As kids, we were taught many special numbers to remember. The 9 planets of our solar system. The 10 fingers and toes of our hands and feet. The 12 months in the calendar. The 60 seconds in a minute. The 7 continents of the world. The 24 hours in a day. These are pretty basic stuff and the numbers are not too big to be too difficult to remember. But there’s this certain number that was imprinted in my memory at such a young age: 168, which is the number of hours in a week.
The 7 days in a week might be more convenient and practical to remember, yes. But not when my mom wants to drive a point – that out of 168 hours in a week, God only wants 1 hour spent with Him via the weekly Sunday mass and that I can do whatever I want with the rest.
As I grew older, I began to argue that it’s actually more than 2 hours. Because getting ready for church and the travel time to and fro requires another hour or so. Haha! So imagine my amuse when at the conclusion of the most recent Holy Week, I realized that I actually spent up to 40 hours in God-related activities.
You see, I recently just joined the Commentators and Lectors Guild (ComLec) in our parish. Been meaning to do so for almost a year now and my mom has been prodding me to do so since she realized that there’s no way I can sing my way into the Youth Choir. Haha! It took me almost a year to finally do it because I narrowly missed the seminar last year so I had to wait until the next one to be able to join. I think the official induction will happen this May, but I’ve already attended some of the monthly meetings and the mandatory recollection which was held a month ago.
My first church service as a new member of the ComLec was the speech choir for the Holy Week celebrations. The gospel features the passion and death of Christ and the ComLec is usually tasked to read for the many characters in the readings like Pontius Pilate, Peter, Jesus Christ, etc. We serve during the Palm Sunday (morning and evening) and Good Friday service and during the Easter Vigil.
The speech choir duties entailed hours of practices days prior. And on top of that, the ComLec youth were asked to stage some sort of silent play about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the Easter Vigil service. That meant additional hours spent for the practice and preparation for the play.
And so, counting all the hours I spent at church whether for practice or attendance of the different Holy Week celebrations, I logged more than 40 hours.
What’s more amazing for me is that I actually enjoyed every single hour of those 40 hours! Normally, an hour at church already felt a drag. Haha! And often, my mind drifts away for a few minutes. But this time, it felt that everything just fell into place and I just found myself having the right attitude to sincerely celebrate the true meaning of the Holy Week celebrations.
For one, our new parish priest, Fr. Raul Delos Santos, who was installed just the Friday before the Palm Sunday, is one hell heaven of a pastor. He was actually the one who requested the ComLec youth to do the silent play. His homilies were very interesting and he sure knows how to grab your attention and keep it for the rest of the church service.
Another reason would be the people at ComLec. I’m actually friends with some of the them already so being the newbie in the guild wasn’t socially stressful. But the new friends I met, they were just so welcoming and amiably nice that I immediately felt I was where I was supposed to be and that I’m no stranger.
And lastly, and the most important one I think, it’s because I knew why I was doing it and whom I was doing it for. I guess it’s cliché to say that I was doing it all for Him. But I reckon I was doing it more for myself, because I want to feel closer to Him. Holy Week holidays used to be a mini-vacation for me – stay up late in the wee hours and wake up late the next day, catch up on my TV series backlogs, do other bum stuff. But this year, I was unable to do my usual routine because I had to attend practices or service at church. And not once did I mumble or complain about it, nor did I contemplate on not attending (because after all, no one’s going to persecute me anyway if I don’t go to church). Believe me, I don’t really know where I got the patience and passion to sacrifice much of the time that year after year I normally just spend for myself, rather than for Him.
LEFT: A scene during our silent play. I was on of the apostles who took Christ down from the cross and buried Him in his tomb.
RIGHT: My new gang at ComLec with our amazing new Parish Priest, Fr. Raul, celebrating the wonderful reception of our setup-at-the-last-minute silent play.
