AS WE go down the streets of Bacolod City, fiesta fever is in the air. There are banderitas along Lacson Street and in the downtown area; stalls are now mushrooming. On weekends, some of these streets are closed for some MassKara activity. October is the joyous month in Bacolod because of our renowned MassKara celebration and tourists, local, domestic and global are starting to flock in.
October is marked in the religious calendar as the month of the Holy Rosary. Yesterday, October 7, was the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. This devotion came about when in 1571, the Ottoman Empire, the strongest empire in Asia, having conquered the outer strongholds of the Christian world, now threatened to overcome Italy and the Christian countries bordering the western Mediterranean Sea.
Pope Saint Pius V organized a papal fleet under a brave and brilliant commander, Don Juan of Austria. It was in the early days of October 1571, when Don Juan sailed to meet the enemy and encountered them in the Bay of Lepanto. Although heavily outnumbered, the bravery of the Christian troops and their expertise in military maneuvers brought victory against the Moslem fleet.
Before the Battle of Lepanto, Pope Pius V, now Saint Pope Pius V, with the whole of Christendom, prayed the rosary imploring the Blessed Mother for assistance. With the battle won, all were convinced that it was through the intercession of Mama Mary. As a result, the Pontiff declared a special feast in honor of Our Lady of Victory, to celebrate Mary's help every first Sunday of October.
Two years later, Pope Gregory XII changed the name of the feast to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary honoring the prayer which won the war. The date was changed to October 7, the date of the Battle of Lepanto. From this celebration, the entire month of October has been dedicated to Mary and the Holy Rosary. This custom has been sanctioned and approved by all succeeding Pontiffs up to this day.
Pope Leo XII further included in the Litany of Loreto the invocation: "Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, Pray for us." Mama Mary is a very popular intercessor. She is the best "abogada" who asks Jesus for us when we empty to her our deepest supplications. And she never tires of helping us.
There are other big feasts in heaven in the month of October. The month opened with the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. St. Therese was a Carmelite nun and known for her little way-little as in the minutest of things just like the mere picking up of a pin done for love to convert a soul. She had a preference for hidden sacrifices. A cloistered life in the nunnery can be uneventful and dull with most of the time dedicated to prayer and domestic manual work.
She possessed the holy insight to convert dull time and quiet suffering into redemptive action for savings souls and praying for priests. This teaching of spirituality of the little way earned her the title of Doctor of the Church.
October 2 celebrates the Feast of the Guardian Angels. Angels were created for a particular mission. Pictures oftentimes depict guardian angels with children but their function is to represent all of us regardless of age before God, to watch over us always, to help us with our prayers and to present our souls to God in the hour of our death. With this thought, let us never forget of the ever present company of our guardian angels. They cling to us day in and day out until it is time to meet our Maker. Sometimes, we are saved in the nick of time from imminent danger and we wonder why. Haven't we thanked our guardian angel who shielded us and protected us?
October 4 marks the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Born wealthy and living a licentious life as a knight in the military, he was touched by God at the age of 25. What was sweet and lovely became intolerable and bitter. "Announce the kingdom," Jesus tells him. "Possess no gold or silver or copper in your purses, no traveling bag, no sandals, no staff."
Francis never wanted to found a religious order, however, he had followers from all walks of life. His practice was simple-true equality by showing honor, respect and love whether beggar or pope. His poverty had a sister-humility. He had total dependence on the good God. His brotherhood included all of creation. There is a story that tells us that birds stood still as he walked among them and would fly off when he bid them so. He is the patron of animals, nature and ecology.
The Carmelite Order will be celebrating another big feast, on the 15th-St. Teresa of Avila, the founder of all the Discalced convents and monasteries.
Quoting americancatholic.org: "It is said that God's gift to Sta. Teresa is threefold. She was a woman; she was a contemplative; and she was an active reformer.
"As a woman, Teresa stood on her own two feet, even in the man's world of her time. She is a person wrapped not so much in silence as in mystery. Beautiful, talented, outgoing, adaptable, affectionate, courageous, enthusiastic, she was totally human.
Like Jesus, she was a mystery of paradoxes: wise, yet practical; intelligent, yet much in tune with her experience; a mystic, yet an energetic reformer.
"Teresa was a woman 'for God,' a woman of prayer, discipline and compassion. Her heart belonged to God. She was misunderstood, misjudged, opposed in her efforts at reform. Yet she struggled on, courageous and faithful; she struggled with her own mediocrity, her illness, her opposition. Her many writings on prayer and contemplation are drawn from her experience: powerful, practical and graceful.
"Though a contemplative, she spent much of her time and energy seeking to reform herself and the Carmelites, to lead them back to the full observance of the primitive rule. She founded over a half-dozen new monasteries. She traveled, wrote, fought-always to renew, to reform. In herself, in her prayer, in her life, in her efforts to reform, in all the people she touched, she was a woman for others, a woman who inspired and gave life. In 1970, the Church gave her the title Doctor of the Church. She and St. Catherine of Siena were the first women so honored." I love the feistiness of Sta. Teresa living in the time of turmoil and reform.
On the 22nd of October we will celebrate the 1st Feast of St. John Paul II as a saint. In his 27 years of papal ministry, John Paul II wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people. Pope Benedict XVI beatified John Paul II in 2011, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014.
Elected pope in October 1978, Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. The traveling Pope, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations. He promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives. He visited Rome's Main Synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel.
He improved Catholic-Muslim relations and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul's ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his ministry as pope.
"Christ is the center of the universe and of human history" was the opening line of his 1979 encyclical, Redeemer of the Human Race. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as "a witness to hope."
On October 28 is the Feast of St. Jude Thaddeus, the Patron Saint of Desperate cases, because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere no matter how harsh, trying and difficult the circumstances are.
There are saints for the 365 days of the calendar and even more than just one for the day. I heard in a priest's homily that there is much celebration in heaven during a saint's feast.
As we celebrate the MassKara Festival, let us not forget that there is a cause for jubilation daily. There is a saint or an angel who is praying for us, an angel watching over us, and most especially, Our Lady who is forever interceding for us.