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Let me tell what I love most dear about our Holy Father Francis... it is his joy!
I think all the world has noticed how Lolo Kiko's smile warms the heart. I myself love that smile.
When our Holy Father visited our Country, I was watching live on TV as the Sri Lanka jet taxied to a stop in Villamor, waiting for that smile to touch my soul and for his feet to touch our soil.
How brilliant is that smile!
The joy in his heart must be heroic. There must dwell a holy love in his soul, there must our blessed Savior be...
There must our God dwell... in the kind of heart that enlightens other hearts.
In the smile that penetrates into the soul, in the joy that even for a moment lifts up the sadness and gives hope to the witnessing of our faith, we might be seeing glimpses of Christ Jesus' own smile.
My life ain't problem free. I used to think my lot is better or worse than the next bloke. But hey, the truth out there is everybody in the world faces challenges daily. And I can not face mine eyes sideways.
Or live my life with an absent heart; one that looks back to what bitterness there was instead of shining into what hopes there could be.
I think the heart that listens is a heart that is steady and sure. It stirs not with the stirring of the world. But hearkens to the silence that calls to the soul from within... in the stillness, in that stillness..., a heart that hears is a heart that sees...
Lolo Kiko when he smiles is in his moment.
Consider when you laugh, how we feel - when the many constraints that hold us a prisoner to our own fears momentarily lifts... dispelled by the joy in the now - how good it is to be in that moment!
I'm talking here about the effects of a good and wholesome humor.
I am not referring to the garbage jokes that sell your soul bad, bitter, and contemptuous spirits. Hey, love the comedian or comedianne, but maybe sometimes, discreetly discard some of their jokes.
Indeed, laughter - born of good spirits - seem to make the darkness disappear: Fear of an imagined future time laughter dissipates, excessive concerns over present troubles it likewise dispels, even the pain of past things yet unreconciled to the heart laughter momentarily relieves from our feelings...
Truly, good laughter is good medicine.
These things are also in a smile... in our smile and in the smile others is the abiding sense of the joy of those moments... in every smile is the gentle reminder that life will not always incline our feelings toward sorrow, and our thinking toward fear - especially fear of a future yet unwritten...
This is how I feel when Lolo Kiko smiles or even when I think about him smiling... because through the joy in his heart, reflected in that shining moment... I regain sight of my own hopes.
How good it is to be in that moment!
Thank you Holy Father Francis, I may not always be that good of a follower of our Savior and Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, but you are in my heart and shall be in my prayers always!
Please pray for us also, this nation who loves you, whom you have sent. Pray for us so that peace may fully reign in the soul of our Country and justice and good will may dwell in the hearts of all Filipinos...
We love you, Lolo Kiko, mabuhay po kayo!
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