All The Best Fr. Neil!

Our family with Fr. Neil at Luna's Baptism

One of things that are part of our life in Sri Lanka is hearing mass at our parish, St. Theresa’s in Thimbirigasyaya.  It’s a beautiful church (think a smaller and simpler Santuario de San Antonio), it’s dedicated to one of my miracle saints St. Therese of Lisieux (praying her novena has answered many of my requests) and is headed by the lovely Fr. Neil Dias Karunaratne.  I’ve always enjoyed Fr. Neil’s service.  His homilies are simple yet capture the essence of the reading and for me it almost always hit home.  His words are wrapped in wisdom and delivered with care - never preachy or trying hard to impress.  It is what it is and he lets the Word of God speak for itself.  This weekend is apparently his last weekend as the Parish Priest.  After 10 years, he will then move on to his next apostolate.  I don’t know if Fr. Neil would ever chance upon this post but for all it’s worth I would like to dedicate this post to him and honor him.

Fr. Neil, with his sermon and his presence has been a source of consolation.  Living away from home is tough and one of my anchors, my spirituality, has kept me afloat.  His wisdom and presence in the masses we attend has kept that spirituality alive.

We were also lucky to have him baptize our baby Luna.  His calming demeanor has certainly brushed off on our baby as she did not even wince when water was being poured on her head.  It is an honor for us to have him welcome our darling moon to the Christian world.

With the man that he is, I am sure that his next apostolate will be lucky to have him.  I’m sure he will do great deeds as he has for the parish of St. Theresa’s for another community more in need of him.

I thank you Fr. Neil, for touching my life and our daughter’s life by simply being the priest that you are.  It is an exciting journey ahead for you and as they say here, all the best!

Christmas La Vida Lanka!

I was half-dreading this season.  Half-dreading because it will be our first Christmas away from home, and you know Christmas is like no other in the Philippines.  Only half because the main reason why we didn’t go home this year is because of the birth of our child.  That gave us all the joy (and even stress) the Christmas cheer celebrating it at home can – and more.  In any case, Christmas just the three of us is sweet as it is, but was made sweeter by the presence of my mom.  So how did we celebrate it La Vida Lanka?

our cheese and fruit platter (don't mind my legs in the background! haha!)

Hubby, Luna and I had our first ever Noche Buena with a collection of different kinds of cold cuts (stuffed pork, regular pork ham and beef), 3 kinds of cheeses (Brie, my favorite Blue and Cranberry), “shoshall” (posh) fruit medley of grapes, 2 kinds of peaches, cherries and nectarine coupled with nuts and toasted bread.  All lovingly thought up and prepared by hubby!  We had coffee and skipped the wine but will probably have one in New Year, hehehe!  My mom was too tired to wait for the strike of midnight so it was just hubby, myself and Luna (albeit asleep). 

salmon and beetroot risotto for me

tandoori chicken for nanalou

veal pasta for hubby

In the morning, we had a reprise of the Noche Buena feast for breakfast this time with my mom.  We then went for the noontime mass at St. Theresa’s Thimbirigasyaya and went to Tintagel for our Christmas Day lunch.  We chose Tintagel because it was private and not crowded.  Aside from the awesome food of course.

exchange gift!

We got home to rest for a nap, Skyped with family in the Philippines and had our exchange gift just before dinner.  Dinner was uneventful – just finished up the Callos my mom cooked for hubby’s birthday earlier in the week.  And went on the night as usual – chores and what nots.

ang pamilya zaragoza

As I was looking over Colombo from our balcony, feeling the cool breeze of December touching my skin, knowing that my own family is safe, complete and happy with the special addition of my mother to lighten up any day (and make it noisier!), Christmas away from home is not at all bad.  Actually, in as much as it lacked the usual mega family and friends reunion and wonderful Filipino food, it was also sans the stress of parties and traffic Manila Christmas brings.  This year away from home was a simple, lovely Christmas La Vida Lanka! 

Baptism La Vida Lanka

I look like my daddeh!

Family Picture!

Thank you Fr. Neil!

Today, my baby girl got her very first milestone.  She was baptized into the Christian world!  (And the second one was that the stump of her umbilical cord fell off – Nanalou says it means she’s a “big girl” already… waaah!)  Initially I was planning on having her baptism in the Philippines when we go home for a vacation next year.  However Nanalou got all paranoid to make her travel (even out of the house mind you) more so fly on a plane without her getting baptized.  Blame it on Filipino old wives’ tales.  But it does make sense to baptize her as early as possible and hubby even wanted it done before Christmas.

We had her baptized in a beautiful church we go to weekly called St. Theresa’s Church Thimbirigasyaya.  The process is quite simple:

Step 1: Talk to the Parish priest and make known your intention to have baby baptized in his church.  We just caught up with Fr. Neil, the parish priest of St. Theresa’s on time after mass and he shared his requirements.

Step 2: Prepare requirements.  For St. Theresa’s it is just your Church Marriage Certificate and Certificate of Active Participation of each of your Godparents from their parishes. 

Step 3: Once you have completed your requirements, schedule the time with the parish, complete a form and submit the requirements.  You have to personally go to the church for this.  In our case, I was able to get a schedule 3 days before the baptism but to be sure, a week is what Father suggests.  I suggest you talking to Lurthur who is such a helpful guy.  He usually goes to the church office in the afternoon.

Step 4: Get your baptismal robe (we just bought it from Angels and Brats – a children’s clothes store along Havelock Road), a candle for each of your Godparents and get your video / camera ready.

Step 5: Show up!

It was that easy!  Lurther told me the next day you can actually get the Baptismal certificate.

As Luna was being baptized, I couldn’t describe what I was feeling.  There was an overwhelming sensation that, wow, my daughter is going through something major in her life.  So this is how it feels for parents seeing their kids graduate and what not!  I was so happy for her to be part of the Christian community already and welcomed to the church by our favorite priest in SL no less!  I am a proud mama!  I’m so excited to guide her into her Christian life.  She will be experiencing her very first mass on Christmas day and we are excited for that as well!