(1st Dr. Paulino E. Albano Memorial Lecture delivered by Pietro S. Albano; 10 January 2011; SRVA Hall; St. Rita Hospital & College; Manila, Philippines)Amidst the warm welcome that Pope Benedict XVI received when he visited the United Kingdom in September of last year, on a huge billboard was written: You don’t need God to be good.”
Is this possible? For a while perhaps. But as plants would rely on water and sunlight to grow, so our souls need God to flourish.
Dr. Paulino E. Albano Sr., our Man of the Year if you like (since we’re celebrating his Birth Centennial this year), was fully aware of his need for God. And because he needed God, he began a relationship with him. A relationship we could simply call as faith.
Lolo Paul, as we would lovingly call him, was also aware that for this relationship to grow and last, he has to look after it; he has to take care of it!
How did he look after his relationship with God? “Isang relihiyosong tao”, as his contemporaries would often describe him, Lolo Paul took care of his faith through prayer, spiritual resources, and witnessing.
Raised by religious parents, Lolo Paul was a sacristan at the Sta. Monica Parish Church in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte (his birthplace) when he was still a young boy. I believe his frequent participation in the Holy Mass made a lasting impression on him which is why he brought with him this holy practice when he moved to Manila.
I must say that I’m blessed to have joined in a number of daily Masses at the St. Rita Hospital Chapel when he was still alive. At five in the morning, his call at the intercom was commonplace: “Pietro, gising na! Magsisimba na tayo!”
Lolo Paul and his wife Dr. Pilar “Lola Piling” Valdes-Albano would take turns in doing the Mass readings: Lolo, First Reading; Lola, Prayer of the Faithful. They would also lead in the singing with Lolo Paul giving the melody. The Mass was the right way of starting the day as far as Lolo Paul was concerned.
Apart from the Mass, he frequently received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is important to note that these two sacraments go hand-in-hand. If we want to worthily receive Jesus in the Holy Communion, we must prepare ourselves by going to Confession. A priest once lamented that there is long queue in Communion, but not in Confession. Why? Because people nowadays have lost the sense of sin. Anything goes now in society!
There were also other devotions that he fostered: the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Rosary of Mary, St. Joseph, and St. Rita.
His devotion to St. Rita deserves a further explanation. While studying Medicine at the University of Santo Tomas, he lived in a dormitory called “St. Rita Hall” which used to be located near what is now the Philippine Normal University. Being religious, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to know more about the saint. When he moved his family to Gagalangin in 1940, where he began his private medical practice, he never forgot his favorite saint; he named his clinic after her! This clinic became the nucleus for what is now called St. Rita Hospital and College. This institution!
Take note though that it wasn’t just the saint’s name that he remembered. This institution, ever since its foundation, would celebrate the memory of its patroness through the annual “St. Rita Day” held every 22nd of May complete with a Mass, Blessing of Roses (a tradition that came from Cascia, Italy where St. Rita died), and Veneration of her relic (tendon). We also used to have a Weekly Novena to St. Rita every Thursday.
Apart from prayer, Lolo Paul also sought religious books as well as spiritual exercises to keep him up to date with Church teachings and to develop him further in living his faith.
As parents would share their love to their children, so did Lolo Paul bore witness to his faith by being a role model to his family and to his community. Indeed, as St. John wrote: “We are to love, because God loved us first. Anyone who says, “I love God”, but hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen.” (1 John chap. 4).
Together with an equally religious wife, he raised up a religious family. The family was actually recognized as the “Model Catholic Family of Tondo” in 1964.
Ever since settling in Gagalangin, Lolo Paul and Lola Piling generously contributed for the good of the community especially their parish. There were a number of religious organizations that he was involved with such as the Adoracion Nocturna Filipina (where he served as its first Jefe deTurno), Knights of Columbus Council 3913 (where he served as its first Grand Knight), Apostleship of Prayer, and Cofradia de San Jose.
When the parish required a bigger structure to hold its various services for its growing population, Lolo Paul and Lola Piling were the parishioners who took the lead in raising funds for this project. The current church is the fruit of their hard work and leadership. The huge crucifix hanging on the main altar is Lolo Paul’s gift to the parish he so loved. If you have a chance to visit the church and see the crucifix, please say a prayer for Lolo Paul.
Just like any follower of Christ, Lolo Paul wasn’t spared from any trials. The untimely death if his fifth son in an airplane crash in 1963 is a good example. What was Lolo Paul’s reaction? Here’s what Celeste Paras, a former ICAM student, wrote: “Their deep devotion to God allowed the Albano family to accept as God’s will the passing away of their beloved Ramon. Although this tragic incident has left a void in their hearts, surely their strong faith will enable them to face greater trials and accept them all as God’s will.” (“Catholic Families-Stronghold of Faith”; The Spark; Sept-Oct 1963)
Even when he and Lola Piling migrated to the States in the early 80s, I was told that they continued practicing their faith there via daily Mass and other devotions as well as involvement in the community. One of the last activities Lolo Paul was engaged with hours before he died was attending Holy Mass. A man of prayer that he was, the Mass became his companion to his final destination: God. True enough, it was his viaticum in his final moments.
What can we learn from Lolo Paul’s spirituality?
First, faith is a gift. Therefore it has to be cherished otherwise it would be an insult to the giver (i.e. God). Like Lolo Paul, we can value this by praying, reading spiritual resources, and witnessing. When we pray it should be remembered that we are lifting our hearts and minds to God, so our prayer time should be focused on Him alone. When we read religious books such as the Bible, we have to be critical lest we misinterpret what these mean. If in doubt, we need to check if these readings are approved by the Church.
Second, faith is a constant relationship with God. According to the Magnificat’s January 2011 Editorial: “ Christianity is not just a set of ideas, or even a point of view…It is a means of salvation: the integration of human with divine life. If Christianity is declining in Europe, it is because this essential interior dimension – the spiritual dimension in which we experience a living relationship with Jesus Christ – has been neglected.” Jesus also reminds us: “ Apart from me you can do nothing.” (John chap. 15)
Third, faith is an ongoing search for God. We need to search God in every decision we make. At times, we seem to be alone in our problems and other challenges in life as though God has abandoned us. Yet the Bible says: “You will seek the Lord your God from there, and if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul, you shall find him.” (Dt. 4:29) St. Augustine, in his “Confessions” once wrote: “Our heart is restless until it rests on you.” Lolo Paul was always inclined towards God. He died at peace with God. As the Filipino proverb goes: “Kung saan nakahilig ang puno, doon ito mabubuwal.”
Fourth, faith prods us to hope and to love. We Filipinos believe that “Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa.” We need work as though everything depended on us, but we need to pray as though everything depends in God.
Lolo Paul, always hoping for eternal life as promised by the Risen Jesus, would make it a point to recite the “Requiem Aeternam (“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord”) every time we pass by a cemetery.
His life was full of love as he once attested: “Love is my amulet, the secret of my success.”
I always think of the following qualities whenever I remember Lolo Paul: P-prayer, A-action, U-unity, L-love. From being a man of prayer, he became a man of action, of unity, of love. This has been a continuous process all his life, a life that showed value to his faith.
If we do the same and recognize faith’s potentials in our journey as individuals and as a community, that faith, as St. John wrote, would be our victory over the world and its false promises. Our faith – both timely and timeless – would see us through our changing and challenging times. Dr. Paulino E. Albano Sr. is our model for this. Let us follow his footsteps!
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