Happy Father's Day!

O God, You have given me the name of Father;
You have given me Your own name.
Help me to be true to it.
- taken from “A Father’s Prayer”

They have dedicated all their lives to the betterment of us, their children, guiding us and encouraging us to do good. They never ran out of good and sound advices to give and are always tireless in their effort to help those in need. They work everyday, especially on Sundays, to make sure that we have a place to gather around for a special meal.Inspite of all they have done, a lot of them are hurting and misunderstood. Whenever they commit a mistake, whether miniscule or major, by accident or wrong choice, we always try to prejudicially magnify it against them. We easily label them as unfit, undeserving or out of place. Criticism, gossips and disobedience are but few unpleasant rewards they receive from loving us.
Today is Father’s Day. And though the first thing that pops into our head are the heroes of our family lives, there are the other “fathers” worth remembering and honoring on this day as well.

They are our priest, our religious formators and counselors.
They are our spiritual fathers tasked by God to lead and give direction to our lives.
I have been blessed to have such inspiring fathers in my life.
I would like to honor them now.

Monsignor Andy Valera started the Knights of the Altar for the Parish of the Immaculate Conception when I was still in grade school where I was one of those proud pioneer wearing our red and white clothes during our investiture. I remember when we have our KoA meeting in your room with only a single bed, a table and an empty refrigerator with drinking water. Your simplicity and dedication to God’s service were actually the first seeds of my young vocation to be a priest also. Well, God did have another purpose for me after all, because I am now happily married. But the mustard seed of desire to serve never wavered and continues to grow nevertheless.

Fr. Esteng Mendoza was our seminary spiritual director (now a religious monk) during the short 3 years I have stayed inside. He was always the seminarian’s choice to be assisted with during barrio masses because there will always be an extra treat along the way – sweet cakes or bread, or even balut (a unique Filipino delicacy of duck-embryo boiled inside the egg). For those living “outside”, this would amount to nothing but to us insiders used to eating tuyo, pork maling and any mixed food viand (“experiment” is a more appropriate term) day in and day out, any sweet goodie can make us drool. But more than his kindness to us, he has helped us to develop a very good sense and positive attitude towards the sacrament of Penance which he imparted to us in every given opportunity. We felt comfortable (sometimes too comfortable for our own good) doing it knowing that our confessor is a kind and re-assuring personification of God. So even though I felt that he did not support my return for the 4th year, I now know that he was God’s instrument in letting me know that I was not meant to be one of His chosens one for this particular vocation.

Fr. Godofredo Atienza is our Salesian family-friend who epitomizes the Bosconian anthem of simplicity and loving the poor children. He was our priest celebrant and one of our god-parents of our wedding in the Basilica Minor of San Lorenzo Ruiz in Binondo. His mild-manner yet witty remarks and deep-knowledge can really bring out the thoughts inside us. He is the rector of Salesian seminary in Cebu and also heads the Salesian house catering to the poor youth by sending them to vocational schools, training them and educating them. One of our unforgettable moment with him was when he visited their Salesian office in Hongkong and he invited us to visit it at the same time. My wife, who was then a few months pregnant with our Maia, have to walk through a lot of elevated streets and footbridges looking for their place and yet she felt little tiredness. Fr. Godo, patiently waited for us before saying his mass with 3 participants – me, my wife and Zek. Yes, it was an exclusive Eucharistic mass for my family. We felt so blessed.

Fr. J. Orbos is my spiritual and virtual father whom I have not met and yet made a big impact in my nourishing my spiritual life. His weekly Sunday writings – Moments, has consistently been one of my favorite articles for reading. He always starts with a humor story or quote and expound deeply into the Sunday gospel reading and its messages, oftentimes exhorting his readers to seize each “moment” to follow God and to do good to every fellow man.

Fr. Mike Paez is the first and present parish priest of our Holy Spirit Parish which he helped to establish and improve through the years. He finished his BSChe and had a working experience before responding to the call of priesthood. He is also one of the spiritual advisers of our Maia Foundation. Fr. Ric Eguia is a parish priest in Marikina who I met in the internet (and almost met personally in Shenzhen China if not for the poor schedule of their tour guides). His inspiration to pusue priesthood came after finishing his BSEE degree in college (we have the same alma mater) and also working for some time. He is my consultant about Church matters and faith that are unclear to me. Fr. Oliver “Tegs” Ortega is our lone batch-mate who has successfully become a priest. I just recently have made contact with him after many years. He is now California-based. Fr. Gboi is another kind-hearted priest belonging to the senior seminarians during my short stint. Then there was Father Nas whose worse case of Parkinson’s never deterred him from saying mass. Fr/s. Narciso Sampana, Danny Bermudo and other seminary priests. Fr. Adams who is our regular guest-priest in the Sunday Eucharistic celebrations in Shekou China, was the first priest to offer not only his sincere condolences but his intimate reflection of death as well during the painful loss of our daughter a few months ago.

