this is your invitation to our ordination

This is your invitation to our Ordination
to the Sacred Order of Presbyters
by the grace of God and the laying on
of hands of our bishop. That day
will be rife with meaning and filled
with possibilities; timely, too, for
celebrating the kindness of friends
and family who helped made that day
possible. We hope you can join us
in the Eucharist and Ordination Rite
at 8:30 a.m., 8 December 2006, Friday,
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception,
at the Cathedral of St. Gregory the Great
in Legazpi City, and share in the joy
of that day with us, dream dreams
for the Church with us, and pray
that we remain thankfully, faithfully
Shepherds after His own heart.

"I give you shepherds after my own heart." Jeremiah 3,15


Rev. Rex Paul Arjona y Bragais
son of Renato Arjona Sr. and Socorro Bragais
Thanksgiving Mass: 8 December 2006, 4:00 p.m.
St. John the Baptist Parish, Tabaco City

Rev. Gerard Arroyo y Bonayon
son of Simeon Arroyo and Corazon Bonayon
Thanksgiving Mass: 10 December 2006, 3:00 p.m.
St. Anthony of Padua Parish, San Antonio, Tabaco City

Rev. Emman Avila y Belchez
son of Armingol Avila and Evangeline Belchez
Thanksgiving Mass: 9 December 2006, 9:00 a.m.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, Malilipot

Rev. Jose Baranda Jr. y Benasa
son of Jose Baranda Sr. and Rose Benasa
Thanksgiving Mass: 10 December 2006, 9:00 a.m.
St. Rose of Lima Parish, Bacacay

Rev. Roque Patanao y Oliquiano
son of Segundino Patanao and Delia Oliquiano
Thanksgiving Mass: 9 December 2006, 3:00 p.m.
St. Stephen Proto-Martyr Parish, Ligao City


ORDAINING PRELATE
Most Rev. Nestor C. Cariño, D.D.
Bishop of Legazpi

together with
Most Rev. Lucilo B. Quiambao, D.D.Auxiliary Bishop of Legazpi

Most Rev. Jose C. Sorra, D.D.
Bishop-Emeritus of Legazpi

and the Presbyterium of the Diocese of Legazpi

senti

Today it has been 1 year, 1 week & 2 days since I got ordained as a deacon.

This anniversary fact first came last 16 September when I went to the ordination to the diaconate of some members of the batch next to us at San Jose.

It was a bright Saturday morning. The ordinandi were visibly beaming as well. Their family and friends were present. Bp. Bacani was the ordaining prelate. Loyola House's St. Ignatius Oratory turned smaller with all the guests who came to witness the ordination, some of them spilling to the side corridors. A few happy tears too were spilled at certain high moments of the rite: 5 young men prostrated on the sanctuary's marble floor as the congregation invoke the intercession of the saints; Bp. Bacani laying his hands on each of them, one after the other, to confer the Sacred Order of the Diaconate; the newly-ordained vesting for the first time the deacon's stole and the dalmatic, assisted by their parish priest, another priest-friend and their parents.

Aside from the obvious remembrance of a similar event which happened 1 day shy of a year ago, suddenly it came to me: I was back again at San Jose, back to its familiar familial atmosphere, back once more to the company of people whom I shared space and life with just a few eternal months ago. Words like magis, cura personalis, familiaritas cum Deo, et al. rushed back and claimed their lost meanings. Even the old oft-quoted words appeared with the freshness of a just-heard thing: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are 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 will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything.”

Amen to that and to all such Jesuit/Ignatian words, even if today they are no longer confidently attributed to the saintly Pedro Arrupe, S.J. It was an ordination, a most fitting time to hear once more those words in the homily, in the words of thanks, in conversations – including the one which I and a classmate had as we did a celebration of sorts for our ordination anniversary the next day, Sunday.

I can’t help but compare. I’ve only been in my diocese since April, a little less than six months, yet it seemed I have acquired a new epistemology, a new set of things to learn and live with: the literature of pastoral bulletins and circulars; the unique sociology of a provincial presbyterium; the psychology of clerical age-groups; the economics of remittances; the mathematics of bination, trination, quaternation and pluri-intention Masses; the politics of social action; the different management styles of pastors; the procedural arcana of our general assembly; an alternate philology for words like: prayer, dialogue, support system, on-going formation, simplicity of lifestyle, and especially, Church of the Poor.

