We can be poor, no material possession, which we can let the children inherit. But, we should not worry. The priceless heirloom which can be rightfully inherited by the children is the Love for Mary. Inasmuch as she is a good mother, she will protect them here on earth. This love for the Virgin, aside from being the guarantee for them, is a security for life, goodness and the future of your children. Almost all would want to get insurances for the future material good; what will be our desire to ensure our heavenly faith and good traits of your children There is no other more security than the bank of the Virgin which can never be corrupted by the wicked hand, nor can be bankrupt. The Virgin will protect them and cover them with her Motherly cape.

All of you, mother of the family, you are the most who are called for this. Let the Rosary reign in your family, with your husband and children. No member of the family will go astray to total damnation. Mold your hearts and the heart of your children for the honey of Love for the Virgin of the Rosary.

If they will be used to calling Her name, you parents, and all of you, will taste the one strong foundation – faith in God and our Holy Mother Church, which can never fade, hope in God in our daily sufferings and the pains for the great love of God here on earth, which are the key to open you and all of us to the Kingdom of heaven. So be it!

Within 450 years, the City of God which is Israel was enslaved by the pagan kingdom of Egypt; sadness, tears of sigh reign in their hearts. They were always praying to God to give them freedom, so that they can enter the promised land which is Israel. They were requested to sing godly songs, but they replied:
How can they sing godly songs when they were in the land of slavery?

God saved them by means of a great miracle; they passed through the Red Sea and after which God placed them in the desert of Arabia and lived there for forty (40) years and after this they can enter the promised land which is Israel.

God commanded them to make an offering, as thanksgiving to the Lord for freeing them from slavery and also for the fulfillment of said offering, God chose Aaron, the brother of Moses to be the first priest of the old covenant, and He wished that all generation should follow the priesthood of Aaron, and there was established the priesthood of the Old Law, the Levite priest.

If commemorating the said freedom from the physical slavery, God has established the priesthood to offer Him, offering of worship and thanksgiving and the priesthood of sacrifice, was even followed until the arrival of the Savior, how much more we, in commemorating the freedom that Christ is giving us from slavery which is much more than the slavery of the body, that is the slavery of the soul which is SIN. Because of that slavery God has freed us through His dying on the Cross.

So, there is no doubt Jesus commanded us to offer a sacrifice by saying: through the prophet Malachi,

From the rising of the sun to its sitting, my name is great in the face of the Gentile and everyone in every place offered incense in my name and the offering which is very pure. This offering is the Holy Eucharist, where in the Last Supper, Jesus commanded by saying. After the blessing of the bread and wine He said:

Do this; for the many times that you will do this, you are commemorating my death until I will come again. The Lord has freed us from the slavery of the soul and sin through His death on the Cross That is the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, the offering in our commemoration of His death of salvation – the death on the Cross. Hence, the new priesthood reach us which Jesus established for the new offering of freedom from slavery. This is now the Apostles who first accepted the power; the priests of our Holy Church of God, and that is what Fr. Llenas is receiving now.

With great beauty, the words of St. Paul taught us: Each High Priest is chosen from the people, for the people regarding the things about God, so that he can offer gifts for their sins. That he will be meek and humble for those who are not wise and sinful because he himself is covered by the many weaknesses. He must offer for their sins, and also for himself. Nobody would dare accept such honor but only he who is called by God, like Aaron.

My dear brethren, if only we will reflect how great and honorable is the Holy Mass which is the offering of the Lord to continue His death on the Cross, the offering which is our freedom from the slavery of sin, we will also reflect how great and honorable the power and dignity of our priests now who are the priests in the New Testament. There is no other great event and live image which our eyes can see than the first Mass of Fr. Llenas which we had observed yesterday, his Holy ordination in which God’s words are fitting:

You are a priest forever according to the Order of Melchizedec.

What is the honor of a priest, let us ask? Ah, my brothers and sisters, without God telling us in the Bible what is power and honor a priest has, we can never fathom it. Even the most brilliant mind can never know the depth of the power a priest has. The same power that Jesus, our Lord has, is the same that He has given to the priest We can read it in the Gospel of St. John chapter 20, verse 21-23: “Just as I am sent by the Father, I am also sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, I shall also forgave, whose sins you shall retain, I shall also retained.” In the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, verse 8: You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit: power to celebrate Holy Mass. We can also read in the Gospel of Luke chapter 22 verse 19: Do this in remembrance of me, for the many times you will do this, you will commemorate my death until I come again. By the power of the homily, in your coming home, you evangelize the Gospel to all people, feed my sheep, feed my lamb, By the power of assisting the sick, call the priest of the Holy Church, to pray for him and anoint him with holy oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick and God will raise him up and if he ever sinned, he will be forgiven by God.

These powers which were given by God to the Apostles, the first priests of the Holy Church, were followed by all the priests of the Holy Church and the place where God put them, that they were also like Him in power they are bringing, all the priests are like the Apostles, and all those new priests who will receive the priesthood.

