Year-End Review

2013 was one heck of a great year. It brought not only new beginnings and opportunities but a lot more room for personal growth and improvement. This year gave way to a more intensive and integral formation. When a friend of mine asked me one time, "How have you changed for the past year?" I answered this way:

"The formation year made me grow into a more sociable person, one with confidence and a heart for others. I was able to be more sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others and taking into account their experiences not only mine."

The photo reminds me of the four pillars of seminary formation: Community (Upper right; with John Bartolome, Stevenson Labrague, and Niel Lopez), Academic (Upper left; an article I wrote before), Spiritual (Lower left; as the director for the seminary choir), and Apostolate (Lower right; with the Youth of ICP).

I thank the seminary for molding me according to its four pillars: Community, Academic, Spiritual, and Apostolate aspects. I've learned more to be with others, to bond in brotherhood, to live not in fear before superiors but rather in loving obedience and trust. In this community I learned how to share my resources and to make sacrifices for its betterment. It taught me how to level before others and to know where I position myself in different circumstances.

Academically, I believe I am not that intelligent. I know many things. I like being practical and to use my common sense. I believe there is always room for learning. Although I may say that I've lagged behind my usual reading habit, it is something to be recovered. Getting low grades are not a failure for me but a reminder for others that intelligence is not based on numerical grades but on how we are able to live it. Spiritually, 2013 has left a mark on my soul that demands for more time for serious prayer. There's more to form in terms of discipline and focus. Still, serving God is at the heart of my actions. Lastly, this year leaves a memory in me as I had my first apostolate in one of the small parishes in the diocese. Not only that, it was an experience that reminds me of the words of Pope Francis as he calls for a church that is active and ready to get dirty because of her missionary works.

From the Upper left with Azra Kabiri, a close friend now working at UPLB-IMSP; Upper right with my sibling Chin Pua who has finished his ChemEng course; Lower left with Litoy as we take on a KrispyKreme donut; and Lower right with Cayle who has finished his ElecEng, all from the same university.

2013 has been a good year for family bonding. My brothers were able to finish their college as the youngest of us still copes in his elementary schooling. Reminiscing the moments when I think why I am still studying when my brothers are graduating and planning for a job, my friends are getting married or are taking their MS's, others working and building a career, while I'm stuck in an old seminary building taking another bachelor's degree. It's unlikely for a UP graduate to take another bachelors degree. Yet all these sink in before the year telling that God has plans and we just go with the flow in the river of His grace.

There is always room for growth. Dreams are fulfilled when we take are steps in reaching the stars. The coming 2014 would surely be like the old passing years: full of surprises, opening new opportunities, meeting new friends, stronger bondings, new life directions, etc. We do not just leave behind the past year as if it is something to be forgotten. 2013 has taught me so much and all these are to be treasured. We look at the past with reflection, learning from its lessons and contemplating from its directions. We look at the past as a springboard towards a new and better tomorrow. 2014 enters and we make room for its blessings!

At the Laiya beach in Batangas; a photo with my parents in the Pakil church; with Niel Lopez during the closing celebration of the Year of Faith and a photo opp after a mass in STCJP with Eya Torres and Maja Espinas (old friends from charismatic youth group).

 2013 was a time for inner reflection. It was a journey of self-discovery and a renewed sense of dignity. It was a year of bonding with the family and new friends. Old friends come to meet you and it is refreshing to know that old bonds still exist amidst new people coming in our lives.

Meeting "The Abbot"

It is a rare opportunity that someone gets to meet one of the brilliant minds in the theological sphere of the contemporary period. On November 21, I was fortunate to have met the Rev. Dr. Heinrich Josef Maximilian Heim, O.Cist., Abbot of the Cistercian abbey in Germany. He came to the Philippines to celebrate his 25th sacerdotal anniversary with Rev. Fr. Gabriel Chumacera, O.Cist., who was once a seminary formator and a clergy from the Diocese of San Pablo. He also came to celebrate his thanksgiving as he had his final vows in the Cistercian community.

Fr. Maximilian Heim, O.Cist., was one of the first three recipients of the Ratzinger Prize in Theology.

As the director of the Schola Cantorum, I arranged to songs for his Mass. The abbot was grateful that he told me after the celebration, "Thank you! Wonderful that you used the de Angelis!" I knew that the abbot was not fluent in english so we sang Gregorian chant and some Italian and Spanish propers.

Members of the Schola Cantorum with the Abbot, Fr. Maximilian Heim, O.Cist. and Rev. Fr. Gabriel Chumacera, O.Cist. in the center. The photo was taken at the San Pablo Cathedral.

Greeting the Abbot after his Mass.

 Surprisingly on that very same day, a seminarian knocked on my dormitory room and as I opened it he told me that the rector asked me to assist in the Holy Hour as Fr. Maximilian presides. It is the first time that the abbot would expose the Blessed Sacrament in english and within it pray the Vespers. We prayed for the increase of Religious and Priestly Vocations during the hour of adoration followed by the office.

Fr. Maximilian Heim exposes the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel of the St. Peter's College Seminary.

After the evening hour of prayer, the community was fortunate to have a colloquium with our two Cistercian visitors. They related to us their lives in their religious community and also spiritual sharings. I asked the abbot at the end of the session, "What made you so interested with Pope Benedict XVI  that you were able to write such an extensive work?" With this he told us that the book was not really something he intended to be published. It was his doctoral thesis which the Ignatius Press kindly offered him to be translated in english and published.

The abbot with the philosophy seminarians of St. Peter's College Seminary after the colloquium.

The Rev. Abbot and I discussing about Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) as seminarians tried to have a photo taken with him.

I told the abbot that I am doing my thesis on the philosophy of Relativism wherein I take on John Paul II and Benedict XVI as key luminaries. He said he is interesting and gave me helpful insights.
I hope to meet him before he leaves for Germany and would ask him to autograph my copy of his work.