By Lucille Arcedas
I have just read the article Who Will Console Consuelo? and it really touched me. There are many Consuelos around but sometimes I fail to recognize them because self-righteousness dominates me.
I once asked Miladdie, who served in the prison apostolate in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, where we are both from, if she wasn’t afraid of the prisoners. She told to me how nice these people are.
By Lucille Arcedas
The author, from Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, teaches at Colegio de San Agustin, Bacolod City, and is currently studying at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
‘I might be in a wrong group’, I thought as I was attending Mass. It was kind of different. After the prayers of the faithful, when the people themselves offered individual petitions and then everyone going up to the sanctuary, the priest at the center of the altar and the faithful surrounding it. My dilemma was enlightened when the priest said, ‘for Benedict our Pope, and Matthew our Bishop’. I sighed in relief.
It was 22 August 2008, my first time to attend Mass in Ithaca, New York. Before I arrived, I searched the internet and found out that there were two Catholic Churches there and also the CURW (Cornell United Religious Work) held at Anabel Taylor Hall. Each denomination has a schedule and a room where they can have their own form of worship. I knew that the room that I had just entered was the venue for Christian services but I wasn’t really sure if the service was really the Mass of Roman Catholic Rite because the priest was sitting among the congregation while giving the homily. During the Lord’s Prayer, everyone held hands. Communion was different too. A woman was the first to receive the Body of Christ and then the Precious Blood. The priest then gave each of us the Host, and the woman let us drink the Precious Blood from the chalice. Although there were two other men in the group, the altar servers were ladies. After Communion, we went back to our place and the priest read a verse from one of the letters of St Paul. The final blessing was the culmination of the celebration.
Dear Father Coyle,
I am an avid reader of Misyon, probably because my mother used to be a promoter. But since it’s now available online, I have free access to it and an article a week is a good medium for reflection. Misyon seems to highlight the lives of modern-day heroes in their own simple yet extraordinary ways.
