Do you hear the wind blows? Can you locate the precise source of where it is coming from? Or do you simply follow its course? Greek word for both spirit and wind is pneuma, like pneumonia as a respiratory disease or pneumatic drill for air.
Pope Francis, Fr. John Cordero and Fr. James Martin wisely characterized the presence of the Holy Spirit in the form of spiritual direction and the metaphors they used. The Holy Spirit is a mystery, where we can’t explain the place where the wind comes or goes to. But, it is a direction you can trust.
Some folks are carriers of the Holy Spirit – a young friend of mine is that way. I interviewed her as a freshman at Fordham University and after six months there, her treatise on feminism was so much advanced in seeking sisterhood amongst her friends, but forging solid relationships with her mom, dad and siblings. She found herself a niche, and she helped first with outreach, organizing conferences and later, convening teams to work with fintech companies. How can she have a deep understanding of what’s needed at her age? Granted her parents modeled the examples but her personal instincts made her soar that after her graduation, she already has a job waiting. She is fearless and strategically thinks of how to push her vision, while helping her classmates as well. That to me is the Holy Spirit in her life.
Like Island Pacific Market that saw the community needs and made a website for online orders and contactless delivery. Or the nightly get togethers of folks at 7pm or 8pm banging on pots and pans to say thanks to the frontliners. That’s the Holy Spirit moving us to connect to others, from one warm heart to another, forming a community of harmony.
Photos here of Portugal’s Mary and Child next to a photo of my daughter and granddaughter, and 3 month old grandbaby were by my husband. The love painting is by my favorite beautiful daughter and the praying plant, striated ropeballs of cactuses are from my favorite handsome son, plants, giving off oxygen we need, just like pneuma.
Portugese sculpture of Mama Mary and child Jesus. When I saw this, I could not leave without buying it.My then 3 month old grandbaby, whose joyful spirit was captured by my husband. He would call this as the photographer who caught the emotional peak of the moment.Love painting was created by my beautiful daughter from the hands and feet of her baby, then a year old. To this day, my now 5 yo grandbaby remembers how she imprinted her hands and feet on that canvas. My favorite, handsome son gave me these two cactucesm I love them because you simply soak them overnight and they are good to go for a week. I love this corner as it shows the interplay of dark and light and together, we both need.The praying plant my favorite handsome son gave us. During the day, the leaves relax, some are down but at night, they are all pointing upwards. The wooden Igorot sculptures were carved in the Philippines.
Allow docility to open you for the Holy Spirit to come in, to be born from above is to be born with the strength of the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to transform us, a rebirth from on high.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis noted 3 factors of dividing our communities:
Money – in your Church, a person with the gold ring is ushered and revered, leaving the poor to the sidelines. Poverty is the mother of our community, it guards the community to care for others.
Vanity – the desire to feel better than others, dressing like a peacock and where peacocks appear, there’s division.
Gossip – what the devil puts in our mind to talk badly of others, to disqualify them from the rest.
The presence of the Holy Spirit allows us to guard against money, vanity and gossip that may transform us all to harmony in the community, Pope Francis said.
Hubby made another mask for himself, a more fashionable one. I am lobbying for a fashionable one.Hubby baked this cheese-crusty sourdough bread.Our simple salad last night of yellow mangoes, roasted portobello mushrooms steamed broccolini and sliced Persian cucumbers.
Today’s 1215 livestreamed mass Holy Family Artesia had 259 plus folks plugged in, allow an average of 2 to 3 per device. Mine had me only. Homily of Fr. Joachim described Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who highly respected Jesus, and one who was well-versed in law, had meticulous observance of rituals and truly desired an understanding of his faith.
Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit, a higher realm of life guided by the Holy Spirit – what is inside of us, transformed. It is like being born from above, recognizing how the Spirit moves in our lives, a form of thriving on crisis as Fr. John Cordero described yesterday. Fr. Joachim related a story of an angel who took a woman to the church. There, she saw the choir sang, moved their lips, yet heard no sounds. Same with prayers, she saw the lector’s mouth opened but heard no words. May our prayers have sounds, he said, may the Holy Spirit work in our lives. That’s how I see the recovery cases from #CoronaVirus, much like the nurse in London, senior nurse Alice Borja, whom Linda R., my classmate advocated for all our high school classmates to pray for. We prayed for her fervently and when she left the hospital, the hospital serenaded her with live piano music and a hallway full of colleagues standing to salute her, as she was wheeled out.
Imagine if we rang the bell each time we observe God’s hand in our lives? What would our lives sound like? Would it be a symphony of ascending notes, with enough movements and spaces from the low notes? Would it sound like Bartok’s discordant sounds?
