blessed pencils

My mother and I attended the 6pm mass today so that we'd be
home when typhoon Paeng arrived at 8 tonight. Manila doesn't have a
storm signal until this time. But it had been gray all day. And we
had been experiencing some strong winds and drizzle. One of these
sudden strong winds must have lifted one of my fishes from the bucket
I temporarily placed them, because I cleaned my medium-sized aquarium
today. Or I must have just forgotten that carps have this tendency to
leap from any container they are in when they play. So I had two dead
carps today.

In any case, our parish priest talked about how Filipinos
pray. Filipinos always pray, especially when they have petitions:
Baclaran Church on Wednesdays, St. Jude's Parish on Thursdays, Quiapo
Church on Fridays... Like the blind beggar Bartimaeus, people don't
care how they appear to others when they pray. He cited how many
people, especially women, go to St. Jude's Parish. St. Jude is the
patron of hopeless cases. And St. Jude's Parish is known for people
praying for boyfriends or spouses. Although some friends have
jokingly told me to go to St. Jude's, I haven't been yet tempted :) I
am perhaps not so hopeless yet :)

But one of his examples that I can relate to is how
examinees pray. He said that most examinees attend almost all masses
and before the exam, some asked him to bless their pencils.

Before her exam, one of my cousins asked me if she should
first sharpen her pencils before having them blessed by the priest or
not. I told her that I couldn't remember. But I always have my
ballpens and pencils for national examinations blessed, too :) I
haven't failed one yet :)

Our priest said that he blessed the examinees and not the
pencils. If examinees didn't study, he said that pencils wouldn't
write the answers by themselves even if one waited a whole day.

sayong
10-29-06