GUIDE QUESTIONS:
1. How can you strengthen your "SPIRITUAL (Immune) SYSTEM" based on the sharing of Brother Andreus? 

2. Share some of your experiences wherein you feel God's grace. 

3. What are your realizations/insights after the Lenten Recollection?

 

2. If I were, to be honest, I suppose that it is a very general and cliché experience.  This living being such as I, shall take a moment of your time, and shall narrate one happening in my life that I felt miraculous. I wake up in the morning, do my daily activities, and eat together with my family. A very cliche thing to say but you see... During this time of the pandemic, a lot are suffering, a lot are alone, a lot have given up. During this time of the pandemic, not everyone is given a chance to bid their final goodbyes, not everyone is given a chance to hug their loved ones once more, not everyone  So I feel God's grace whenever I wake up and see my loved ones, my lovely family. As they say, "The love of a family is life's greatest blessing." From the bottom of my heart, I am sincerely thankful for God's grace that allows me to experience the best of life together with my loved ones.

 3. God moves mysteriously. And that is precisely correct. Just as  Brother Andreus said, "God's Grace keeps saving us." God does not make mistakes but He does miracles. I've also perceived that life isn't just doing things for yourself. It's possible to live in such a way that other people's happiness makes you happy too. Give love to the world and the world will give love to you. Bring Joy to the world and the world will bring joy to you.

 

Brother Andreus emphasized that God’s love is not up for competition. He has shared His love for all of us, and it did not exclude anyone. We should stop fighting for that love for it is not a reward for an unruly act.

 

Some of us think that in order for us to remain close to Him, we have to win Him. Otherwise, we are punished. However, for God loves us unconditionally, He sacrificed His Son for our own sake. He has given us the freedom to express ourselves, and it is up to us how we continue to follow Him along with this freedom.

 

To keep my “SPIRITUAL (immune) SYSTEM” strong at all times, I should always apply the things that He has taught me in my daily life. I should always follow the Commandments, I should always pray, and I should always trust in Him through ups and downs. 

 

 

 

 

God’s grace has been felt throughout my life. He has been my source of strength in times of doubts and worries. Despite these moments that tested my faith, I still feel the love and I soon experience the grace. His love for me has always been there, and it is up to us how we embrace it in our best and worst times. He has done wonders and miracles that brought to where I am today. Without these, I would never be the same person I was years ago.

 

 

 

This Lenten Recollection was a chance to listen, to learn, and to lean on Him. 

 

I sincerely enjoyed Brother Andreus as the guest speaker, and I have gained a lot of insights form him.

 

I, too, have experience a moment of doubt for the love that I experience from the people around me. Am I really worthless? Have I been lacking something? Was I too distant? However, the reassuring words of Brother Andreus gave light to me. It helped me internalize the fact that God loves me unconditionally, regardless of what I perceive to lack. I thought that I should always be at my best before facing the Lord, when in reality, the best version of me is when I am true to myself – unafraid to depend on Him and seek for Him.

 

In general, I feel God’s grace whenever I see the good in people. Whenever someone shows me kindness, I really believe that God is showing me his grace. However, the most significant moment in my life where I felt Him was probably when I got sick. My health has always been an issue for me. In the past, God showed me his grace since I don't believe I would have had the strength to get better without it. Furthermore, without prayer, my mindset would have shifted to one of negativity, and my resolve to improve my health would have weakened. I praise God for always alleviating my suffering and demonstrating to me that things would be better. When I've been on the verge of giving up, God reminds me of His presence in my life.  

This recollection made me realize how important it is to open yourself to God. God is always going to be there for us, but we won’t see it if we don’t allow Him to come into our lives. God loves us for who we are and He will never fail to show us that. But, we often have the misconception that God will show himself through grand expressions and elaborate miracles, but most of the time, he shows himself through the little things. So, we have to remember that in this Christian faith, it’s the little things that matter. 

