Essay Contest Submission of My 11-Year-Old Son

ESSAY #2 of 3

Serving as an Altar Server

            The most influential moment to me last year was when I was commissioned as an Altar

server at Saint Catherines church. Being an Altar Server is a great privilege for me,  because I

am able to help the clergy during Mass. I get to help with things that are needed for the Mass.

And I can join in the procession and the recessional.

            An Altar server is a lay person who helps the priest or the deacon during Mass. Altar

servers help before, during, and after Mass, but most of the time, during Mass. Altar servers are

needed to be trained so they could do their best when serving.

             What I do as an altar server is, on a Sunday Mass, 15-10 minutes before Mass, I

would be setting the bells, lighting the candles if they are not lit. During Mass, holding the missal

for the priest, holding the candles during the gospel reading, washing the hands of the priest,

ringing the bells during the consecration, and leading the priest with everyone else during the

precession and the recessional. After Mass, I would be, putting the bells away, blowing out the 

candles, putting the missal away, and most inportantly, saying thanksgiving prayer.

            When I am serving at the Altar as an Altar server, it makes me feel encouaged to serve.

The more I do it, I get the better I get. When I am about to serve, I feel excited to

serve. I get more excited to serve on a Saturday or Sunday Mass because I having to be doing

more actions are required. When I serve, I usually like serving with my friends.

ESSAY #1 of 3

Jesus

            Jesus has been the biggest influence in my life. Because I pray to Jesus and he

helped me. Jesus through his priests hears my confession and gives me his Body and

Blood, so I could be holy. He helps us understand the Ten Commandments and having

Sunday as a Holy Day. He also tells us the Two Great Commandments which are: 1. Love

the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strenghth. 2. Love your

neighvor as yourself.

 The Commandments 1-3 are about loving God.

            If I follow the Two Great Commandments, I may also be following the 10

Commandments. The Ten Commandments are:

1. I am the Lord Your God. You shall not have other gods besides me.

2. You shall not take the Lord your God in vain.

3. Remenber to kke the Sabbath Holy.

The Commandments 4-10 are about loving neighbor.

4. Honor your Father and Mother.

5. You shall not kill.

6. You shall not commit adulter.

7. You shall not steal.

8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.

            The Commandments talk about not Just about what is says but it also talks about

smaller sins. For an example. The Commandment #5 says not to kill. Killing is a big sin

or a mortal sin. But it also means not to hurt any body which is a smaller sin. Or not to

steal, also meaning not to cheat as a smaller sin. Stealing may not be a mortal sin but it

would if it is serious.

  

            If any of the Commandments are not obayed. They have been violated ether with a

venial sin, (which is not serious) or a mortal sin. (which is serious) If a person commited

a mortal sin, it must have three condistions done in order for it to be a mortal sin. The

three are: 1. It has to be a serious sin. 2. The person doing knows it is a mortal sin. 3. If

the person know that it is a mortal sin, and the person still does it, it is a mortal sin.

            Without the Ten Commandments, I would be doing a lot of bad things. But it is

not just me, it would be everyone. The Ten Commandment are like rules in a country or a

nation. If someone disobays or violates a rule, it has done somthing bad, and commited a

sin if the rule is good. The same thing happens with the Ten Commandments. If someone

disobays any of the Ten Commandments, the person not only did something bad, but also 

committed a sin. Rules could be in a county, state, city, and a household. These are a few

reasons why the Ten Commandments and other good rules are important.

Homily #84 for Baptism of 3 Babies on Feast of St. Agnes

Homily #84 for Baptism of 3 Babies on the Feast of St. Agnes

(St. Catherine's Church, Vallejo, CA, USA)

To date, I have been blessed to administer 43 baptisms.

After I baptized Emmelynne, I felt such joy.  Then, I baptized Miles.  Then came Na'Anie.  I was happy here, too.

Thank you, God, for this awesome privilege!

Text From My Wife About Our Son's Openness to the Priesthood

WIFE: I asked the kids if they wanted to enter that music/art contest Ate is heading, and the 3 older kids said, "yes."

I asked John Paul one of the questions, "Who do you aspire to be?"  And he said... "maybe a priest."  Really, son?  "Yes." 
You think God might be calling you to be a priest?  He said, "yeah."

😇 Can you imagine my surprise???  He has not sounded that certain since he was very little.

ME: Whoa!!!  I thought he lost that interest

WIFE: Me, too.😂

Thank God he is very much open!!!!

ME: We'll see.

How Did We All Get "21" in Blackjack? & Teaching Kids Virtue with Blackjack

Will someone please explain a couple of things to me?

Statistically, what are the odds of this?

Can someone please give me a C-3PO-ish answer?

