... from Fr. Alberic's office
December 3, 2004 Today
is the feast of St. Francis Xavier the patron saint of the mission. At our
Regional meeting in March of this year at our Trappistine sisters in General
We celebrate this Day in our Liturgy and in our refectory. It means that extra
foods were served and were a little bit nicer than usual. There were also
special hymns in Mass and the Divine Office. The beautiful season of Advent
sets the atmosphere for a deeper reflection on the mystery of the Incarnation.
Here at OLP & the Liturgy provides a good ground for a more intense
spiritual awakening with all the spiritual preparations.
December
5, 2004 Br. Francis Alvarez, our
observer, came back from home. He seems to like the monastic life since he just
stayed for a few days at home and then embarked for Guimaras. As a policy, we
let him stay in our guesthouse for about 3 days then enter inside the enclosure
to begin his postulancy. This means that he will be inside on the 8th of
December, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This seems very fitting for
him to begin his postulancy on the feast of Our Lady whom he is devoted to. At
this time I will still be in General
December
9, 2004 I arrived from our
Trappistine sisters. The ceremony of the solemn profession of Sr. Aida was very
simple and pleasant. There were only two outside guests aside from her family.
The sisters did all the cooking and preparations and washing of dishes after
lunch. We also have picture taking. Gracious laughters were heard from time to
time. This is what you can expect when nuns are together. In them we can safely
say, "Blessed are the sisters who dwell in unity."
After nourishing our bodies at lunch the abbess announced that we have to say
our Midday Prayer and then the None Prayer, thus to nourish our souls too.
Equipped with these two kinds of nourishment, Fr. Jess & I climbed the
mountain near the monastery. It is not that high. It's roughly 700 ft. but it
was a good climb. We stopped few times, though, to muster some energy. I knew
that I was not in perfect shape because I can feel the tiredness of my legs,
but my heart was in good condition to sustain me to the top. Fr. Jess is also a
good company. It was very rewarding once we reached the top. There was a
feeling of peace, relaxation, & contentment. On our way down, we were
reflecting about the climb.
We both agreed that in climbing a mountain there's a need for preparatory
exercise of our body in order to make the climb less difficult. It could be in
a form of jogging, bicycling, or walking, etc. so that the body would be in a
good condition. Without any exercise it would be tremendously difficult to
reach the top, especially if you have lots of cholesterol. It requires also
determination & perseverance. Religious life can also be compared to
climbing a mountain. Before a person embark for a religious life, it is assumed
that he was already doing some form of prayer and reading spiritual books,
receiving the sacraments, and exercising the virtues such as patience,
humility, etc. Without the practice of virtues it would be impossible to reach
the top, that is, purity of heart & union with God, especially if we are
loaded with pride like a heavy person with lots of fats. The more we exercise
the virtues the more our souls become stronger to climb the height of charity.
But without humility, it is better not to embark religious life. Can you
imagine an elderly fat woman who will try to climb a mountain? We will just be
grumbling along the way and makes religious life very difficult. Even just a
little dosage of humility & patience can really sustain us to the end. We
may take a rest along the way but by the grace of God we can reach our goal.
December
25, 2004 For a priest who
loves to say Mass, this is a good time to indulge oneself with this mystery.
Each priest has the privilege to say 3 masses today.
It becomes a tradition of our community to have a children's Mass in the
morning. We have also the tradition of giving the children a pack of
biscocho/cookies, and the adult with cookies and two kilos of rice after
This year we are expecting 3,000 people both children and adults. The
distribution of this small token was really a problem to us. I was told that in
the previous years it was always in chaos. I experienced it last year when I
was one of the distributors. It was a survival of the fittest. In other words,
it turned out that some had plenty and some complained that they did not
receive any. The crowd could no longer be controlled. The community had tried
several ways to do it but it did not work out well.
This year was a breakthrough, mainly because of our new Food Manufacturing
building. There's a section there where they can enter at one gate, falling in
line, and get out to the other gate.
Few days before Christmas, the brothers who were involved in this distribution
gathered together and we discussed ways of doing it. Finally, we agreed that
some brothers will be at the entrance gate, some will be distributing the
gifts, and some at the exit gate with a stamp to mark the hand of both the
children and adults. In this way, they could not come back anymore. No need any
more of giving them tickets with different colors and putting up stations. It
worked out perfectly well. As a matter of fact, there were left over even
though we let the last groups come back again the second round.
December
26, 2004 We scheduled this day
for our workers' party with their families. Fr. Jess usually said Mass for
them, but since he is at our Trappistine sisters in General
On behalf of the monks of our Lady of the
God bless.
In Christ and Mary,
Fr. Alberic
OLP Abbey
Email:
frmaryalberic@CatholicWeb.com
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