Brother Andreus highlighted in his talk that we should stop in not letting God enter into our lives for He loved us first. We have to surrender ourselves to Him and let His enduring and merciful love enter us. We should let God freely love us, without boundaries, restrictions, and doubts we feel, for He knows and loves us most. 

With this sharing of Brother Andreus, I can strengthen my “SPIRITUAL (Immune) SYSTEM” by embracing God into my life and letting Him enter. I will remove all the limitations that I set in my life and openly welcome Him into my life. 

God’s grace is a gift and I am so grateful that I get to experience this despite all the hurdles I am facing. With this gift that I receive in all the highs and lows of my life, I get to appreciate His grace when I am experiencing difficult times in my life. It serves as a reminder that He will be always there for me no matter what. 

After the Lenten Recollection, I became more enlightened of God’s grace and love for us. I realized that despite all our shortcomings, He still loves and accepts us. With this, I learned to also give love to others like the love God has for us. I became more aware that I am the version of me today because God molded me with His love, mercy, and trust. He is the solid foundation of my life and identity. Without Him, I wouldn’t meet this version of myself who’s always trying to be a better person to herself and to others, guided by God’s plans and unwavering love. 

2. Share some of your experiences wherein you feel God’s grace.

Everyday, I can feel God’s grace. As I start my day, I can feel that he heals my inner self and provided me with his grace. Whenever I breakdown because of the happenings around me, God is always by my side, ready to listen.

3. What are your realizations/insights after the Lenten Recollection?

During the Lenten Recollection, it made me realize certain things. It made me realize that God is always good, we should trust him wholeheartedly. He provides us everything just for our own good. God’s desires us to have a healing relationship. He loves us so much, that we should set aside other priorities, and feel his unending grace.

Facing the difficulties and challenges in our lives on our own will not do any good to us as it will only make us feel worse. We should not hinder ourselves from the Lord just because of the thought of burdening Him. Honestly, I had been like this when the pandemic started wherein everything has been difficult for all of us. I was afraid that letting God help me will make me feel weak to face all of my difficulties and also, I might burden Him. 

However, I was enlightened that letting God enter our lives is not a bad thing to do rather, it is the best thing and decision that we must do. Removing our masks to let God see us was one of the ways that helped me to strengthen my spiritual immune system and to expose my love for Him as being open to Him enabled me to easily show how much my love is for Him. 

2. Share some of your experiences wherein you feel God's grace.

God itself is a grace for us. It is a blessing to have God in our lives who is more than willing to help and guide us in our lives as His love for us never dies. I have a lot of experiences where I experienced God’s grace but one of the experiences that I had in which I really felt His grace the most is when I almost lost my younger brother. It was two years ago when my brother suddenly got a convulsion due to his high fever which is almost close to being severe. 

Our family was very hopeless during that time as it was the time when the virus is very prominent and lockdowns were implemented in our country which made it difficult for us to go to the hospitals immediately. It was the evening on that certain day when I almost lost myself as I saw my brother’s state. I don’t know what to do during that time as I am feeling hopeless because we can’t even bring him to the hospital right away. 

I prayed so hard to God to help my brother to survive and to guide us on what we should do next. After a few minutes, my younger brother was able to be on his normal self again. It was like God guided my mom on what she should do to help my brother survive when we still are trying to find a way to bring him to the hospital and indeed, He does. 

God never left our side and made the impossible–possible, as His grace was bestowed upon my younger brother, upon us. With this experience, I am so grateful that God is always there for all of us as He will always be at our sides to make all things possible as long as we strongly believe in Him. It was an experience that I will never forget. 

3. What are your realizations/insights after the Lenten Recollection?

After the Lenten Recollection, I have gained a lot of realizations that I believe will truly help me in becoming a better follower of God and a better person. One of the realizations that struck me the most is that God will always and will forever be by my side. I was able to be able to realize again that God has always been good to us as He is more than willing to give everything to help and guide us in every way possible. 

With His love that never dies and is everlasting, I realized that I must also expose my love for Him just like what He does. I should be more open to Him and let my difficulties be known to Him as it should not be considered a burden to God as He only wants us to be closer to Him by being open to sharing our difficulties. 