And lastly, I can never forget the father of all our fathers – our Blessed Pope John Paul II whose powerful and awesome presence during the World Youth Day 95 in Manila will always be one of the highlights of my Catholic life. Seeing his frail and old body, swirling his cane joyfully in the air during the praise-fest is a very humble candidness of him to show and make-believers among the youth that he is one in spirit and mind with the young generation of the faithful. Now succeeded by Pope Benedict 16th, he was the most traveled and arguably the most loved pope of his time for his huge effort to seek out others and make peace with those who were in conflict with the church before.

Let us pray for all our “fathers” that they may remain faithful to their vocation in the service of God and for the good of all.

Happy Father’s Day to all our Priests.

One Proud Homeschooling Parent

[Sis Jo Echon is a good family friend we met in China in one of our Filipino gatherings there. Since then she has become our motivator and inspiration to homeschool our son. Now, whether we will succeed and be blessed with our own plans remains to be seen, her life testimony about homeschooling simply overwhelms whatever apprehensions we are having about this. Congratulations to Jopoy and his siblings and to Bro. Sani and Sis Jo for their love and dedication to each other. Please read on and be inspired.]


My Dear Relatives and Friends,

I'm now the happiest Mom on earth. My son Jopoy passed the Accreditation and Equivalency Test! Out of 97,756 only 22,430 passed the test nationwide and he's one of them. Great! It means, he is accelerated and don't have to go through all level of high school formally and he can now go straight to college. Whew no sweat! the beauty of homeschool he he Grabe laki ng savings ng Daddy! ha ha ha.

I consider this a major feat of our homeschool journey. I only enrolled him on his 1st yr in San Juan de Letran Home Study Program and the next 2 yrs bravely, we go independent. It means i didn't enrol him but still keeps on homeschooling him. I borrowed old books from friends and relatives. And not only high school books but even college materials. He told me that he wanted to take up Culinary or IT in college so i bought books in that fields so that he may have the "feel" if he really is into that courses. Since we are homeschool the world is our classroom. They are not bounded by curriculum that we are using but by anything that they put their interest into.

If you can only read my thoughts the last 2 days i was singing a different tune. I was so depress and thinking deeply about our homeschooling. You know, in regular school, when school year is over everyone is in vacation mood. But in homeschool, it's an ideal time to fill in all the learning gaps. So I gave Jopoy and Shan a diagnostic test to find out their learning gaps. The result didn't please me. I end up re assessing our choices. Is homeschooling really for our family? Are we bringing out the best in our children through homeschooling? Are we not depriving them of anything that they should be enjoying as children? Are they learning the things that they needed to be learn? Are we teaching and modelling them the christian values that are expected from homeschool families? Are we molding our children the way God wants us to be? A lot of questions flooded my mind that i cannot answer logically because i am involve. I prayed so hard. I had an intimate spiritual experience with God for 2 days. I ask Him to refresh me, comfort me, show me His ways, to tell me if this is still His plan for our family. I was reminded that homeschooling is the product of our ardent prayer to God when we ask Him to allow us to spend more time with Sani while he's abroad. When we get to know the principle of homeschooling we realize that it embodied our values as family. As i ask God to give me a grace of discernment to know His will for our family, He answered my prayers with a big bang! Last night my sister e-mailed me the web site to access the result of Jopoy's test which was taken last Oct. At almost midnight we are in jubilation. God in a very special way reassured me that He is still leading us to homeschool our children.

