Jesus, I don't care...

Hey! Jesus, yesterday, I celebrated your birthday. Though I already lost count of your age, I know that wherever you are now, you must be feeling glad and delighted that I was able to celebrate your great day with my brothers in my community.

I don’t care if I got so exhausted in baking six giant turkeys the night before your birthday and I don’t care if I had to stay behind at the kitchen when all else had gone to bed already after we said a Solemn Mass at midnight in celebration of your birthday.

I don’t care if I had to be the first one to wake up at four o’clock in the wee hours of the morning on the day of your birth to continue preparing the food that will be served at the banquet table in Your honor when all everybody else were still sleeping soundly and cozily on their beds until seven thirty in the morning.

I don’t care if I had to stay in the kitchen with no break at all to sit or stretch my back from four in the morning until one forty five in the afternoon to do the escabeche fish with all the garnishings, the turkey’s gravy, sautéed beans, baked the stuffings and set the banquet with two giant heavy coolers filled with canned softdrinks, canned beers and bottled white wines.

I don’t care if in the afternoon of your big day, I had to be on a rush to set the refectory table immediately after our Solemn Vespers for the evening party of my community of Benedictine monks in which I belong and for our neighboring Benedictine nuns who joined us in Your honor.

I don’t care if the Abbot of my community had to give me errand to set the light meal for the guests who were not included in the evening party at the very moment when I was still at the pantry and was actually putting out the party drinks, and party stuffs for the community.

I really don’t care if I suffered leg cramps while the evening party in your honor went on because of continuous standing in the kitchen for ten long hours without taking any break or taking a much needed seat even for a single minute.

I don’t care if towards the end of the party, I had to put away the party foods, party drinks, put way left over foods and washed pots and pans, with very less assistance from the brothers who were just too carried away from their unending and non-stop chats with the nuns and guests and from their getting so much overwhelmed of the ambience of the celebration of your birthday.

I don’t care really if I failed to take pictures of the entertainment numbers that were presented in the program of the evening party simply because I couldn’t even stand up and move anymore from where I was seated due to leg cramps I was suffering.

I did not really care about all these anymore.
I didn’t care anymore because at that moment, what I really cared about was the fact that I did all those acts of sacrifices as my offering and gift to You on the day of Your birth.

On the other hand, I thank you Jesus as I am about to come to the end of this year.
Yes, I thank and praise You for all the people around me who have been angels to me all these long.

I thank you and praise You for all the people who have spoken God’s words to me. Friends, loved ones, even strangers.

People who told me what to do when I was most confused and overwhelmed. People who encouraged me when I was discouraged. People who boosted my morale when I was down and vulnerable.

Thank You Jesus for all the people who have been instruments of Your grace to me. For the people who continually remind me of Your loving grace. For the people who constantly remind me to be good and to strive to be holy.

Lord let me learn from their goodness. As they have been angels to me, may I , in turn, be angel to them. May I, in turn, be an angel not only to the good and kind people but to the bad and wicked people as well.

May I, in turn, speak Your word to encourage and enlighten not only the good people, not only the kind and generous people, not only the grateful people, not only the compassionate people, not only the hardworking people, but the otherwise.

I lift up to You these people in gratitude, in praise, in thanksgiving.

As I kneel before You, I ask You a second grace. That I may speak Your Word, that I may share Your blessings, and that I may offer you my weaknesses and vulnerability.

Jesus, make me an angel to others.