Mt. 7:21, 24-27

When my father was growing up he was always at sea, sometimes alone and sometimes with my grandfather and his younger brother. They were fishermen who fish to provide and support the family’s needs. My family’s root is indeed very much connected with fishing. This is very evident in our surname, baring, a Sinugbuanon (Cebuano) term for nets woven like loose cloth, fine ones for catching tiny shrimps in the surf. This expresses my family’s relationship with fishing and with the sea.

Likewise, my father is very much knowledgeable on this kind of life and more so was my grandfather who can even predict if there will be storm coming or if it is a good time to fish or not. Yet, as my father would retell his story, even though there were no signs of a forth coming storm, they encountered storms at the sea and so feared their lives and call on God. So much so, as they encountered the storms in their lives, they struggled to live as a family and the more they trusted God and are convinced of their faith in Jesus.

This reminds me, that faith is something deep. Faith is being tested and refined through the many storms that will come. Yet, faith is to be founded on Jesus that develops a personal relationship with him as Lord and saviour.

That’s why, reading upon the Gospel, I remember also those thousands of typhoon survivors who are left homeless, jobless, orphaned, or widowed. There was so much destruction of both lives and properties and even of their hopes and dreams. It was a terrible blow that has surely shaken the everyone’s faith.

But I read a story in the Inquirer published few days after the tragedy. A mother witnessed how her daughter died. When there was the storm surge, their house was destroyed but her daughter was hit by a debris and so wounding the daughter. Yet, there was also the strong current and the high level of water. The mother was holding her daughter so that she won’t be swept away by the current but the daughter got tired as she was wounded as well and told her mother, “Let me go Mama, save yourself.” There was no other option; if she won’t let her go both of them will die. It was the most painful part of her life as she saw her daughter swept away by the current. And she questioned God. But she never lost her faith but continued to trust in the Lord. She recalled that when the sky became clear and the water subsided, she looked for her daughter and went into a chapel to seek answers for her questions and doubts and to find consolation for her grief, hoping to find any.

And that’s what I find amazing. Despite the storm that came into the life of this woman and that her faith might have been strongly shaken. After all, she affirms that there is God. She was moved to trust more to God and to call on God. And I could sense that this woman is convinced of her faith, convinced of her relationship with the Lord.

And in this human experience, a storm of rain, flood and strong wind come; a storm that would make my life difficult; a storm that would challenge me and teach a life not of comfort but of difficulty. The storm that would come would teach me to go beyond my own weaknesses, my own frailties and selfishness into a transformed self in Christ as I am called to do the will of God. And this is surely possible with a strong faith in Jesus. Definitely, this faith is not merely about mumbling my prayers as saying Lord! Lord!, but more than that. Faith is a personal relationship with God founded in the community of believers.

Yet, transformation of self in Christ is not just a matter of going out from my comfort zones. It is also not just all about going beyond and being healed from my past experiences and wounds. It is neither just about vulnerability nor docility to the storm. Transcendence is to be able to fully trust in the goodness of the Lord. It is to give everything to God without any slightness of reservation and without counting the cost just like the mother who lost her property and her only daughter.

 In my own words, this is what it means to build my house of faith on a rock that it implies self-transcendence in an expression of a genuine self-sacrifice. This is what God wants, a genuine self-sacrifice, a self-giving amid my insecurities. That doing the will of God and building the house of faith on a rock is giving whole of my life including the not so nice part of my life, those insecurities and doubts. This God demands all of it, everything, the totality of my life, of my being. And this will be a faith-life experience. However, honestly speaking, my feeling about this is disturbing. I am afraid, anxious and insecure. This thought frightens me! Being a Christian and believing in Jesus is disturbing and demanding. Yet, God continually invites me to put my trust in Him for He is a faithful God. Amen.

