Cousins

Ave Maria:-)

As little children belonging to a big clan ... oh my in the olden days when the RH bill and contraceptives, one/2 children families were unheard of.. Filipino families were really BIG in number of children. A couple raising  only 4-5 children would be considered not really that abundantly  blessed with children.. 8 , 9 10 up to a dozen kiddies were norms of the day.

 How did they do it, families of old? Were we much richer as a nation? Not necessarily..( well but yes in terms of natural resources not yet abused and not yet sold to foreigners then yes in that light, we must have been huge on assets.) 

So ...Not richer materially then ..but infinitely WISER and more loving as a people.  And as the final dagger: we simply believed, loved and obeyed our God... as individuals, as families,as a community.. AS A NATION.

On my father's side.. Lolo Ramon and Lola Filomena had 16 children..  I am soooo tempted to ask my late lola the stuff of what her uterus was made ofbut only 12 survived. she was like the female Harrison Ford of the Raiders of the Lost Ark, swashbuckling with matching whip.. what are you a Spanish meztiza for hehe.... prayerful pero matapang, or else how do you discipline twelve little injuns?  Yep...12.

If I am wrong about the number 16, hope my relatives will correct, but this was the story I recall..as for the 12 ..of that we have birth certificates as proof.

that is as far as Ramon and Filomena are concerned... but both of them also belonged to big families... so whether we tackle Gaviola or Garces lineage... you'll have dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles reaching up to 4th degree ..and there's no stopping the counting.. so much so that in Ubay, Bohol.. my father's hometown.. the running joke is: Before you get married , be sure that person is not your blood relative. On my mother's side.. they were only 3 siblings.. but I'll still have lots of cousins , 2nd degree..3rd degree....

This scenario is replicated in many other provinces. It makes us wonder... if they succeeded pretty well in raising loving families, with children actually going to school -- remember how our public school system used to be so top-notch, you'd think the graduates came from colegios by the way they speak good English..and their substantial education... -- then how come in modern times , it is considered catastrophic to father more than one child.?

Those were the times..when families did pray together..the times when at the strike of the church bells, children had to be home for family prayer: the orasyon... the rosary.Families attending Sunday mass together.

the times when it was considered close to a crime to answer back in a raised voice at parents and elders.. Tragically these days.. our youth can't even tell elders from the youth .. consider parents as peers or even beneath them.. these are the times when to be young means to be brazen.. to shoot from the mouth invectives..to talk and let your mouth foam with the craziest- ever ideas.. without thinking first. Nakaka-iyak talaga.. it is not happening on a case-to-case basis.. for you will hear of stories where even among Christian families .. supposed Christians...  active in church.. that they suffer from this bondage. Heartbreaking but true. It is like a disease this spirit of rebellion and disobedience..as tho' Cain of the Old Testament rising from the grave again.

If I was a sociologist  or scientist.. would perhaps conduct a study from whence all these anger and nonsense comes from. I am so tempted to name computer internet games..those of the vicious, violent kind as steady brainwashers to their client gameplayers. How powerful these games are..the seed of anger, violence, automatic vendetta planted firmly strategically not just in the mind..but worse in the heart... in the gut.

then too of course the decline of faith and family life..what a killer.

and no matter if we send our children to the most expensive schools and they land the most high-paying jobs but if we are not able to impart Christ.. to really help our children develop a personal relationship with Him.. to be affected, influenced, inspired by Him.. and eventually live their life for Him... then all other things we give our children have no worth.No lasting, valuable worth...  For this we need an enduring spirit, and Christ's love in our heart... it is not easy and many times will require such sacrifice... but love...Christ's love prevails. 

In our youth we would love the summers... when we could have reunions.. for those coming from Luzon..this would be tantamount to landing in Mars.. becoz..it all looks, sounds..feels new... you hear the Visayan dialect.. get immersed in the culture.. was blest to taste both Leyte (Mama's province) and Bohol ( my father's) .. you see your relatives in the flesh.. play with them..learn from them.. you are restored and affirmed..strengthened as a person.. becoz it eerily feels like : you are -- say a doll... and there's more from where you came from... so maybe you speak differently, shaped differently but the common love binds you and makes you one. I would return to Manila after these summers feeling  invincible... as an only child then.. I thought to myself..I may be alone but I am not alone. Up to this time.. even if my family is far away... even if my sister and brother are in far-away Sucat... even if dear cousins are in the Visayas or abroad .. I am strengthened , restored confirmed by the knowledge of love and acceptance. This is what keeps us all going.. this and most important.. most essential.. the knowledge that you love each other this way because it is not plain blood ties that unite you... it is more then blood.. it is our common faith.. it is the the common hunger for Christ and the impelling desire to help build His kingdom... to show others the way to be a true member of this unshakeable kingdom.

My cousins have all grown up.... am so proud of them all. We've all gone thru the " gotta -find-myself... let me try this..., I'll bum around .. I wanna be wild... I'll go monastic... I'll fall in and out of love as many times as I want to.. I 'll be a mom.. I'll be a dad ..oopsss , yikes ang hirap pala.... I'll  migrate.. I'll go home (this must be Bluebird, Boting and Bernard, back to Bohol). I'll study hard ..be a professional 

and then I'll strike it rich.. so rich you won't recognize me anymore (huy..wag naman)  

The boys back then especially when they were teens and young adults had so much bravado.. mga frustrated Steve McQueen, Bruce Lee/ Bruce Willis all-in-one. Pa macho and all.. drinking too their cares away..as tho' this was the answer to their woes and confusion. The women.. moi included mostly prefered the long, hard route of love.... what started as fluffy, vain... self-centred women learned to become long-suffering , wise wives ... enduring, awesome  mothers ... let's see... we didn't think we had it in us... hahaha.. lahat ng ayaw nating gawin..pinagawa ni Lord.. at paulit-ulit pa lol... the men are older... have learned their lessons.. lahat sila the hard way... are more settled.. and many have found their peace and wholeness..their worth in Jesus... work in progress tayong lahat....

Faith is given to us on a golden platter.. even if yours was not a devout Catholic family ..or even if your family was not bible -thumpin folks... as a people as Filipinos --- our faith in Christ  has been offered to us on a Golden Platter. God loves us so much He has chosen to shed the light of faith upon our nation a special way... so special we have many times abused this great privilege. 

"But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." Luke 12:48

Let us be grateful... let us allow ourselves to be washed anew in the Blood of the Lamb who is Jesus Christ .. that His Spirit may lead us to true fulfillment.

to be a doctor..a nurse.. a successful businessman.. a family man, mother... preacher... clerk... all that will be fine for as long as we do it all... to fulfill our calling in the Lord...for if it is not aligned to Jesus.. if what we do makes no sense or does not add up to the mission that Jesus shares with us then we have no success at all.

Figure Jesus singing Every breath I take.. every move you make.... I'll be watchin ' you.

sharing video of a cousin who is now an Augustinian priest, Fr. LaRRY Garces... he didn't know I took the vid, doesn't even know I hear mass there regularly  a 2nd degree cousin who found his calling to be priest.. he had a cancerous tumor growing somewhere in his rib cage couldn't be opearted on.. but was miraculously healed.. many groups prayed over him.. His mother must have prayed hard..Tita Lidon.. twas she who succumbed to brain cancer a few yrs ago.. she must have died peacefully in the arms of her priest son. His homily is about the leper healed by Jesus... wonderful explanation.: http://youtu.be/HvXLfE4Z8hcRequisites to Healing Fr. Larry Garces.

  

Mark 1 :40-45 A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,

"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him, 
"I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.