Every second Sunday of the month, there is a 2:30 pm mass done in Filipino at St Francis Church, Lonsdale St, Melbourne. Well, mostly in Filipino. Today, we gave the Filipino Mass a go and found that the mass was celebrated by Fr Ed Wood. As you can accertain from the name, he’s not Filipino. Anyway, although his parts were in English, I didn’t really mind as the rest of it was in Tagalog.
It was a refreshing change from going to St Mary’s for mass. There were more people there and there was an entire choir singing the church hymns courtesy of the Filipino Choir of Saint Francis. The songs sung and the appearance of the inside of the church itself reminded me a lot of my high school’s parish church St Andrew’s in Paranaque.
The only problem we encountered was the lack of cheap parking space in the heart of the city. Our only option was to go for the free one-hour parallel parking bays along the city streets. However, near the end of the mass during the advertisments segment, the lay minister informed us that if we had parked our cars in the nearby flat-$9 St Francis parking space, we could have our car park tickets stamped in the Catholic bookshop.
I didn’t know if this meant that the parking fee would be discounted or what so I went over to the bookshop to enquire. One of the shopkeepers told me in a humourless manner that we could park the car in the St Francis parking space for free for an hour and a half. Silly me, I kept thinking that he was telling me that it was free for only half-an-hour.
“But the mass is an hour long,” I said.
“That’s why it’s for an hour and a half,” he said in a I-can’t-believe-how-stupid-you-are tone.
“Ah sorry,” I said laughing but the guy remained dead serious.
It seemed like he wasn’t enjoying his job. The next person to talk to him was this lady asking to have her ticket stamped. She said thanks and he didn’t say anything. Sheesh. Anyway, next time we go to mass there, we now know we can park our car for free for an hour and a half near the church.
St Francis Church
Click image to zoom in
We didn’t talk to anybody there after the mass though like Ka Uro suggested in his blog to new guys coming to New Zealand:
Attend a Filipino mass on Sunday. Tanungin mo ang host mo kung saan ang malapit. Even if you are not Catholic, tiempuhan mo kapag tapos na ang misa. After the mass maraming nagbebenta ng mga Filipino foods. It’s your chance para makipagkilala sa ibang Pinoy. Yung ibang Pinoy snub hindi ka papansinin. Yung iba naghihintay lang na ikaw ang unang bumati. Since ikaw ang may pangangailangan, ikaw na ang unang bumati. You never know baka may alam na job opening ang makilala mo.
There’s always the next time. The next Filipino mass will be on 8th of May, same time. We’ll try to talk to them next time over merienda they have after the mass (according to the ads segment). We would’ve gone with them if we had more time on our one-hour car park. Ah, well.
To the Music Ministry heads and Choir Leaders:
Greetings of Peace!
The St. John Bosco Parish Ministry on Music and Cultural Affairs (MOMCA), would like to invite the head of your Music Ministry and members to the launching of “Narito Ako, MISA DELGADO Book I”. This is a compilation of original compositions and arrangements of Mass Songs in Filipino for the liturgical celebration composed by Lester Delgado.
Mr. Delgado is a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas with the Degree of Bachelor of Music Major in Choral Conducting. He is currently the musical director of the St. John Bosco Chorale, the defending champion of the Paskong Himig sa Lungsod ng Pasig Choral Competition in 2005 and 2006. The group also went on a Hong Kong – China Tour in 2004 and 2005 and recently performed for Filipino and European audiences in their 2007 European Concert Tour. As a composer, his composition “Bagong Umaga”, won the grand prize in the UST Conservatory’s Songwriting Competition and became the festival piece for the 2004 Harmonies Choral Festival and the official contest piece for the 2006 Voices in Harmonies Choral Competition. This year, his composition “ORDE-E”, a traditional Madukayan Folksong from the Cordillera Region, was one of the 15-winners in the “Mga Awiting Bayan para sa Korong Pilipino”, a choral writing competition sponsored by the National Commission for Cultural and the Arts (NCCA) and Music Competition for Young Artist, Inc. (NAMCYA).
“Narito Ako, MISA DELGADO Book I”, has been endorsed by His Eminence Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales (Imprimatur) and Rev. Fr, Nilo Mangussad (Nihil Obstat), Director of the Archdiocesan Commission on Liturgical Music.
Mr. Delgado would like to share with you his music and he is looking forward to seeing you during the launching on Jan. 16, 2008 (Wednesday), during the 6pm Mass at The St. John Bosco Parish in Makati. We at the St. John Bosco Parish are also anticipating your attendance. God Bless!
Very truly yours,
Rev. Fr. Manuel Leandro C. Domingo Jr., SDB
Parish Priest
St. John Bosco Parish Makati
- the book is already available at the St. John Bosco Parish Office in Makati Phils
- Php350 with FREE Audio CD Recording
- Pls. Feel free to contact me
LESTER DELGADO @ (0063) 9185708767