I must remove my mask and expose my love to God without any doubts or hesitations to do so as He never hesitates to help us at all times. Overall, Brother Andreus was able to make me realize how important it is to share my love to the Lord during these trying times as it will be the way to be more connected with Him and be closer to Him. 

As I understand it from his discourse, we may become more connected to God by removing our masks during prayers and boosting our spiritual immune systems. I believe this is true. As Brother Andreus said, the pandemic is something to be stopped; Faithdemic is something to spread. He is saying that we should take off our masks and show him who we are. We should also demonstrate that we still love him and that we should express our gratitude to him.

Brother Andreus' speech was a source of inspiration for me. His tone of voice persuaded me that this is the way we should deal with difficult situations. When he spoke about his now-wife, I had butterflies in my stomach. He responded,
"That woman? She became my wife.” Because God has blessed his life, his experiences made me scream aloud. But, even though his life has been so good, I had the impression that he worked hard to allow God to present him with these special times in his life. It was always going to end up that way from the beginning.

If we are saved only by the merits of Christ's work on the cross, we may say that we do not need to earn God's love, forgiveness, or salvation ourselves. Even though we will never be able to achieve salvation through our efforts, God sees us as righteous because of Jesus Christ. That grace is ours only if we believe in it. In addition, God provides us with the faith and confidence we need to believe in him. It is by grace through faith in Christ alone that by grace through faith in Christ alone, we are saved, not by following a set of rules and regulations. God is in charge of our salvation, and we may rest assured.

Every time I pray or converse with God, I get this thought in my head. "Maybe He is real, or maybe He isn't," of course, but that quickly faded when I could sense His presence in my prayers and conversations with Him. When I'm older, I hope I have more opportunities like this.

After the Lenten Recollection, my impression was that it had been a terrific and beneficial occasion. "Catholics and Christians develop in the spirit of faith," Sir Nuqui said, and I believe that. He works in believers by renewing our brains to be like Jesus' mind. He does this by persuading us of our sin and guiding us toward forgiveness.

And for Brother Andreus' talk, the most memorable part was "Iba kapag nakaramdam kayo ng pure love, the one that loves and accepts you for who you are." When it comes to love, things might become a little complicated. We all have various ways of defining love. In the end, it's not all about one thing. And as I heard from the speakers, "God is healing me through the love of other people." My stomach started churning as a result of this. I could see why so many people cherished me. This helped me believe that God was with me and supporting my journey on this challenging path.

During the pandemic, my mental health has not been doing great, especially with the thought of being away from my peers and spending time in front of my gadget, very much away from the real world. At the peak of lockdown, the whole world seemed so dull in my point of view. I was always inside the four corners of my room, contemplating whether this life was something that I deserve. Then, I started talking to my friends more, and having bonding moments with my family. I also started meditating, listening to worship songs and homilies. Then I realized, maybe it is the little things that kept me going. My friends, family, and the little motivations that came in my journey of finding myself were a part of His plan to save me. His grace is truly available no matter what, especially in our darkest of times.

After the Lenten Recollection, I was reminded of God’s unending grace to us, and His overflowing love for humanity. Like what Sir Nuqui said, this special event allowed us to be ‘up, up, and away’, awakening us from our slumber and reminding us to open our hearts to Jesus. At a time where most of us are stressed from all the schoolworks and stuff going on around us, it is important that we always remember to open our hearts and remember the sacrifice made by Jesus for our sake. In this Lenten Season, may we be able to appreciate one another, say sorry for our sins, and celebrate the coming of our savior, Jesus Christ. 

During the recollection, Brother Andreus rephrased that bible verse into “Let God love you, He loved us first” and it really left an impression on me. I can strenthen my spiritual system by letting God in, by submitting myself to Him. In the talk of immune systems and medicine, God is like a vaccine, He is with us, He is within us; and helps us fight our inner demons and turmoils; He strenghtens our spirit and our body; He is our light in the darkests of moments; He is our hope. 

