Yesterday I went to the FOP, or Festival of Praise, with marilyn brandon greg rachel joanne and some of their friends. Its this large-scale christian praise and worship thing held at the indoor stadium.. was really packed!

Anyway, we had to reserve seats for my parents cos they were coming late since my dad doesnt get off from work very early and the thing officially starts at 7.30pm. so. well, to cut the long story short, they were rather late (cos most of the seats were filled up) and when they arrived, it was nuts trying to direct and locate them via SMS. why sms? because the ccc band was playing so loudly and i wouldnt be able to take a call. and well, the indoor stadium is so big! I was almost getting exasperated in guiding them to their reserved seats. so. after many exchanges of messages and my patience running dry, nice ol brandon offered to go out and bring them in. :) i don't think i expected that. i mean, he really is going out of his way to help, isn't he? i'm really touched. in the end, i went out with him and with a bit of running up and down and a phone call we finally netted them. ha! and suddenly we realised, where are our seats!? :/ brandon was like, wait i go and find. ahh, bran to the rescue again. so yay. they found their seats and we got back to ours.

i forgot to thank brandon though. for that, i should kick myself.

*ouch*

About the fop itself... it was o-k-a-y. the ccc band was too rowdy. Don moen kind of made it better with his rather handsome and pleasant good looks and wonderful songs. and ed silvoso (if i'm not wrong).. well, had a very strong accent to say the least. The whole thing wasn't what i kind of expected. somehow, it felt different from the praise and worship in catholic churches. really, seriously different. and lacking. i mean, outwardly, everybody around me were all pumped up and many were jumping up and down to the rock-ish music ccc was playing and there was this raw energy, but on the inside, it felt empty. for me (and marilyn and my parents, as according to what they said later). i'm not sure why. i mean, in our church, as catholics, we arent so expressive and so pumped up that we jump up and down.. perhaps its the culture. but i feel that our mass, p&w etc is so much richer than last night. we don't profess to have the same amount of sheer energy as them but... it happens on the inside. it touches your heart, with that kind of quiet (not necessarily all the time), unassuming, very genuine feeling. how to put it into words? its just undescribably different. all in all, i felt that last night was one big rock concert. and i went away feeling that something was definitely missing. like i didnt feel god's presence. and perhaps the eucharist wasn't there. it's kind of confusing because i was frustrated at feeling so empty and i thought that maybe i was the only one, that maybe i was not putting my heart and soul into worshipping god. afterall, christians (protestants) and roman catholics worship the same god. but well, turns out that marilyn and my parents felt the same way. so i guess, it must be true, we catholics have something that christians don't. i think. maybe. i don't know how it works. and well, i feel that the preacher ( i don't know what they call him) was, in my mother's words, too ra-ra. haha! okay, if u don't understand its ok. its some weird term she came up with. what she means is like, its too.... what? like a lot of action, like rarara-talking and rarara-gestures. u know? and its true for me too. it didnt strike a chord at my heart at all. and, as my mum put it, it felt like a motivational talk. mmm... i still prefer our priests.


i'm still glad though, that i attended last night's fop. although i walked away feeling an oddness in my heart, but i think its an experience. to actually experience what the christians do. mm... very insightful. and i think i've learnt to appreciate my church and what we do more now. i mean, i used to be quite impressed with the protestants for being so energetic, enthusiastic and modern (in the sense of using rock music) in their way of worship and when i put the catholics and christians side-by-side, catholics just pale in the way they evangelise and their energy levels. u know, that "I WANT TO DO THIS-THIS-THIS FOR GOD" kind of thing. but now, i see how much we actually have. after all my experiences in the catholic church, there is no other place (than ctk :D) and no other religion that i'd rather be in. For that, i'm grateful, for being born catholic.

oh, and i meant no offence to any christian with what i said with all the above. i'm not critisizing but just, u know, pointing out the differences i felt. i mean, its all good and fine for u guys. maybe i'm just not used to your way.


make peace not war.


yay, ok, i'm kind of looking forward to mass on sunday. haha. food for my soul!


hmm... and i think i shall go seek out my that christian classmate. wonder if she went for fop. :D just curious.