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Archive for April, 2008
Educate with the Heart
Educate the heart with the heart… of Don Bosco. 
My own version of the Strenna of the Rector Major for the Salesians of Don Bosco. I did this design for the cover of the HS 2008-2009 Diary:
Altered it a bit:
today’s earth day!
Yes. Today is Earth Day! I grabbed the logo above from the Earth Day Network site. The Philippines is also celebrating it. I saw tarps hanged at certain MRT stations in Manila when I went there last Friday. Too bad I wasn’t able to click my shutter for it. But, actually, you’ll mistake it for a political campaign propaganda rather than a material to promote Mother Earth (I believe you know what I mean ). Anyway, here’s a copy of the program lead by the Cultural Center of the Philippines in partnership with a number of NGOs and businesses among them is HARIBON Foundation (which I’m proud to be a member of).
Too bad I won’t be able to join today’s celebration - in person. I’ll just pray for the success of the activities and it’s lasting effect that would surely benefit our Home and our Future! God bless!
via et veritas et vita
The lyrics of the song Pass it on rings in my mind. “It only takes a spark, to get the fire going…” The Gospel today seems apt and timely. Darkness has been the attribution given to what we are undergoing as a nation. This dim vista is brought about by the confusion that’s been lingering around. This is where the question of truth, the question of life lies.
The news across the nation, for the past few months, contain these questions. We face the unending dilemma: “who’s telling the truth.” We are threatened by the seemingly lacking supply of food. And so the eternal litany of problems begin to fill our days - again, and again, and again. Overpopulation, corruption, destabilization, pollution, education et al - to many to mention. In darkness, we are indeed.
“…a spark, to get the fire going.” For F. Sionil Jose, one of our National Artist for Literature, that spark would ignite one bloody revolution that would eradicate the ongoing culture of unlove for our nation, for our countrymen. A revolution against self-exultation, against that love that knows no suffering (not quoted, my personal interpretation).
Well, for me, let that fire be love. “I am the way and the truth and the life (Jn 14:6, NIV).” When Jesus said that He is via et veritas et vita, I can’t but remember His suffering and death on the cross - the profession of His love. Thus, made me think, love is the way, the truth, the life.
And so the song goes on, ” That’s how it is with God’s love,/ Once you’ve experienced it, you spread His love to everyone;/ You want to pass it on.” Amid this anxiety and despair that we are in, Jesus reminds us that the sole solution to these problems is LOVE. If we only choose to love our neighbor, to walk the extra mile for them, to say the truth, to respect their rights, to eat half rice, to begin to think of our brothers and sisters (not only our relatives and friends but most importantly those who are set aside by the society), and to start suffering for them - I believe, this would get the fire going.
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Ready to tell the truth to the nation? This PR Agency in the Philippines might help you.
TIC: The Alabang Orientation
Yesterday we went to Alabang - Tuloy sa Don Bosco. It’s a street children village near the posh subdivisions and commercial centers of Alabang. The village is being run by Salesians and other volunteers from the religious and business sectors. We went there for an orientation to boot our teaching immersion with the kids of tuloy. Let me share with some of the photos I took while we were there.
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- Kerwin
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- The Future Salesian Educators
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- One of the Stations of the Cross
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- An angle of the chapel's sanctuary
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- Aries reads the letters on the wall.
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- Fr. Beng and my classmates
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- Fr. Rocky with my classmates
For more photos you may check this. By the way, TIC means “Teaching Immersion Chronicles.”
Pandayan 10 - Through my Lens :)
Still not done with my post. For the mean time, feed on these photos..
Salesian Family in the Blogosphere
Still working on my Pandayan 10 post and the photos and videos that come with it (just for the info of everyone… 
) Anyway, I took this divert to plug this new blog portal I’m working on.
It’s a link / RSS portal of the blogs belonging to the members of the Salesian Family. Since I’ve found out that there are a lot of Salesians (priests, sisters, brothers, past pupils, volunteers, etc.) blogging from different parts of the world, I thought it practical to have a single blog to aggregate their feeds and store their links.
