Baptism

BONG and Johanna’s bundle of joy, Sarah Eloise, was finally baptized last Sunday at the Nazareno Church, home of the Black Nazarene.

My wife and I got married in the same such church 40 years ago. Monsignor Rey Manuel Monsanto is now the parish priest of Nazareno church.

Outside of the Cathedral Church, the Nazareno Church is the busiest parish in terms of Masses celebrated every Sunday.

Johanna and Bong with Sarah (Contributed photo)

Monsignor Monsanto is over qualified to become a bishop. Yet he is not still. Why is this? I don’t know the answer. The appointing power of Bishops is Rome – the Pope.

By the way, Monsignor Monsanto is the only Canon Lawyer of the Archdiocese.

Bong and Johanna’s bundle of joy had her reception at the Mallberry Suites in the Limketkai Complex, the premiere commercial center in Northern Mindanao if not the whole of Mindanao.

Mallberry Suites is purely a business hotel. The room I was billeted in with my wife and two female household assistants has just a thin TV set without any amenities.

The reception was held in one of the function rooms of the hotel. Sarah Eloise looked pretty every time she smiles. She is a gift from God. She brightens up Bong and Johanna’s rented house at RER Subdivision in Kauswagan.

*****

A number of my readers wanted me to give my analysis of the Pacquiao-Bradley fight. I have to disappoint them for I never ever is a boxing aficionado. I find boxing a cruel, vicious and the best example of man’s cruelty to man. A cave man’s display of his worst. Worse, it is held in America, in the City of Las Vegas, Nevada, where all kinds of gambling syndicates exist.

*****

I am now settled at our new residence in PSB-Ulaliman, El Salvador City, Misamis Oriental, with my wife Kits and four household assistants. But I remain a voter still in Cagayan de Oro, particularly in Barangay Bayabas. I left my residence for 30 years, taking me and my wife to a new environment just beside the Divine Mercy Hills. Is this God’s will for us? I believe so.

Have I fully recovered from my affliction, far from it? I am having urinary incontinence, a kind of affliction where you cannot control your urination.

Do I still argue with my wife? Certainly, for we are not a perfect family. But what is most important to me is that I truly believe that God really exists, guiding everyone of us how to live life obeying Him.

A texter sent to me two days ago a very profound text: “Persevere never surrender to the trials and challenges in life.” “Persevere not to surrender.”