December 5, 2013

The Redemptorist Missionaries

Rebuilding the Threshold of their Dreams and Hopes

          It was a two-hour travel from the city of Davao and a two to three-hour walk from the nearest barangay before we could reach Sitio Side 4 where the community of Matigsalug tribe reside. They were greatly affected by the typhoon Pablo that hit Mindanao last December 2012. At that time, tress fell down, mountains eroded and houses turned upside-down that made their dreams seemed dark as well. The elementary school which moulds the hope of the future of the children was never excused; it was flown away and totally destroyed by the horrible wind of Pablo.

          Yet after 6 months of struggles, hard work and sacrifices the hope that makes the future glitters for these poor children of Side 4 has been rebuilt. Hence, 12 of us from the Redemptorists and 2 from BALSA Mindanao (Bulig Alang sa Mindanao) started crossing the river, following the streams and trekking an 80 degree mountain slope to meet and support the people of Side 4, the tribe of Matigsalug. Indeed, the journey was seriously tiring and exhausting yet as we reached the God-forsaken place, we were welcomed with warmth, with grateful smiles and greetings of “Maayong Buntag” both from young and old, men and women.

          As soon as we were settled in the area, we had a meeting with the tribal leaders particularly with Datu Dianggo, the Datu of internal affairs. By afternoon, we had the inauguration of the new school building with two classrooms made of good hard wood. The celebration was exquisite for we had the primitive way of blessing the building aside from the Roman Catholic rite of blessing. Most of the people were in their tribal dress in which the colour red dominates. Four women and a man in a corner produced a distinct sound by beating a log. A hen was sacrificed as well and its blood was used to bless the classrooms by letting its blood drop around. Prayers were chanted and spirits were called to bless and protect the people and the building which the children will be using. However, it wasn’t yet the end. A boar was sacrificed through a spear the pierced through the body of the boar. And so blood abundantly flowed and the pain of cry of the boar echoed. And when the boar finally expired, the people, both young and old, men and women began to dip their fingers into the blood and made a mark into their palms or foreheads.

          As the whole community gathered around the school plaza where the National Colours waved as the wind blew and the new stage of the school solidly built, speeches of leaders and representatives brought the audience to be inspired and to find hope amidst these struggles. The children, who seemed to prepare their presentations a month ago, gracefully shared their talents in singing and dancing; and the richness and the beauty of their culture shines all the more as we have come to know them better. Nevertheless, these singing and dancing were not merely as to entertain the audience but to articulate their dreams, to shout their struggles and to tell their own stories as people who had been marginalized and deprived. Moreover, they have able to portray as well how much blessing they have received through the people who showed care and love for them. And this ignited all the more into the hearts of these people the hope of the future as their school is being rebuilt once again. The parents and their children and the whole community were brought into consciousness that EDUCATION plays a vital role in realizing and owning what they are dreaming of – to know and defend their rights as people (Filipinos), to cultivate and preserve their culture, to have a better life without losing their identity as Matigsalug people.

          At supper, we feasted together the Lechon and all those viands with their special upland rice. It was truly a feast for everybody. By early morning, we had the ground-braking for another new school building that would cater more students for a better and good academic environment. And it was wonderful and amazing to see that everyone gathered again for this event not just to witness the ceremony but also by committing themselves as people to inspire and bring their children and the following generations into the graciousness of education, “the threshold of their dreams and hopes.”

Jomil Baring, CSsR

June 25, 2013

Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, at the Inauguration of his Papal Ministry 19 March 2013

http://media2.wxyz.com//photo/2013/03/19/Pope_Francis_20130319052242_320_240.JPG

(Vatican Radio)

Dear Brothers and Sisters, I thank the Lord that I can celebrate this Holy Mass for the inauguration of my Petrine ministry on the solemnity of Saint Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin Mary and the patron of the universal Church. It is a significant coincidence, and it is also the name-day of my venerable predecessor: we are close to him with our prayers, full of affection and gratitude.