If you happen to know any blog being authored by any member of the Salesian Family, take a few minutes to answer this form. Thanks!
Pandayan - 10 (Foundry)
Just came from Pandayan 10 in Letran - Calamba. I really wanted to write my whole experience here (plus post the stills and videos I’ve taken). Too bad I’ve little time to write and I’m too tired to integrate everything in a single post. Hmm… let this be a teaser. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish the whole post tomorrow!
Trying-out WP2.5
Yey! This blog is already running on Wordpress 2.5. I thought that the migration process would be as painful as porting subtleoasis (this blog) from Blogger to Wordpress but it was not. Just a click-of-a-button did the job. Anyway, I’m writing this post to try-out the picture gallery feature. I need to run this for the blog of the seminary which is long overdue. Anyway, here it is.
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- test1
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- test2
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- test3
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- test5
Hope this works…
Praying with Psalms [1]: PSALM 89
Father Joseph “Joe” Fernandez, SDB, our catechist, shared to me his translation of Psalm 89. He told me that he just found out that it is a song of lamentation - the song of a king that has been defeated in a battle. Psalm 89 is somewhat related to Fr. Manoling Francisco, SJ’s “I will Sing Forever” but unlike the song, this version of the psalm is less jubilant, rather, subtle and deeply emotional.
On reading this psalm, I can’t but be emotional. It evoked the feelings that have been lingering in my heart. It tells, in a profound and an almost exact manner the chorus of my journey toward His call (my name, in place of the pronouns, made it more personal).
Let me now share it with you!
Psalm 89
The Psalm has two parts. We do not always feel consoled. Sometimes we feel God is no more speaking to us or supporting us. We can still continue to pray and to believe.
1 I will sing forever of how greatly you, God have loved me;
I must tell everyone how good you’ve been to me…2 I will let all know how God’s love never changes,
every star reminds me of how good God is to me…3 God told me, “I made an agreement when I chose you,
I made a solemn promise to you Jerome my son,4 “I will be with you forever and ever
and give you such strength so you can help so many”
5 The heavens praise all these wonderful things, O LORD,
In every Eucharist I am reminded of your love and protection.6 There is no one who can compare with God my LORD?
Can anything in any part of the world compare with His Love?7 The God who calls me is wiser than all the plans I can make;
he is more wonderful than anything I can imagine.8 O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?
You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness is my reason to believe.9 No problem is too great for you;
when difficulties come my way, you help me face them…10 You crush every evil spirit that disturbs me;
with your strong arm you scatter all my temptations.
Monthly Gist: MARCH08
I think I’m losing the hang of blogging. I’m having this habit of not blogging as often as I can. This brings me to, again, ask myself, am I beginning to give-up blogging? Hmm… No, I’m not. (That answer came out easily.) March has just been so busy. Jam-packed with so much of everything that blogging didn’t fit in. Allow me to give you a bird’s eye view of my MARCH08 through this first month ender of mine.
- HOLY WEEK. The seminary, as usual, was tasked to animate the Holy Week rituals and celebrations for the local community. I’ve been tasked to do a tarp announcing the schedule of services of the Diocesan Shrine of Mary Help of Christians that’ll be available for the people during the week. What took more of our time was the decorations for the different venues to be used for the services.
- SENAKULO (Passion Play, “Nakita mo ba?”). This is actually part of the Holy Week but due to its impact (hope to tell you more about this soon) it needs a separate mention. The play is the final requirement for our Theatre Arts class. The story is unconventional and it taps the concerns of our contemporary time, it challenged the audience to see the loving presence of Christ in every cross we encounter in our lives. I played the part of a very young irresponsible father.
- The FINAL EXAMS. Not so hard. :) That’s all.
These are all that I can remember so far. I’ll add the pictures and the other activities soon (hopefully later this eve…). My personal reflections will also follow.
BTW, I’m not a car afficionado but I saw this new car motor and got amaze by its fuel economy features you might want check it out. Follow this link: Honda launches VCM 643.
