Who's Coming to Town?

Ave Maria:-) 

I thought I would not sit down today, as there a hundred and one things to do (errands, preparations, chores..sleep lol etc..)

 and e-mail you..but there is too much joy.. it must be shared...I'd be so selfish not to share this.

2011 is almost over... thank God each year ends with Advent peaking to Christmas Day itself. It gives the faithful an opportunity to check one's alignment to  the Lord. The season itself even as we are besieged with the busyness of it all could open the doors for us to actually stop dead in our tracks...:

 Teka muna.. what is happening in my life..what have I been doing..? how have I been affecting..relating to the people both near and close to me.. to people both those I know and those I donot know.. those who could even be on the other side of this planet --- oh yes Swee'pea, our words, thoughts, actions reverberate to the farthest point of the universe.... any good we do blesses creation.. just as any bad... voluntary evil we do also cascades into a deathly waterfall affecting everyone and anything even perhaps the poor termite.... where even the aborigine in a remote island in the Pacific suffers a setback, will not even know what hit him --- iyon pala (but holy cow..) it was our "doing" ... we have acted terribly and this sends off spiritual radiation worse than nuclear bombs can give. Yah so you think , my description is too epic. Really it isn't ..and one blessed day.. we will UNDERSTaND IT ALL...all of it... by the grace of God.  

We thought we would not have an opportunity to sing for the annual dawn mass, where each choir in the parish is assigned a slot. In fact all slots were taken.. and we were thinkin'... "Oh , the Lord probably wants us to be quiet and reflective .. have more time for prayer... ok Lord"... ... but at the last minute .. with just a night before the dawn mass we were assigned to serve at.. we recieved instruction to fill up the slot for Dec. 21.... a choir had backed out or sumthin' like that.

Of course we were excited ..at the same time worried too... Who will be available.. who can play for us? who can take time out for work.. who is not out of town.. who isn't sick.. are we prepared... can we study the assigned songs in time? and most of all..who is willing to come at 3:30 a.m. and sing for 2 masses? 

The Lord doesn't want us too be so prepared, so up to it... as this would tempt us to think: "Well gee.. I don't need the Lord...I can figure this out myself." That is eminent  Danger . 

On the other hand when we are faced with situations that get out of hand,  where yes..! we experience  many hits but yikes even more misses.... where we realize  our resources, strength, abilities, knowledge, wisdom , love IS SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH TO MEET THE OCCASION OR NEED.. then this provides us with the golden openning to yell and holler :

 " God .... yahoo....I really, really need some help here.Please come and be quick." 

Our good Bishop ..Bishop  Honesto Ongtioco reminded the faithful to give more importance to Jesus rather than Santa Claus..sounds trite but it's the actual truth.. first he told a funny-sad anecdote of how Jesus and Santa met up and how Santa noticed how incredibly sad Jesus was..."Why are you sad, when you're the Birthday Boy?"

 With Jesus replying:" It seems more know, recognize and recieve you Santa.. rather than know me.  It seems more believe and love you Santa than they would believe and love me. That's the reason why I'm sad." Oh how the Bishop reminded us of the essence of Christmas.. how he made us reflect, ask ourselves  if those who suffered form the recent flash floods in Mindanao could still experience Christmas?   The Bishop then sang a fave carol :"Santa Claus is coming to town"

 and changed it to "Jesus Christ is coming to town."

Because it is sad when children are more knowledgeable about the Santa who brings toys, gifts and goodies rather than this Jesus  who comes to us with gifts of hope, forgiveness of our sins and salvation and love. 

You betcha ..we better watch out..we better not cry.. for if we don't help spread the message and help more realize Of Who Really Has Come to Town... THEN WE'LL BE SO SAD AND DEFEATED BEYOND WORDS... OH... and MOST PROBABLY DEAD TOO.

 ²³For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23  And only Christ has the power to deliver us from sin and all evil.. money and glory can be cool..but they can't give us eternal life, or even a truly good life for that matter ... so don't watch out for Santa... let's watch out  instead--- as our Bishop and many priests  exhort us ....watch out for and only Jesus   Look out for the One Who's Coming to Town and how!

Surely we each have had our share of joys... achievements...as well as  mistakes and sorrows... some too ghastly we could suffer a stroke simply remembering the horridness of our sins.

But in each mass we attend.. as we offer this memorial of what Jesus did for us at Calvary.. as we open our self to the forgiving love of the Father in His Son Jesus Christ.. then Jesus lovingly accepts you and me... warts and all... we are His birthday presents.. and He offers us to God the Father.. not wanting to lose anyone of us. We are forgiven and healed. We become new ! Splendidly new!

He sees us when we're sleeping.. He knows when we're awake.. He knows if we've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.... Surely good ole' Santa doesn't have the powers to do this.. but Jesus Yes... JESUS is the One Who takes good care of us... praise the Lord! 

Here are vids from the dawn mass.... Kordero ng Diyos and the Communion song : In Him ALone

...Him Alone!.............kordero...........have a beautiful Christmas...God bless you all.....te mye