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Busy as a bee… again.
Again, no time to blog. It’s been almost two weeks since I came back to the seminary after our summer break. From that moment ’til I’ve decided to pen this post, I haven’t seen the dashboard of my blog. Really busy… not acting like busy bodies!
Reminds me of my first year in the seminary when I’m too preoccupied with the seminary schedule, with my chores and work, not to mention my demanding scholastic requirements. That was three years ago.
Honestly, I’m liking the new set-up. I’m lovin’ my schedule, my new tasks, thesis writing and the activities that we are to do on the coming months [- and of course, that special event on July... :)]
Busy days… expect less post… but I’ll surely won’t miss pausing - scribbling my thoughts!
God bless!
True Love Waits Waits Waits…
Lunch time, I was browsing through the slides presented by Fr. Stephen Cuyos, MSC during the FaithCasting seminar he gave in the JP2 Catechetics and Youth Ministry Conference in DBTI Makati two weeks ago. Got stuck with one of the slides presenting the True Love Waits portal. I didn’t hesitate to pay a visit and realized how worthwhile it is. With a few minutes of stay I gained much insight and inspiration which moved me to write this post. Hay…
Love, I believe, is one of the most used and abused word. Much definitions are attributed to it. Thus, we are left with a crowded vista of love. We are as if looking through the woods, uncertain of what is before our eyes. Instead of seeing the big picture, stunning dazzle of light, we see glimpses, blinding flashes and streaks of that which is bright. What is love? How do we define love? Where do we find real love?
All I know is Deus caritas est - God is LOVE. Looking for love? See God. But one doesn’t need to look far for EMMANUEL - He is with US. He is in the midst of our relationships, He lives within our hearts. He is just there, waiting, patiently, faithfully, unconditionally - waiting… Waiting to be heard, to be seen, to be recognized.
I am a witness to HIS unfailing love. I appreciate much the Eucharist, I love being in the confessional. My God offers his life for me, shuns away all my short comings no matter how grave they may be. I often deviate from Him, deny Him, forget Him, leave Him, doubt His WORD, His call, His presence. Yet He is still there, waiting… just there, smiling, waiting for me to come and embrace Him and be enveloped once more by His exceeding grace.
God who created all of us is LOVE. We sprung out of love. We search for love in places away from ourselves; thus, we find the love that this world know rather than the love that is within us - the true love that would never stop waiting waiting waiting…
Looking for true love? Look within, see the light, clarify your path, listen to your heart whenever you are ready to do so… LOVE’s just there… waiting.
FINALLY! My mama is emailing…
Posted by mobile phone:
I have been wanting to teach my mama how to use the computer and the internet. Finally after a 30-minute crash-course she’s sending her first email to her best friend in Maryland. Later we’ll use YM.
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FINALLY! My mama is emailing…
HUMAN RIGHTS.
It’s not left nor wrong but rights! I have not been made aware of the etymology of this word but I am sure that this post is a right move. I didn’t mean to confuse but I just want to share a speck of insight re: HUMAN RIGHTS.
EVERY HUMAN RIGHT SHOULD NEVER BE DENIED BY ANYONE AT ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. I know for a fact that there exists a universal declaration of human rights but not all of this rights are accessible to peoples under certain countries and destitute situations.
But what is the basic and unalienable right? DIGNITY. I learned this not through my own effort but through the awareness and a bit of lecture that I gained through joining the World Youth Alliance. We do not live anymore in the time of Viktor Frankl that has been characterized by much hatred and violence. Were people were forced to live a life worst than that of the animals. Freedom neglected, dignity smugged, tattered and soiled! But there still exist violence. Dignity is still undermined in some places.
In the Philippines, dignity is less in the slums - squatters we call them. Houses that are shanties on vacant lots or tents under the bridge. Vagrants - taong grasa (human grease) - that walk aimlessly at the main thoroughfares of the country begging for many isn’t a once-in-a-blue-moon scene. Street kids who are forced to labor for them and their families to live. It would take a mile to enumerate all things related to the modern-day Hitler of our time - poverty.
Poverty deprives man of his dignity. We may not be aware of it or simply got used to it. But allow me to lead you to the first step, come and see; then, be compelled to act. Look at them, then look at yourself. Poverty is no fairy tale nor a construct of reality - it’s reality itself, it’s the Philippines itself. Come and see - be aware! Preserve DIGNITY!
(You might be interested to join WYA. It’s easy, sign the charter and uphold it! God bless!)
LIVE moBlog: JP2 Conference [1]
Posted by mobile phone:![JP2 Conference [1]](http://www.subtleoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/Photo0006.jpg)
I’m now watching Fr. Marty Macasaet’s talk. Very interesting. An indepth image of the Filipino youth of today. Sad, though, for I wasn’t able to be right on venue but on a remote classroom, a few meters away tvia live telecast. Cool! Here is a pic.
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LIVE moBlog: JP2 Conference [1]
Happy Mother’s Day, Ma!
A fun tribute for my mom! 
The real message is at the end…
To all the mom’s out there especially to my mama… Happy Mother’s Day! God bless!
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.”
