Father Joeker

By Fr Joseph Panabang SVD

CEMETERY

One time I brought my cousins, Henry and Benita, to our cemetery at Christ the King Seminary inQuezon City. I told them, ‘Today we’re going to where I will be one day. When that day comes, you must come and visit. It doesn’t matter which of the empty graves I’ll be in.  I’ll still listen to you from the grave.’ I think I scared my cousins because they asked to leave right away.

BAREFOOTED

While visiting the Missionaries of Charity in Tayuman, Manila, where my niece and cousin are novices, I was wearing slippers. But when I entered the building I saw them walking barefooted. ‘These people are always one step ahead,’ I muttered to myself.

COMPUTER

I placed our newly bought gadget in the office. Some of the catechists from the village was looking at it curiously. I was amused to see one of them proudly telling his companions what the unfamiliar gadget was. ‘This is a computer!’

THE OFFERTORY

I celebrated Mass in Sabie, one of the villages in my parish in Ghana . Surprisingly there were many gifts at the offertory. ‘What’s seldom is wonderful.’  My altar boys were more surprised than I was so I told them, ‘These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.'