#FaithJourneyInTheTimeOfPandemic – Light in Darkness

“When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute, and not despised their prayer.” – Psalm 102:18

We had cocooned ourselves as best we could from the dreaded virus. Our family strictly followed the quarantine rules. In the beginning, only my niece, the holder of the quarantine pass or more popularly known as the “alay”, would go out to buy essentials. I would ferry her to and from the village gate and, as the CQ eased, would drive her around. I hardly ever got out of the car except to go to the bank. My son and my father NEVER EVER stepped out beyond our gate for 4 and a half months.

It was a peaceful, secure lockdown. My son worked from home while I used the time to grow. I learned iPhone photography and how to pray the rosary in Italian. I took up painting again and revived my blogs. My family must have gained a few pounds because I had time to learn new recipes and even tried my hand at baking. I was blooming where I was planted and even sowed a few seeds as I was invited to speak on solo parenting at two online gatherings. I thought that was my pandemic story. But I was so wrong.

On July 28, our cocoon was ripped apart. My almost 90-year-old Papa suffered a stroke. We rushed him to the emergency room. The nearby hospital triaged him inside our car in their driveway despite his life-threatening condition. We were told he was 5^th in line for the ICU and will not be admitted unless there was a room available. Since it was critical that medicine be administered immediately to Papa, my cousin’s husband told us to bring him to the hospital where he was holding clinic at the time.

By God’s grace and the help of my cousin’s doctor-husband, Papa was given life-saving treatment. But there was still no ICU room available. I thought he was 6^th in line but apparently, I misheard that. He was 26^th in line and people ahead of him had been in the ER for about a week already!!! Papa had to stay in the ER until a room was available – not in a cubicle but right smack in the center of the critical care room in front of the nurses’ station. From our cocoon safe from the virus, we were thrown into a place teeming with Covid patients. The passage from the Apostles’ Creed “descended into hell” became a reality for us.

My cousin Jong, a doctor in the U.S., told me not to stay in the ER as much as possible for my own safety. But I had to keep looking in on Papa because he was being a handful to the ER staff who were overwhelmed by the volume of patients already. Added to the threat of Covid infection was the discomfort. Chairs with butt-unfriendly seats were the only ones available to sleep on in the ER. Occasionally, I would sneak out to the hospital lobby where there were cushioned benches and the calming image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to grab some sleep at night.

On the third day, we ascended…not out of ER hell yet but, by God’s grace…to a curtained cubicle. Every time I would enter the critical care room to go to Papa’s cubicle, I’d hold my breath for fear of inhaling the virus. The curtain separating us from the Covid patient (just my suspicion because of the plastic tent on the bed) in the next cubicle was not very reassuring. I watched in horror as the other bed partly pushed through the curtain and into our cubicle as they were moving the patient out. That fear combined with the hard chair was enough to keep me sleepless that night.

In one of the Breakthrough modules for handling anxiety and depression, Bro Arun Gogna told the story about a sick man who puts a chair beside his bed where he “seats” Jesus to have a conversation with Him every day. I thought of doing the same thing since I couldn’t sleep. Taking the other chair that I use to prop up my feet, I asked Jesus to sit and talk to me. I was surprised by how easy that conversation began. It was like I had a close friend sitting right there beside me. I would ask a question or say something, and He would answer right back. I can’t remember everything that we talked about. All I remember was His comforting presence. When I told her about it, my cousin and bff Belle said maybe it was because most of the conversation was just meant for me.

There was only one part of our conversation I do recall. At one point, I lamented, “But Lord, why do I have to go through this hell? Does it have to be this scary, this difficult, this dark?” Then He answered, “Remember that painting of the cactus bud you just finished? Remember how the whiteness of the bud only stood out when you got the dark background right? IT IS ONLY IN CONTRAST WITH THE DARKNESS THAT THE GLORY OF MY LIGHT CAN BE FULLY APPRECIATED.”

I was stunned! That painting was the hardest to make in my paintography series. It was based on this beautiful photo taken by Paolo Salanguit, son of my caring group head Myrna. Myrna had sent it to our group chat with a very inspiring caption that moved me to immortalize it with a painting.

“First time ever that this old hopeless cactus plant bloomed. Pao and I were amazed. Truly God’s promises never fail even when we feel hopeless at times.” - Myrna

But it was so hard to paint! First, the pressure. The photograph was so skillfully taken, so much better than any of my amateurish efforts. I needed to give it justice. Next was my skill level. I had only taken up painting again during the lockdown after decades of non-practice and there was so much I had to re-learn. It took four attempts with different media and a whole lot of research before I could get the effect I wanted.  

