Welcoming the "Ber" Months....

In the Gregorian calendar the last four months of the year are fondly called the "Ber" months. It starts in SeptemBer through OctoBer, and NovemBer, and then DecemBer. These months have even more significance in the Filipino customs because the beginning of the "Ber" months is also the start of the long holiday season in the Philippines all through the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

The Philippines has the distinction as the only country that starts the holiday season once September comes in. Thus, the world's longest Christmas season is celebrated in the Philippines, Asia's predominantly Christian nation.

Soon radio programs and television shows will be featuring holiday tunes, just like it is actually Christmas already. Even the weather joins in, because we begin to feel the colder mornings, especially in the coming days.

It is worth noting that in both blissful and hard times the Filipino resilient spirit always finds a reason to smile, and more so as the cool "Ber" months begin, ushering in the joyous countdown to Christmas.

Now, Filipinos are known for their last-minute shopping, perhaps or usually after the release of 13th month pay and Christmas bonuses in mid-December. But it is not unusual that many actually begin preparing their lists for holiday shopping and gift-giving as early as the month of September.

It is still 116 days before Christmas as of the first day of the "ber" months, yet shopping malls start to become busy and crowded with shoppers and onlookers, and even more as the "ber" months progress. This atmosphere is expected to become more lively and happy when the malls and other stores are finally decked with holiday attractions.

But on top of all the anticipation, the Catholic Church always reminds the faithful about the real meaning of the Christmas season: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to redeem us from sin. Thus, in the midst of our material and physical holiday preparations, Christmas celebration should always be Christ-centered: Christ is with us. That really is the true meaning of CHRISTMAS!

Let us then welcome the "Ber" months... in the spirit of Christian love.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

17 August 2019:

To my Dear Kuya Peter...

I think of you today,

and remember you in silence,

more importantly I pray for you

with hope you're now in heaven.

Remembering you always

with treasured memories

of you and me and our childhood

both the happy and the sad

and thank God we were brothers

while you were here on earth.

So keep shining bright in heaven,

with our parents and other siblings

so you can light my way

when it is my time to be home.

Happy Birthday, Kuya Peter!

August 15, 2019, Thursday: Solemnity of the Assumption

August 15, Thursday, is the solemnity of the Assumption.

The Church teaches that when Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, died, her body was not subjected to the usual process of physical decay but was "assumed" into heaven and reunited there with her soul.

The Assumption of the Blessed Mother is one of the four Marian dogmas. The other three are her "Divine Motherhood", "Perpetual Virginity", and "Immaculate Conception".

A dogma in the Catholic Church is defined as "a truth revealed by God which the Magisterium of the Church declared as binding" for all the faithful to believe and accept. A dogma may also be solemnly promulgated by the College of Bishops along with the Pope at an ecumenical council, or by the Pope alone when speaking in a statement "ex cathedra".

In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Motherhood of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven."

Ascension of Jesus vs. Mary's Assumption:

What is the difference between our Lord's Ascension and Mary's Assumption into heaven?

The answer is that our Lord Jesus Christ by His own power ascended into heaven. Now Mary was assumed or taken up into heaven by God. She did not do it under her own power because she has none.

Prayer:

Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!