I offer a warm greeting to my brother cardinals and bishops, the priests, deacons, men and women religious, and all the lay faithful. I thank the representatives of the other Churches and ecclesial Communities, as well as the representatives of the Jewish community and the other religious communities, for their presence. My cordial greetings go to the Heads of State and Government, the members of the official Delegations from many countries throughout the world, and the Diplomatic Corps.

In the Gospel we heard that “Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife” (Mt 1:24). These words already point to the mission which God entrusts to Joseph: he is to be the custos, the protector. The protector of whom? Of Mary and Jesus; but this protection is then extended to the Church, as Blessed John Paul II pointed out: “Just as Saint Joseph took loving care of Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing, he likewise watches over and protects Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model” (Redemptoris Custos, 1).

How does Joseph exercise his role as protector? Discreetly, humbly and silently, but with an unfailing presence and utter fidelity, even when he finds it hard to understand. From the time of his betrothal to Mary until the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, he is there at every moment with loving care. As the spouse of Mary, he is at her side in good times and bad, on the journey to Bethlehem for the census and in the anxious and joyful hours when she gave birth; amid the drama of the flight into Egypt and during the frantic search for their child in the Temple; and later in the day-to-day life of the home of Nazareth, in the workshop where he taught his trade to Jesus.

How does Joseph respond to his calling to be the protector of Mary, Jesus and the Church? By being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans, and not simply to his own. This is what God asked of David, as we heard in the first reading. God does not want a house built by men, but faithfulness to his word, to his plan. It is God himself who builds the house, but from living stones sealed by his Spirit. Joseph is a “protector” because he is able to hear God’s voice and be guided by his will; and for this reason he is all the more sensitive to the persons entrusted to his safekeeping. He can look at things realistically, he is in touch with his surroundings, he can make truly wise decisions. In him, dear friends, we learn how to respond to God’s call, readily and willingly, but we also see the core of the Christian vocation, which is Christ! Let us protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can protect creation!

The vocation of being a “protector”, however, is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents. It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s gifts!

Whenever human beings fail to live up to this responsibility, whenever we fail to care for creation and for our brothers and sisters, the way is opened to destruction and hearts are hardened. Tragically, in every period of history there are “Herods” who plot death, wreak havoc, and mar the countenance of men and women.

Please, I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be “protectors” of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment. Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world! But to be “protectors”, we also have to keep watch over ourselves! Let us not forget that hatred, envy and pride defile our lives! Being protectors, then, also means keeping watch over our emotions, over our hearts, because they are the seat of good and evil intentions: intentions that build up and tear down! We must not be afraid of goodness or even tenderness!

Here I would add one more thing: caring, protecting, demands goodness, it calls for a certain tenderness. In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!

Today, together with the feast of Saint Joseph, we are celebrating the beginning of the ministry of the new Bishop of Rome, the Successor of Peter, which also involves a certain power. Certainly, Jesus Christ conferred power upon Peter, but what sort of power was it? Jesus’ three questions to Peter about love are followed by three commands: feed my lambs, feed my sheep. Let us never forget that authentic power is service, and that the Pope too, when exercising power, must enter ever more fully into that service which has its radiant culmination on the Cross. He must be inspired by the lowly, concrete and faithful service which marked Saint Joseph and, like him, he must open his arms to protect all of God’s people and embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important, those whom Matthew lists in the final judgment on love: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-46). Only those who serve with love are able to protect!

In the second reading, Saint Paul speaks of Abraham, who, “hoping against hope, believed” (Rom 4:18). Hoping against hope! Today too, amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who bring hope to others. To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope; it is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds; it is to bring the warmth of hope! For believers, for us Christians, like Abraham, like Saint Joseph, the hope that we bring is set against the horizon of God, which has opened up before us in Christ. It is a hope built on the rock which is God.

To protect Jesus with Mary, to protect the whole of creation, to protect each person, especially the poorest, to protect ourselves: this is a service that the Bishop of Rome is called to carry out, yet one to which all of us are called, so that the star of hope will shine brightly. Let us protect with love all that God has given us!

