurture the self and express his ideas, feelings and sense of being. 

The one hour session spent listening and watching Mr. Badelles was akin to viewing Bob Ross on YouTube. However, with Mr. Badelles, participants got to ask questions about his technique, to identifying medium and materials suitable for the artist, making a decision to pursue art as a career cjoice, to overcoming a period of Black Swan - that dryness in an artist's creative journey. He encouraged everyone pursuing a creative endeavor to just keep giong. It is in facing one's fears where in we become better versions of ourselves. 

When a Magis Deo Youth participant asked him for a description of the afternoon session and the object he will draw to represent it, he was quick to say "sunshine with clouds dispersing."

Thank you Mr. Badelles for being an inspiration to us all! As one Magis Deo Tita said after the session, "art and music are powerful pathways to God!"