according to the historical documents of the church the very first holy mass as we mentioned was celebrated on march 31st 1521 it was an easter sunday it marked the beginning of the church's history in the philippines so maybe you both can help us paint a picture of this let's elaborate on what you know of that day we'll start with dr maximiano 1521 pope leo the 10th excommunicated martin luther and the protestant reformation was spreading throughout the northern part of europe down south of spain and portugal the moors were conquering there is no way by divine providence that they cannot that they can continue evangelization so they have to go east they have to cross the pacific then they reach latin america then they reach the philippines crossing the pacific this is the most beautiful divine providence gift to us there was chaos in europe so they have to go to our place if there were no chaos in europe they would not come to us so when they arrived march easter sunday they celebrated the mass father pedro de balterama celebrated the mass this is the very first time that the physical presence of jesus the real presence of jesus became alive in this part of the world by virtue of that holy mass the sacramental presence of god became alive in our land for the first time this is really a gift that we have carried within our hearts and secondly this is to understand that the universal redemption of jesus celebrated happened two thousand years ago in israel happened again in our very own land in late the island where the first mass was celebrated so it was applied to us it became real it became alive became the birthplace of christianity in the philippines