Every year, when December steps in, I find myself watching people rush past with folders, gift bags, and deadlines clinging to them like burrs. It’s the same frantic scene that greets me annually, and I’ve long believed that this December rush reveals both our strength and our weakness as a people. We welcome the season so much that we push ourselves to the brink of exhaustion to meet its demands.

Once this month comes, the air thickens with obligations. In offices, employees start racing to finish year-end reports that have piled up through the months. Supervisors suddenly remember pending evaluations, financial documents, and audits that must be completed before everyone disappears for the holidays. I’ve witnessed colleagues gulp coffee at ungodly hours, tapping furiously on keyboards, determined to prove that the year didn’t end with loose ends. The pressure is real, and it eats into our days in ways that only December seems capable of doing.

Beyond the paperwork lies another battlefield: year-end activities that spring from every direction. Schools cram their recognition programs, closing ceremonies, and outreach missions into the month. Local government units mount parades, lighting events, and public gatherings. Every organization—from church groups to civic clubs—feels compelled to hold its own celebration, as if the year would not be complete without a final roll call. I often find myself moving from one event to another, marveling at how Filipinos can turn exhaustion into an art form.

And then there are the Christmas parties—a world of their own. There are parties where the preparation feels like a full-blown production: themes, costumes, program committees, gift exchanges, raffle prizes, catering, and photo booths. People rehearse dance numbers as if auditioning for a grand show. What strikes me every time is how much heart they pour into it all, even when their feet already ache. I see teachers staying late to decorate classrooms, office workers stringing lights around cubicles, and families planning meals weeks in advance. It’s charming, yes, but it also magnifies how stretched we become during this season.

December also turns homes into work sites. Preparing for Christmas and the New Year is never a simple household task. It’s a series of errands: buying ingredients before prices soar, hunting for gifts that match each person’s taste, cleaning every corner of the house for incoming relatives, and securing extra chairs because December seems to multiply guests. I’ve spent entire afternoons in long supermarket lines, watching people balance hams, spaghetti packs, and boxes of fruit while silently calculating expenses. It’s festive, but it leaves everyone breathless.

And while the season is filled with color, lights, and laughter, it also strains the wallets. I’ve felt the weight of that strain myself—gifts to buy, contributions to give, meals to prepare, donations to extend. Filipinos rarely attend gatherings empty-handed, even when money is tight. There’s generosity in that, but also pressure. Many folks stretch their budgets to the breaking point just to meet the social expectations woven into December. The joy is absolute, but so is the worry sitting quietly underneath.

Yet despite the chaos, there’s a tenderness in the way December is handled. I’ve seen jeepney drivers hang cheap tinsel around their windshields just to join the cheer. Street vendors wrap their tables with scraps of gift wrappers. Children practice carols on street corners, their voices rising above traffic noise. The frenzy softens whenever I remember that this is how they create meaning: by giving, gathering, preparing, and insisting on joy even when life feels like a race.

Still, as much as I like the season, I often wonder whether the wiser path is to rethink how we move through December—maybe slow down a little, trim the unnecessary noise, and keep only the traditions that bring warmth rather than stress. There is beauty in celebration, but it shouldn’t drown us. If we could lighten our loads, honor our limits, and embrace the season without sacrificing our well-being, maybe December would feel less like a marathon and more like the homecoming it was meant to be. A time to remember and celebrate the coming of the redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, though not exactly December time.

I couldn’t believe these sanamagans who are openly instigating Filipinos to join People Power. We should say NO to unruly gangs of destabilizers. Let’s not allow extrajudicial means of unseating a highly performing chief executive.

By now, we should have learned the lessons of the past. Hence, let us not, in any way, waver in supporting PBBM, who is doing everything he can to get rid of corrupt officials in government.

Those calling for People Power are just trying to provoke or sabotage the ongoing efforts and advocacies of the present administration. Nakakasuka na itong pinaggagawa ng mga destabilizers! Power grab should not be tolerated. It is a blatant act that breaches our Constitution. Let’s be part of the solution rather than part of the problem!

No more fence-sitters, please. Let us openly express our disgust toward destabilization disguised as freedom of expression. The majority of Filipinos are tired of rallies and insidious black propaganda. Magtulungan po tayong majority of Filipinos para sa minimithing kaunlaran ng ating Inang Bayan. Bawal ang mga utak-talangka (crab mentality) dito.

THAT’S in the gospel of St. Luke (10,23) where Christ said these words to his disciples in private. What Christ was trying to tell them was that the true knowledge of God is a gift of divine mercy, not a reward for human wisdom. It is granted to those who receive it with childlike humility.

Only when we are simple and humble like little children that we open ourselves to God’s grace. It’s when we make ourselves receptive and responsive to the God’s abiding providence over our life.

We really need to remain childlike even as we grow in age and stature, and even as we accumulate already quite a significant amount of knowledge with our exposure to the world and the life in general.

Yes, children and heaven are almost synonymous to each other. No wonder we feel like we are in heaven every time we see children around. Every time a baby is born, we are very happy because we somehow know that he just did not come out of his mother’s womb, but rather from the very hands of God who created him before the parents procreated him.
In spite of the many limitations of children, what makes them always desirable is their pure, innocent heart, incapable of malice, ambition, pride and haughtiness. They are a source of many other good things.

Their heart is always trusting in the Lord always, just like a little kid is always confident with his father. Faith and hope easily grow and acquire strength when nurtured in a child’s heart. It’s this attitude that leads them to go on and move on no matter what, for life to them could only be an adventure of discoveries.

Obviously, the privilege of seeing and hearing what the prophets could not should make the disciples, and now, us, to be ever grateful and to be more committed to carry out the mission now entrusted to the Church. That’s the only way to keep ourselves seeing and hearing what God wants us to see, hear and know.

And so, let us realize ever more deeply that we are meant to do apostolate, since that is in the very heart of Christ’s mission which should also be ours. Therefore, we need to sharpen our awareness of our apostolic duty, since left to our own devices, we would rather give our complete attention solely to ourselves. This tendency is a consequence of our sinfulness. But originally, before man’s fall, we tend to love and care for one another.

To develop this apostolic concern therefore entails sacrifice. We should not be surprised if in pursuing it we are challenged, faced with difficulties and asked to do self-denials and other forms of sacrifice.

We just have to hold firm on our Christian conviction, together with the continuing petition for God’s grace and the generous discharge of our human effort, that to do apostolate is the will of God. He is bent in accomplishing it. It’s his first concern to contend with the difficulties. Ours is simply to cooperate.

We have to continually ask ourselves if our thoughts and desires bear an eminently apostolic character. If not, let’s immediately do the necessary adjustments and corrections.
We have to embark also on a life-long effort to acquire apostolic skills—how to make friends and deepen that friendship, how to pursue full blast the supernatural apostolic goal of our life while respecting our natural conditions, etc.
The apostolic zeal should be revved to the max!