First attempt using wet on wet technique with watercolor

I failed miserably and didn’t even have the heart to finish it.

Second attempt using watercolor pencil

Please note from my other paintings that I hardly put a background. That’s because I’m not confident with my skills yet. I’m afraid of botching up the painting when I’ve gotten the flower to my satisfaction already. I was unhappy with the light background of this one.

Third attempt: watercolor-ed paper sculpture on handmade paper

My son Jaffy suggested I try doing it in mix media. Since I had this handmade paper in the right color, I cut out the flower from the second attempt, did some paper sculpture on it and proceeded to assemble it. I was still dissatisfied as the delicate play of colors on the left side of the background was lost.

The finished painting using watercolor pencil

Perseverance is a virtue – I finally got it on the fourth try. The lightness of the bud stood out when I made the background dark enough.

Truly, God’s glory becomes more brilliant when it is placed in stark contrast to the darkness of our trials.

The darkness:

Papa stayed in the ER for 5 days surrounded by Covid patients. He was swabbed because the hospital assumes everybody is a suspect. If you were admitted for some other ailment, then being confined in the same room with positive cases surely upped your chances of making their suspicion true. The scary thing was sometimes I would catch him with his face mask off. I, too, was barely protected with just a face mask and face shield as compared to the medical staff in complete PPE.

Just as he was about to be discharged, he had a fever and was swabbed for a second time. The wait for the result was agonizing as I feared for my own condition as well and for my family at home who might have been exposed with my comings and goings from the hospital. Tests showed he contracted pneumonia and was infected by bacteria that was resistant to regular antibiotics (one of the residents described it as a super bug). These could have been hospital-acquired which can happen with prolonged confinement.

There I was, again, feeling barely protected from the virus and the bacteria when all the medical staff were required to enter Papa’s room in PPE. My trauma was intensified by the fact that my husband’s final cause of death was hospital-acquired sepsis and not the injuries he got from his accident.

To make matters worse, I was locked down in the hospital for a whole week without a reliever because of the MECQ that was re-imposed after the medical community called for it.

The light:

Despite the exposure, Papa tested negative for Covid twice. After 14 days of self-quarantine from the time Papa was discharged, I also did not exhibit any symptoms; neither did my son, our designated driver to and from the hospital, and my niece who attended to us at home.

Despite being 26^th in line for a room, he was moved out of the ER after 5 days. Furthermore, he was not moved to the ICU (expensive!) because his condition had improved or to a private isolation room (more expensive!!) because he was Covid-negative. It was a miracle that a small private room (affordable and just what we were praying for!!!) became available.

Despite the odds because of his age, Papa survived the stroke and is ambulant with the help of a walker (lent by Oying Isidoro, a brother from our Feast family whose recovery from his illness is an amazing and inspiring story). Added to that is his speech which is no longer slurred. Instead of continuing his speech therapy, we make him lead in praying the rosary every day.

God’s grace was evident in the overwhelming moral and spiritual support from family, friends and my Feast community even if they were given mostly online. I could sense heaven caving in under the barrage of prayers when the miracles came one after the other.

God hears the prayer of the destitute. In these trying times, never forget that. His glory will shine through this darkness.

Ministry of Presence: Taking a Faith Walk with Adult Children

Sometimes, I receive messages like these:

“Hi! Can I call you? I need your advice.”

“Sis, I just want to share my feelings now. It seems my fear of being left alone is coming true.”

Or questions like these when I get invited to give the occasional talk:

“What do you do with hard-headed teen-aged children who hate you for making them obey your rules?”

“When is the right time for a solo parent to begin dating?”

I have a quick retort for the last one: “Malay ko ba. I can’t relate noh!!! Strict ang payrents ko.” But seriously, these are heart-stopping moments for me. Why? Because I’m afraid I will be asked for wisdom that I might not have. I, of course, always invoke God’s wisdom before engaging the people who seek answers from me. Many times, I’d be surprised by an advice I’d give because I know that definitely didn’t come from me. At other times God would nudge me to remember an experience (mine or someone else’s) that is related to the question.

