House Blessing at Jakosalem

How much can you spend in constructing a house these days? Well, it's actually not part of my blog at this time.  But, what I would like to tell you is about another gathering that I went to recently.

We were invited to Uncle Dodong's house blessing last Friday, November 12, 2010.  It was a double-event as it was also his wife's birthday.  Located on a 500+ sq.m. lot along the busy Jakosalem St., the two-storey house was still unfinished.  Yet, the family decided to move in, hence, the customary blessing.  

The House at Jakosalem: Soon to Finish

Location-wise, it was perfect! The house is very near a church, market, malls, schools, banks, and hospitals. It was practically at the heart of the city and at the center of everything that makes life convenient. 

When we arrived, Fr. Eddie (Remember "Pabo ni Padre"? It's him!) was already there. About 6:00 p.m., relatives and friends have started coming.  Of course, official members of the Highway 77 El Garaje were spotted there. 

The PEOPLE: Among family and friends

The  prayer and the blessing proper happened around 7:00 p.m. Quite expectedly, dinner followed the blessing.  How else can I describe it, but simply SUMPTUOUS!  Aside from the catered food from Benjo's, our hosts also prepared their crowd-pleaser sweet-and-sour fish, biko, budbud, and fruit salad.  The caterer's menu include seafood alavar, stuffed crab, chow pat chin, bam-i, beef with onions, buttered chicken, and mango pandan jelly salad.  Last to mention but actually the first in the list was the omnipresent lechon (there were two of them; again, from Paray's Lechon house, my Ate's favorite lechon provider). 

The FOOD: Blessed are the people who prepared these food; Blessed are those who want to eat but have no food;
Blessed are those who want to eat and have food but cannot eat because of sickness

What's inspiring about the entire thing was the message given by Fr. Eddie. I cannot help but to agree with his words. It goes something like this:  "Dili importante unsa ka daku o nindot ang balay.  Ang importante, ang pamilya na ana-a sa sulod sa balay kanunay na magmahalay, mag-sinabtanay.  Dili bale saging, basta labing; Dili bale camote, basta walay kombate; unsaon ang adobo kung sige ga-lagobo."  

Pondering on the priest's message, I may say that our uncle is a lucky man, because he apparently has both the subjects that we're talking about: a big nice house and a loving family.  God bless you. 

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