I've never been to a parish priest's office before until last week, when I had to secure a certification from the parish which a priest would have to fill up. Since I wasn't an orthodox parishioner, the priest knew little, if not nothing, of me. So he scheduled me for an interview, a talk which I would soon find as enlightening.
The chief priest of the parish, young and very casual, welcomed me to his office. I was not surprised to see that his office had a very minimalistic nature to it. The amusing thing about it was the realization that parish priests had offices like a public official's office, except that the pictures and flags had a religious background as opposed to a political one. Instead of the president's portrait hanging on a wall and a
world flag in the corner of the room, Pope Benedict's framed picture was on the wall, and a miniature
Papal flag was a prominent piece on his table.
The mood in the office was very serene, just as calm as our talk. We talked about a lot of things, mostly about me and my recent endeavors in life. Father Pepe, which name I knew not by any formal introduction but by the big nameplate on his table, seemed to be interested with my education and how I'm going through it more than anything else. During the duration of the talk, I thought that he might have seen the young him in me for he was always talking about his experiences when he was my age, and he used his stories to help me discern some of the forks in my life's road.
After 20 minutes we ended our meaningful talk with a tight handshake. Right then and there, I realized that I was touched by Father Pepe, not only physically, but spiritually as well.
by:
The Flagman