But half the time, I’m clueless myself especially when it comes to the topic of making adult children accede to your wishes. I’m sure many parents with adult children will agree it was so much simpler when they were small. They need to take medicine? You can hold their cheek gently till it’s swallowed. They’re due for a check-up with the pediatrician? You can carry them to the car. It’s time to go to mass? You can promise them a balloon after mass. Their room is a mess? You can make a game with shoot the toys in the basket.

Now, try making your adult children do these things and these are what you’ll get: eyes rolled till they reach the backs of their heads, a fight, roars of laughter or a deaf ear.

Recently, my heart bled for a solo parent sister whose adult child left their family home for reasons she was not happy with. All I could tell her was to keep praying for her child and the cause of their situation. But after that, my heart was uneasy. Is there something more we parents can do other than pray? Fighting, forcing them to obey will only make things worse.

Yesterday, I got the answer from Fr. Ted Torralba’s birthday homily for the online mass of Sta. Maria Goretti based on this bible passage:

“The Kingdom of God is at hand.” – Matthew 10:7

He cited as an example a family member who does not attend mass with you even online, even with the conveniences of modern-day gadgets. He said:

“How do we handle the issue? Not by lecturing where they should be but by making ourselves a part of their lives. How? Celebrating with them their blessings, standing with them in their struggles. They know how much our faith means to us and our presence with them gives that faith credibility. We call this the Ministry or the Apostolate of Presence: just be there. Our love, our acceptance, our care is a proclamation that the kingdom of God is present…Our compassion is a sign that God is right here, right now.”

His words set my troubled heart to rest. What is most important after all, when taking a faith walk with our children, is our presence. This is also true for other people that God sends us to minister, those to whom we proclaim the Kingdom of God.

Fr. Ted ended with this adage and challenge:

“Hands that move are more powerful than lips that pray.”

How to Stay Happy in a Bad Situation

This is an article from my old (now retired) blog that was published years ago. In this time of pandemic when many people’s lives are in an extremely bad state, I thought it would be timely to repost this. I always say: “Happiness is a choice and a disposition of my heart. It is not dependent on my situation.”  Train yourself to see miracles every day.

“A joyful heart makes a cheerful face.” – Proverbs 15:13

We made it to the church on time without going over the speed limit, breaking any traffic rules and giving the traffic aide any reason to harass us for his snack money. We were even early enough to get the best parking space – right beside the entrance to Paco Park.

We couldn’t be late for this wedding. Papa had an important role to play. My newly widowed cousin, the mother of the groom, wanted Papa to walk with her down the aisle.

It was a close shave because my morning was hectic with errands to run. I barely had time to have my nails done so I had to settle for this horribly expensive parlor in the mall.

To save more time, I finished dressing-up in the car: applied eyeliner and lipstick when the light turned red; changed from slippers to shoes (good thing I grabbed the right box); stuffed essentials into my tiny evening bag.  

Midway to the church, I began to relax. We were good. We were on time. Or so we thought.

My cousin, George, who drove for us decided to check out the church first to make sure we were in the right place. Was it Paco Church or Paco Park? He came back with the news that there was no wedding scheduled for the day.

I called my cousin’s mobile number, but it was out of coverage area. I had her home phone number, but I said, “Who will answer that when everybody’s at the wedding?”

The phone rang. My cousin answered. What was she doing at home an hour before the wedding? Feeling something was totally off, I passed my phone to Papa.

We found out we were 3 days late for the wedding. The couple was already on their honeymoon when we got to the church.

They weren’t able to send the invitation, so the details were given over the phone. Papa jotted down Dec. 4 on his planner which I thought was an odd day for a wedding as it was a Tuesday. I kept asking him about it, but he said that’s the date my cousin gave. (Later we found out she did give that date then corrected it.)

Papa began to feel bad about it. He couldn’t imagine how he made that mistake. He also started to blame me – why I didn’t make sure about the date. That didn’t stick though since I never talked to my cousin.

I WAS IMAGING WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE IF THIS HAD HAPPENED TO SOME OF MY MARRIED FRIENDS. It would probably be the declaration of World War 3. The wasted trip, the wasted effort of dressing up and the blame game would have triggered a big fight. (Rejoice all you solo parents out there! This is our one big advantage.)

But by God’s grace we were given joyful hearts and some blessings.

We began to find the mix-up funny and laughed about it.  

We decided not to waste the trip and go somewhere to eat. I wanted to eat in Pancake House and thought there was one along Macapagal Ave. But George saw their branch on Harbour Square. As we enjoyed our pancakes and tacos, we were treated to a spectacular view of Manila Bay behind the Yacht Club.

