Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon

PEDRO (PETE) A. PADRE, JR., South District B, 76 years old, retired Corporate Executive and Public Relations (PR) Counsellor

Tito Pete was born and raised in Mangatarem, Pangasinan. In 1948, his family moved to Manila and his father who was a public school principal in Pangasinan enrolled him at  the then Ateneo de Manila for his college education. The young Pete always wondered how his family could have afforded to send him to the Ateneo given that his father earned a meager income from his job. Raising his own family years later and having come to know God more deeply, Tito Pete discovered the answer: “God provides!”

He vividly recalls that on his very first day at the Ateneo, his Jesuit professor said, perhaps in a jocular manner, “If you want to be a successful businessman and get rich, go to La Salle. But if you want to change the world, you can stay at the Ateneo”. Being a young idealist from the province, he decided he wanted to “change the world”.

Surrounded and educated by Jesuits, he could so easily have been a man of the cloth but somehow, he couldn’t imagine being called Father Padre. In 1952 he graduated with a Bachelor in Literature degree, major in Journalism, cum laude and salutatorian of the class. On his last year in college, he was working as a regular full-time reporter for the Philippines Herald, a major national daily before Martial Law. Ten years later, due to hard work and sheer talent and skills, he held the top post in the editorial department as the news editor.

Pete and Rose Padre (South B)

Meanwhile, in 1960, he met, fell in love with and married a young teacher from Manila, Rosemarie Pasimio or Rose. Their marriage bore three children, 2 girls and a boy, now all grown-up and professionals themselves. Tito Pete and Tita Rose are also the proud grandparents of 16-year-old twin girls.

After 12 years in the newspaper business, Tito Pete decided he (not to mention Tita Rose) had had enough of the late nights. Worse, he found himself being subjected to pressures from the Herald’s powers-that-be who supported opposing political parties. Certain that that was not the life for him and his family, he wasted no time in resigning from the Herald and shifting to the world of corporate communications.

Moving up the so-called corporate ladder, Tito Pete enjoyed better compensation and  more generous fringe benefits. In Tita Rose’s words, “The Lord’s provision via Pete’s salary increased in proportion to our family needs as the children grew older”.

But as he started earning more money, Tito Pete developed a craving for more, and more, and still more. He began resenting those who seemed to be moving ahead faster than he. In retrospect, Tito Pete realizes this was when he started acting like the older son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He felt he had been a good person and was entitled to all that he was getting, and more. He complained to the Lord, “What about me? Is this what I get for being faithful to You all these years?”.   

Of that time, Tito Pete says, “It is during moments of crisis in faith like this, which comes often in our lives, that the Lord reaches out and touches every one of us – if we would only care to notice”. The Lord, indeed, reached out and touched him then. A friend persistently invited him to the breakfast meetings of a group of businessmen and professionals at the Makati Sports Club where they “talked about nothing else but the Lord and how He was working in their lives”. Resistant at first, Tito Pete thought it was not necessary for him to join another group when he and Tita Rose had been members of the Christian Family Movement since early in their marriage and they were active members of their parish.

In 1981, he finally agreed to go to a breakfast meeting of the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) and he never missed a meeting after that. He remembers being touched by the sharer, inspired by the songs and impressed with the important and powerful people in the business and professional world who openly proclaimed the kingship of God in their lives. Having been close to God all his life, his conversion was not a dramatic one attended by lightning and thunder but a “quiet moving from one level of relationship with the Lord to the next”..

A few months later, he and Tita Rose were invited to the Christian Life Program. It was during the CLP that Tito Pete began to see God as a personal God. After being baptized in the Holy Spirit, he and Tita Rose were given increasing responsibilities in the BCBP and they served in various capacities. They decided that they had “found our Pearl of Great Price so we gave up all our other activities which did not involve the Lord’s work”.