I am observing the post of a friend who is a music conductor, a church choir director. Since the churches have shut their doors, not all are primed for livestreaming. He has resorted to painting and 3 commissioned paintings have been bought. Another relative is an entrepreneur who designed a fashionable mask with refillable filters for 4 months and within hours of launching in Manila, they sold out. When folks use their creative spirits to meet the needs of others, their lives soar, or what others refer to, their wings are spread wide and out to fly up to the heavens.
I wanted a salad buffet so I harvested lettuce from the backyard and added roasted mushrooms, roasted red peppers, roasted tomatoes and roasted potatoes. I paired it with embotido from Titas of Manila and I made adobo fried rice.I made bread pudding from leftover days old brioche adding milk, sugar and eggs.
At dawn, I could not sleep. So, I went to livestreamed mass at the Vatican, as with 12,500 plugged in folks, perhaps more as 2 to 3 per device. Pope Francis’ homily is truly a treasure. He spoke of falling down, like a toddler learning how to walk and the Lord, acts like a father who gives us a hand, the hand that keeps us walking after we fall down. Have you given Him your failures? He wants us to look at Him, He sees us as His children in need of his merciful love, he continued.
Thomas the apostle arrived late yet Jesus waited for him and gave him “intimate closeness,” allowing him to touch His wounds leading to ‘my Lord, my God,’ which became the resurrection of Thomas, the resurrection of the disciple. Like crystals we are fragile, says Pope Francis, the Lord sees through us. Let’s not resort to selfish indifference that if my life is better, I can turn away from those sacrificing and those left behind, discarding the poor in the altar of progress. There’s no difference in us and them. This is the time to heal injustices, inequalities, receive mercy and live with mercy. Just be merciful to everyone and use this to prepare for our collective future, an inclusive future, or there will be no future for anyone. Brilliant homily by Pope Francis!
I attended also 11:30 am mass at Holy Family in Artesia and Fr. John shared how he blessed the streets perimeter around Holy Family not once but twice, later route was with the Holy Eucharist. 893 plus of us were plugged in. Going to mass with over 13,000 folks plugged in gave me such a boost!
Breakfast of lumpiang Shanghai, lumpiang vegetable paired with home grown lettuce and celery juice I made. Lunch of baked potato and home grown avocado
Context:
41 days of social distancing 2, 403, 963 cases in 185 countries/regions 165,154 deaths
US has 759, 467 cases with 40, 677 deaths Spain has 198, 674 cases with 20, 453 deaths So.Korea has 10, 674 cases with 236 deaths Taiwan has 420 cases with 6 deaths
Duc In Altum, latin for ‘Put Out Into The Deep’, the words Jesus said to His apostles after an unsuccessful night of fishing. Hesitant, but obedient, they endeavored to fish and rewarded with multitude of fish, nearly breaking the nets. It is a reminder to us of the fruitfulness of listening and obeying to the voice of the Master.” Source: Duc in Altum Book, Migdal, Israel.
In today’s homily, Fr. Joachim of Holy Family Artesia reflected on the disbelieving disciples, days after seeing the Risen Christ. Are we like them, he asked, “hard of hearts, afraid to get hurt again, pitying ourselves, as it is safer to hide, wallowing in misery? Lord rebuked the hard of hearts and those who did not believe in the Resurrection. Those with faith, no explanation is needed. Those with no faith – no explanation is sufficient. Breathe in instead the air of peace and joy.”
Context: 2, 300, 874 cases with 158,422 deaths in 185 countries. 40 days of social distancing.
US has 718, 185 cases and 37, 730 deaths. We donot have widespread testing due to limited availability of test kits and available only to those with symptoms. Spain has 191, 726 cases and 20, 043 deaths while Italy has 175, 925 cases and 23, 227 deaths. France has 149, 146 cases and 19, 345 deaths.
South Korea has 10, 653 cases and 232 deaths due to sustained testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation of positive cases.
Canada has 33, 628 cases and 1, 359 deaths. Japan experienced a surge in deaths, due to premature opening of their economic activities, overwhelming their health care system. Sweden has a new surge of cases, now at 13, 822 and 1, 511 deaths, as they did not have shelter in place orders.
Source: Statistics from John Hopkins Dashboard, April 18, 2020.
Photos of simple joys – hubby’s olive sourdough bread and adobo. I prepare the salads and do other chores of washing clothes and cleaning the house.
Thus far, we are joking and today I said, “In my next life, when I meet you, I will say, do I know you?”
“I will socially distant myself,” he said and that’s ok.