I implore the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul, and Saint Francis, that the Holy Spirit may accompany my ministry, and I ask all of you to pray for me! Amen.

http://en.radiovaticana.va/articolo.asp?c=674758

WITNESS AND PROCLAMATION and HEALING AND RECONCILIATION

Witness and Proclamation

            Truly, it is through the gift of the Spirit that the Church will be able to become a witness and thus, could proclaim the Gospel ever anew. It is impossible to proclaim the word of God without first becoming God’s witness. So, what is then a witness to the Gospel? To be a community of witnesses is to experience the message of the Gospel. Experience here is more than hearing the Gospel but rather living the message, walking the message and doing the message. To be able to become a witness involves vitally the aspect of being evangelized and being converted. It means that we have let ourselves open and let the Gospel touch our lives and hence, our very being. This affirms our very identity before God as beloved people.

To go deeply, it would be important to reflect what kind of Gospel that a person should be a witness of. Of course, there is only one Gospel and that is Jesus and His Kingdom which goal is communion with the Father. So, the Gospel is basically the person of Jesus, the God-made-man who suffered, died and resurrected. It says also that Jesus is a God-with-us, Emmanuel. Jesus is a God who is not far or somewhere out there but rather near to us and with us. Jesus is a God who is not completely incomprehensible and totally alien to human experience but rather a God who is truly human yet truly God. He is a God who is close to humanity.

Definitely, it says that Jesus, this God is not alien to any human suffering, to any human pain or to any human agony. He is a God who could relate well to these human experiences. And it is when we realize and experience that Jesus is experiencing with us, not only that, but accompanying and sharing with us in our every human experiences. It is in this experience that we become a witness to this grace that brings us to liberation. It may not be materially but from the shackles and hurdles that makes our hearts insensitive and strange to others’ struggles. Hence, this image is not only limited to the poor or to the oppressed but it is universal for this experience could touch the hearts and lives of the rich and even the oppressors. This whole grace-process of being a witness is truly the work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus has promised. It is something that everyone could receive with an open and willing heart.

It is by this experience and through this life in the Spirit that we could proclaim what we have received. Being able to receive the person of Jesus and his Kingdom in the life of the Church, this makes us as a Church to proclaim Jesus, the God-made-man, the God-with-us and His Kingdom. So, proclamation is also an aspect of giving and sharing what we have received to others. In return, to be able to proclaim and share would allow us to be more open and thus, to be enriched by others. This spirit of giving-receiving and receiving-giving is actually a counter-culture image in a world divided by selfishness and self-interest. But I am not saying that this kind of attitude of giving-receiving is completely absent in the world today. In some way, it is still present, but, this will be more enriched through faith.

In particular, proclamation can be done in varied ways. Personal contact with another person is a possible way where a sharing of faith could take place. Reaching out to individual families would be a powerful way of proclaiming the Gospel. Reaching out to different sectors of the society such as the youth, professional men and women, workers and labourers are also other ways of proclaiming the Gospel. The use of our current technology could be best employed in our evangelization. The mass media through music, movies and inspirational programs can be created to make people aware as a re-awakening of the message of the Gospel. And there are still other ways of exercising our identity as witnesses in proclaiming the Gospel ever anew. The proclamation of the Gospel message is precisely should not just be only intellectual. Nevertheless, it should be something that everyone could understand and in due course touch their hearts. This would surely lead to conversion and commitment in the Gospel message.

Furthermore, as an important element of this proclamation, it would be very essential that this mission in the 21^st century would still carry out Jesus’ effective way of proclaiming the Kingdom that it would be manifested through healing and reconciliation. Hence, as we experience Jesus, we would surely experience the healing and reconciling image and presence of Jesus.

