Holy Week Online Retreat

"Kapag nandiyan, hindi pinapansin. Kapag nawala na, at tsaka hinahanap."

True enough, I have been longing and missing how we Filipinos celebrate and practice our Holy Week back in Manila. It is the 4th time we're spending Holy Week here in Sydney and like Christmas, you still can't feel it's already Holy Week.

Back in Manila, I had retreats and prayer sessions (c/o Ateneo Grade School). It was not so hard to confess because there were many opportunities to confess. You feel good doing the practices because everyone in the community is doing it.

Good thing I chanced upon the website of the Philippine Jesuits and for the third year, hubby and I will be doing their on-line retreat. Looking forward to doing it starting tomorrow.

Our family has also been spending family prayer time every 8pm since Monday. No TVs, no tablets, no laptops. Everyone is gathered in front of the altar and we say our prayers. Liam starts our family prayers. Feels good. :)

I know that my family will be away for the holidays but we will make sure to still attend the church services while on holidays. I hope that my children will grow up realizing the value of celebrating Easter. More than Christmas, I think it is the highlight of being Christians because without Easter we would not have been delivered and saved from the sins we have committed. We would not be enjoying what we have now.

Makes me and hubby realize that aside from Christmas, maybe we should also let our children experience Holy Week in the Philippines. Hopefully, it will also help them deepen their understanding about their faith.

Happy Easter everyone!

Working Holy Week

It is actually not my first time to spend Holy Week here in Sydney. But last year, I was still too excited to see the differences on how we celebrate back in Manila since we just arrived here. Of course, there were the more obvious differences like people here are not so "in to in" like we Filipinos are. They don't have the "pabasa", a Filipino tradition where the elderly usually recall the Passion of the Christ by singing it from start to finish, continuously. They also don't have the Way of the Cross that goes around the entire neighborhood or community. They don't have Visita Iglesia. They don't have Pinetensya, where people with masked faces hit their backs with wooden sticks until they bleed as a sign of them asking for forgiveness.

This year was a bit different for me. For one, I didn't expect that I would be having a working holy week. As what I have posted in the FB status, I am not at all used to working during the holy week, but I am not complaining that I am. After all, these casual works are still His blessings. It was bit tiring. But more than that I was actually missing the practices that we had back in Manila. Then it made think, this set-up, working during holy week, is actually a good way to show what your priorities are. In Manila, you didn't have any choice because everyone is in Holy weeek mode. Everyone is quiet, reflecting, praying. You can't go out to the malls because most often than not, it will be closed. But here, you have all the reason to miss out on those activities because this is only one of the very few long weekends that you get to enjoy here (unlike in Manila, where there is a humngous amount of long weekends!). So people here, really grab that opportunity to go out and travel or unwind. I made me think that you can actually easily go with the flow if you don't have Him as a priority.

I don't want to sound like a self-righteous person but I believe that Holy Week is not something you spend on travels or parties. I believe that each one of us should allot a special time this week to reflect and to pray. This is just once a year! As I've said, I can't blame the people here.

Now, I got a little off track there, but going back, I was surprised to see myself working from Holy Tuesday to Holy Thursday knowing that in the past, I used to spend those days in Church already. Oh well, things change. It was a good thing though that even if I was working, I was still able to do some reflection through the student presentations that I witnessed in St. Andrew's Primary School in Marayong. Just watching the kids and listening to the songs really gave me goosebumps.

My holy week is still not done but work is. I am relieved. I am thankful and I pretty sure, sooner or later I'll get used to working during the Holy Week.