starshadow_rivaulx | Dear St. Anthony...

It was a beautiful installation rite...sweet and simple, if such a thing can be said about Catholic ritual.

I'm talking about the installation of Fr. Cielo Almazan, OFM, as Rector of St. Anthony Shrine in Legarda. A sweet and simple man, whom I first met as the Friar-in-Charge (forgot what his official title was) of the Our Lady of the Angels Seminary in Novaliches. Tita Angie from Greenbelt Chapel introduced us, and my first assignment for him was to provide the voice-over narration of the centennial anniversary of the Franciscan Order in the Philippines.

He was so taken with the results, that I was asked to provide the voice-over narration for the yearly concert of the OLAS seminarians, a musical based on the life of St. Francis. A musical for which he wrote most of the lyrics, mind you. This is the composer of "Lord Here I Am", for your information. Gads, the faith he has in me and my voice to carry the day is almost embarrassing - definitely it's humbling - and all he has to do is call and I'll come running to help, he's that nice a person. I'm glad to see the resident biddies at St. Anthony are pretty much the resident fangirls as well; it bodes well for his future as the Rector.

In any case, when he asked me to be the commentator for the installation Mass, of course I said yes. It was during rehearsal that I discovered that in addition to being a lyricist of no mean skill, he was also a 22-year Bible studies professor. ::blinks:: Whoa. Well, I should have gotten some inkling, given as how he asked me to do a little narrating for one of his Bible studies (I think it was his way to introduce me to the biddies)...but he's pretty much one to hide his light under a bushel basket.

To get back to the installation rites - we had Novo Concertante as the choir, and they were wonderful, as always. Their choirmaster, Arwin, is a fine young gentleman who listens well; unlike some choirmasters that are full of...well, let's not call it the breath of sanctity, and leave it at that. I managed, by God's grace, to do the best I could with a minimum of wobbles, and managed not to dissolve into tears during the responsorial psalm:

I love the Lord, He is filled with compassion
He turned to me, on the day that I called
From the snares of the dark
O Lord, save my life, be my strength
Which reminded me of all the times I cried out to Him in distress, real and imagined, and found Him coming through for me, one way or another.

When the choir sang Fr. Cielo's "Lord Here I Am" after Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales invested him with the keys to the tabernacle, I came all over goose bumps. Nearly all the songs were Franciscan in origin, and when the choir got to "Francis' Dream", I went all over goose bumps once again.

The miming (which was written as "animation" in the script, which sounded so wrong) of the Pondo ng Pinoy theme song "Kahit Isang Kusing" (rough trans: Even Just A Small Coin), was a great hit with everyone. Especially for Cardinal Rosales, for the Pondo ng Pinoy is his pet project.

The basic principle is, twenty-five cents a day, diligently saved, will at month's-end, generate a goodly sum of money for charitable projects. It works, too. It works so well that the Central Bank is complaining that when the churches don't remit the coins on time, it causes a shortage of legal tender in the monetary system. ::huge grin::

In any case, the miming, which came towards the end of the Mass, inspired the Cardinal into the most enthusiastic speech of the entire affair. ::chuckles::

There was a small reception for all the participants, and Ramon and I showed ourselves briefly. I said to Tita Angie and Fr. Cielo that we could only eat and run, since it was past Ramon's bedtime, and I didn't want to tire him out any more than he was. Both of them understood, and so we chowed down on a small amount of barbecue, fried spring roll, sweet and sour fish before paying our respects to Fr. Cielo and the Cardinal one last time.

Got home via Legarda, as smoothly as we had arrived via Roxas Boulevard and Quiapo/Azcarraga. The rain appears to have stopped, which is a good thing. I'm still on an adrenaline high from the excitement of having made it through an important event, and contributing something positive to it. I understand that I am to receive "gas money" via Tita Angie, so all is right with my world - especially since Ramon is now sleeping like a baby.

All I could ask for now is that St. Anthony, that patron of the return of lost things, will join me in praying that our maid, who is a bit clueless about Manila streets but needed to get out to see to some personal matters, will come back tomorrow morning. Can't be bothered to worry about it much tonight, because I need my sleep after all the excitements of today. So I do hope all turns out well.