Healing and Reconciliation

            By the insecurities of conflicts politically, religiously, racially or economically which result to violence, estrangement and indifference cause so much division in the community. Nonetheless, this is not to overly emphasize a pessimistic perspective of the world as being in division and always in trouble. This is rather to recognize a reality of the situation of the world otherwise if this is unrecognized and denied the relationship we would have will be unrealistic. Accordingly, a difficulty on how to approach this situation inevitably arises. Mediation through dialogue seems too difficult as well. However, dialogue is the only best way of approaching these insecurities and never through war or of closing ones door otherwise it would only create deep and more distance. Hence, the most possible way of dealing these insecurities is again through the dialogue of faith that would promote or bring healing and reconciliation within and between community of cultures, races, nations and religions.

            Hence, it is on this part where the Church as a missionary is most vulnerable also. In order to bring healing and reconciliation, at first, the Church has to recognize her wounds and the divisions within the Church. This one is difficult and not an easy task. This is very much true even to a person. A person is first called to deal and face the wounds and pains which cause traumas in him or her. It is through healing that there would be a true reconciliation and also the other way around, through reconciliation that there would be a true healing. This makes the person a healer – a wounded healer and an advocate of reconciliation. Hence, as a community of faith, the Church as a missionary is called to be a healer with a very positive hope of bringing reconciliation. Thus, in order for the Church to become a healer and advocate of reconciliation, the Church is to experience and re-experience the healing and reconciling mystery of the incarnation of Jesus as well as his paschal mystery.

            Consequently, aspects are to be affirmed here also (in the Theology of Reconciliation). It is by looking at healing and reconciliation not merely a human work. Healing and reconciliation is first and foremost the work of God – this is ultimately a grace. The Church as a missionary is basically an “agent” of God to bring healing and reconciliation in the world. As St. Paul would say, “we are ambassadors of Christ, as if God were appealing through us (2 Cor. 5: 20a).” God is the One who can give this grace to the world. That is why the Church is called to be healed and reconciled first that she may become and effective agent. Further, God’s reconciling work begins with the victim. This simply upholds that God is a God who looks and hears people in suffering. It is good to remember that Jesus agonized, suffered and cried. This begins by restoring the dignity of the victim as a human being which had been violated or destroyed in the act of wrongdoing. However, God cannot be indifferent with the oppressor. God is also concerned with the other party. Indeed, God wills healing and reconciliation to both. Hence, God makes the victim and the wrongdoer a “new creation.” Healing here does not entirely mean of recovering what was there before in the victim. Reconciliation does not mean also as merely lifting up what burdens the person. Nevertheless, healing and reconciliation is God’s way of recreating the victim and the wrongdoer, thus, to a new creation. This is what St. Paul says, “So whoever is in Christ, is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold new thing have come (2 Cor. 5:17).” And by this new creation, suffering is placed inside the story of Jesus’ suffering and death with the hope of resurrection. This is really an assurance that God is never indifferent to human suffering. In fact, God is inviting us to place our suffering in the framework of Christ’s own suffering. Again, St. Paul effectively says, “to know him [Jesus Christ] and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death (Phil. 3:10)” – by placing ones suffering is knowing Jesus and the power of his resurrection – liberation. Therefore, as we place our suffering in Jesus, we share in his suffering; yet, Jesus is also suffering with us. This is, again, God’s power of incarnation. Essentially, we are to remember also that the healing and reconciliation that we are going to experience in this world through the grace of God is not yet in its fullness. This gives us even a very positive hope that there is beyond and there is more than this in God. It reminds us too that though we have the capacity but entirely we are dependent on God’s grace of healing and reconciliation in its fullness. This makes us as a missionary Church humble and open to the Spirit of God.

            Besides, another characteristic is worthy to be expected and admitted in this area. Healing and reconciliation is not something that can be reached immediately. Healing and reconciliation follows a process. As there is a process, it means that it could take time. This might be frustrating to the Church who proclaims healing and proclamation. But, it is more frustrating and even more painful for the ones who are victimized and oppressed. Accordingly, a great patience with sympathy and solidarity for those who are suffering is needed. This is surely giving the Church as a missionary to affirm her role as a companion, a friend and a co-sufferer. It gives the missionary Church a place in the midst of division, of indifference and of violence. It is again giving flesh to the Gospel message. This gives also a bigger horizon for the Church on how to dialogue with the world. She will surely not become irrelevant.

