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Today at 3 PM, Father Al celebrated his Farewell Mass at San Mateo’s St. Timothy Catholic Church at capacity with attendees overflowing the aisles and vestibule. Witness the final prayer
and festive atmosphere as Father Al exits to applause and hi-fives.
These films are just a two moments of the over 60 that I filmed to capture the tributes and moments shared by those attending. Over the next several days I will be progressively uploading and publishing them. Click SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube Channel to be notified when they publish and are viewable in the following…
EVENT PLAYLIST
[Once you press PLAY above, hover over the image and notice the three horizontal lines in the top right corner. That is the Playlist menu, click-it to reveal the list of films. Scroll through it to see where the current film sits in the list – playing sequentially. You may click any to skip to any film in the collection, but note those greyed-out have not yet been logged. Subscribing will notify when they are logged and publicly viewable.]
For the event, the school’s renovated Basketball Court, converted to Auditorium, served as a massive banquet hall and performance space. It was replete with a life-size photo cut-out of Father Al smiling, arms-outstretched on stage welcoming everyone – the Community of St Timothy, St Luke, Guests and Father Al. At the foot of the stage, a lavish banquet was laid-out as a buffet – including Roasted Pig, Shrimp, Meatballs, Pasta, and many delicacies prepared by volunteers over the several days.
The hall was so filled that an overflow room and extra tables were unexpectedly needed to seat everyone. Despite the crowd, there was plenty of food for all and second helpings for many.
The reception was the extraordinary. Choirs and dancers not only from both Churches performed, but also the Dancing and Singing Priests traveled from the Philippines to perform. Their stage show was creative and full of popular music with many moments including audience participation.
It was however Fr Al who surprised the joyous crowd by dancing like a pro with members of the community then taking the stage to perform with the Priests as a song and dance team!
The moments were mesmerizing as the audience flocked to the foot of the stage and pointed cell-phones at the performers to capture the moments like teenagers trailing rock-stars in a stadium.