I admit I joined ComLec not really knowing why. Doing it for mom (to finally shush her up, haha) was usually the first reason that pops in my mind. But now that I am part of ComLec, I already know I want it myself after all. I mean come on! Why else would I last 40+ hours at church in a week and enjoy every single minute of it? That is something not even my mom can force me to do.
The 7 days in a week might be more convenient and practical to remember, yes. But not when my mom wants to drive a point – that out of 168 hours in a week, God only wants 1 hour spent with Him via the weekly Sunday mass and that I can do whatever I want with the rest.
As I grew older, I began to argue that it’s actually more than 2 hours. Because getting ready for church and the travel time to and fro requires another hour or so. Haha! So imagine my amuse when at the conclusion of the most recent Holy Week, I realized that I actually spent up to 40 hours in God-related activities.
You see, I recently just joined the Commentators and Lectors Guild (ComLec) in our parish. Been meaning to do so for almost a year now and my mom has been prodding me to do so since she realized that there’s no way I can sing my way into the Youth Choir. Haha! It took me almost a year to finally do it because I narrowly missed the seminar last year so I had to wait until the next one to be able to join. I think the official induction will happen this May, but I’ve already attended some of the monthly meetings and the mandatory recollection which was held a month ago.
My first church service as a new member of the ComLec was the speech choir for the Holy Week celebrations. The gospel features the passion and death of Christ and the ComLec is usually tasked to read for the many characters in the readings like Pontius Pilate, Peter, Jesus Christ, etc. We serve during the Palm Sunday (morning and evening) and Good Friday service and during the Easter Vigil.
The speech choir duties entailed hours of practices days prior. And on top of that, the ComLec youth were asked to stage some sort of silent play about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the Easter Vigil service. That meant additional hours spent for the practice and preparation for the play.
And so, counting all the hours I spent at church whether for practice or attendance of the different Holy Week celebrations, I logged more than 40 hours.
What’s more amazing for me is that I actually enjoyed every single hour of those 40 hours! Normally, an hour at church already felt a drag. Haha! And often, my mind drifts away for a few minutes. But this time, it felt that everything just fell into place and I just found myself having the right attitude to sincerely celebrate the true meaning of the Holy Week celebrations.
For one, our new parish priest, Fr. Raul Delos Santos, who was installed just the Friday before the Palm Sunday, is one hell heaven of a pastor. He was actually the one who requested the ComLec youth to do the silent play. His homilies were very interesting and he sure knows how to grab your attention and keep it for the rest of the church service.
Another reason would be the people at ComLec. I’m actually friends with some of the them already so being the newbie in the guild wasn’t socially stressful. But the new friends I met, they were just so welcoming and amiably nice that I immediately felt I was where I was supposed to be and that I’m no stranger.
And lastly, and the most important one I think, it’s because I knew why I was doing it and whom I was doing it for. I guess it’s cliché to say that I was doing it all for Him. But I reckon I was doing it more for myself, because I want to feel closer to Him. Holy Week holidays used to be a mini-vacation for me – stay up late in the wee hours and wake up late the next day, catch up on my TV series backlogs, do other bum stuff. But this year, I was unable to do my usual routine because I had to attend practices or service at church. And not once did I mumble or complain about it, nor did I contemplate on not attending (because after all, no one’s going to persecute me anyway if I don’t go to church). Believe me, I don’t really know where I got the patience and passion to sacrifice much of the time that year after year I normally just spend for myself, rather than for Him.
LEFT: A scene during our silent play. I was on of the apostles who took Christ down from the cross and buried Him in his tomb.
RIGHT: My new gang at ComLec with our amazing new Parish Priest, Fr. Raul, celebrating the wonderful reception of our setup-at-the-last-minute silent play.
I admit I joined ComLec not really knowing why. Doing it for mom (to finally shush her up, haha) was usually the first reason that pops in my mind. But now that I am part of ComLec, I already know I want it myself after all. I mean come on! Why else would I last 40+ hours at church in a week and enjoy every single minute of it? That is something not even my mom can force me to do.
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