He Is Risen!

"He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands..."

Wow! I can't believe lent is over already! 40 days sometimes feels like it's forever, but in reality it goes by so fast. I remember juss going to ash wednesday mass, and thinking, 'so starts the beginning of the lenten journey.' Then starting a whole set of devotionals to send during the lenten season. Station of the cross fridays, reflection on the Passion of our Lord and truly giving yourself to him through each station. The $1 fish fridays at mcdonalds! haha I think I ate mcdonlads fish sandwhiches almost errfriday during lent. So much went on these past 40 days, good thing I didnt give up blogging for lent, otherwise you'd all be reading a novel! Praise God for the ressurection, praise God for juss errthang.

During lent I have a couple of traditions that I always love to look forward to. A couple of them I had to almost skip out on. First off the stations of the cross on fridays, a great way to give youre whole self to Him. One of my fav stations is the 4th station, where Jesus meets his Mother on the way to Calvary. I can totally visually see this scene going on from the Passion movie. Wow, juss that whole mental image leaves you speechless. Sometimes, on friday nites, I'd get lazy and be tempted not to go. However, lent is a season of sacrafice; letting go of our selfish wants and needs.

I love rubio's friday lenten luncheon w/the peebs, the 3rd yurr in a row we've done this. One friday during lent, we go and have lunch at rubios and juss catch up. Funny thing is, thas the only time we have lunch together throughout the whole yurr. Lastly, during Holy Week, watching the Passion of the Christ play at St. Lucy's in long beach. I remember the first yurr jeanne and I went and we didnt even know they were havnig that. On the way home we left speechless, we didnt even know what to say after that. Watching that play like I said feels as if youre really thurr. It's kinda skurry but yet to know our God went through all that for us. Thas real love right thurr.

Thursday, I had lunch w/bio girl, it was fun. Her and I have been meaning to do this for a long time now, but juss never got a chance to do it. Originally, we were gonna do this whole picnic in the purrk type of thing. You know something different, cheaper, and lets you get out and enjoy the fresh aurr. Well, that didnt work out cuz the rain came in and ruined that idea. SooOooo, I said how bout we go to mac grill instead? Which was coo w/her cuz she's never eaten thurr before. Did that whole thing, and then afterwurrd we walked around the cerritos mall.

Came home and then it was time to get ready to go to mass. I was kinda stressing cuz I was suppose to be one of the people for the washing of the feet. Well wendy never emailed me back directions or anything of the sort. I get to church an hour early and it turns out wendy called in sick! So fr. kevin left rey and sandy in charge of the mass for the rest of the weekend. SUpposedly wendy had left errthang set up already, altar servers, Ems, urshers, etc. etc. Though nothing of the sort was organized! So we were running around that nite asking certain people as they came in to see if they wanted to be purrt of the mass. I curried the oil of the sick in and I was nervous cuz I was skurred I'd trip and spill it all. Oh my gosh, thatd be the worst thing that could happen!

Fr. Brennan's homily was great, he talked bout how Holy Thursday is one fatty day. He used the analogy of how this is the type of day, that doctors would be worried bout. Juss cuz God poured errthang into making holy thursday. How we celebrate two really great sacarments, the institution of the eucharist, and the priesthood. He's so funny cuz he said last yurr and ths yurr at the beginning of his homily, 'today is our(meaning the priests)birfday.' haha Then we went on to talk bout during the last supper Jesus was the host of the supper. He was the servant of his servants, bending down and washing his feet of his disciples. How we are called to touch the bodies of all those(even the judas type of people)with regard washing, healing, soothing, and being the servant of all, down on the floor with Jesus.

I was one of the people that fr. washed the feet of. The water was cold and I got nervous being up thurr, ha I didnt want to look up at errone. As fr. was washing my feet, he looked at my scurr and said jokingly, 'did a snake bite you thurr?' ha IMma miss his funny jokes that he has and juss his sense of humor. THen afterwurrds in the sacristy he was telling me my feet stank. haha

Afterwurrds, went w/fred to bucca for his friend from SOL's birfday dinner. It was cool ran into all the SOL peeps thurr. Sat at the table w/myron, marianne, gretchen, and ray valiente. Alaine stopped by to say hi after she had gotten off from lucille's. Stayed thurr for a couple hours, chillin and talking. Saw my shepherd as well! woo! Myron's so ffunny he was telling how he had to carry one of the oils too, and was afraid he'd end up dropping it. Its even skurrier for me cuz I had to use that stool to put the oil on the top shelf. Praise God I didnt drop it! haha

