Words of Gratitude
The Team of Inspires gives the freedom of speech to a child's own perspective on the current situation of our world. It may be colorful but everyone is entitled to one's own opinion. And, The Team of Inspires respects that whether you agree or not that is also your own right which in gratitude we respect in return.
About a hundred and twenty years ago, in 1898, our modern world came to know of the “Story of a Soul”.
This story of the “little flower” inspired many to go forth on a mission to bring heaven on earth, scattering flowers all over the world. With each flower, a little sacrifice and prayer which made a patron saint of the missions despite not even having to leave the confines of the Carmelite convent in Lisieux.
This beautiful scattering of flowers, as radiant as the rising blood moon we have seen and continue to see this year, has reached our shores. We are grateful that in 1984, such a flower has bloomed with the founding of St. Therese School of Jagna, Inc..
Under the watchful, silent and cheerful dedication of our dear Sisters of the Missionary Institute of St. Therese of the Child Jesus (MIST) and our gracious teachers, administrators and school staff, we are so thankful that we have this First Elementary Graduation Ceremony.
We studied hard, persevered in coming to school every time, spent much for the tuition, our baon (pocket money or packed-meal), and other expenses for school activities through the years, and those could not have been done on our own. We are deeply grateful for the sacrifices and guidance our parents and guardians have shared with us.
We are so thankful for the gift of friendship we have shared with all the persons who came our way in this school, and in our community.
Now we are here, and we say: “At last, we reached the day of our graduation! We are now ready to face the WORLD! To go forth with our own mission in life! To face life’s challenges!”
But, The WORLD...—with the BIG bully in Trump against a small bully in Kim Jong Un, acting like kindergarten nuclear hotheads; the raging war in Syria and the Middle East; Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, engaged in proxy wars; China encroaching on our seas and islands; Nations and peoples against each other quarreling over money, land, and oil!—Martial Law in Mindanao and the continuing war on drugs and terror!, disregard for the value of human life and human rights!—the growing flow of refugees; the unceasing flow of blood and suffering and death: of women, children and the elderly...
Fellow graduates, I guess we should ask ourselves again, are we, really, ready to face the world's and life’s challenges?
With our childish sensitivities and selfishness, can we really go forth with our own mission in life?
I, for one, am overwhelmed with the complexity of it all. Although, I would want to help ease the sufferings in our world, I cannot even understand the writings of my father, who, as a lawyer, would argue with words to protect life, liberty, and property.
What can we really do? I am but a child! And just like you, fellow graduates, I struggle with my childish immaturity. And with this, I cringe in fear...
Thus, we recollect what we have learned from our dear school with its roots in the “Story of a Soul”. To be childlike instead of being childish.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus had the same struggles we have endured and continue to endure. When she was a child, she already wanted to be a saint but she was overwhelmed with the great treatises of the doctors and scholars of the Church and the great deeds of great saints. She found it too complicated. She just could not do it, ALONE...
So she said, “I applied myself especially to practice little virtues, not having the capability to perform great feats...
“You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much on the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but rather on the love with which we do them.”
For “What matters in life, is not great deeds, but great love!”
“My nature is such that fear makes me recoil, but with LOVE, not only do I go forward, I soar!”
“God’s Grace is a force that lifts us to heights we cannot reach on our own.”
Let us therefore, “abandon ourselves, like a child into God’s arms...” then Our Lord, the RISEN CHRIST will lift us up towards LOVE!”
We are so happy and grateful that St. Therese has fulfilled and continues to fulfill her promise, her mission—to make God loved and spending her time in heaven doing good for the world and letting the fall a shower of roses!—continuing to pray for sinners...”
In God’s abundance of blessings, she has especially made her presence felt more with the coming of her relics here in our very own hometown of Jagna, Bohol this April 8, 2018.
In immense gratitude, we are now encouraged, in the midst of the deathly war on drug addicts and drug pushers and criminals and terror, to keep praying for the sinners, for the hopeless, for the abandoned. And in our own little ways, do ordinary things, with great LOVE. Then we shall give glory to God by being our beautiful self among all other flowers in God’s garden!
My dear fellow graduates, facing the world and life’s challenges, with St. Therese we proclaim: “My vocation is love!” And henceforth, let our MISSION be LOVE!
Thank you and Have a Good Day in Love.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, PRAY FOR US!
(April 5, 2018 Graduation Ceremony)
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