Jesus said to the Apostles:

Just as I am send by the Father, I am also sending you, Luke 10:16, these words are also from them, also passed to the priests. Those who listen to you, listened to me, those who curse you, cursed me, those who cursed me, also cursed the One who sent me.

Oh brethren, how great is the power of priesthood, as St. John Chrysostom has said. They are given the power, that was never been given to the Angels in heaven nor to Mother Mary. Is there any Angel in heaven who is given the power: whose sins shall be forgiven, I shall also forgave?

Whom shall we ran for safety, according to St. James, the Apostle, in his words through the Bible, who has said: “Do you have any sick person, call the priest of the Holy Church. . . It is God’s commandment to call for a priest if there is a sick person… our priest, our parish priest and the priest we are honoring today, the only true priest of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ here on earth, the Catholic Church, wherein, thanks be to God, we are in His bosom,

It is but proper to thank all of you, Catholics, good children of the Holy Church, thanks be to God, that you remain in His bosom, unlike the one, because of his tantrum, or his knowing-nothing about Him, separated from Him, but because He owns him, God placed his salvation, and the bearer of these, are the priests.

That is why, my dear people in Christ, if you see priest baptizing, it is Christ whom we see and gave him the command:

Wherever you go, baptized the people, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit… In his homily, Jesus Christ is commanding him: Evangelize the Gospel to all the people… If he is in the altar officiating Mass, Jesus Christ is there who said to him by saying in the Last Supper:

Do this : as many times you do this, you are remembering my death until I come again. You kneel down at the confessional booth, the priest is there, drawn by God’s commandment, gave you the mercy to forgive, due to God’s command which says:

Received the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, I shall also forgave, whose sins you shall retain, I shall also retained.

This is what happened to the ten (10) lepers who called Him in a far-away place, since they cannot come closer, and said: Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy on us. Jesus replied, go to the priest, and let him see yourselves, and follow all what he commanded you to do according to the law.

What is bodily leprosy? It is the image of the leprosy of the soul which is sin. We are all sinners. It is also like the lepers or even much louder by shouting to God: Lord, have mercy on us” He will command us by saying:

Go to the priest and let him see yourselves and follow all what he commanded you to do according to the Law of God: (Luke 17:13; Mt.8:4). That is the Sacrament of Confession wherein God will give us His mercy and forgiveness through the priest.

Let us go to the priest to ask for the light of salvation, as Prophet Malachi has said: The priest has a hidden knowledge and you will look for the truth in his mouth because he is the Angel of God in His company.

Therefore, according to St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews: You must obey those who rule over you and submit to their commands, because they are keeping awake for the good of your souls, for they will give an account to God, By doing so, they will be happy and not sad. Being against, will not do any good for you. Time will come, that In our lives, there is no other to serve and prepare our souls, when we faced God. but only the priest.

Youngsters, convinced and pray that God will give you the grace to become priests; parents, you pray for your children to become priests. Those who have enough, help those who want to become priests.

And now, Fr. Llenas, we will all greet you in this joyful day of your ordination with the prayer that God will grant you strength and courage, so that, you will live in accordance with the great honor of your Holy call. Your responsibility is great. heavy and holy, but do not be afraid and do not forget the words of the Lord who said: Without Me, you are nothing. So, put everything in the Lord, things which will convince you and all of us according to the words of St, Paul: I can do all things, no, it is God who strengthened me… and so, be with God in all your actions.

May your Breviary be the flame to light your way, so, have the desire not to leave it out, for a certain reason; so that you will not stumble in the dark because there is the light. The Holy Mass must always be your strength, but you must know and be convinced that prayer and meditation are the only strength that will enflame the two.

According to the words of St. Therese of Jesus and St. John of the Cross: the Breviary and sin will sometimes join.. just like the Holy Mass and sin, and these will shut down the fire of these two, but sin and meditation will never join together; only one of the two will reign in the soul.

Therefore, there is no doubt, that with prayer and meditation, you will live in the world without the desire to be joyful, you will have all the family members that God will give you, but nobody will own you, because you will be God’s, being prayerful can make you humble, patient, heal spiritual wounds, and enter to God’s kingdom to offer Him gifts and sacrifices; you can come down easily from God to the people in order to bring them to God’s mercy, forgiveness and hope; and your heart is full of fire for the love of God and mercy for the souls, but the same heart is hard for anything that is not pure. You are always ready to teach, to forgive, to appease and to bless, These are the mission of the priests of God in the true and only Church of God here on earth – the Holy Catholic Church.

This time, oh God, we will re-new to know, that You are our Father, All-powerful, All-loving; our heartfelt thanks to you for your everlasting Goodness.

This year is the Year of Faith, and in our hearts, we are celebrating this, with great thanksgiving. Our lives became what we are now, because of that grace. It is Your Holy Command to love one another without discrimination of race, color or character. Like our own, he/she, like You, is Your image. Our being Christians has no meaning if love does not reign in our hearts; and we will be far away from you.