How did my 3 kids and I each get "21" in the same round of Blackjack?

Take a look at the picture.

And not only that, how did my daughter (who was the house dealer on the left) get all hearts?

I told the kids that maybe our Guardian Angels were playing a joke on us (even though St. Thomas Aquinas would say that Angels don't possess a sense of humor the way human beings possess a sense of humor as necessary accidents).

I mean, I was TOTALLY floored!!!  The cards were dealt absolutely random as we told the House "hit me".

First, I said, "I have 21."

Then JP said, "Me, too," followed by EJ.

When Mariana started to show her cards, they were ALL hearts!  She is named, after all, for LOVE.  Then she got 21!

Our House rule (and I think this is true of Blackjack rules) is that if there is a tie between the House and a player, then the House wins.  I could be wrong, but that's how we operated.

This was my very first time I taught the kids.  We played about 10 rounds, and I told them that this was our last round.

Everyone started off with $5 each.  Here were the results at the end:

1st Place: Mariana -- $11

2nd Place: E.J. -- $5

3rd Place: JP -- $4

4th Place: Dad (me) -- $0

I really, really, really didn't try to get last place.   I kid you not.  It was the weirdest thing today, on different levels.

* * *

Anyways, here are some points I wanted to make:

- I taught the kids the importance of following rules.

- They learned that infraction of the rules can ruin a game.

- No cheating.  This respects the 7th Commandment.  It is fairness and justice.

- If they make mistakes during the game, the greater good is that they learn from their mistakes.

- Gambling in moderation and recreation (as opposed to gambling one's livelihood) is not immoral in itself.*

*From Catechism of the Catholic Church #2413:

"Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant."

- Oh, and uh, I dazzled them -- and me for that matter(!) -- when I did a one-hand cutting of the cards during shuffling.

__________________________

ADDED ON 1/14/17: Someone replied with an awesome C-3PO-like answer!  Here it is:

According to what I can find the odds of one 21 is 12.18%. Therefore, the odds of all 4 of you getting it in a single round is approximately .02%, or in C-3PO terms, 4,544-to-1, so less likely than successfully navigating an asteroid field (3,720-to-1).

And actually, since none of you had a natural blackjack, it's only 7.36%, which makes for the odds being .003%, or 34,079-to-1, so roughly 10 times as hard as navigating an asteroid field.

Funeral Mass Homily #83 for Joseph "Joe" John Cizauskas

Rite of Interment

Gate of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Los Altos, CA
(I handed out Miraculous Medals which a former student gave me from France.)

Homily #83

St. Lucy's Catholic Church, Campbell, CA, USA

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

9:30am Funeral Mass

&

Rite of Interment @ Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Los Altos, CA, USA

After the burial, I dropped off the Perez-Cizauskas Marriage Prep Packet at the San Jose Diocesan Tribunal.

Then I had lunch at the Great Mall.

I stopped by the St. Jude Adoration Chapel at my boyhood parish,

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, in Milpitas.

I remember the Simon & Villanueva Families.

Reaching Out to Women Who've Had Abortions - Solemnity of the Epiphany (Homily #82)

Homily #82a

“Dear Mr. P., I have never met you, but I feel like I know you.  Before Rachel's Vineyard, my life was a mess.  After Rachel's Vineyard, I am doing better now in my life and am healing.  I just want to say thank you for reaching out to me.”  

- Letter From Unknown Teenager That Attended "Rachel's Vineyard" in 1999 to Mr. Purificacion, Religion Teacher, St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School, Vallejo, CA, from 1998-2002 (letter paraphrased from memory) and cited in Homily #82)

[Correction made on 1/10/17: I erroneously said "Project Rachel," but the correct ministry is Rachel's Vineyard.  My apologies.  Thank you to my friend, Maureen DeVigal, for the correction.]

Homily #82b (Sun. 5pm Mass)

________________________________

HOMILY #82
(first half of Homily #82 is partly recycled from Homily #49)

(accidentally logged in as Homily #83 on YouTube)

REACHING OUT TO WOMEN WHO HAVE HAD ABORTIONS

ON SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY

St. Catherine's Catholic Church, Vallejo, CA, USA

Jan. 7-8, 2017

I have here in my hand something to show you.  Right now, you don’t know what it is because it is wrapped in a blanket.  It is a mystery to you.

You may know some things about it.  You may even have some idea of what it is.  Using our reason, we know that something definitely exists here.  You can kind of figure it out and rule out what it is not.  Some might even come very close to actually guessing what it is.  It’s like an unwrapped Christmas present.

But even with a million years to figure it out, you won’t know the details unless I manifest it to you.  I must reveal it and take off the veil.  There must be a moment of epiphany, a revelation.

