I have always be struck by the prayer for priests that is regularly recited at the EDSA Shrine. It speaks about how we should pray for those priests who have touched our lives in some way: the priest who baptized us, who heard our confession, gave us communion, etc. It also says that we need to pray for those priests who are young, who are old, who are dying.

Whenever I hear this prayer, one of the priests that always come to my mind is this kind and very wise priest whom I really look up to. I was only fifteenish when my sister "dragged" me (hahaha) to the center in Examiner for me to talk to this certain priest. My sister only had high praises for him so I gamely went inside the confession booth to talk to him. I still remember being very engrossed in my conversation with the priest that my sister literally had to knock on the confession door to tell me to come out already. I didn't notice that an hour had passed already! Hahaha. It was a very memorable first time for me. Normally, knowing myself, I wouldn't last 5 minutes in the confession. In this case, it was an utterly good first time that I kept coming back to the sacrament of reconciliation and spiritual direction ever since.

I am forever thankful to God for leading me to this holy priest. His advices to me really contributed a lot in helping me find and realize my vocation - a gift that I may never ever have discovered if I had not let my sister "drag" me to that place on that fateful day. :-)

So to you Father Guzman, thank you and see you in Heaven. I'm pretty sure you are there.