VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
I really appreciate the priestly ministry. Being a priest is about having a right relationship with God and knowing that God will lead one in the right direction to fulfill whatever God designs to have be done. I am always hopeful to grow more in my relationship with God in serving other people. This searching to increase my knowledge and love for God that I may be a better priest is helped by and sustained through prayer.
What do I mean by having a right relationship with God? How we relate to others in proper, respectful and genuinely concerned or interested ways, are what good relationships are about. For example, how do we relate to our friends, our parents, our siblings and the people around us? Do we treat them kindly and well, as we ourselves would want to be treated? Having a relationship with God is expressed in the same way. How we treat others is a reflection of our right relationship with God.
It takes time, is a process, to grow in a relationship, especially with God. My relationship with God started in my relationship with my parents. As a kid, my faith grew through watching how they expressed their faith. By my parents’ example, I was encouraged to go to church and to pray the basic prayers, including the rosary. In school, I was taught by the religious sisters the importance of prayer.
Prayer is a kind of communication. Communication means that it takes two to listen and dialogue. Thus, in prayer, we are not only talking to God, we also need to be quiet and listen. Because God also talks to us. God likes to communicate with us through the signs of the times, in the Scriptures, in our experiences with the people around us. God does talk to us.
Those experiences are sometimes happy ones, and sometimes sad ones. But it all boils down to having a relationship. In any other relationship, there are ups and downs. Be patient, God does talk back. It is up to us to listen, because God does talk to us in every kind of form, through all kinds of communication. Sometimes, we need to take a moment of silence in order to hear God. Usually, we are the ones who do all the talking. But, God also speaks to us, especially through the events in life. I believe that in all our experiences, there is always a message from God even in the littlest thing.
I encourage the youth and young adults to see that what is important in life is how their relationships are with one another. To have a right relationship with one another, a relationship with God can help.
Through prayer, we can more deeply know ourselves. And the more we know ourselves, we can come to understand others more easily, and Jesus more. So it is a matter of growing in a relationship.
I have a very short prayer that I usually offer every time I wake up early in the morning. “Lord, help me to discover how deeply you know and love me.” That is my daily prayer.
Father Rico Bernadez is a diocesan priest on mission from the Diocese of Tagum, Philippines. He arrived in Hawaii in 2014 and served as parochial vicar at St. Anthony Church in Kailua before being appointed in 2015 as administrator of St. Philomena Church in Honolulu. He has been ordained 19 years.