            Henceforward, as I refer to the missionary Church, I do not simply refer to the priests, religious brothers and sisters or the bishops and the Pope and the whole hierarchy of the Church. Essentially, the missionary Church is the entire people of God that is every believer of Christ both women and men, young and old, rich and poor, the uneducated and intellectual, the employer and the labourer - yes, everyone else, the people who affirms the grace of God in their lives, thus, are called to give witness and proclaim the message of love. And here, the Magisterium that is the teaching authority of the Church guides the people of God in carrying out faithfully the mission entrusted to the Church.

KAIROS (The Opportune Time/ Time of Grace)

The opportune time has come

To let the heart filled with tears

Be drained to breathe the new birth

Symbol of an end to a new beginning,

Letting the pain of birthing

Turn into joy and not mourning

To turn into smiles not gasping.

This is the opportune time

Of the new birth that I said,

Not of a little child

But, behold, of the adult.

He is the adult, man enough

To accept the child whose past so tough,

To embrace the child whose past so hard

And to love the child with all his heart.

The opportune day has arrived

To conquer the darkest night

By tasting the fresh sweet light

That soul will be revived,

A symbol of a great rising

From the grave of shame,

The child within the man’s dwelling.

This is the opportune day

Of the revival that I said,

Not of the child’s shame

But of the adult’s claim

Of his preserved innocence

Making the man fully convince

Of the love this life contains,

Neither of fear nor shame but of confidence.

Mandala: The Journey Within

The word "mandala" is from the classical Sanskrit language. Loosely translated to mean "circle," yet far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community. http://www.mandalaproject.org/What/Index.html

Indeed, this moment of the opportune moment

The man brings no more of torments

But the heart of the soul that commends

To love this life well

By going back to the well

To have a drink of the beloved’s identity

The wellspring of his story.

This is the moment of the opportune moment

The Kairos of the new birth,

Kairos of the soul’s revival

To welcome the rays

Which bring forth the grace

Of singing and dancing,

Rejoicing the rising

Springing from within.

03-13-12

The Happy Little Boy

    I want you to hear a happy little story filled with lively memory. It is of this happy little boy who makes his day full of joy. He infects everyone to join that even the birds begin to tweet with the fragrance of the flowers so sweet and causes the tiny insects to compete. In this way, he begins his joyful day by kneeling first to pray thanking God for a wonderful day. And he kisses her mom on her cheek after licking the last drop of his milk. And he runs around and around with his arms outstretched like a kite flying in the sky.

      Here and there, everyone could see that this happy little boy is on his way. And he goes to his friends to play. And talking and laughing, jumping and dancing and singing and running, all the way giggling of the never ending tickling and teasing.

     Indeed, he really loves to laugh as if a day is not enough. Yet when he smiles with his two bright eyes and then shows his precious teeth, though broken, but so sweet; they become the gift to a friend he would meet. And then he runs for more fun, and as fast as he can, not minding the cuts that he would get. All of these are just a naughty part of this little boy’s heart.

    Yet, he continues! He begins to sing a song with the music of his little gong, the cauldron of his mom at home. He beats it hard at the very bottom with a stick from his sister’s broom. Aloud and clear, everyone hears the song he’s trying to adhere into the heart of the dearest of the little boy, full of cheer. And tong, tong, tong… it is the music of the little gong and with his little song; he makes the day sing along.

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium/jesus-and-little-boy-1-richard-w-linford.jpg

     And from his soul, the words come, “O joyful day sing with me to celebrate His love for me. Oh, what a lovely day for me, for he comes to embrace with his gifts and his grace. He takes away all my fears and dries up all my tears.” Indeed, this makes him giggle and wiggle that breaks the shackles and hurdles changing them into love and affection. These complete his aspiration to have a day for his soul’s exultation.