by Bo Sanchez

Let me share with you a simple secret about succeeding in life.Don’t ever try to please everyone.

I’ve been a leader of Catholic organizations for two decades now. If I tried to live up to all the expectations that people heap on me, I’d need to be Padre Pio and Bill Gates and Francis of Assisi and John Rockefeller and Clark Kent rolled into one.

Talk about severe schizophrenia!

Some want me to be Padre Pio: ‘Bo, your early morning prayer time – done at four - should last for three hours. You should levitate once in a while. When you walk around, we should smell the odor of sanctity and see a beautiful glow on your face.’ Jeepers, I have some type of odor, I know. But I doubt if it’s sacred. (Spell out my name. Remind you of something?)

Others want me to be Bill Gates, the great CEO: ‘As our leader, you should manage a well-knit, well-run, well-oiled organization. You should implement reengineering, develop our marketing niche, and work towards ISO 9002 systems in our prayer group.’

Others want me to be St Francis of Assisi, the ascetic: ‘Bo, you should live in poverty, wear second-hand clothes, and never touch or own or think of money at all. Drive a beat up, rusty, dilapidated car. And live in a squatter area.’

And yet another group of people insist that I be John Rockefeller, the philanthropist: ‘When we have financial needs, it’ll be nice if we see you dig deep into your pocket and help us with our children’s tuition fees, our hospital bills, our shopping sprees.’

By Father Cireneo Matulac SSC

Father Cireneo ‘Dodong’ Matulac was ordained priest in his native Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay, on 28 December 2002. He’s been working in Pagadian cathedral parish since then but headed for China in January 2004. Here he tells us how his family welcomes the New Year.

There’s growing excitement in our family as we prepare for the New Year’s celebration. My brother has just left for the población to buy ice cream, the only time we have it, a real New Year’s treat. I feel that this New Year’s celebration will be different. My mother has insisted on baking rice cakes which she hadn’t done for years. My two sisters are preparing their favorite dish and my other brother is preparing his usual pork and chicken barbecue. My family has certainly become a lot bigger. I now have seventeen nephews and nieces, the oldest in his early twenties, and all of them are extremely excited. I’ve heard the younger ones say, ‘Uncle will celebrate Mass for the New Year in Lola’s house.’

By Sister Angelita Roferos SSpS

Sister Walfridis SSpS, born Gertrud Walter, is a rare diamond in more than one sense. She is a German-Filipina. Her father, Eugene, was from German and her mother, Felisa Ebio, from Bacon, Sorsogon, where she was born on November 15, 1915. When Gertrud entered the Mission Congregation of the Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit 25 years later she took the name ‘Walfridis.’

By Father Shay Cullen SSC

Fr Shay Cullen of Ireland is a Columban Father working in the Philippines since 1969. He helps children imprisoned and abused by a corrupt judicial system. PREDA (www.preda.org) was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

Little has changed in the Philippine prison system since that day several years ago when I found a 6-year-old named Rosie behind prison bars clutching a drink can and crying her heart out for her mother. A dozen or so other street children were sprawled on the hard concrete floor, unconscious with exhaustion and hunger.