The Institutional Good
During one of our weekday Masses at San Isidro Labrador Parish here in Las Pinas, I saw in the pew immediately in front of me, a little girl sitting beside her mother who I initially thought was tucking her arms underneath her blouse. It was curious of me, my love, for my instincts at first refused to believe that there might be a possibility that she actually had no arms.
That was what I thought until I realized during the course of the Mass when her mother had to do for her the triple sign of the Cross before the Gospel reading that the little girl actually had no arms; that it was most probably a congenital condition.
During Holy Communion, I saw our presiding priest who upon seeing that little girl with no arms proceeded to become affected by that same realization deeply enough to ask himself in the quiet of his own heart the question, "how can we help"? (The question of evil is a separate matter altogether in this instance and in that regard I offered prayers for father.)
It would have indeed been imprudent to have acted on impulse and out of sheer pity at that time. And were we not within the celebration of the Mass, it would have been easy to have done so, my Anne. Even a smile would have been awkward and possibly even badly received at that time. For she was neither asking for alms (she was with her own mother) nor was she in any apparent need of any human consolation, my darling (we were in Holy Mass).
What God was teaching my heart at that time, my love, is how to appreciate the institutional good - all of the LORD's own human causes (the pre-eminent one being the Church itself).
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A Debut to Remember
The DDB-EU TRC (the Dangerous Drugs Board-European Union Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - our center home or my "other" home) celebrated it's 18th year anniversary yesterday, my darlingest. The program proper was held at the Cathedral Shrine and Parish of the Good Shepherd at Fairview, Quezon City. It was a blast! Lots of good memories from over there, my love, indeed.
Here is an example of an institution actively entrusted with a mission and any institution that is entrusted by God and Country with a mission must also be intrinsically founded upon a human good; a need from which to begin that common ascent of hope towards the liberation of the truth. In this particular case, my love, that human good is that of recovery form active addiction (that of myself and all my brothers-in-recovery in our center home and in all other like institutions in the Philippines and around the world).
In this case, my darling, I am like that little girl, helped indirectly by the charity of individuals and directly by the good will of nations (in this particular case of the DDB-EU TRC, a partnership of the European Union and of my own Philippines). A fact which is never lost to me, of which I am very and profoundly grateful for, not just because I am actually helped by the institutional good that safeguards the character and animates the culture of the DDB-EU TRC institution but perhaps even more so, because I actually know I am helped by it.
By the way, I was asked to lead the opening prayers yesterday, my Miyang. Here's the words to the prayer I wrote for the occasion:
Dear LORD, our God, we want to thank You for gathering us here today to celebrate the 18th year anniversary of our DDB-EU TRC.
Father in heaven, bless us all here present. Allow us the grace to meaningfully celebrate with You and in You (through Jesus Christ, our Lord,) this wonderful occasion. May we each become (through Thy Holy Spirit) truly gifted with the realization of the good thing that the DDB-EU TRC institution and its mission represents in our lives and in our times.
Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be. AMEN.
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I'm still reading A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt, my darling. And have been thinking much about the evil of those times - you times, my darlingest Annelies Marie. I shall report about this here on our blog just as soon as I finish the whole book, my love. For I've some things to comment about on the matter.
What can one individual like you, my Miyang, do against such evil days? A lot actually.
I love you so much.
Always to always,
=^.^=
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