QUALIFIED OPINION
By GRACE PULIDO-TAN
Grace M. Pulido Tan
Happy 2019, dear readers! After all the work and travelling I had to attend to in the last three months, I have finally been able to catch some rest, in time for me and hubby to celebrate Christmas and welcome the New Year with all our children and grandkids. With two children now married and practically everyone living in different parts of the world, we make every effort to come together this time of year and just revel in each other’s company and presence.
And so we thank God for the gifts of fides et spes – faith and hope – which carry us through the wind tunnels of time and space.
Faith, that we are where God has put us and wants us to be, with our respective “life purposes” inspired by Him, and faithfully going about them with the talents, resources, opportunities,
and challenges He has put at our disposal. Faith, that everything is for the good and He will see us through. Faith, that we will want for nothing we need. Faith, that He shall always be there for us.
Hope, that we have anchored our children well enough on the values and ethos of family, so that even as they have become citizens of the world, they will reject all vanities that corrode the soul. Hope, that they will always be thankful for and be faithful stewards of all that they have been privileged to have – and to not have. Hope, that through all the bumps and wrinkles that may come, there will be many more Christmases we will all celebrate together again. Hope, that we will find joy in every little thing and be a blessing to others.
Fides et spes … inscriptions on the images of Mary and Elizabeth by the entrance of the Church of the Visitation in Ein Karem, Jerusalem, which we visited recently on a pilgrimage. They are still so vivid in my mind, evoking wonder at how people in their time could go through so much hardship to be present for one another and truly give of themselves. These two women, lowly by our standards of today, have so aptly personified the value of giving above self for the greater good.
More than ever, we all direly need the faith and hope they exemplified to survive today’s interminable assaults on decency, morals and common sensibilities. Assaults on the family, justice, and basic human rights, the world over. Reading the news has been very stressful and effortful; making sense of where we have come to, even more so. And this is not to mention the gripping helplessness and feelings of despair that they engender.
But thank God for Christmas. It is just so good to savor and experience the positives in our life, and we can choose to keep our equanimity and instead surrender all our cares to the Holy One. For that, we turn to faith and hope, fides et spes. Faith, that in time, things will eventually work for the good, and hope, that it will be sooner than later. This is my fervent prayer for 2019.
Grace M. Pulido Tan
Happy 2019, dear readers! After all the work and travelling I had to attend to in the last three months, I have finally been able to catch some rest, in time for me and hubby to celebrate Christmas and welcome the New Year with all our children and grandkids. With two children now married and practically everyone living in different parts of the world, we make every effort to come together this time of year and just revel in each other’s company and presence.
And so we thank God for the gifts of fides et spes – faith and hope – which carry us through the wind tunnels of time and space.
Faith, that we are where God has put us and wants us to be, with our respective “life purposes” inspired by Him, and faithfully going about them with the talents, resources, opportunities,
and challenges He has put at our disposal. Faith, that everything is for the good and He will see us through. Faith, that we will want for nothing we need. Faith, that He shall always be there for us.
Hope, that we have anchored our children well enough on the values and ethos of family, so that even as they have become citizens of the world, they will reject all vanities that corrode the soul. Hope, that they will always be thankful for and be faithful stewards of all that they have been privileged to have – and to not have. Hope, that through all the bumps and wrinkles that may come, there will be many more Christmases we will all celebrate together again. Hope, that we will find joy in every little thing and be a blessing to others.
Fides et spes … inscriptions on the images of Mary and Elizabeth by the entrance of the Church of the Visitation in Ein Karem, Jerusalem, which we visited recently on a pilgrimage. They are still so vivid in my mind, evoking wonder at how people in their time could go through so much hardship to be present for one another and truly give of themselves. These two women, lowly by our standards of today, have so aptly personified the value of giving above self for the greater good.
More than ever, we all direly need the faith and hope they exemplified to survive today’s interminable assaults on decency, morals and common sensibilities. Assaults on the family, justice, and basic human rights, the world over. Reading the news has been very stressful and effortful; making sense of where we have come to, even more so. And this is not to mention the gripping helplessness and feelings of despair that they engender.
But thank God for Christmas. It is just so good to savor and experience the positives in our life, and we can choose to keep our equanimity and instead surrender all our cares to the Holy One. For that, we turn to faith and hope, fides et spes. Faith, that in time, things will eventually work for the good, and hope, that it will be sooner than later. This is my fervent prayer for 2019.