Well, eventually, I lift the veil like this.  And you realize – aha! – it’s a doll!  And after some time, I reveal even more details about the doll.  I reveal to you that this doll has a name: St. Therese of Lisieux. 

But wait! There’s more!  We have further new insight into the mystery when I tell you that the doll belongs to my 6-yr. old daughter.  I also reveal to you that my daughter took a pen and colored St. Therese’s left eye purple.  She said she accidentally colored St. Therese’s left eye.  All these details you would not know based on just reason alone, but through a revelation.

This visual exercise explains today’s Scripture readings for the Feast of the Epiphany, or the manifestation, or the revelation of Baby Jesus – even as a young newborn – as the Messiah and Savior of the world through a star. 

The magi or Three Kings, which represent the first non-Jews to come to Jesus, received the Revelation through the star at Bethlehem.  They asked, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews?  We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage."  The veil was taken off for them, and they had a moment of epiphany, the showing or manifestation of not an ordinary cute baby, but a Baby manifested as the Savior of the world, the Light to the Nations.  Just like what I did in slowly unveiling the doll, God gradually reveals or unveils His inner life in stages to the whole world.

In the Second Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.  It was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit…”

Vatican II, in its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, teaches, “Jesus is the mediator and fullness of all revelation (DV no 2).  In other words, through this Newborn Baby, God “has said everything; there will be no other word than this one” (CCC 65).  Nothing else – no new Scripture, no new prophet, no new event – is necessary anymore.

But wait again!  There’s more!  This leads to the second main point from the Word of God: We have to respond.  Here’s how: We are going to reply in one of two ways: either as Kings from the East bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh or as King Herod who wanted to kill the Baby Jesus.  I invite you to be the 3 Magi.

King Herod today represents a disregard for the sanctity of innocent human life.  I invite you to have a moment of epiphany for the millions of Newborn Baby Jesus’s of today.  Through the Good News today, I’d like to reach out to those who have had abortions and experience the loving merciful embrace of our Heavenly Father.

[Correction made on 1/10/17: I erroneously said "Project Rachel," but the correct ministry is Rachel's Vineyard.  My apologies.  Thank you to my friend, Maureen DeVigal, for the correction.]

There’s a program called Rachel's Vineyard.  Our diocese regularly promotes Rachel's Vineyard with confidential retreats.  Rachel's Vineyard helps to heal women who have had abortions.  When I was a Religion teacher at St. Pat’s teaching about abortion, I put up a poster on my classroom for Rachel's Vineyard.  One of my students gave it to his cousin, and about a month later, I received a card from a teenager who I never met before.  I kept the card.  It went something like this.  “Dear Mr. P., I have never met you, but I feel like I know you.  Before Rachel's Vineyard, my life was a mess.  After Rachel's Vineyard, I am doing better now in my life and am healing.  I just want to say thank you for reaching out to me.”

I use the words of St. John Paul the Great from his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life, 1995): I would like to say a special word to women who have had abortions.  The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decisions, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was painful….  The wound in your heart may not yet have healed.  Certainly, what happened was and remains terribly wrong.  But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope.  Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly.  If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance.  The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  You can be promoters of the right ot life.  Through your commitment to life…you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life” (EV 99).  

As we prepare for the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco on January 21, let the Church raise her voice on behalf of the voiceless and poor in the womb, the new Newborn Christ’s of today!  On this Feast of the Epiphany, let us too offer not material gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but rather let us have our moments of epiphany for love of the Newborn Christ by loving innocent human life and building a Culture of Life and Love today.

In closing, may we take to heart the words of the Responsorial Psalm, “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.”

My Email to a Spiritual Friend About St. André Bessette, St. Joseph, and Joy During Mass

i just had to tell you

today I assisted at the 745am Mass.  I think your mom was there but am not sure

normally I don't prepare the Roman Missal for the priest but today I did

after the Sign of the Cross, I scrambled to find the Collect (Opening Prayer), and I ended up turning to Bl. Andre Bassat(sp?) instead of the other Collect which is normally used during [an optional] memorial feast

anyway, when Father described Bl. Andre, he said that Bl. Andre had great devotion to St. Joseph! 

and that made me smile.

you and I were just talking about St. Joseph

soooooo....when it came turn for me to lead the Penitential Rite, I was so happy....

I did it w such joy (even while I was somewhat sleepy)

...and then I was so happy during the entire Mass (as I proclaimed the Gospel, Prayers of the Faithful, etc.).

...all b/c of St. Joseph

...so thank you!

I think I'm gonna blog about this later.

if you come across anything else about St. Joseph, let me know

(in another email to another friend of mine, he asked for prayers for employment, and I referred him to St. Joseph

...so thanks again!