A retrospective on enlightenment and empowerment after the Kerygma Conference.

Over a week had already passed since the Kerygma Conference 2015, and I'm still on a KCON high. The entire experience, although shorter than expected, was really enlightening and very empowering, as this entry's title suggests. And I do believe that I was there at the right time for a reason.

My mind is filled with so many thoughts about this right now, so I'll try my best to make sense of it for this blog and for you.

Before I first attended a session of Bo Sanchez's The Feast, I honestly have to admit that I wasn't really a good Catholic. While my parents thought I was going to church on Sunday afternoons, I was actually going to coffee shops, just spending my time there, reading or writing.

Then last year, my mentor, whom I call Mommy Val, invited us to attend Brother Bo's Holy Week retreat, and a bunch of us willingly went with her and her family. Two days of meaningful talks, plus a Grand Easter Feast left us with so many powerful messages, some of which struck a personal chord in each of us. That experience inspired me to keep going to church regularly at the Feast. I usually went with some of my fellow dance scholars and sometimes even with our mentor and her family.

At the end of this year's first quarter, I had resigned from our group (I worked as a communications specialist for our dance fitness company), and then I became busy with freelance work, even on Sundays. At first, I could still manage to attend the Feast regularly, but then there were some days that I couldn't due to an event that day. I have to admit, I got kind of lazy to wake up early to attend a morning session before heading to my events.

Then came the call for servants at the Feast. Noticing that there was an actors arm in the performing arts ministry under the events and programs cluster, it appealed to me so much that I signed up for it almost immediately. I first got to meet only a small bunch of servant actors during one general assembly. It was a pretty candid affair, as we were just sitting around on the floor on the 3rd floor of the PICC.

There wasn't that much need for actors for the talks during those times, and when there was, I wasn't available. Whenever I managed to attend a Sunday Feast then, I started going alone, as I had somewhat detached from a few people.

The first time I ever got to serve was at the beginning of last month (November 1st). It was only the second time I got to see a couple of people I had first met in the general assembly, including our head, Tony. The rest were all new faces to me. We had to perform this particular skit for 3 Feast sessions, and as the day progressed, I started warming up to them.

Then Brother George asked which of us were going to attend the Kerygma Conference, and he explained that they needed a big group of actors for the event's opening production number, but they needed people who were actually attending the conference as a priority. Now, I had been very curious about the Kerygma Conference since last year, but I never got to attend then due to my very busy schedule. I knew that this year, I would finally get my chance to do so.

I was so persistent. I quickly filed my leaves on the days when the conference would conflict with my work schedule, then used part of my meager savings to pay for my ticket. As I was registering online, I got so excited for the breakout classes that I had signed up for.

We were called in for a technical rehearsal on Monday evening on the week of the Kerygma Conference. It was also the same week of the APEC event, but despite all the horrendous traffic jams everywhere, a big bunch of us still managed to make it to the SMX Convention Center for rehearsal. I got to meet more servant actors, plus other people involved in the event, and not only from Feast Bay Area, but also from other Feasts all over the metro.

Let's backtrack a bit. The theme of this year's Kerygma Conference was "Coming Home," somewhat in relation to the parable of the Prodigal Son. So the concept of the opening number was different ways/versions of coming home. Some of us played "travelers," while the rest for respective "greeters" to each type of traveler. I got cast as one of the travelers, as a new Feast attendee, and my two greeters were Meg and Joyce.

Photo courtesy of Meg Bueno.

We rehearsed a few times, beginning with Brother Paolo's spoken word piece about coming home, to all the travelers' entrances to the stage from different spots behind the audience, to the opening worship. While I knew it was just a rehearsal, the energy during those opening worship songs was electrifying. It wasn't just a rehearsal anymore. We were singing and praising for real. Even after our high spirits and energy, for some reason I didn't feel all that tired when we ended rehearsal a little past midnight. And to think that I had to walk all the way from SMX to the Edsa Pasay rotunda with a few others due to the traffic jam.

The Kerygma Conference was supposed to be from November 19-22 (Thursday to Sunday), but because of certain inconveniences due to the APEC event, everything had to be pushed back. All the breakout classes had to be crammed during the entire weekend, concluding with the Grand Feast on Sunday afternoon (there was a separate Grand Feast on Sunday morning for non-attendees of the conference). I didn't really mind one it, as long as the conference would still push through.

As much as I would like to elaborate more about the conference itself, I now would just like to focus on a certain realization. It happened when I found a bit of quiet time last Thursday afternoon and started reading Brother Bo's book, Life Manual 101: How to Make Your Dreams Come True. All Kerygma Conference attendees were lucky (well, blessed, really) enough to get free copies of that book. (Thank you so much, Brother Bo!)

So anyway, another backtrack, when I first attended the Feast last year, I was given a Novena to God's Love, the usual token given to first-time Feast attendees. We were supposed to write our dreams in it. OK, I honestly have to admit that I never wrote any of my dreams in that novena. I was hesitant to even pencil anything in. Back then, I was still a marketing and communications specialist, and even though things were going so well in terms of my growth in that business, I was still kind of uncertain whether my path really belonged there or not.

So at the opening number, there I was onstage, playing a first-time attendee. As my greeters made their entrance, Meg handed me a brand new novena as a prop. I had put it in my back pocket and forgot that it was there until the end of the day. I may be rationalizing at this point, but maybe this may also be some kind of realization. Now that I had left that former line of work and had returned to theater, to performing freelance, was the new novena a sign that I could finally write down the dreams that I am now sure about? The dreams that had developed this year that I am truly meant to do for God's glory? Was I cast to play this part for a reason, to receive that novena at that moment, for that simple realization?

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this realization was so overwhelming that my eyes filled up with tears when all these thoughts came to mind.

This year, during this quarter, I had come home in more ways than one. From attending Feast sessions sporadically to regularly again, from being just a mere attendee to using my core gift of the performing arts to be a servant, and being part of a glorious event such as the Kerygma Conference, and more importantly, from being detached to finding another home in new friends I now consider part of my big family in the Feast. Yes, this quarter is full of enlightenment and empowerment for me, and that is one big blessing I am very grateful for. And to think that the year isn't even over yet.

Photos courtesy of The Feast Bay Area's Facebook page.

Here's to December, a new month after a very fulfilling November. It may be the last month of the year, but it's never too late for things to happen. More importantly, it's never too late for more blessings to come.