Honoring Fr. Zinjin: A Day Offered in Love, A Priesthood to Celebrate
A Day Offered in Love – The Friday Before the Recollection
The day before our Women’s Day of Recollection, Fr. Zinjin dedicated his entire Friday to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, consciously offering every encounter, every task, and every unexpected moment for the women who would attend the retreat. He prayed:
“Everything today is for this Women’s Day of Recollection, Lord. Everything that I encounter is a prayer for them.”
What unfolded was no ordinary Friday—it became a day of grace and divine preparation, as God allowed him to walk alongside women in some of the most profound and vulnerable moments of their lives.
Morning Mass & Crowning of Mary
The day began joyfully with morning Mass, followed by a May Crowning ceremony. School children filled the church with sweet voices as they honored the Blessed Mother. Fr. Zinjin reflected with affection on “all these lovely school kids,” many of them young girls, as if the Lord was already placing daughters at the forefront of his prayer.
A Sacred Anointing for a 101-Year-Old Woman
At 9:45 AM, he was called to an emergency anointing. A 101-year-old woman, fully alert despite a recent stroke, looked him in the eyes and said, “I think I’m going to die.” In that sacred space, he administered the last rites and gave her viaticum. He later shared the grace of that moment:
“She looked into my eyes, so grateful to receive the blessing, the Eucharist for the last time, and to be prepared for her final rest.”
He offered her peaceful surrender for all the women about to enter the recollection.
Funeral Planning with a Grieving Family
From there, he rushed to a late funeral planning meeting. A wife and daughter, devastated by the sudden death of a husband and father, sat before him in grief. “They were really, really stuck in their emotions,” he recalled. What struck him most was
“the gaze of a mourning wife and daughter, weeping for the man they lost.”
It was another moment of profound encounter, and he carried their sorrow into his prayer for the women preparing to enter into their own healing journey.
A Grieving Young Latina Mother
Later, just before another Mass, his secretary came to him in tears: a young Latina woman, with her mother and sister, was in the church—grieving, sobbing, and carrying a small box. She had miscarried her unborn child just the day before. The word “aborto” was first spoken in Spanish, bringing a moment of confusion and alarm, but was quickly clarified as a miscarriage. Fr. Zinjin described the moment as
“a heart-wrenching, heart-piercing gaze from a mother holding her child who had died.”
He stepped in to console, bless, and carry this heavy sorrow with her.
A Day Not Wasted, But Offered
The rest of the day did not go as planned. Police visits and unexpected pastoral emergencies arose. But through it all, Fr. Zinjin began to see clearly: every woman he encountered that day, in joy or sorrow, strength or suffering, was part of the Lord’s quiet preparation for the recollection.
“Every encounter I had yesterday happened to be with a woman,” he reflected, “and I believe the Lord was teaching me something through this day I offered for all of you.”
“He put many heavy things into my heart—and it was such a gift to offer that for you.”
It was, in every sense, a priestly vigil of love before the harvest. God was already at work through His priest, tilling the soil of the heart—so that when the women arrived the next day, the ground was ready. Blessed indeed was that Friday. And even more blessed were the hearts it helped prepare.
Today, dear sisters, it is our turn.
As we remember that sacred day and the grace we received through Fr. Zinjin’s self-offering, let us now offer our day and the rest of the week—for him. On this special occasion of his second anniversary of priestly ordination, today, June 3, may we lift him up with our prayers, sacrifices, and acts of love.
Let us ask the Lord to strengthen him in holiness, protect him in his mission, and fill his heart with the same joy and peace he has so generously shared with us.
Fr. Zinjin, we thank God for you. Today, we offer our day and the rest of the week for you.
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