Good morning, Father!

Today was the second day of Simbang Gabi. Peter and I have already developed the habit of completing the Nine Mornings for Christmas. This is our second season to do so. It feels heart warming when you see many people especially young children attending the mass at 4am. It's quite an effort but then we all have our reasons why we want to complete the novena.

During the mass, we noticed that while this priest was discussing the homily, an elderly priest was assisted by the servants to stand beside the celebrant to continue the homily. As soon as he started to speak, I immediately noticed he had stroke because of his motor movements and his slurred speech. My heart melted and I was in awe. I appreciated that he continued to serve despite his condition.

After the celebration of the mass at the cathedral, Peter encouraged me to go to the elderly priest and ask for his hand to bless us. I hesitated for a moment because I believed that was only applicable to young children but at the back of my head, I thought to myself, we're only young once. So we went up there with those people who have also intended to pay respect to the elderly priest. When he placed his hand on my forehead, I felt like I was a young child again and I felt humbled. There's something about elderly people that always makes me emotional. It could be just because I have never experienced being close to any of my grand parents.

So after the mass, Peter and I decided to go up hill to have a little nature trip since it was still a cold morning. We reached this place where we can see most of the city including the sea. It was really cold up there and the sun's rays just hit us as if it were giving us a subtle warm embrace. Right then ans there, I finally came to a realization that a sunrise is the best moment to watch rather than sunset. It gives you a sense of a new beginning and a sense of freedom. A lot of people nowadays just do not appreciate moments like that anymore. They would rather appreciate it when they are given Christmas bonuses. They would rather choose shopping over reflecting. They would rather look forward to having their christmas materialistic wishlist completed rather than look forward to spending time with their families. It disappoints me to find that a lot of people I know have that kind of mentality but we all have our different perspectives and I will never ask anyone to agree with me on this. We always go for whatever makes us happy.

What would you rather look forward to whenever you see the sun rise? A new day or a new beginning?