A Celebration of Life

The date is February 07,2010 and it is 8:00 in the morning. Celebration of the Holy Mass starts and it is Rev. Father Virgilio Saenz Mendoza as the celebrant.
After this he thanked the Lord for giving him another year in his life and invited everybody to proceed upstairs in the "Convento" to have something to eat. Yearly, this has been the tradition so to speak, where ever parish he may be assigned he always see to it to thank first of all the God Almighty by celebrating the Holy Mass and then to invite all who ever may be present during the day to have something to eat and join him in this celebration.

The preparation of foods started as early as a day before with the able supervision of Ate Hermie, the forever loyal personal cook and friend of Fr. Vir.She always sees to it that all the necessary foods starting from breakfast up to the end of the celebration usually late dinner is taken cared of.As usual food is served as early as breakfast, those who will be serving the early mass will first have their breakfast before proceeding to the church, they are the lay ministers and the altar boys. Well after the mass another group has to be served and this will go on as long as there are people coming to eat.Aside from the foods prepared by Ate Hermie, there are so many different kinds of foods coming from the friends of Fr. Vir who gives to him as gifts. There are also so many kinds of desserts and fruits given as gifts and different kinds of pancit or noodles.Aside from Ate Hermie, Ate Glory, Vicky G.,Janet Kosa and Kuya Dado are also there to assist in the preparations and in the serving of foods. Of course the stewards were as always the "S Boys".Kuya Rollie and Divine, brother and sister of Fr. Vir respectively are present and assisted in meeting the guests. His three nieces, daughters of Divine (Tres Marias) are also present.Entertainment was provided by the Immaculate Conception Choir.Right after their task in the church they immediately proceeded to the "convento" to provide music with their very beautiful renditions of classic as well as modern songs. After a few hours, Fr. Vir's nephew, Louie started to play the piano to the delight of the guests and later, one of the guests volunteered to sing and it was a very delightful and entertaining one.

As the day goes on, people from all walks of life keeps on coming. Friends from different towns and from different parishes. There are priests, nuns, politicians, businessmen and women and there are those who comes from far away places who are continuously keeping in touch with him.They are as young as just more than a year old and up to eighty eight years old.This really proves really how many friends he has got.Friends who have been loyal and faithful all throughout the years.These are the people whose lives have been touch in one way or another by his kindness and by his being thoughtful to them.

So, as he is becoming more and more in age and in wisdom, Fr. Vir's increasing numbers of friends continue to grow also.The more parishes that he will be assigned, the more additional friends for him.

My wish for you is to have a healthy life and a lot more birthdays to come and let me just share this to you; As Peter was made a "Fisherman of Men", so please continue to be like him and be a "Fisherman of Friends".