I know homeschooling is not for everyone. We are aware that we causes worries and alarm to our families and friends who doesn't totally understand and can't accept the concept of homeschooling. We appreciate their genuine concern for us and we thank them for that. I once learned that there are 3 topics that causes arguments. Money, Religion and Politics. I'll add one, Homeschooling ha ha ha. Right now i can't say until when we are going to homeschool our children or if it will work to all of them. In every steps of they way we ask God's guidance and blessings. We know that the peace and joy we felt in our heart is the fruits of our obedience to God. Our children's mature disposition, deep spirituality and our level of friendship is an assurance that they are really a homegrown kids. After all when my time comes to face my Creator i believe He'll be more concern to ask me about the character of my children than the honors and reward that they are going to gather. Indeed homeschooling is God's gift to our family. With renewed faith and trust in Him i am now ready again to embark in another year of homeschooling.

As my heart swell in joy, please join me in thanking God for His boundless blessings to our family. The financial resources He has been providing us to be able to live comfortably without me having to work just to meet both ends, Catholic Filipino Academy, my children's school and other homeschool families whose personalities and experiences inspired me and assured me that my family is not eccentric but only a family with different values, our family and friends whose concerns motivated us to to do better because our failure will hurt them too, to Sani my dear husband for supporting me in my devotion to our children and understanding my passion for homeschooling, for his bosses whose generosity allows us to travel that makes our "classroom" bigger, wider and fun, for my children for allowing us to mold them and for teaching us virtuous which we never thought we're capable of adapting and to God whose love is awesome and never fail to inspire us to become a better person.

By choosing this less travelled road we know that we'll be facing lots of trials. We'll be hunted by a never ending confusions, frustrations depressions at marami pang "sions" he he he. But my favorite verse and song since high school still holds true, "Seek ye the first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all of these things shall be added unto you Alleluia!".

To God be the Glory!!!

Signing in from Bayan ng mga Singkit,

Jo Echon

Thanksgiving Prayer

Dear Lord,

This day is sentimentally close to my wife’s heart and mine. It is our 10th wedding anniversary.

About eight months ago, I could not hide my excitement for this day to come. My wife and I have been looking forward to it and have actually laid out some ideas and schemes for this most important occasion in our marriage. I kept on picturing in my mind our Zek and our would-have-been 2-year old Maia walking (or in all likelihood, running and racing against each other) on the church aisle in front of us as we slowly march toward the priest for our renewal of marital vows. I smiled at the thought of how our 30-minute simple ceremony would turn to more than an hour with constant interruptions from our gorgeously angelic daughter and charming and well-groomed son who keeps on pushing and shoving each other like frantic school-children jostling for position to be first in getting the last free cotton candy of the day.

I imagined highlighting our celebration by heading into an overnight beach outing with close family members and we would sit down around bone-fire cooking hotdogs and marsh-mallows as all the Santos kids run back and forth with all their high-pitched voices and laughters.

That day is supposed to be today. I have fully come into terms that it was not meant to be. My dream for this day is not what you have been planning for us after all.

Our daughter Maia left us last October 2008 and we have been spending the last few months just trying to heal our wounded selves and spirits. We were not able to make any plans or preparations on how we would celebrate it. We are living on a day to day basis.

Sadly for me today, my wife is in Philippines while I am still in China because of work commitments and I can only be with her and Zek after two more weeks.

But you have been, you are, and you will always be good and kind to me and my family. Though my wife and I can not perfectly grasp the beauty behind the pain inside us, we believe we are under your protection and love even during this lonely point of our lives.

I am sure you know what I mean. Today is Black Saturday not by mere calendar accident only.

You wanted to assure us that we will fully heal and recover to move on and that our pain pales in comparison to what you have been through. All the derogatory insinuations, mob affront, physical tortures finally taking their toll on your weary and abused body that led to your ultimate death. All of these happened under the truth that you are doing it for them, for us, in order for us to gain back entry into your heavenly kingdom. You suffered because you love us.

You experienced the worst possible pain by a human and by God for that matter.

You more than understand our pain.

Thank you Lord, for allowing my wife and I to share in your pain of loving and losing briefly.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.

You will be resurrected and be triumphantly alive.

Death and eternal condemnation will be conquered.

You will breathe to your disciples the Holy Spirit who is to be our companion until the end of time.

We will eventually have our own Easter moment in your appointed time. Like a clay pot that needed to was swirled-formed and now being furnace-dried, we are a work in progress and our Maia, even in her short life, has lived a full life that is forever part of our formation into your likeness.

Please kiss and embrace our Maia for us.

Thank you for your mysterious yet unconditional and unequivocal love for us.

We love you. Amen.

Your children,

Rowin and Chie