I can feel the presence of Gods graces whenever I feel fulfilled, protected, and accomplished. He is with me through my ups and downs, my highs and lows. He has never left me and I feel His grace when I am lost and I pray for Him. I feel him everywhere that there is life. I feel God’s grace when I see my friends and family health. I feel God’s Love and Grace whenever I pray and think of Him, He is already there.

The part of the recollection that I will always remember was when brother Andreus narrated the story of his late mother who had cancer. It made me remember the saying that “God picks the most beautiful flowers early so He can preserve them in heaven” It essentially answers the question as to why good people die first. And on the topic of time left on Earth, it made me realize how lucky I am that my parents, and gradparents are alive and healthy and are with me right now. Life is very short and we must always cherish it with the people we love in order for it to have meaning. Aside from that, I also realized the importance of prayer in life and to remember that everything that happens has a reason and is always in accordance to the will of God.

According to Brother Andreus, I can strengthen my “SPIRITUAL (Immune) SYSTEM” by having more of the Lord in my life and keeping close to Him. I should let God love me because He loved me first. I should stop trying to win God’s love because He already gave that love to me. I have to open myself and let God love me as is, with all my flaws, dirt, and sins, and I will soon end up loving Him back. I should expose myself fully to God even if I have committed many sins. God’s grace is always available and keeps on saving us. I should receive His gifts and accept them as part of my life. Because God loves us so much, we cannot help but love Him back. Love strengthens our immune system. We go to confession because we feel the mercy of God, so we want to change. “Ang taong nagmamahal, nagbabago.” “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippines 4:13). And no matter what is the state of our lives, we can still be at peace when God is with us. I should also keep close to my family and take care of them as much as possible. “If you are having a hard time with your family, if there is abuse, go ahead, love from afar, but love still, honor still, because God anointed them to be your parents.” (Bro. Andreus) 

 

I experienced God’s grace many times, but my family’s experience last year, from the end of February to the middle of March, stood out. I was the only one in our family who was not COVID-19 positive. It was a nerve-wracking ordeal that we never expected. Nobody knows how my family got infected with the coronavirus. We were all required to undergo RT-PCT Swab Testing. My father, mother, and brother, along with my mother’s cousin, all tested positive. It is a miracle how I was spared! Thankfully they all recovered quickly. It was the very first time I was separated from my immediate family, with only Papa’s cousin with me. When I was alone with my Ate Ding, I felt that God watched me and guided me through my daily life. From the early bringing of Papa to the hospital, to Papa having gotten a room to stay, to the right time Mama and Kuya were picked-up by the ambulance, and the good Quarantine Facility that they were brought into, and all the relatives and friends who had helped us, and me testing negative - all happened by God’s grace and mercy. 

 

Then, in November last year, I was stricken with Dengue. I almost gave up fighting the unusual high-fever patterns and body aches. In the hospital, I rested for a week and continued to participate in the 8 PM Holy Rosary of Santissimo Rosario Parish, UST, like when I am home. After a week of getting a daily blood sample to monitor my platelet count, taking many medications, resting on the hospital bed, and many collective prayers, I was finally cured. A week later, my brother began to experience the same thing! I felt God’s grace during these times as He helped us go through yet another harrowing ordeal peacefully. As Sir Legaspi, my CLE teacher, said in class, it was in these moments that God was there for me and that I am a living witness to His healing and saving grace. I agree with him about having a second chance in life after my ordeal with Dengue. Thankfully, our platelet counts never went below 70, the crucial level. We did not need to have a blood transfusion, but I must admit that I have never been so scared in my whole life. I had a batchmate back in Grade 8 and a neighbor-friend who both passed away of Dengue. Thank God for again helping us and giving my brother and me another chance to live. We are healthy now. And it’s because of God’s grace and divine mercy through the intercession of Mother Mary. The prayers of my family, my relatives, class of 10-St. Dominic, and my teachers, were priceless.

