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!

Broadcast Uninterrupted

The enemy was at work! He tried to block God’s word, tried to lockdown our faith. It operated under the guise of technical glitches. This was so obvious with the 2 livestreams that I watched:

• Manila Cathedral Sunday Mass

Just a few minutes into the mass, broadcast was interrupted. I felt God wanted us to make this a personal prayer time, so I just waited for the 10:00 a.m.              livestream. 

• The Feast Bellevue AM 
While waiting for the mass, I switched to FBAM livestream. The worship was choppy. The audio was grounded so sound was intermittent. Another problem for me, since I wasn’t able to watch the mass at 8:00, the talk would run into the time of the mass. 

So I prayed:

“Lord, You are God of all including technology. You are bigger than technical aberrations. You will speak directly to our hearts.”

And God’s broadcast came through uninterrupted.

The 10:00 a.m. mass was clear – both the broadcast and the message. The priest said, “Baka kaya hindi kayo makalabas kasi ito yung panahon para kausapin mo si Hesus. Hayaan mong kausapin ka Nya.”

He also asked, “How did you react to the crisis? Did you react with prudence and wisdom? How did the community react to the crisis?”

His message: Hindi tayo kanya-kanya. This is not our calling as people of God. Let us “boast in hope. This hope does not disappoint.” Let the hope of Christ shine like the businesses who provided frontliners with food.

Like I said, our God is also a God of technology. He inspired someone to invent the replay feature. And so, I also got to watch The Feast at Home which streamed at about the same time as the mass. Though the audio was not as good, again the message was crystal: God is in control. He is in Metro Manila and will do more for us than multiplying bread. In this crisis, be a God-pusher. When people see you, they should see God’s face? So, repent you hoarders! Hindi lang kayo ang nangangailangan ng alcohol!

Instead of whining about the quarantine, use your time wisely by reflecting on God’s word this Lent. Go on a QuaRetreat with Bro Arun Gogna every day at 9:00 p.m.

Always remember, we have a big God, bigger than this deadly virus.