Friday went to the good friday liturgy and I pretty much was at sPv from let's see 1230-430pm. Again helping them getting things organized w/the liturgy for the service and all. That guy andrew from spy is a real character. Sandy asked him bout getting two crossess to use for the veneration of the cross. He told her no that we only use one cross, and errone juss makes two lines. Sandy kinda looked him and said, 'well fr. breannan wants two crosses and he's the boss. So you can tell him to only use one.' Ha! WEll we ended up only using one cross in the beginning, it was tha real heavy one thats made out of trees. After seeing that the line was gonna take forever and they were still only on the middle section, I went and told fr. we need another cross. He gave me permission to get the other cross out to use, this way the line went faster and smoother.

After that service was over I curried the cross for the stations of the cross. Backing up. fr. said in his homily that each time we submit to temptation, each time we sin and turn our backs on GOd, we begin to pierce the very core of his heart. Causing him to cry so loud that it echos throughout the whole heaven and earth. Helped carry the cross for fr. kevin for the stations of the cross. Afterwurrds went to confession, wow the line was soo long over like 50 people! On top of that thrr was only 2 priests hurring confessions. I wonder if they ever get impatient and tired of hurring confessions. I got a funny text too that morning, I wont go into detail but it was juss hilarious. If you want to know wha it was, juss ask its funny. Came home and I ended up taking a long nap. Then not being able to sleep that nite.

Sat. I spent the whole morning helping tito raoul and tita stella move. Tita stella had asked me fri. nite to help them 'transport' some stuff to the new house. I remember them saying a while back they were in the process of moving. I figured thurr shouldnt ber that much stuff to do then. On top of that she asked me to come @ 530am! I was like 530?! umm yeah I guess so...ha This was my lenten sacfarice! haha 530am comes and I get thurr and oh my gosh its craziness! Nothign was organized!!! Errthang was juss all cluttered on the floor. Some things were in boxes, but errthang else was on the floor! Then she told me she had forgotten to call me that since they sturrted last nite, i didnt need to be thurr till 730am! Oh why?!

I wanted to do something, but thurr really wasnt much I could do. I mean she had so much stuff that needed to be packed and put away. 630am rolls around I told her I'd be back cuz I was gonna get some breakfast. I took my time, getting breakfast and by the time I came back some peeps whurr thurr. Thurr realator hired these couple of guys to help load and curry the big stuff. Then later on carolne, her husband, and his brother came as well. They moved right behind the church those big 2 story houses. We got done about 12pm and I feel bad for them cuz they got so much stuff to go through and figure out what to do. Majority of stuff was juss stuff accumulated from the past. YOu know how filipinos can be real pack rats, saving errthang.

Came home and I knocked out for more than a couple of hours. I ended up juss lounging around the house for the rest of the nite. Oh yeah I rented the gospel of John too, on friday nite. It's a pretty good movie, I was folllowing a long w/it in the bible. ha To me I thought it was pretty exact to wha it said in the bible. It juss wasnt emotional as the Passion, obviously cuz the Passion focused on the Passion itself. Whurr as the gospel of John, goes through errthang from the very beginning. I suggest you rent it yourself.

Sunday easter morning, went to mass @ 915am. They all had a traffic director outside directing traffic, but he was real rude. Fr. brennan had another great homily bout through easter, were shown how GOd treats the ones He loves. Basically the message was not to so much focus on the sufferings and the negatives of this world. Or not even in this world but in your own personal life. We can get so caught up in the 'good fridays' we forget bout the ressurection. If we focus our eyes on the ressurection, no matter wha we experience in life we will get through it.

My cousin came over today w/his new babeh boy! Aww he's sooooooo freakin cute! He's only a month old. His name is Kai Avery, I kinda like that name Kai ha. Anyway, hurrs a picture of him...this now makes the 9th great-grandchild in the family. It really is a blessing though that, my grandpurrents are able to see stuff like this. That they get to see that all the fruits their marriage has produced. I'd soo love to take one family picture, but it'd be impossible to get errone. Our family has gotten sooooooo incredibly big, its truly amazing what one 'yes' and 'i do' created. Praise God!

kai

side notes: I really appreciate, those who really take the time to listen when you need it. Please pray for a special intention that I have.I cant wait for the anniversary purrty!

Spring break over already!! oh why?!

"We are family, I got all my sisters and me..."im done, im out God bless!