I am presently doing my Certficate of Religious Education here in Sydney. It is a two year course and hopefully, after I am done with it, I will get to have a permanent full-time job as a Primary School Teacher.
For this week's session, we were asked to read three readings and of course reflect on some of the topics listed. I was actually inspired to write that I decided to share my reflection. This is basically what I'll be presenting but my final report will still be based on our meeting next week.
So, here it is:
The Holy Spirit is indeed God working within us. As Donal Dorr puts it in writing “the Holy Spirit is the God who works secretly in the human heart and who inspires and touches the deepest parts of the human spirit.” Five channels were briefly discussed in the reading materials among which are the web of life and angels.
I am a big fan of angels, not only when I was a kid but even up to now that I am a grown-up. It also helped that back in Ateneo, we used to celebrate our annual fair during the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. It is an annual event that was looked forward to not only by students, but by parents and teachers as well. It dates back to that tragic event when the kids were believed to have been saved by their guardian angels from a big fire in the old school site. I am a fan because I believe that in my everyday journey, I get to experience being touched by an angel or angels for that matter, be it in small or big ways.
A new acquaintance telling me tips on how to be a better casual teacher on my very first casual teaching job here in Australia was an angel. The teacher who gave me the bookstore where I can purchase books or materials that I can use when I do my casual teaching was another angel. The partner teacher who made sure I was on the right track right after she learned that I was new in school and in Australia. A new acquaintance helping me get more casual teaching jobs is another. The childcare who accepts casual childcare when I have a casual teaching call is another. They are the newest angels in my life. Of course, there are a lot of angels in my life sometimes I don’t get to realize it until after my encounter with them.
My son who constantly inspires me especially in difficult times will be my angel forever. My husband, who is afraid of doctors and hospitals, for some weird reason, convinced me to go to the hospital that night, 3 weeks after giving birth, was my saving angel. If not for his persistence, I may not be writing this presentation. I had hemorrhagic fever and I was already bleeding inside. My platelet was down to 50 when the normal range should be between 170 to 240. My students, who affirmed my decision to change my course back in college, will be my angels forever. My brother who welcomed my family into their home, provided for our needs, free of any charge, for the first nine months of stay here in Australia, is another angel. People who continue to pray for us even if we don’t ask, are of course angels in our lives!
When I was much younger I thought I needed to have an extraordinary experience for me to say that I have been touched by an angel. That I needed to see an image of a winged creature all dressed in white just like what we see in the movies or in the cartoons. I did once, when I was younger, and it convinced me that they do exist and they really guard you and protect you. There are a lot of guardian angel encounters but to see an angel in each person that I meet was brought about by a poem in a card that was given to me by one of my best buddies in college. Let me share it with you.
There have been angels in my life.
While they haven't arrived with a blast of trumpets
or a rustle of wings,
I've known them just the same.
They performed their acts in human guise,
sometimes borrowing the faces of family and friends,
sometimes posing as well-meaning strangers.
You have known them, too,
when just the right word was needed,
when a tiny act of kindness made a great difference...
Or perhaps you heard a voice
whispering in the night of sorrow,
the words not quite clear
but the meaning unmistakable..."There is hope... There is hope."
