Reaction to 30th Filipino Pilgrimage at Martyrs's Shine.
August 7, 2010,
Martyrs' Shrine Filipino Pilgrimage
Reaction as a Pilgrim
By Ning Serrano from Living For Christ Prayer Community
Filipino pilgrimage at the Martyr Shrine in Midland.
The bus will leave at 7 am from St. Peter's Church at Bathurst Street to go to Midland, so I had to force myself to wake up as early as 5 am (on a Saturday!) to get to the meeting place in time, even though I did not have enough sleep due to preparations for the said day....
Upon arriving at the Shrine, I excused myself to go to the washroom. When I came out, they were nowhere to be found. I walked around and my feet brought me to the church. When I got in, mass was ongoing. After the mass, I went out and started walking around again. When I can't seem to find them, I checked my phone and found out that I had a couple of missed calls. I finally got hold of one of my sisters in Christ and she tried to direct me to where they were. It took me a while to get to them as I couldn't find any posted notices or directions to the venue...by the time I got there the choir was already in their last praise song.
After the praise and worship, there was a concelebrated mass by Filipino priests and deacons. It was an awesome spectacle to have so much Filipino Christian pilgrims in one place glorifying and praising the only One True God in our native tongue.
Fr. Ben, who was the main celebrant, mentioned that some 60 years ago there were only about 500 Filipino migrant workers in Canada. At the latest survey there are now about half a million Filipinos in Canada majority of whom are professionals back home. This comes as no surprise to me - I know quite a number of Filipinos who left our country to find work in Canada usually outside their line of expertise, in the hope of giving their children a brighter and better future - I know because I am one of them. This is a very interesting trait of the Filipinos which I find so admirable - we are generally a humble people who would forego a very successful career to go to a foreign land and do hard labour for the future of the younger generation.
After the blessing was the procession of the Holy Monstrance followed by the different participating groups. It was a reverent as well as a peace-giving walk as we followed the Body of Christ to the site where the Filipino martyrs for Christ, St. Lorenzo Ruiz and Blessed Pedro Calungsod were given a place of honour.
After partaking of the Body of Christ and filling our hearts, minds and spirits with the spiritual food, it was time to feed the body - each group went to their chosen spots and enjoyed a hearty lunch with their brothers and sisters in Christ. This reminded me of the time when Jesus fed 4000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Our food miraculously multiplied that we even had to bring some back home. The funny part was that our lunch was more like a multiplication of adobo-cooked in various ways depending on which region of the Philippines the cook originated from.
And then there was the fun part of the program - games and presentations. We really enjoyed all the presentations and the one that really made an impression on me was the one by El Shaddai's Kawal ni Hesus - Soldiers of Christ. It was for me the embodiment of God's promises to the faithful. Those gentlemen in red shirts reminded me of Christ's apostles and disciples - fearless in proclaiming their complete faith and confidence in the One True God..
And as we prepared to leave the place, I looked back and realized that like San Lorenzo and Blessed Pedro, we are all saints in the making - we are all going through so much trials and tribulations as a result of our choice to follow Jesus - but we do not need to die as martyrs to become saints. God has specific plans for each one of us and if we allow Him to do His will in our lives - we have already fulfilled our mission in life - to be saints in the sight of Christ.
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