Retrospect: Simbang Gabi In Courtice

With MOTHER ULRICA- undated photo.

When I moved to Ontario from Alberta in 2002, I was like a wandering ghost attending masses at various churches. I based my loyalty of attendance to a church by a priest's homily. It's like when everyone's literally snoring,  believe that I won't be back. Homily substance is pretty much one of the things I look forward to in a mass. The Eucharist is of course, basic.

So from St. Joseph church in Oshawa, I attended St. Gertrude's also in Oshawa and I came back a couple of times.  No offense to the priest that time in St. Joseph, I did  came back occasionally. Then in 2005, me and my friend bought a house in Courtice. We were living on an attic and we were toast all the time from winter to summer months, we were going bald as the curving roof is just over head. The new house brought us new hopes and new beginnings. It's not a house for the rich but it was big enough to call home.

So we were informed about where the church is and that there is a convent beside it run by nuns. It was in fact a kindergarten school run by these nuns. So we started attending the mass at St. Therese and yes, we saw the nuns but we didn't interact. I can't exactly remember how our connection with the nuns started except one day we were driving to see them.

I told my roommate to be the one to see them.  I wanna stay in the car but then she came back asking me to get inside the convent because the Mother Superior wanted to meet me. I'm uncomfortable at times wit religious people because instead of looking at me, they look away. I did get into the convent and oh, my God, they were all Filipino sisters in that instance speaking my dialect! What da? And the introduction and conversation were so warm, including the Mother Superior who came from my very own province of Bohol. It is an Italian congregation and a mixture of many cultures; Italian, East Indians, Filipinos...and what a bunch of friendliness. That was the start of a good friendship. We started attending their events and we really got closed to all of them. We also settled at St. Therese for our Sunday masses.

Fast forward to 2014, a group of singing priests connected with me and asked that I will host them for a concert to help them on their project back at the Archdiocese of Cebu. So I arranged a venue and invited the sisters and the pastors of St. Therese to watch the concert. They all came....after which Mother Ulrica pushes me to start Simbang Gabi at St. Therese. We all know that it is tough to start a certain project. However, it is more harder to say no to people who matters.

After speaking with few friends and my roommate, we started Simbang Gabi right that year in 2014. At first, there were few attendees and then later on, as the community started learning it, it grew as years passed by. There were many stories created at Simbang Gabi especially on our second year at St. Gertrude's Church in Oshawa. We moved it on another church in 2015 because the church hall at St. Therese has no handicap access and older people had trouble during the refreshments after the mass. That is why, as the church put focused on renovation project to meet the needs of older and handicap parishioners, our Simbang Gabi this years is donating its mass collections for this renovation on behalf of Simbang Gabi family.

The annual Simbang Gabi brought our community together. Our refreshments after each mass build camaraderie. this is the part after celebrating our centuries old tradition, that everyone gathered to partake the foods prepared by the nightly sponsors. This are the times when we meet new friends and engaged on storytelling with one another.

This year, as two patrons and supporters of Simbang Gabi left us, I was informed of their passing and so I gathered our Simbang Gabi pioneers, friends and we gathered to offer emotional support and be there for some of their needs.

This year, as we celebrate Simbang Gabi, we will again offer our intentions, our hopes and aspirations to the coming Jesus. I, on behalf of Mother Ulrica who is now assigned in Montreal and whose insights and desires brought us this Simbang Gabi along with her fellow Sisters in Christ, those friends who wholeheartedly supported this endeavour, I hope we grow each year, not just in numbers, but in our desire to share our blessings and our quest for wisdom and unselfishness as we respond to the needs of our community.

HAPPY SIMBANG GABI TO ALL!!!
Let's all rock it this year at St. Therese....

Li ERON
Organizer
Simbang Gabi
Durham Region