Hearing Sunday Masses

My family no longer attend Sunday masses regularly. My eldest sister and brother are already studying in Manila and my parents were busy; my mother for washing clothes and cleaning the house and my father and two older brothers for attending to our fishpond.

However, me and my older sister go to the town to hear mass every Sunday. Although my parents gave us money for our fare, we walk through the "pilapils" (fishpond dikes) and use our money for buying comics like Aliwan, Love Story or sometimes movie magazines like Kislap, Moviestar, etc. After hearing Sunday masses, we also buy "halo-halo" for refreshments and some native cakes like puto, biko as "pasalubong" (present) to those who were left in the house.

It was a routine, a ritual which me and my older sister did for about two years. The sermons were oftentimes boring that we sleep or occupy our minds with other things thus, we can not relay the message to those left at home. We continually justify our attendance to the Sunday masses by saying "so we can have our communions" but we never understood what it meant. We were praised by the people who see us for diligently attending the Sunday masses but we were not spiritually energized.

What energized me spiritually are my personal prayers uttered in the secrecy of our family room. I usually study my lessons after classes, reading aloud. But after an hour, I pray alone with my knees on the floor and head bowed down. I pray for God's blessings and deliverance for me and my family.