Folks, we are anxious to be back into the public squares of our lives after 39 days of social distancing: church gatherings, birthday celebrations, coffee with friends, Dodger baseball games, musical concerts, plays in theaters, interviews of subjects in the flesh, not digital; movies, walks in the parks, camping in national parks, travel to places, and dining out in restaurants served by waiters and waitresses and more.
Yet, the Corona Virus pandemic infectious cycle is alive, so alive that it is claiming deaths by the hundreds and thousands. Mayor Eric Garcetti reported a doubling of deaths every 6 days. I am staying home for love of my neighbors and family. I donot wish deaths of any of my loved ones.
It felt good to be heard by God. My High School classmates and I prayed for a senior nurse in London, a friend of one of our classmates. We felt like we won the lotto seeing her video of being serenaded with live piano music and salutes by her colleagues of doctors and nurses. It was inspiring!
Today’s gospel is about the third time Jesus has shown his resurrected self to the apostles, where Peter and the apostles caught 153 fish in the Sea of Galilee, in the fishing village of Capernaum, where Jesus taught in a synagogue in Magdala. This is where Jesus taught, performed miracles and appeared before His apostles, home to Jesus, with bittersweet memories, according to Fr. John Cordero.
The cousins – they love getting together for birthdays.Taken April 16, 2016 with 3 newborn toddlers.Our three handsome family members, cousins who are responsible, productive and serve the common good in hospitals and a non-profit.
He described home, where we build family relationships, a family, that broadens to families in the bigger Church, whose foundation is on faith and focusing on people. Perhaps he said the Lord is asking us to build good memories with our families at home, just like the foundational stones Jesus did in Galilee during this pandemic? We collectively prayed for selflessness, sacrifice, and putting the highest good of others to be imbued on all our public officials. Yesterday, it was the Emmaus walk, a 7 mile to Jerusalem. Three shared a meal, and unknown to them was Jesus. By the time they recognized Jesus, He was gone. How much do we see Jesus in our ordinary lives, asked Fr. Joachim.
Ube pancakes from Ninong’s Cafe. It was so yummy.Pork adobo made by hubby and roasted beets, yams and potatoes I made for the family.
Ava – a breath of new life, the name given to a Coronavirus-born infant by her mom/respiratory therapist who caught the COVID-19 and had caesarean delivery to give her lungs room to breathe. She lived so did her baby infant, born prematurely. That is how I feel today-the 38th day of staying home, feeling my sense of inner peace. I believe in what St. John Paul II said on Jan. 6, 2001: “Duc In Altum, Latin for Put Out Into the Deep,” and he invites us “to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm and to look forward to the future with confidence.”
When I went to Magdala in Migdal Junction in Israel in Feb. 2019, this iswhere frescoes of the first century synagogue were unearthed, dug up and preserved.
But now, I feel it in my heart, in my 38th day of staying home. How was my journey? Like a wave, that ebbs and flows, or like summiting a trail that keeps going up. I worried about my family members, especially missing my granddaughter so much and her joyful presence, my friends, my relatives, my cleaning lady, my gardener that I kept crying.
I kept attending the livestreamed mass and took delight that Easter Sunday livestreamed Mass Holy Family Artesia was viewed by 12,000. Fr. John Cordero reported in his Regina Coeli broadcast yesterday that previous year’s Sunday Easter collection was around $50,000 to $60,000 and giving online during this CoronaVirus Easter week was $34, 401. Paraphrasing what he said, we feed off your generosity, love, and support. We feel like we are shouting in the dark. But, we receive the echoes from our shouts in the dark. We see your support in keeping the church alive, in how you care and support us and our parishioners.
How loving and appreciative is that!!
I spent yesterday listening all afternoon to DNA, the new CD of Mon David and Josh Nelson and the live concert of Michael Paulo. It inoculated me to live beyond this pandemic, to reach Lake Biernz in Switzerland and to travel with adventurous classmates. I started dreaming for a playdate with @nikkidoodledo‘s genius 3yo twins who love smoothies, outdoors, pasta making, making cookies, playing with bedbugs, and blades of grass, even noticing that pine trees are dancing and raring to draw an embryo, as he woke up. Mom captures these priceless vibrant moments!!
Hubby the philosopher, mountain climber, gardener, juicer of vegetables and fruits, writer, also sewed his own mask using his tie.
Yesterday, my favorite beautiful daughter stopped by with her daughter, both in masked, socially distancing. I noticed my granddaughter is now riding her bike, without training wheels. Hooray for that! I told her how much I missed playing with her. She said, ” I do too, Grandma.” She paused. Then, asked ” Grandma, why is your voice hoarse?” “Ah yes,” I said, “but it will clear up soon, okay?” Hosh, how caring she is!
