ONE-THOUSAND-STRONG participants showed up at the 
General Assembly held on May 7 at the Santuario de San Vicente de Paul Parish.
General Assembly held on May 7 at the Santuario de San Vicente de Paul Parish.While the PREX Music Ministry of The Our Father Parish gathered the flock through joyful songs, the registration counters filled up with delegates from the member-parishes of NDAPPS and NAPPS (National Association of Parish PREX Secretariats). At 7:30 am, the Bible enthronement was presided by Msgr. Romy Ranada, NAPPS and NDAPPS Spiritual Director.
His Most Reverent Bishop Antonio Tobias said the concelebrated Mass assisted by Liturgist Mario Sanchez, parish priest of the Cathedral Shrine and Parish of the Good Shepherd and several other priests. The Bishop’s homily focused on the ascension of Christ, leaving behind the Holy Spirit as His commander-in-chief to lead us in evangelizing the earth so that the second coming may be hastened. The time is now, he enjoined, to build more BECs, PPCs and PREX classes and not when we have already become mere souls.
Speaking on her husband Joe’s behalf, Ate Mila Galinato welcomed the congregation with a confession that she belongs to the church because of the crowd. She cited the PREX music ministry as proof that we do not grow old, singing, listening, dancing and merrymaking – our live and living share in the legacy of Jesus. The Galinatos are NDAAPS Vice-President for Novaliches and Kalookan.”
Kuya Manny and Ate Abel Gaite delivered an inspirational message. One day, their son Justin came up to Kuya Manny and asked for them to move out of Bulacan. When he asked why, his seven-year-old said that, from what he has read about climate change, Bulacan will sink in 2050. It so touched him that the concern came from his child, not from a fellow, concerned adult. His wife Abel picked up from where he left off by advocating a vigilant citizens’ watch if we truly want to save the earth.
Emcees Gelo Reyes and Issy Camat announced the morning break after which they called on the first speaker, Fr. Daniel Pilario, Dean of Studies of St. Vincent School of Theology.
Fr. Danny talked about the ten key words of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si. He introduced it with the phrase “memories of a place.” He meant that our history of friendship with God was always linked to particular places which take on an intensely personal meaning. As a chance to recover something of the self, he used a dynamic where seatmates would ask each other of a place s/he remembers and its connection to her/him. Volunteers took turns in recalling a ricefield, a carabao, a river in Pangasinan, trees in a barrio, etc. Those recollections had accompanying incidents both bad and good. Fr. Danny processed the experiences and summed them up thus: God is in one place and the places they remember are those where God first showed His face to each one of them. And he added his very own Cebu, where he was a three-year-old among 11 children (because, he joked, there was no RH Bill yet and definitely no electricity) and where his mother would stand by the window every morning before breakfast, stare at the sea and cry, and he would cry with her. After three months of the routine, he said he got tired and ventured to ask his mother why they were crying. His Mom said she was sad because she misses his lolo and lola. He still could not relate (which 3-yr-old can?) so he would hold her hand and simply join her in looking at the sea and the mountains beyond it. Much, much later, he realized that it was easy for his mother to cry looking at the sea because the sea is God’s presence. With people who suffer, relationship with God is grounded in a place like that, the spirit of Laudato Si.
Then he segued into our common home being an immense pile of filth causing disasters and loss of biodiversity due to deforestation, urban pollution and waste mismanagement. It should not surprise, therefore, that 1,000 tons of trash/day sped up global warming, he rued. The cry of the earth is the same cry of the poor because, in disasters, the rich have access to lifelines.
It is time to heed the call to till and keep tilled the environment. Nature is not divine and should not be treated like god but it deserves respect. By the same token, humans are not divine, because the earth was here before them. Nature caressing us is God. Like the time when he talked to an almond tree, it blossomed. Today’s technology is a one-dimensional paradigm where factory workers look, talk and breathe alike. Unlike the bahaykubo of old, the lack of biodiversity still produces occasions of pleasure but it is now difficult to engender joy.
We cannot, he stressed, dismiss integral ecology and interconnectivity. He cited singer and environmentalist Joey Ayala’s line in his song, “… ang lahat ng bagay may kaugnayan.” Precisely, he concluded, we borrow the world from our children, not from our ancestors.
Dean Danny impressed upon his audience the need for ecological conversion, spirituality, climate advocacy, lifestyle change, practice of ecological virtues and to not leave too much carbon footprints. We don’t need more space, he said, only less stuff.
Before we knew where the gods were, they were in the trees. Now there are no more trees, the poor are planting trees again. For the gods to come back.
