Thoughts About My Birthday and Its Celebration….
It is nice to be 50! Truly it is grace from God that one could reach a “golden” milestone. I would like to praise and thank God for this gift of life, gift of Christian life, gift of priestly life. I look back into the past and see only graces upon graces leading me to what I am (a priest, pastor and missionary in Austria) and what I have (the Philippinische Gottedienst Gemeinde) as entrusted to me now. Events, one after the other in life, and I guess that is for all of us true, are just preparations for the now that we are and have.
For me specifically, for example: I have finished the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in the University of the Philippines, and surely it was not only for itself but it also served as a door to a wider spectrum of God’s plan. Through this course I have eventually met the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), my religious congregation. Through my post graduate studies in Animal Nutrition in Copenhagen, Denmark, I was able to “know” Vienna, which after 13 years would be my area of missionary endeavours. Still a lot of “small creeks” contributed to the “river” that I am now. God’s ways and love are truly mysterious.
I never expected the intensity of the people´s response to the invitation to my birthday celebration. So many came, helped and participated in one way or another, making a one beautiful event that was still talked about and would probably be a “record holder” for a particular aspect. Gusto ko nga yata maniwalang maraming nagmamahal sa akin. (lol) This party was made via a concert, a community concert where some 150 people performed. What is peculiar with it is that I participated in all the song and dance numbers.
When 2007 stepped in, I started thinking of how I would celebrate my 50th birthday. I want to do it differently: no 50 roses or 50 toasts or 50 wishes as is the “routine”. Then the idea of a concert came. I am not really a talent on this: I can sing but only the Mass songs and I have never really danced, at least, publicly in the last 50 years, so to speak. But I could practice, I told my self. And so it happened.
My performing in all the numbers of the concert with children, youths and adults, mirrors my involvement in almost all aspects of the life of the Filipinos I pastor here in Vienna. Lagi akong kasangkot sa buhay nila: mga bata, kabataan at matanda, sa lungkot at tuwa. And I really praise and thank God for the 50 grace-filled years and for His gift of this community, the PGG, in which my life revolves. To love and serve my God, in this community is desire of my heart, now and forever.
We have videotaped the whole concert including all the faces that were then present. It was like an attendance list. The produced DVD is now on sale (for €12 a piece), the proceeds of which goes to the PGG Education Assistance Fund. Buy a CD and support a monthly expense of one high school student in the Philippines!
Again, let me take this chance to thank all of you who in one way or another supported the PGG Community concert and my birthday celebration. God bless us all… always!
Fr. Ron Sandoval, SVD,
PGG Priest, Pastor and Missionary
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