Maundy Thursday Recollection

I basically grow up with my mother's big influence on Catholic Religion. The church is her only refuge to have that peace of mind from all the misery of life. She was a single parent with two kids and I can't even imagine how she was able to hurdle her life "alone" without the support of anyone but HIM, the creator of all things!

The best years of my life was waking up at dawn time to be in the Cathedral for Easter! I can still smell the fresh air of dawn as we waited for that procession. As far as I can remember, we never missed this special Catholic event every year! When my mother lost her job (I was 10 years old), we need to find another place to live and the first thing on her wish list was move to another community with a chapel nearby. And we did! The chapel is a walking distance from our home in fact, you can hear the on-going mass from our home. She became an active parishioner in the church, I became a member of the choir and my other sibling became an altar boy or we call it: Sacristan. I remember one Holy Thursday, my mother had a big news. She was excited that she was chosen to participate during the Washing of the Feet. Every church activity, we were active and it's all because of my mother. During Holy Week, I was always appointed to become a reader for Station of the Cross and I miss those moment. Living here in the US, away from my immediate family and friends made me feel so empty. My faith never ceased and thanks to my mother for having me know Jesus, the risen Christ and redeemer of the World.