 

From Brother Andreus Casio - Salvation is Lent’s gift to us. God’s goodness and love are with us from conception till death. We have a real God who can conquer life and death. So, in return, we should spread the word of God because faith should be spread – this is my mission here on earth. God is calling us to help and serve others. God’s grace will keep us provided. He is saying, “Trust in Me, keep following Me; miracles are about to happen. I have loved you with my everlasting love.” In everything we do, it will always be about serving God. There is a blessing in serving. It’s great to be at the giving end. We are called to be like God because we are created in the image of God. He will never let us down. All the things He did are incomparable. In the novel “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo, a quote will always be stuck in my mind, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”  Loving truly is like seeing the face of God because God is love. God’s love redeems everything and conquers all. We must also love our parents back like how they loved us. God loves us that He created us, took the risk in giving us free will, and keeps on saving us. Heaven is something that He wants us to experience here on earth. So, we should keep on loving and praying in the name of Jesus Christ. We should: 1. Remove our mask in prayer. God will heal our insecurities. Only God can heal us. Every day is a blessing. 2. Remove the distance of the hearts. Be an instrument to other people of God’s grace. God’s grace heals our inner selves.  “Ang temptasyon ay nilalayuan, hindi nilalabanan, baka ikaw ang matalo.” 3. Dirty your hands by being a servant. Serve God by loving people. 4. Strengthen your SPIRITUAL IMMUNE SYSTEM. 

From Fr. Aceron’s homily - The Holy Rosary is the compendium of the Gospel (which is also being taught to us in class). It is the prayer of Mary in which she is united with us and orients us towards Christ. As we pray the mysteries, the contemplation on the life of Jesus helps us stay away from sin. If we are faithful as Christians, we can have a glorious resurrection. 

From Sir Nuqui – a recollection is a re-awakening; to be awakened, to collect ourselves from concerns, questions, problems, and distractions. A recollection moves us up closer to God. There is no other way but up to God. In this time of the pandemic, we should stay awake, grow spiritually, and find our way back to God. This has been a very inspiring and uplifting Lenten Recollection. I feel renewed, energized, blessed, and at peace as I hear stories of love, mercy, grace, and faith.

1. How can you strengthen your "SPIRITUAL (Immune) SYSTEM" based on the sharing of Brother Andreus? 

Brother Andreus shared his experience of God's grace. He did everything to be with his mother, and this strengthened his spiritual system and faith in God. As for me, keeping the people who make me feel safe close to me and lifting everything up to God strengthens my spiritual system. It is because I know that they are here to guide me and be with me throughout my journey in life.

2. Share some of your experiences wherein you feel God's grace. 

March 15, 2022, was my Tita's 3rd death anniversary. That night, I prayed the rosary with my family and asked God if I could see my tita in my dream. I cried myself to sleep. Then when I woke up, I smiled and said, "Thank you, Lord." My Tita appeared in my dream. I consider this God's grace because my heart felt at ease. To be honest, until now I found things hard to accept the fact that she had already left us, but one thing I know is that she is in a good place now. 

3. What are your realizations/insights after the Lenten Recollection?
After the Lenten Recollection, I realized that God will always be there for us. Even though we cannot speak directly to him, he is there to listen to us and guide us as we go along our own paths. 

We must keep in mind that worship and service are important in order to honor God and in order to keep ourselves close to him. Worship makes a person have a healthy connection and a consistent connection with God. This also reminds us that worship will help us, and this is our mission, to serve and worship. Moreover, lifestyle makes our lives consistent in the things we have in life; it will train us to have routines and healthy life/relationships. Maintaining a lifestyle of wisdom and hope is also by accepting God in our lives, keeping him within us in everything we do as a formation of our better lives.

After the Lenten Recollection, I realized a lot of things. I realized that God’s love and presence for us has no end at all. This recollection is an eye-opener for us to accept God’s love and grace wholeheartedly. Whenever and wherever we are, God always remembers us, and what we need to do is to remember him and pray to him. With God by our side, we will be able to accomplish our missions.