Im not going to lie, I have not been the most devout of Christians all through out my life.

I go to
Church every Sunday, hear the mass, take communion and thats pretty much it for my weekly
dose of Gods grace. However, for some reason, our visit at the National Shrine of the Sacred
Heart felt different. Im not sure if the feeling sourced from the fact that the Midterm exams just
ended or maybe it was something from a much higher power. Needless to say, I came to a
realisation that our visit sparked a changed within me. What kind of changed is that you might ask?
Well let me start from the beginning.
As we arrived, none of us really knew what to do. We thought we would just go inside and pray.
Fortunately enough, there was a pilgrimage group who was there and needed someone to take
their picture, we more than happy to oblige. They then ask us if we were pilgrims too and they
happily told us to go to the office to get the steps on how to pray and get our petitions answered.
The people in the office were very accommodating, more so than enough. When I think about it,
everyone there were really nice. You could really say that the goodness that comes from being
devout Christians really emanates from the people we met that day.
Now as we went on towards the door of mercy and on to the altar, the first step was to say the
prayer written at the guide that was given to us after we would mention our petitions. At that point, I
came to a realisation that I was being quite selfish with my petitions. It was all about me and my
troubles in life. Like I was praying that I would pass my exams, staying strong with my girlfriend and
praying for my family back in Iloilo. Though some might say that is understandable, as we are more
inclined to feel for ourselves first that for others but the thing is, I have been praying only for myself
since time immemorial. And it was something that kept on troubling me as I waited for my other
members to finish praying. Thoughts of people out there, much less fortunate that I am came into
my head. People are still struggling because of poverty and a lot of them cant make ends meet.
Heck, some cant even eat at least one meal a day. This brought to me the conclusion that came
after the visit, that I should be more of a man for others rather than for myself. I felt that a change in
me should come out of this visit and that change is about helping others more personally. How can
I expect God to help me if I even dont have the utmost intent to help others.
In line with my reflection, my practical resolution would be to give 20 percent of my weekly
allowance to the poor. However, this would be divided into two as 10 percent will go to the weekly
collection on the Church where I hear mass every week and the other 10 percent would be to buy
food and give it to a less fortunate brother or sister I see on the streets. Though this may seem less
impactful to some but I believe this is quite a step for me and is feasible to do. The personal
contact to my less fortunate brethren makes me believe that this might give them hope that
someone out there does care.
My devotional resolution would be to be more attentive to Church when I go to hear mass, as I
have to admit I may sometimes doze off or just state into space while Im at church and another
would be to go to confession at least once a month. Usually, I would go to confession just once a
year and I feel that I have to break that mentality that I would be forgiven anyway so to sin might
not be really a big deal. I will try to be more of a Christian than just being one for appearance sake.

These are what I intend, no, these are what I will do and what I will do is to succeed.