What do you do when you’re dressed to the nines, all dolled up and you have no wedding to go to? Take pictures of course. I got some fabulous shots with my phone camera.

Instead of the blame game, we played the gratitude game:

• It’s a good thing I only had time for a pedicure. I was saved from a pricey manicure.
• Papa decided not to buy a new suit and just had his old one dry-cleaned. He was happier missing the wedding in his old suit. 
• Since we had no wedding to go to, we had the time to get the car back-up sensor fixed.

Happy tip: Knock some happiness into a bad situation by focusing on the good things. Consciously look for the blessings and the things that suck the joy out of your day will get punched out of the ring. 

How to Rebuild Your Self-Esteem After A Rejection

When I was interviewing different types of solo parents for my book, one fact became glaring: the pain is more intense when the spouse has passed on to another house (sumakabilang bahay) than if he had passed on to another life (sumakabilang buhay). The rejection and the blow to the ego caused by abandonment or infidelity magnifies the pain of losing a partner. This is also true for single moms whose boyfriends just left them high and dry after getting them pregnant.

All my interviewees went through despair and grief but for those who experienced betrayal, these were compounded by feelings of anger and insignificance. Being dumped for somebody else or being abandoned crushed their self-image. 

If you’re a solo parent and a member of Tropang Rejected, how do you rebuild your self-esteem?

Repurpose and Re-Purpose Your Life

A crisis teaches us many life lessons. This lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has blessed me with a mindset shift that I believe will also help you feel your worth anew. I discovered how to repurpose and re-purpose. 

Repurpose means to adapt for use in a different way other than what it was originally intended for. For instance, we found new uses for the rooms in our house because of the community quarantine:

1. Living room to prayer room where we hear mass and pray the Angelus and family rosary daily
2. Guest room to personal space for yoga, Zumba, workout and Muay Thai practice
3. Boys’ room to family gym

Re with a dash (Re-) means once more, afresh, anew. Re-purpose then would mean finding new motivation or refreshing your purpose. I couldn’t find “Re-purpose” in the dictionary in this form, but it took on this meaning for me when I found renewed impetus for writing, painting and even cooking/baking. These were things that I love to do that have been shelved for an awfully long time. The lockdown gave me the chance to refresh these interests and revitalized my life’s purpose.   

Repurposing and re-purposing your life will revive your sense of significance. It will give your battered ego and feelings a much-needed boost when you find new use for your life that some cad did not think was worth treasuring. In adapting your old life to your new normal of living without a partner, you will find unknown strengths, become more adept with old skills, and discover hidden talents.

Here are some questions that might help in your rediscovery journey:

·        1. What did you love to do that you had to give up because you became a wife and/or a mother?

·        2. What new thing would you like to learn now that you don’t have a husband or partner to hold you back?

·        3. What are you doing now or what do you have that you can repurpose to help others? For this, let me use as examples a couple of heroic Feasters who had something that they repurposed for the good of people in need. They are not members of the Tropang Rejected, just to be clear.

o   My friend from our Marian Pilgrimage group, Geraldine Maquinay, repurposed her canteen concession and catering business to feed the poor and hungry who were not receiving relief during the lockdown.

o   One of our worship leaders at The Feast, Mikey Cas (not a solo parent), repurposed his car into a shuttle for frontliners at the height of the quarantine.  

What can rebuild your self-esteem better than doing something you are good at? What can improve your self-image better than being able to accomplish something new? What can give you a greater sense of significance than being of service to others?

Are you feeling useless like these objects? Like these repurposed things you can make something beautiful out of a person that has been rejected.

Are you an unused gift mug gathering dust in storage? 

Repurpose yourself into a vase to hold beautiful flowers.

Are you a discarded bra padding? 

Reinvent yourself into a glitzy face mask.

Are you an old shirt tossed into the giveaway pile after giving the best years of your life? 

Redesign yourself into a sexy and sassy gym top.

Photo from Pinterest

Don’t let rejection make you feel insignificant and unwanted. In one of his homilies, Fr. Dave Concepcion said, “No one can make you feel miserable without your permission.” Let me add to that: “No one can make you feel worthless after you have given your life a new purpose.”

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

A Mother’s Day Tribute to Fellow Hero Independent Parents

God Created a NaTay…

…Out of a broken heart and a tear.

One shoulder He forged from steel,

for her children alone she will bear.