Limited experience and viewpoint notwithstanding, it seems to me rather strong, this seeing of varied levels of dissatisfaction and dissipation among our clergy. There seems to exist among us a heady mix of several coping/escape mechanisms: a groping for direction, a desperate clinging to the stability of the status quo, a nostalgia for real/imagined better by-gone days. Yet in all this, the Word of God continues to be preached, the work of evangelization proceeds at a certain pace, the People of God have not been relatively led astray. Our situation sometimes gives new dimensions to St. Therese of Lisieux’s “everything is grace”.

If I were fatalistic I would say I sense, as I sometimes do, an imminent time for reaping the rewards of all our blunders and good intentions, of our denials and discernments, of our failings and excesses, of our diligence and fidelity – in short and in Gospel-speak, a day of harvest both of those wheat and weeds we have so (choose your adverb) planted. But I am not.

I am just a transitional deacon, 1 year, 1 week & 2 days older.

Ora pro nobis.

bishops and deacons

“I cannot as a priest but be poor. It is in being poor that we can better live out our vocation and be more effective in our ministry. People can see Christ better in us and can have a clearer idea of who Jesus really is if we are poor priests."

bishop-elect broderick pabillo, auxiliary bishop of manila, speaking at the national clergy congress 2005.

last sunday, 28 may, i read the happy news on pdi, via my favorite columnist (and future presidential candidate?) randy david, of the election by benedict xvi of two new bishops - fr ambo david (randy's brother) and fr broderick pabillo. fr ambo is well-known in my circle - alumnus of san jose, scripture scholar & prof at LST, sought-after talk-giver and retreat-master. unfortunately for me, i never had him as prof in any scripture course at LST (it was a tough choice between him & fr vic salanga, sj).

fr or bp-elect broderick is also an in-demand talk-giver and retreat-master. i only know him from afar. but whatever distance there may be, what i know of him is enough to leave me highly edified. he was an sdb priest who left the relative comfort of his don bosco community to become a diocesan, devoting himself to one of the poorest parishes of palawan. it was his experience of poverty & sanctity in palawan that was the context of this blog's intro quote.

last 24 may, my bishop ordained 4 seminarians to the diaconate. rev deacons dok arroyo, gboy avila, joey baranda & roque patanao. incl myself, there are now 5 of us, deacons, serving legazpi - yey!

the recent ordination brings back memories and insights from discernment and prayer periods past. i remember finally getting over the fear of not choosing the 'better option' in favor of the road less traveled. i remember struggling over celibacy before getting to accepting it, first, as a means that i need to appropriate in order to realize a life lived more fully, then, at last, as God's gift to me. i remember one contemplation: on the feeding of the 5000 in matthew - Jesus speaking, 'these are my people and this is my work, from them will rise my dream, the coming of the Kingdom; would you dare join me in this dream?'

after almost 9 months as a deacon, i still shudder at all these remembering. at present, with the realities of ministry in my diocese gradually, sometimes jarringly, beginning to unravel themselves in ways perceived only vaguely before, remembering becomes an exercise that brings both comfort and perplexity. most return journeys, this one a return to ideals, are both comforting (because it brings us back to places and states we have become accustomed to, to our comfort zones) and perplexing (because our lofty ideals get measured up by how we have fared so far in taking on 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune', otherwise known as - reality).

my ideals regarding the ordained ministry:

1. it is the choosing of a life less ordinary - of becoming agents of the sacred, purveyors of hope, firesetters for the Kingdom.

2. it is all about making a sacrifice. & by sacrifice i mean not just enduring the regular hardships that accompany any self-giving, but more about 'making holy' one's humble efforts because they are, after all, but a sharing in Christ's work.

3. it is a witnessing to that 'something more', i.e., that there is something more than the usual pursuit of power, prestige, or financial gain. it is about how one strives to be poor and to serve in a church that professes to become one with the poor, indeed, become poor itself. sadly, in this regard, many of us, ordained ministers, have been measured & found wanting.

that is why, frs david and pabillo becoming bishops is a happy occasion. for we need more men like them to make us pause & reflect & get fired up once more in our own witnessing and sacrificing. we need to attend more ordinations so we may remember how, for every deacon, priest and bishop, his ordained ministry started by dreaming Christ's dream.