visible rhetoric

Last week, our BEC Team I, composed of volunteer parishioners and catechists, went to Tubungan for a “field trip”. First we went to the parish center where the Parish Pastoral Council of Tubungan gave us a brief but comprehensive background on how they run the parish. They shared with us their experiences and methods, their insights and discoveries as they go about establishing Basic Ecclesial Communities in their barangays. Knowing Msgr. Oso and his life-long obsession (if I may be permitted to call it as such) in alleviating the plight of the poorest of the poor in the Archdiocese being the head of its Social Action Office (JASAC), we were curious especially on how he managed their social apostolate. Well I can say, I was overwhelmed and in the weeks and months to come we can also come up with something similar or something inspired by that enriching interaction with the parish pastoral council of Tubungan. They had, for example, surveyed their parish and have identified the p...

If all goes well according to plan I would be officially replaced as Chairperson of the Commission on Liturgy of the Archdiocese this month of June after almost ten years serving in that capacity. In fact I have been involved in the Liturgy since I was allowed by the seminary to wear the sautana in 1983! In all those years my world revolved around the correct and proper worship of God – what is to be done, where it can be done, how it is done, and why it is done. Liturgy has always been in reality among priests (and lay enthusiasts too) an interesting subject, too interesting in fact it instigated the first murder ever mentioned in the bible – the murder of Abel by Cain over the question who has given better worship to God. I have been called among other things to resolve quarrels among the lay who in their overwhelming zeal to do the right thing before God, made quite a scene during the offertory of the mass, because one would not allow the other, who was equally insistent, to br...

We celebrated last May 26, albeit without much fanfare, the anniversary of the Dedication of the Jaro Cathedral. Since it is a cathedral it is not just celebrated as a Solemnity in the Cathedral itself (in the liturgical yardstick that’s equivalent to the Jaro Fiesta) but also as a feast in all the parishes of the Archdiocese of Jaro. On that day the 12 candlesticks on the walls of the cathedral were all lighted up signifying the solemnity of the occasion and the high festivity of the celebration. In the liturgy, the more candles we light, the more festive is the occasion, and in the occasion of the Anniversary of the Dedication it’s not just four or six but twelve candles plus the six candles beside the altar. The Cathedral of Jaro represents the people of God not just in the parish of Jaro but even so of the whole archdiocese, since this is a catheral where the cathedra (the Latin word for seat or chair) of the Archbishop of Jaro is. (If you are facing the altar you won’t miss i...

This is one week wherein I felt more like a mortician rather than a priest. There are just too many dead to attend to. And when I thought Wednesday would be a day of rest from these “deadly” concerns, a last minute reshuffling of the schedules assigned me to a funeral mass on that day too. So now I will be completing a whole week with a funeral from Monday to Saturday. Fr. Ralph Siendo once called me an AE, not Alejandro Esperancilla but the Archdiocesan Embalmer. The moniker started when I was assigned to dress up Archbishop Piamonte when he died years back. They reasoned then that since I was the Master of Ceremonies in-charge of directing the liturgical celebrations presided over by the bishop and since I dressed him up for mass when he was yet alive, then logically I have to do it also when he died. It was a logical proposition and fired up by my loyalty and love for the bishop (which a young and idealistic priest is always full of) I did dress him up in full regalia mysel...

Now the circus has finally left town. Thank God! It’s time to take away all those election campaign paraphernalia, recycle them or throw them to the garbage bin. I hope the winning and losing candidates (if indeed they care for the city’s wellbeing as they said they were during the campaign) would help restore cleanliness to the city by taking away these eyesores.