I sometimes go there for the 6 p.m. Mass in English when I'm done at work in Brgy. Veterans Village with the distance permitting. The acoustics are too low to understand the pastor's Tagalog-spoken homily. Of course, it's been that way for years.

I once sat somewhere on the front pew with the elderly usher behind me. He spoke so loud that I could barely concentrate on reading a prayer book even though I tried moving away from him. I told him to lower his voice while meditating. To worsen matters, a mentally retarded kid (holding a tablet & wearing the usual pair of gray Crocs), whom I see every time, laughed along with the usher during a conversation, bringing disrespect to the church with no one seem to bother stopping them. During Holy Communion, I now receive the host rather from the pastor than from that slightly resounding usher, whose voice I can still hear while kneeling on the pad to pray thereafter.