The other He made of soft down

for when they need comfort and care.

One hand He crafted to bring home

the bacon, the bread, and the butter.

While at the same time, the other

keeps her house cleaner and brighter.

God used the breaks to expand her heart,

made more room to love and grow wiser.

Faith and patience, courage and cheer

     – blooms that sprung from her every tear.

 God created a hero out of a broken heart and a tear.

Reset Your Life

“New wine must be poured into new wineskins.” – Luke 5:38

Blogging/writing is something I enjoy doing. It is also my small way of giving back the glory to God for all His blessings. But these past few years, it has taken a back seat to other interests. I only blog diligently to journal my travels abroad.

Day 21 of QuaRetreat, Bro Arun and Sis Lallaine Gogna’s nightly quarantine retreat on FB Live, gave me something to think about. These are the things they said that pricked my sleeping passion:

“When your gadget is not working properly, you reset it so it will function very well. In this lockdown, the Lord is resetting the world, even us. Do you know what it is the Lord is changing in you? There’s something there that you don’t see. When this lockdown happened, you saw it in a different angle. The Lord is changing us. The Lord is showing us something we need to reset.”

Bro Arun added this prayer: “I pray you say yes to God and press the reset button.”

That talk stirred the waters. I thought about my blogs. I have 3 – My B.A.G. of Miracles, Happy Faith and Happy Fit & Fab. The first two were unfocused and I somehow “lost” them. (Read more about that in Start Here of this blog.) Days after that fateful talk, I began to research, to refocus, to redesign and more importantly to repurpose my blogs. As I did these, excitement to write again gripped me. The clearer focus for each blog filled my head to overflowing with ideas of the things I wanted to write about. These are the new directions my blogs will be taking:

•         Happy Solo Faith will be dedicated to solo parents. I performed surgery on my old blogs to cut out its heart for solo parents and transplanted it here. My aim is to make it a survival guide for them.

Hero Independent Parents 2019 Retreat 

(Photo from HIP FB page)

•         Happy Feet & Travel B.A.G. is a new blog that will be launched very soon. It will be dedicated to travel, what else 😊 This was a segment of my old blogs and given its own home. It will feature more than my previous travel logs. This is exciting me no end. How excited? I’m writing a blog post and already ideas for two or three more articles are already knocking...no make that pounding…on the door. That excited!

Marian Pilgrimage 2019 

•         Happy Fit & Fab has always been clearly focused on fitness but this lockdown prompted me to make the focus more defined and reboot it into a fitness and fabness blog for people over fifty. (So, when I reach that age, I’ll know what to do hahaha)

Sun Warrior with Walis for the creative yogi under lockdown

There Lord, I’ve pressed the reset button.

I’m passing on Bro Arun’s question to those reading this blog especially solo parents who feel lost and afraid: What is the Lord asking you to reset in this COVID-19 lockdown? 

RESURRECTED

Happy Easter!!!!!!

Notice the proliferation of exclamation points? It’s because I’ve never been so excited to write my reflection for today. How excited? On Sunday pandemic mornings, I have the luxury of not rushing out of bed to go to mass or to The Feast because I can catch them online…in my house clothes…without makeup. But here I am, at 6:26 a.m., writing.

I’ve been writing reflections for Didache for years. My three blogs are filled with reflections. So, what makes today different that my emotion is moved almost to the point of tears? I don’t know. Maybe God gave me such a powerful insight that I can’t contain it. The message is actually age-old, something that we have been told over and over again. It’s probably the experience set in this crisis that moved me. Or maybe it’s the different way God led me to present the reflection that is so exciting. It’s been done before, but it’s a novel experience for me.

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”  - Psalm 118:17

In my last blog, Rescued, I mentioned I was going to make, as my reflection activity, two paintings – the Rescued Sunflower and the Resurrected Sunflower. I posted a picture of the first painting. It’s been yearsss since I last held a brush, so I wasn’t too happy with it. But I was grateful for the love and appreciation showed by friends for the little my talent could produce.

I was more eager to make the second painting because I already had a design which I liked. It’s from an oil painting I made in 1994 that has been condemned to the darkness of our bodega. Even if the canvas I used was recycled from another painting that I wasn’t happy with, I still wanted to frame it because it came out well. (Note: it’s not my design, I interpreted it from a picture I saw.) But I never got to apply the finishing touches, so it gathered dirt in storage until it became unframeable. So, the design becomes resurrection number 2. Number 1 is the paper of a painting of lilies that wasn’t good enough. It was recycled for the sunflower paintings.