In 1984, Tito Pete and Tita Rose were invited to the Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon. Three years later, they made and accepted their covenant with Ligaya. But even as they joined Ligaya, they continued serving and being active members in the BCBP. They also felt called to serve in their parish, the Resurrection of Our Lord in BF Homes, Paranaque, where they are now the head of the Education, Formation and Communication commission and members of the Parish Pastoral Council Execom.

Tito Pete recalls that during their early years in Ligaya, the entire community met every Sunday at the Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA) Gymnasium in Greenhills. The assembly started with Mass at 3 p.m. presided over by Fr. Herb Schneider, S.J., followed by worship. To instill discipline and to train the members in honoring and respecting others’ time, the main door would be closed at exactly 3 p.m. Arriving on time was then imperative unless one wanted to sneak in through one of the side doors.

Foundation talks were also given on Sundays, 1 to 3 p.m. just before the Mass. Tito Pete, who values his siestas, initially found it challenging to stay awake during these talks. But by God’s grace, he learned to cope and he and Tita Rose went on to complete all the talks without any absence.

In due course, Tito Pete and Tita Rose settled down to a quiet life of growing with and in the Lord “the Ligaya way”. Tito Pete acknowledges that Ligaya is not the only way one can grow in his relationship with God. They served as Pastoral Leaders and then as Service Heads of the Tahanan ng Panginoon Outreach in Clinicville, BF Paranaque.

The Joy of Being with Ligaya

One time, Tito Pete and Tita Rose met their Jesuit chaplain during their Christian Family Movement days and when he asked them what they were busy with they replied that they were with Ligaya “undergoing formation”. The priest was incredulous and told them, “Formation? You are already formed! Go out into the world where you belong!”. Taking the challenge to heart, Tito Pete and Tita Rose gradually returned to their first love – service in their parish, while remaining faithful members of Ligaya, which to them “is and will always be our home”.

In 2000, Tito Pete suffered a stroke. Rather than reject and be anxious about what happened, he totally embraced it as God’s answer to his self-seeking questions aboutwhether or not his being faithful to God was only because He had always been good to him and because He had not put him to the test. Confident that God is sovereign, he completely resigned himself to the Lord’s Will and was “thankful that he was allowed to share in the Lord’s passion and suffering on the Cross, even if only in a very insignificant way”. After about a year of slow yet steady recovery, Tito Pete was able to resume his normal activities and even travelled with Tita Rose to the U.S. 

"Rose has been my north star," Pete Padre.

Tito Pete looks back and says that his life has been an uneventful yet happy, fruitful, rewarding, and fulfilling one. He feels that he has not experienced very significant highs and lows. He claims that Tita Rose, who has always been very religious and spiritual, has given him the greatest sense of meaning and purpose in his life. She has been his North Star, the one who has been “keeping me on a straight course, safeguarding my principles and values from corruption by the world and being the firm anchor in my spiritual llife”. She together with their children and grandchildren give Tito Pete the greatest joy in life.

God uses certain occasions, times of great and significant decision-making, to chart a person’s life direction. Tito Pete sees 2 major crossroads in his life that set his life in a definite direction and that shaped everything that he became and turned out to be. First was when he obtained his college education at the Ateneo which helped determine his career path. And second was his marriage to Tita Rose which has been the greatest source of joy and purpose of his life.

The best truth that God has shown him about Himself is that He is a loving Father who  always gives what is best for His children. Tito Pete realizes that death is inevitable for everyone and far from the evil that it is often associated with, he sees it as a “going home”, something necessary to take us to the Father. Speaking from the vantage point of a 76-year old, he has discovered that in the end, what matters most to him is his family and that having too much money, more than what is needed to have some degree of financial independence and the peace of mind that it brings, is really not necessary to be happy.

Asked what he can advise younger people about living a happy and meaningful life, Tito Pete urges, “Find your North Star and always be guided by it; always have an eternal perspective in everything you do”.  

- Written by Ging Non (Central E)  for NOW Ministry