June 26, 2016. It was raining when I and my co-aspirant brothers asked for the Mercy of God and for admittance to the life of the Community under the example of Saint Augustine. In response, Fr. Peter Casiño, OSA gave us the insignia of the Order of St. Augustine: the heart pierced by an arrow, placed upon an open book, signifying the thirst for wisdom and knowledge under the guidance of the Cross of Jesus. Since then, life has never been the same. All over again.

YES. After years of running away, after many failures and loopholes, I now stand up and take the challenge. I thought life is already enough for me, but then there is still a deeper desire in my heart to return to my dreams and make them a reality. This is the start of a long journey full of joys and challenges, all towards Jesus.

Not only I, but WE take the challenge. This is the start of a new chapter in our lives, and we will never make it without God's grace.

Please pray for us that we may be really strong in the Lord.

OWY @ 10: THE STORY CONTINUES

Yes. It's been ten years since I first wrote my very first post on this domain. Time flies very fast. A lot of things have changed since I first did that. Aside from reminding me the reality that I'm getting old (and fatter... duhh), this blog would always take me back to those carefree days when I am free to write on anything and everything that comes out of my mind. 

I was 15 then, too young for someone to write (back then. Perhaps not now, since technology advanced that far since the very first day I wrote, and many youngsters started making their kilig novels.) Now, I'm 25, and unlike before, thoughts become too complex to be written in a simple note like this, aside from the time constraint that my job and other sorts gave me, lessening the opportunities for me to write many things in the liberty of my time.

True enough, much has changed. But the blog is still here, frequented by people from every part of the world, just to read posts related to faith and travel, whatever. I planned to have a week-long celebration of posts like what I had in 2011, but things suddenly changed, because of a big decision I made which changed my life. 

It's been a while since I responded to God's call to become his priest, and I have to admit, the journey I had after I tried (and failed) with the Rogationists in 2006 formed me made me realize that it is not easy to go away from the things I love and, eventually, that call to follow him. In the years that followed, I saw myself not drawing away from the religious life, as an altar server in our parish in Navotas, to a Mukha Ader and Dominican Lay in Santo Domingo, intertwined with the many achievements I had as an educator, photographer, and everything else.

Despite the challenges and failures I encountered along the way, God did not change, and his love remained. For this, just recently, I reconsidered the tiny whisper to follow Jesus again, and enter the religious life as an Augustinian. It was a big decision, since I need to leave everything behind, for something better than life has for me. 

Of course, like other seminarians, the first month of life "inside" is full of adjustments. That includes detachment from the life I and my other aspirant-seminarians used to have outside, and imbuing of the life we've chosen, a life of community and love, of prayer and study. And for someone active like me, who spent almost half his teenage life being aligaga, it is not easy, but certainly doable as long as we place ourselves in the hands of God, and entrust our life to the Heart of Jesus.

This is just the start of a new chapter of the story which this blog would continue to cover as long as possible. So, as I write this post on the Tenth Anniversary of this blog, I would like to ask for your prayers that we may persevere in this new journey I am about to take. Or better yet, let us pray for each other that God may always bless us every step of the way.  

YES. THE STORY CONTINUES. :)