May 24-25: Wedding and Sunday

May 24 was the wedding of my wife's nephew. It was at Our Lady of Mt Carmel. Whenever I attend a wedding, I remember God's faithfulness to his people. God often refers to his relationship to them as a marriage.



I also remember Jesus Christ the Bridegroom and his Bride - the Church. Christ died for his Church to make her pure and unblemished. This is also a call to me as a husband to help lead my wife to holiness. The more I live a married life, the more I am convinced that God joined a man and a woman together so that they can lead each other to holiness. I pray for all married couples that they may continue to help each other grow in holiness.

One thing that impressed me is the almost precision-like timing of all the events in the wedding. From the march to the mass, to the songs, even to the video. What impressed me is that the videographer had a video of the event up to the reception at the end of the reception. Thank technology for that.

Just the proxy sponsor

My wife was chosen as one of the sponsors (for those who do not know, it is very common for Filipinos to have several pairs of sponsors at a wedding). I was chosen to proxy for my brother-in-law who could not attend. So we got to dress up. Someone commented that I looked rich. I wish that person said, I am rich.

We came home tired and had some rest. My sister then invited us for dinner with her sons and my mother. We went to a Greek restaurant. Food was good. The company was better.

The next day was Sunday. Time for mass. My sister picked us up and we went to Mt Carmel again. One thing I noticed is the difference between how Victorians attend mass and how Filipinos attend mass.

For one, communion is orderly in Victoria. The usher goes row by row and anyone who wants to receive communion goes to the receive Jesus. In the Philippines, the people just go on their own. There is a rush to the aisle. The big difference is in Victoria, almost everyone receives communion. This, I find very strange. The criteria for receiving communion is that one must be in the state of grace. Not wanting to sound judgmental, everyone goes to communion without going to confession.

In the Philippines, there are quite a few who remain in the pews. Not because the people do not understand the mass, but because the people know who they are receiving and they want to receive him in a state of grace.

Another thing to note is people do not go for a blessing. Giving a blessing during communion is not liturgically correct.

Lastly, it seems that at the end of mass, people clap in thanksgiving to the Lord. I know this is not liturgically correct, but I guess, this must be the custom already in the Philippines.

After mass, we went to visit my father's grave. Then we went to the Magnolia mall. The mall was built on the site of the Magnolia Ice-Cream house. It is big but not as crowded as any SM mall.

We had lunch at Buffet 101 for P 899/person. The buffet was extremely good. It had Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Western food all in one place.

We came home and had some rest - end of day.

One good thing about last night was that it finally rained. The temperature dropped to about 28 degrees. It was better than 37 degrees.