He concluded his talk with a question and a vision. What after Yolanda? His dream was to go back quickly to the ricefield. Like that Christmas in San Antonio when it was raining and the poor were planting again.
Ate Mila gave him a plaque of appreciation and a Laudato Si T-Shirt. 
Lunch was hearty and reinvigorated the audience enough to answer the roll call with varying degrees of applause and cheer and laughter. This after singing and acting out PREX songs with the Sto. Nino de Congreso PREX Music Ministry.
Part II was assigned to Fr. Dexter Toledo, a self-proclaimed prayle from the Order of Friars Minor. Youngish and matinee idol-like (Kuya Gelo could not control saying “Gwapo ni Father,”), his gait seemed to belie his youth and belong to an older person. At once, he made known the theme of the gathering, Sangnilikha, Sambuhay, Sangtawag (One Creation, One Life, One Call) and lost no time in injecting humor to where he comes from, which is Bagbag, sa kanan, seminaryo, sa kaliwa, sementeryo (on the right, a seminary, on the left, a cemetery). Clearly, the former Radio Veritas cohost owned his audience. Fr. Dexter was proud of his order, St. Francis of Assissi, who founded it, and the Pope, who was evidently equally enamored of the saint. Like the Holy See’s life of humility and poverty, he espouses the plight of the poor.
He recalled that after his ordination, he kissed his Mother’s tummy, in dual thanksgiving for their mutual dream. Fr. Dexter is not only a humorist. Making his Mom’s (and others like her) morning facial ritual parallel to voting, he enumerated the following: salungguhitan ang kilay, bilugan ang lipstick, i-shade ng tamang blush-on. He is also a singer, which he validated by responding to the audience’s clamor of his sample. He had every right to claim that credential, agreed the audience’s rousing approval. He sang (his) modified version of Ang Panginoon ang Aking Pastol with a Franciscan twist so that it sounded like an instrument of peace.
That he is also a poet was already evident in his lyrical speech. He said it is so hard now to teach kids about the environment because they are very busy with gadgets, the overview effect of which is pearl-gazing, instead of nature-caring. We are so caught up in pag-aagad-agad (rapidification) we use a cell phone when talking with someone. The Pope described us as so interconnected but not related, tayo ang inaalagaan ng mundo (we are being taken care of by the world), instead of the other way around. In anthrocentrism, he said, repeating Fr. Daniel’s earlier statement, ang lahat ay haplos ng Diyos (everything is God’s caress). Climate change is crucial, let us, if we can, keep the atmospheric degree at 1.5 before it becomes a nightmare. He recounted an interview of Willie Revillame, where the once popular host was asked why he had all the accoutrements of high living. The wannabe singer’s answer was to surround his loneliness.
To drive home his point, the singing friar told the story of the starfish. A girl was picking up a starfish on the beach and throwing it back to the sea. She did it repeatedly. An old man was watching her and asked what she was doing. She said she was trying to save the creatures from dying. The old man said there are so many, can she save them all. In reply, she picked up one and threw it back out to sea and said, “No, but I made a difference for that one.”
Friar Toledo was also awarded an appreciation plaque and a commemorative T-Shirt by Ate Mila.
The emcees called on Kuyas Noel Tamase and Lito Martinez to present the assembly’s resolutions based on the proceedings. Reliably, the duo delivered an impressive delineation of PREX’s dreams and aspirations it resulted in a consensual ratification. After which, Kuya Cesar and Ate Gina Zurbano rendered their closing remarks. The couple focused on the fact that an assembly only becomes a success if their parts arrive. One thousand arrivals could not agree more.
Rev. Fr. Rolando Tuazon, Santuario de San Vicente de Paul Parish Priest, gave the closing liturgy. As a homage to Mary, the earth and PREX, the liturgist recalled their ecumenical cleaning of Tandang Sora and Mindanao Avenues, a physical parallel to the current cleansing. He wondered whether we, after hearing all that transpired, thanked God. Which is what PREX is all about, he declared. Because in PREX, whatever we learn, we share with others, which is why PREX replicates. Because it has the essence of the Word being handed down from Jesus to His apostles, the same sense of loving God and neighbor. Mary did this to Elizabeth, making her the star of evangelization. So must we bring Laudato Si to others, making us stardust evangelizers.
Most fittingly, as Fr. Roland bestowed the final blessing, the congregation queued up to offer flowers to the Blessed Virgin Mary while the Sto. Nino de Congreso PREX Music Ministry filled the majestic church with strains of Paglalayag.
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By Abraham de la Torre
