IT IS THE LORD (Salutatory Address on the SBDS 3rd Solemn Investiture and Graduation Rites)

DOMINUS EST!

Indeed, to follow Christ is not difficult at all if IT IS THE LORD who reigns in our life! With openness, obedience and humility like that of Mary and Joseph, it is possible and highly probable to be Christ-like. However, it became so hard for us to imitate him and become a Man of God because of our self-centeredness – submitting to our own whims and tendencies we acquired many years ago. True to our desire to answer His call, we certainly need to be formed and be transformed. And that is what the past year is all about.

To the lay-faithfuls who spared some of your precious time just to celebrate this momentous event with us today, thank you for coming over! To our family, relatives, friends, seminary personnel, benefactors, seminarians, lay-faculty members, priests, formators and to our dearly loved Bishop – Most. Rev. Jose R. Rojas, Jr., D.D., a pleasant day!

THANK YOU Lord for everything! We were the brave Benjamins who enthusiastically expressed our desire to know you, love you and serve you months ago. Today, we are overjoyed in celebrating this meaningful day, not because we are graduates nor to be invested with cassock and surplice, but because we can confidently say that we have known you a little and come closer to you in a way. It is you who brought us here and you made us reach this far. We do not have anything and we are worthy of nothing. But you made us and formed us. It is rightful then that all of our thanksgivings go up to you – you who are our creator, our provider, redeemer, and our ultimate destiny!

Thank you, Father, our creator. Thank you for you have given us breaths and spirits. We are so privileged that you have called us and grasped us by your hands and formed us. And that we felt concretely within the borders of this seminary through our ingenious Rector and our trustful priest-formators.

-          We are grateful that despite our nothingness God, through you, still called us and grasped us in this abode where we are brought into new being. Uncertain if we will make a good addition in the seminary community, you took some chances to transform us… not because of what we are, but because you perceived in us a better man we can be. We value much of your trust and patience in forming us to be the Man of God despite our sinfulness. While it is easier to send us out and give up on us, you still keep us. You took the risk and became fervent in your hope that we will conform little by little. That is something we do not deserve. Maraming salamat po Bishop, Fr. Gio, Fr. Athan, Fr. Ed and Fr. Chito, (our Pre-College Prefect) for holding us in your arms and keeping us in your hearts!

Thank you, Father, our greatest provider. Thank you for providing for our needs – be it spiritual, human, pastoral, intellectual or material. Truly, your generosity cannot be outdone. Noone can ever exceed your charity. You, who feeds the birds in the air which neither sow nor reap and clothes in such splendor that grass of the field toiling not, deserves our heartfelt thanksgiving. You truly know our needs and provided all these through our benefactors, professors, formators, spiritual directors and parish priests. True enough, if one seeks first the kingdom of God; all things are added unto him.

-          Thank you Lord for our greater appreciation of learning as an integral part of our seminary life and developing our capacity to face intelligently whatever circumstance we may encounter in our future ministry is deepened by our intelligent and diligent priest-professors and lay faculty members – Fr. Gio (Prefect for Studies), Dean Abrigo and Sr. Mary John Amaranto, maraming salamat po for your love in educating us.

-          Thank you Lord for the people you have sent over to strengthen us in discovering the meaning of service to others and in facing the demand of service in our future ministry. Fr. Athan, Fr. Mike, our Parish Priests, especially to Fr. Ian, maraming salamat po sa tiwala at sa mga oportunidad na makatulong sa parokya!

-          Thank you Lord for that great realization that human existence cannot find its fulfillment apart from its religious dimension and that sense of sacred in life is necessary to be a good Christian enabling us to crystallize our decision to follow Christ in our future ministry. This realization is re-echoed through our Spiritual Directors. Fr. Ed and Fr. Dudz, for your reminders, guidance and enlightenment, maraming salamat po!

-          Thank you Lord for the assurance that you will provide for all our needs. Being true to your words, you touched, inspired and moved our dear benefactors to salvage us when we are about to give up on this vocation. I cannot imagine my life in the seminary without your help through them. We would have remained restless pondering on our financial difficulties and material inadequacies without whispering on them to be of quick help. Undoubtedly, we are the apples of your eyes and you alone suffice. To our benefactors, maraming-maraming salamat po for responding and cooperating with the Lord in redistributing His plentitude to us!

-          I would like to personally thank my benefactors: the family of Kuya Arnold and Ate Ynah Clavio, Tita Alaine Veluz and her family, my friends Renante, Khem, Glenda, Mary France, Maam Myla, Joysie, Vaughn, Ate Gina, Mam Biboy and Mam Aan.

Thank you Lord, our Redeemer. You loved us so much that you gave your only begotten son as a sign of your great love for us. You did not content yourself with the death of your son on the cross, you even gave us a family where your love encompasses although broken and dysfunctional for some. Your unconditional love and sacrifices are portrayed almost perfectly in our family, group of friends, and organizations where we belong.

