Rev Venusto L Mata
San Vicente ISur to the World Series
"No prayer is as terse and meaningful and sincere as the Universal Prayer." avr
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San Vicente Parish Church, Ilocos Sur
Our Father who art in Heaven … Give us this day our daily bread and forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us and deliver us from evil.”
No prayer I know is as terse and meaningful and sincere as the Universal Prayer.![]()
In fact, when we say it, we and humanity are one. When said before taking a trip we are also wishing for others; when said before meal, we think of those who have less to eat; when said to console a bereaved, we feel a part of us also dies; And when said in thanksgiving, we exult in the triumph of the human spirit.
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I could only surmise Fr Ven’s imprimatur from the biblical passage, “He who has no sin, casts the first stone.” Christ was writing something on the ground when a rowdy crowd demanded that a sinner be stoned to death. Nobody dared. Slowly the crowd dispersed. On the ground marked a monument of such divine wisdom. Even while reading this article you could perceive the power of this passage, and can you imagine its echo reverberating in those who personally heard Christ say it?
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San Vicente ISur to the World Series
"No prayer is as terse and meaningful and sincere as the Universal Prayer." avr
Dr Abe V Rotor
A Study of Human Nature
A Study of Human Nature
San Vicente Parish Church, Ilocos Sur
Listen to his homily and instantly you don’t feel alone, you are drawn to a holy person, and become accepted into the fold. The tiers that categorically classify us in the grace of God dissolve, so with the boundaries of acceptance and rejection.
Because Reverend Venusto Mata, better known as Fr Ven, is a universal preacher. He openly identifies himself among the faithful in the essence of the Universal Prayer:
Our Father who art in Heaven … Give us this day our daily bread and forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us and deliver us from evil.”
In the second part, the refrain of the prayer, we, our and us are said six times, ascendant, thankful and apologetic at the same time in so short a phrase of only twenty-four words.
No prayer I know is as terse and meaningful and sincere as the Universal Prayer.
In fact, when we say it, we and humanity are one. When said before taking a trip we are also wishing for others; when said before meal, we think of those who have less to eat; when said to console a bereaved, we feel a part of us also dies; And when said in thanksgiving, we exult in the triumph of the human spirit.Fr Ven virtually starts his homily with we and ends it with us. In the course of his homily, these pronouns freely flow in full narrative like relating an on-site and hands-on experience, or first account event – and even personal thought – preferring the collective “first person,” and very seldom “I”, the sounding board of speeches and orations – and many and endless conversations.
I could only surmise Fr Ven’s imprimatur from the biblical passage, “He who has no sin, casts the first stone.” Christ was writing something on the ground when a rowdy crowd demanded that a sinner be stoned to death. Nobody dared. Slowly the crowd dispersed. On the ground marked a monument of such divine wisdom. Even while reading this article you could perceive the power of this passage, and can you imagine its echo reverberating in those who personally heard Christ say it?St Francis of Assisi, father of ecology
Who then are “we”?
Saint Francis of Assisi, in his “Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon,” elevated our consciousness on the level of respect and dignity with Creation, that we treat the sun, moon, stars, waters, as our “brothers and sisters,” – all in loving praise to the Creator. Such fraternal relationship does not make us superior – not even self-anointed guardians - of Nature, for which man often takes license in abusing the earth of her resources and natural beauty. It is most fitting that Saint Francis’ concept of creation has become the guiding principle of ecology, the recent science in trying to understand our environment.
In The Little Prince, the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery advanced the concept of we, on a philosophical level. Here a “Little Prince,” the innocent, ideal, and pure child inherent in every grownup comes to the rescue. It was this little prince who saved the lost pilot in the desert. In like manner we, anyone of us grownups, when faced with extreme danger find counsel and comfort from that inner resident.
But this little prince is also a fine work of Providence, shaped by our upbringing, environment and training, the same elements that build a “formative conscience,” in the words of Fr .Tamerlane Lana, former rector or UST. WE is the totality of our personhood influenced by society and environment.
Thanks to the classics and masterpieces, discourses of scholars, wise counsel of the old, legends and tales that awaken the child into adulthood, institutions that are the pillars of our society, festivities that keep the quaintness of living, And to the enduring lessons from the Holy Book, the living words of God.
Listen to Fr Ven and you will understand more of the limitless application and implication of WE and US in every facet of our lives, every sector of society, every discipline in knowledge, in the hall of justice, sports arena. in times of want and prosperity, in work and play. In love for the poor of Mother Teresa, now a saint. In Maximilian Kolbe’s extreme sacrifice so that a family man may be reunited with his family after the war, In the exemplary leadership of Gandhi, Mandela, Lincoln; of the martyrs of the church like Peter, Paul, and Stephen; scholars of the church - Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, et al. And our very own, Vincent Ferrer.
(Continued)