To you, is our thanksgiving because we are One Nation with freedom and justice; a great share for these things is the fulfillment of our responsibilities; first of all, because of You. With our mere godly knowledge, all power comes from you, the source of all Power and Powerfulness,
In accomplishment of our holy national responsibilities, we always look to You, in the bringer/leaders of government. Always lead by Your grace for obeying our national and spiritual responsibilities, with You, we will have our heavenly freedom.

But if You will not give us a good leader, who is strong to stand for the truth of life and clean governance, a leader who knew how to suffer, even with the bet of his life, for the protection of the rights of God and country, the discipline of our country which is justice, might be dragged into the weakness and failure; goodness will slowly diminish and fail, and also the most dear of our heritage which is FAITH AND HOPE. Until now, we thank You that we are still tasting such goodness, Now, we entrust to You, our new chosen leaders. Grant to them, Lord, Your grace so that they will carry the governance in goodness, that they can give good example to the people for their material good, which is the greatest reason for their leadership- the greatest material good for the country. The fear of God will be their heavenly shield to protect them against wicked governance. You have said that Fear of God is the principle of true wisdom, and so, they may attain that Holy Fear of the God, so that they can lead the good things in clean manner for the good of the country and the rights of God over their personal interest.

Bless us, Your people. Give us the virtue of being obedient to the good leader. Most especially, give us the virtue of industry, so that being lazy will be taken away. You said in the Book of Wisdom: Idleness is the root of all evil, that being lazy is the source of all wickedness. Therefore, if crime is rampant, is it not because laziness has a big share on this? For a good citizen in this country, it is proper to fear being lazy.

Is it not printed here the image of our laziness as we have seen now? We can see the vastness of the waste land of Cagayan that has never tasted any plant aside from grass.

There are many houses whose frontage or behind have no plants to make their dwelling beautiful or help those in need or may have plants but remember only when they harvest fruits from them, and never tend to them at all.

Children, in this time that you are going to graduate from school this year, it is this event that is most remembered, because this is the 100 years of the death anniversary of our great hero, Dr Jose Rizal. That is why this year is called Rizal’s Centennial Year. We may all die, but we will never witness other graduation like this one, today.

That is why, this graduation year, in commemoration of the 100 years of the death of our hero, all activities, most especially in your program, you are to bring and express the image of his life, so that it will be instilled in your heart about the good ideals which he taught to us to be good citizens of our country.

The date is so fitting to remember, because this is the date that God has given us One Great Hero whom we shall emulate to develop for a heroic foundation in each one’s heart.

In reality, this high step of development in our country, in this time of Filipino First Policywe need Rizal to teach us and to remember what is a true Filipino.

When we talk about and emulate Rizal to develop in us being good citizens of the country, we should not use a Rizal who is angry, lifting his hand with a weapon against his enemy, which is the image of his writing. That weapon which untie the bond of slavery wherein our ancestors were gnawing with pain. The end has come for the use of such weapon, because we are already freed and redeemed and have freedom and such enemies were no longer in the womb of our land.

The use of such weapon, now that it had lost its use, because the enemies who were against him, were not around, it is as if we are waging against our own shadows, since the enemies were no longer here.

It is even dangerous to our children because their spirit of hatred for the enemies will be awakened and can weakened their love and for their love for faith, the faith which once cursed Rizal, but in the end he was sorry and knew his mistakes and repent for them, that even President Quezon, like Rizal, was also been mistaken and in the end retracted for his mistakes and hand down his most noble words which became the example:
Only fools do not retract of their mistakes.{The Secretary of Education)

That is why, we talk about the true Rizal in our history who was pure and without mixture, Rizal in his childhood days, whose character has no mixture of pride, anger or hatred, our hero, Rizal, most especially remembered in his martyrdom.

Rizal, the exemplary true Filipino who is national and internationally known, He, who loves the Philippines, with a love, that is intertwined with the love of all people, under the love of God, the love of a son, “a good son of the Holy, Catholic Church,” where he was born and in her womb, he died.

Children, you must learn everyday to love our Mother Earth, like what Rizal did. If we only love the land of our birth, like Rizal, if we only have the spirit of suffering and sacrifice for the good of all, like what Rizal did, we can attain a good leader of our country, straight forward, and have a good moral character.

Like Rizal, we also have our share of weaknesses and mistakes. But like Rizal we should be wide awake from a deep sleep of our mistakes. We must repent and attain a love of country to open in us the love and mercy of the Good God.
Like Rizal, in his pure time, we must pray to the Mother of all Mothers – the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Savior. To Mary, before she was a mason and blind of our Holy Church, printed in her poetry entitled: “For Mary” and said:

Thou art my Mother, gentle Mary,Then my life shall be, my strength,Thou in this stormy sea my guide shall.

With our remembrance always of Rizal in our true history, the pure and true Rizal, in our following of his noble work, with our prayer to God and to His meek Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in front of this, Rizal was purely praying before he died, no doubt, children, this unfavorable event will vanish, most especially the two event that had happened these few days, the graduation in Luzon and in Sulu, where the two students wanted to threaten their teacher.

The Philippines at the start of this centennial year will attain a life of freedom, development and peace which Rizal has given his life, in order that this country will be a true Pearl of the Orient.

Many thanks to all of you and good night!