Halfway through making the Resurrected Sunflower, I realized the Rescued Sunflower did not match it in scale, style and quality. I decided to make another version. Back to my art supplies I went. I was lucky to find a paper sculpture I was working on and, again, never got to finish. I used half for version 2. Then I felt the other half still looked promising enough to finish. Resurrections 3 and 4.

So, here’s my Resurrection reflection in pictures.

Our God is a God of second chances. In Him is our hope! 

Rescued!

“Create something that will depict your resurrection when you finally embrace your cross.” That was the reflection activity Mike Viñas asked us to do for this morning’s Holy Week Retreat of the Light of Jesus Family. When he added, “You can draw, paint, watercolor…” I immediately thought of what I was really planning to do after the retreat – make a watercolor painting of sunflowers for my kitchen to accent its yellow theme.

Last night, I had already rummaged through my arts supplies drawer to look for watercolor pencils, brushes and watercolor paper to recycle (in a lockdown, you make do with what you have). They  were ready on my bedside table. But, how do I connect sunflowers to the resurrection? I decided to Google “rescued sunflowers”. It’s a stretch, but who knows what I might find. Surprise, surprise! There was a video on a rescued sunflower. A garden enthusiast showed how she rescued the seeds of her dried-up sunflower from being eaten by ants. That’s the inspiration I was looking for. I decided to create two paintings – one that will depict sunflowers in their dying stage that yielded seeds and another of bright and happy sunflowers in full bloom that “resurrected” from those seeds. I’m almost done with the first painting. I hope to finish the other one tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I paint like a person who likes to sing, knows the lyrics but doesn’t quite know the tune, so don’t expect a Van Gogh.

Reflection: Accept your cross and the reality that there are things you can’t control much like the cycle a sunflower goes through. Trust that the Divine Gardener is always there to nurture you and, in due season, will make the seeds  within you resurrect into a beautiful blossom.

Whine or Win (Faith edition)

#QuaresmaQuarantine

It’s Week 2! We have survived the lockdown for a whole week!

I’m the kind of person who can stay home and not go bananas, nope, not even get the tiniest bit bored. There are so many things I must do at home, I thought the quarantine would be a breeze, a time to get more things done. But I didn’t figure fear would upset my peace.

Panic.

I had prepared for the lockdown as best I could. Stocked up on food, medicines and supplies – not hoard, just stocked up more than the usual weekly supply. But when government announcements became scarier and scarier, I caved in and panicked when I realized we didn’t have enough for a total lockdown.

Paranoia.

A lockdown is a time when the slightest health issues scare you to death. Stomachs that disagreed with tacos, dry cough probably from allergies, shortness of breath from climbing the stairs morphed into tentacles of the Veerus Monster pinning us down.

Pressure.

I didn’t realize that beneath the calm, pressure to keep my family safe was building up within me. The dilemma on whether to allow the Block Rosary’s Mama Mary to come to our house drove me to tears and to my knees in prayer. It was a classic faith and fear struggle. My faith wanted Mama Mary’s image with us at this dark time, but I feared the virus might hitch a ride with the people bringing her.

Prayer.

Instead of whining about the situation we are in, God showed me how to win over fear - by retaining a prayer habit, tweaking others and picking up new ones:

• 6:00 a.m. (more or less) - Morning prayer: Guardian Angel prayers, scripture reading, personal rosary (retained)
• 7:30 a.m. – Mass (tweaked - online now instead of in church)
• 6:00 p.m. – Angelus and family rosary (new)
• 9:00 p.m.  – QuaRetreat with Arun & Lallaine Gogna (new)
• Online Sunday Mass and Feast at Home (tweaked)

(By the way, it took just one rosary to ease that pressure about the Block Rosary. The coordinator called and said they weren’t allowed to bring Mama Mary’s image around during the quarantine PALA!)

Prayer makes our world PEACEFUL. Bro Arun and Sis Lallaine shared how this can be done in QuaRetreat:

P – Pray first

E – Evaluate your worry

A – Appreciate what you have

C – Consider the Cross (your cross/pain is your bridge to better days)

E - Embrace your Church family

F- Find someone to help (use #TheFeastsLittleActsOLove to inspire others to help too)

U – Unshaken (continue to trust God)

L – Look forward (to when this crisis will be over)

WIN DON’T WHINE!