(Last April 12, 2008, two Jesuits were ordained to the priest­hood: Frs. Xavier Olin and Nono Alfonso. This is Fr. Nono’s thanks­giv­ing speech.)

When I am asked about my voca­tion story – how I dis­cerned or heard God’s call – my sim­ple answer is that, I heard the peal­ing of the bells. I remem­ber when I was still very young, in Naga City, the bells of the Cathe­dral that sig­naled the first mass of the day would wake me up early in the morn­ing and most espe­cially dur­ing spe­cial occa­sions like the sim­bang gabi or the grand fiesta of Ina or the Lenten ser­vices when they rang the loud­est. The bells would ring end­lessly – wak­ing me up, entic­ing, beck­on­ing, sum­mon­ing me. Among the sounds or noises in this world, I find that the sound of the bells is rather unique. It is quite out of this world, quite super­nat­ural. The bells led me to the Church and ulti­mately to God. They led me to a deep aware­ness of the exis­tence of the super­nat­ural, of the real­ity of the sacred. I real­ized that there is more to this world. There is a God who is entic­ing, beck­on­ing, sum­mon­ing us to his lov­ing embrace. I am there­fore not alone. We are not alone. We are loved.

Never Give Up On Anything

These are scenes from the Pas­sion of the Christ done mtv-style with the song by Evanes­cence, My Immor­tal.
Below is a short ser­mon by the Arch­bishop of Can­ter­bury Rowan Williams. He is one of the great the­olo­gians of the Angli­can Church.
Good Fri­day Reflec­tionRowan Williams, Arch­bishop of Can­terury, March 25, 2005
Twenty five years ago yes­ter­day, Oscar Romero, Arch­bishop of El Sal­vador, was shot dead at the altar of a hos­pi­tal chapel. He was fully aware of what risks he was run­ning; for some years, he had denounced the mas­sive injus­tices of Sal­vadorean society …

click on image above to see big­ger version

Just imag­ine if all rep­re­sen­ta­tives of each and every reli­gion in the world were to meet in one room, and they were all allowed just one state­ment to sum up their reli­gion, what would they say?
What would you say if your were your religion’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive?
Maybe I would say some­thing like the state­ment in the poster above.
Some­times we think that we have the exclu­sive con­tract on love. That only WE Chris­tians have the monop­oly to be kind and lov­ing and car­ing of other peo­ple. But …

The Path of Wait­ingHenri Nouwen [empha­sis mine]
Wait­ing is wait­ing with a sense of promise. It is never a move­ment from noth­ing to some­thing. It is always a move­ment from some­thing to some­thing more. Zechariah, Eliz­a­beth, Mary, Simeon and Anna were liv­ing with a promise. It was a promise that nur­tured them, fed them, and enabled them to stay where they were.
Sec­ond, their wait­ing is active. They know that what they are wait­ing for is grow­ing from the ground on which they are stand­ing. Right here is a secret for us about waiting: …