-          Thank you Lord for teaching us the value of love and sacrifices while we are in the cares of our Nanay, Tatay, Ate, Kuya, Lolo, Lola, Tiyo, & Tiya!

-          Thank you Lord for having been delighted by the camaraderie of being with you through the companionship of our best friends and acquaintances.

-          Thank you Lord for bringing us true peace and pure joy in serving you at the altar and serving you through the needy people.

-          Personally, taos puso po akong nagpapasalamat sa aking pamilya – Kay Dadi, kay Mami (na baka katabi ninyo ngaun sa upuan), kay Osel, Ning, Ate Ging, Kuya Gerand, Jing at Chloe. Gayon din ang aking pasasalamat sa mga organisasyong aking dating kinabibilangan: Parish Youth Council, Lector Ministry, Colegio de Sta. Rita Family.

Thank you Lord for you are our destiny. Thank you for adopting us like true children of God who are destined for eternal life with You. You were so selfless that you allowed each one of us to get a share of you precious name which oftentimes we take for granted. You have maintained your divinity for us to share and with your humility shared with us in our humanity.

-          Thank you Lord for giving us St. Joseph, our true model as guardian of this Church.

-          Thank you Lord for You have revealed through your saints that a place is reserved for us in heaven should we only live like them. For increasing our patience and determination to persevere in this vocation as St. Rita of Cascia did; for inspiring us to practice humility and simplicity as depicted by St. Francis of Assisi; for continuously prompting us do little things with great love like St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and for moving us, through the examples of St. Benedict of Nursia, to labor prayerfully as an expression of our intimacy with You, our Lord and our God, we are greatly favored.

-          Thank you for bringing us strong hope when we stumble and fall as we live up to our Baptismal promises. For reinforcing us to never give up on our efforts through the examples of St. Augustine, St. Paul, St. Peter. St. Mary Magdalene and Dimas. No matter how sinful we are, you are still there calling us and waiting for us for that most awaited homecoming with you in Heaven.

-          Thank you Lord for expressing your brotherly love through the welcoming hands of our brother from the Philosophy and Theology Departments. Thank you for attending to our lamentations expressed in the sympathy of our co-seminarians when we were disturbed and confronted with frustrations and guilt in our dealings inside the seminary. You care enough to lift our drooping spirit through their encouraging words. Their examples strengthen us to draw our true identity as Christian from you with greater resolve.

-          Sa ORATIO moderator group, let us pray and do good works unceasingly. Sa aking mga Sanu – Cent and Bim, salamat sa walang kapares na samahang gallegista! Kay Fr. Dawe and Fr. Roger, salamat po sa magandang halimbawa at magandang pangalang inyong itinatatak bilang paring gallegista.

Thank you Lord for being our Motherly Father. You have exhibited both the maternal and paternal dimensions of love and infinitely more! You comfort us as a mother comforts his sons. You gathered us as a mother bird gathers her broods under her wings. You have provided refuge we cannot refuse, although at times we abuse.

-          Thank you Lord for strengthening our faith through Mary, Our Lady of the Pillar, when we are cluttered with doubts and poisoned by our weak disposition. Thank you for you have sent someone, in the person of Virgin Mary, who leads us back to you when we have gone astray. In times of sickness, you comfort us through the maternal care of our Blessed Mother.

-          Thank you Lord for keeping your eyes fixed on us through the Mother Butler Guild. You were never tired of looking after us and cheering on us as we grow and mature on our vocation while inside the seminary. Salamat Nay Cora and Nay Emms and team!

-          Thank you Lord for relentlessly expressing your motherly love through Nay Gina, Nay Helen and Nay Grace who dared to take the role of a true mother to us.

-          Allow me then to personally thank the Nanays in my life today: Tita Alaine, Sr. Tess and the DM sisters, Ate Nids, Sr. Irene and Sr. Elaine.

Our vocation is as paradoxical as our faith, plenty of contradictions. It is certain, yet obscure. It is free, yet morally obliging. Reasonable, yet beyond natural reason. An act, yet a process. A gift, yet our doing. Personal, yet ecclesial. We are asking you, then, to please pray unceasingly that one day we may acquire the true characters of a priest - the HOLY one whom we need in the Kingdom of God here on earth: Honest, Open and Obedient, Lowly and Loving, and Yearning only for the Lord.

Everyday is always our 2^nd and last chance to prove our courage and fidelity to this vocation. There is a long journey ahead of us towards priesthood. Human frailties will trouble us as we try to imitate Christ. There are people around us who will discourage us as we prove ourselves worthy of this call. Let us abandon ourselves to the divine love and mercy of God and we will end victorious. If there is someone whom we are indebted to through all these, IT IS THE LORD!