FEAST WORSHIP NIGHT! To God Who Never Changes
By CYBILL P. BAYTO
NO matter how many worship songs are sung, how various the voices and praises, how many generations come and go, and will come still, we worship the same God who never changes.
That was the essence of the Feast Worship Night held at the PETA Theatre in Quezon City on September 24, 2022.
Feast Worship is a Catholic worship movement of the Light of Jesus Family. leading the Worship session at The Feast, LOJ’s weekly faith gathering, mainly at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) by the Manila Bay Area and echoed in various Feasts worldwide.
The Feast Worship’s vision is to see generation after generation, people encountering more of God’s goodness, sharing more of God’s grace, and declaring more of God’s glory.
The Blessed Sacrament- our Lord Jesus Christ, our God ever Present amid His people’s praises, takes center stage at the Feast Worship Night.
OPENING PRAYER
The Worship Concert, of course, begins with prayer, with prayer leader Aio Barcelona extolling the goodness of our Father: … You have never left us, you have never forsaken us. You’ve always been here at our side.
But tonight, Father, just allow us to deliberately come into Your Presence. Allow us to ask again for more of your love, more of your mercy again, more of your healing again…
Lord, we know that you are here, tonight. Amen.
THANKSGIVING
Light of Jesus FamilyFeast Worship leader Mike Vinas, also Builder of Feast Bellevue, leads our Thanksgiving, reminding us:
In the presence of God, I want you to recall the blessings of the past. I want you to see the blessings in the present—all those blessings around you right now in your life. And I want you to simply appreciate them with deep gratitude to the Lord. And as you do that, notice how hope and joy will rise in your heart, will rise in your life and in this place tonight with an expectation of the beautiful future that God has for each and every one of us.
I don’t know about you. Maybe you’re in complaint of in comparison, yes perhaps that’s why it’s hard to be thankful but let’s get pass that. Let’s pray for that tonight and let’s just be grateful…
Who among you came tonight with your best? Came waiting for God?
Psalm 95:1-3 says, “Come let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song, for the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.”
So let’s just take a moment, let’s take a moment to be grateful. You can do it your own way…
EXHORTATIONS
Fr. Albert Garong, one of our regular Feast Bay Area Holy Mass presiders, expressed gratitude for being part of the Feast Worship Night for the first time: “Who’s pumped up right now? This is intense, guys. It’s my first Feast Worship Night. My goodness. Wow!… I’m just super thankful to be with you, guys. To be with everyone here, to be worshiping in person, finally, after so long a time.
Fr. Garong shares classic worship songs which became a big part of his faith journey
His parents joined Couples for Christ when he was 8 years old. And he was 9 when he was exposed to the Charismatic movement. So, he learned Charismatic
songs. And he says that when he entered the seminary, he introduced the songs to his co-seminarians.
He shares glimpses of his life in the seminary and exhorts us about the Presence of God in our midst, in the Blessed Sacrament, and in the Holy Eucharist:
When I was teenager, I was in Youth for Christ. At the age of 17. I entered the seminary so my Charismatic involvement was cut. although it became dear to my heart…
But then, in the seminary, I also discovered my love for liturgical music, our songs in church Lamb of God, Kordero ng Diyos — and I fell in love with all of them.
…The most important treasure that I found in the seminary was something that we did every day. We would have one hour of adoration…. When the Blessed Sacrament was exposed on a monstrance, on an altar table, and we were simply there for an hour in silence, just having our own heart-to-heart conversation with the Lord. There are songs in between activities but it’s mostly silent adoration…
Tonight, we are worshiping and thanking the Lord and praising Him and adoring him as much as we can. We feel Him in our heart. We feel Him in our neighbor. We feel Him in each other. But then God chooses to be more Present than that. And yes, through the Blessed Sacrament…
Let’s put it this way, a while ago, someone told me, “Father, ang tagal natin itong hinintay. Ang tagal natin itong inasam. – We’d waited for this for a long time. We desired for it for a long time.”
But when we think about it, hindi naman siya nawala di ba? God did not vanish, right?
EVEN WHEN HOPE IS GONE…
Sometimes, these words are just hollow and what’s real are the tears you’re trying to hide and you don’t want to show anyone. And you know, even if things are sort of getting back together, it’s not like how it used to be, either.
Some of you who serve at The Feast know what I’m talking about. It’s not the same! The people we used to serve with are not there anymore. The place that used to be packed from the front to the back is full of empty seats. Maybe we’re getting by in terms of our work— but man, the gas prices. It’s like it’s almost as if every day we’re running dry…
If that’s you… Awesome! Because God is close to the brokenhearted. Did you know that the book of Psalms, it’s the prayer book of the Judeo-Christian faith? And more than one-third of the entire book are lament psalms. Only less than one- fourth are praise psalms. The majority of the book of psalms is lament.
Is it possible that God is okay if you’re coming before Him with doubt? Is it possible that God is okay with you coming before Him not okay? Is it possible that God actually desires that so that He can show you that He is here and that He is Present?”
We’re going to join you, we’re going to sing with you, and we’re going to sing for you when these words are hard for you to sing. That’s the beauty of Community —that all our voices are joined together and we’re going to come before God in intercession, in humility, and in prayer —in trust that God is here, that God is Present and will be making Himself known.
Even in the doubt, we can sing.
In this Community, let’s sing with one another, let’s singfor one another.
Let’s sing because this is the truth: that God is here and He is listening to every single person who is wanting to just gaze towards Him. He’s a God who knows us, who knows what we need even before we ask Him.
That’s why we can come before Him in confidence… and sing:
Even now when my hope is gone Even now when there seems no way Lord, I know You can do all things You can roll the stone away Raise me even on the fourth day…
OFFERING
Mike Viñas leads the offering exhortation:
It’s amazing how God’s been using right these songs to bless, impact, and change lives.
Naalala ko yung sinabi ng servant servant sa Feast last year.
— I remember what one Feast servant told me last year. Her family suffered from COVID— her parents were in critical condition. One night, she had to take her father to the hospital. In the car, to keep calm and to pray at that crucial moment, she showed him a video of The Feast (during Worship).
She told him: “Daddy, o, tingnan mo tumutugtog ako dito..— Look, I’m playing (an instrument).
And the song was Jesus You Are for Me — with the touching lyrics: One day I’ll see the promise that you have for me.
Right away, they latched on to those lyrics— as their prayer, as their song of hope in that dark, difficult moment of life.
Sadly, her dad passed on. But in the midst of that pain, in the midst of that confusion, still, she declared in faith: “One day I’ll see the promise God has for me… Jesus, you will not forsake me. Jesus, I know you are for me.”
That’s just one of many stories, of many testimonials of what God is doing through these songs. You all get to be part of all that God is doing through these songs.
Truth be told, one reason we mount Feast Worship Night is to be able to raise funds— to be able to record our songs, produce and eventually release an album. So, if you are here, you get to be part of all of that. So, thank you very much.
Applaud yourselves.
But we admit, we still need your help to be able to cover the production costs. It’s no joke to make an album. To release one album costs close to half a million pesos.
May I ask you: Would you be willing to partner with us to produce, to fund our next album?
We will be releasing an album with 11 brand-new songs. We are so excited as a team to share these new songs with you, with all of our Feasts
And eventually, we pray that these songs, by God’s grace, will again be released and find their way to the heart of people— for God to be able to touch, change, and transform them.
—Photos by Mark Bolongan
And jay Carlo Olaguer
