Reflection, Prayer and Action

These past few days I have been watching and listening to some news of devastation brought by climate changes in the world and its impact on mankind most especially our beloved country was not spared by typhoons, earthquakes and man-made calamities.  It was so sad to realize how the world is undergoing nowadays due to our recklessness and of course by nature’s wrath. Every news on television and radio of deaths and destruction brought me tears in my eyes and hoping and praying that these calamities should cease for a while. But believe it or not, it was part of God’s divine plan although He doesn’t want to punish us but rather get a lesson from these tragedies that we have experienced. Some of us may blame God ‘why us?’ but did we sometimes utter ‘why not?’ This is a great lesson that God wants to impart to us. God is not a god of punishment but a God of love, of compassion and that gives another chance that allows us to endure these painful moments of our life to live and love Him again, to look onto ourselves once more and see where we are lacking thereof.

The violence and clash in Zamboanga, the strong southwest monsoon in Luzon, the earthquake in Cebu and Bohol and the strong typhoon that hit Leyte and Samar are something to reflect most especially this coming Christmas season. Are we all ready to receive Him again with all our heart? Or are we just busy preparing more on materialistic preparations by buying gifts and food for personal consumption rather spiritual and more meaningful preparations to welcome Him in our hearts? There are so many pointers that we can learn from the following tragedies: it’s an invitation to reflect, to pray and to take action.

To Reflect.  Have you tried to quiet yourself for a while especially on morning when you wake up and evening before you sleep? This is something where we sometimes neglect to do so because we are so occupied by so many things in life and sometimes too worried on what will happen the next day. We are so worried about today and tomorrow about what we’re going to do in order to satisfy our urges and 'caprichos’. Don’t get me wrong but there’s nothing wrong of thinking about all ourselves but this is just a reminder for us to look for a moment of how well we did for a day. Reflection helps us to turn back and make a brief review and looking what went during the course of our day. A moment to look back at the areas that we need to improve, to reject, to revive and to continue whatever good works we did. I remember during my seminary days, we are required to have at least an Examen of Conscience on daytime and evening. This gives us opportunity to take a look the day we have gone through. So far, how we manage to handle some things that need our attention and to keep on improving on our personalities. Reflection is an invitation and an opportunity to briefly turn ourselves for a moment in quiet disposition.

To Pray. At the end of doing reflection,we pray on something that re-energize our spirit. Prayer often times lack in our lives and just believing more on our personal intuition without the divine assistance from above. Prayer helps us to recover from the pain we felt, the joy outpouring from our heart and a profound thanksgiving to God that He has given us another day to live by. Let the grace of God flows into our hearts with much gratitude and a promise to make each day dedicated to Him and its glory that it will bring. Prayer is a good avenue for this. The most effective communication we can do in order to inform God of how grateful we are, of how painful we felt in a day and how hopeful we are for the coming days. A simple prayer of ‘Thank you God’, ‘Bless us this day O God’ and ‘Forgive all my shortcomings O Lord’ are enough words to begin and end our day for peace of mind and our hearts to be blessed. Our training in the seminary is full of prayer activities and we are formed through prayer that gave strong conviction to continue our vocation to serve with others and God above all. And with prayer, you can never go wrong most especially in times of agony and despair. Prayer is the most important thing that I learned when I was a seminarian. That’s why each day I won’t forget to utter a prayer to God for giving me another chance to live, to love and to let go of things that are unnecessary for my life’s growth.

To Take Action. Reflection and prayer are not the final bus stop. Each reflection and prayer invite us to take action on what we reflect and pray because it will manifest everything we say. What better action that we can take? Planning is also necessary…you will not go on throughout the day without any plan of actions but there’s something that need to accomplish not just for one’s self but for others as well. Doing good deeds for others is a better form of doing to take action of our reflection and prayer come into realization. We don’t stop on blue print alone but to work hard on it. Our action is the fruit of reflection and prayer. What can be more meaningful is to do it right away without hesitations in our part. This is again a golden opportunity to redeem and fill what we have lost from the past. Every good news of donations and kindness that I am hearing and watching from television for calamity victims bring so much joy in the heart especially that we are doing the real Christmas spirit of real sharing and kindness for others. God blessed those who cheerfully give and doesn’t count the cost. Christmas is coming again and to become more meaningful season, take action right away! Each kindness we show will have a reward from heaven in stored for us. As from the Letter of James beautifully pointed ‘Faith without action is dead’ (James 2:14).

This reflection that I shared is the fruit of the past few days that I have learned.I was so inspired by the resiliency of our spirit to keep on fighting despite the odds that we are facing. At the same time, I am so happy to impart to you this simple reflection and as I end this piece of inspiration, it may serve something worthwhile to read and realize.  I hope it will help us to prepare us for the joyful season ahead of us. Remember, the true spirit of Christmas is sharing and kindness. Do also your part! Reflect, Pray and Take Action!

Moments That Make Me Smile

Smiling Face

I love to smile! Have you heard that smiling flexes thousands of muscles in your face to prevent you to look old? Smiling doesn't only helps you stay young but it also it greets and brighthens another person even if it looks like 'ngiting aso'. We smile not only because to show our pearly white teeth to others but a sign that we are happy to see the person again. Speaking about smiling...'smiling face' became my trademark ever since I was a child because my friends and classmates noticed that I seems to be smiling all the time even there's nothing to smile of. There was an instance that a teacher of mine in high school misinterpreted me while venting her anger in our class because we were noisy. She got mad at me because it seemed that I was smiling but the truth is I wasn't smiling. Too late for my excuses and I just ignored her misinterpretations and covered my mouth instead. But there's an advantage of having a 'smiling face'...I bagged the Most Polite Student. See how good to smile can be?

Choose Life

When I was in first year college philosophy, we had our school year-end retreat in the seminary, a certain nun in her old age which happened to be our retreat facilitator, kept on repeating 'Choose life'. I can't even recount how many times she uttered those phrases. Perhaps that was her motto or favorite words? At first I understand that I definitely to choose life because I am still alive and breathing and I want to live longer. I guess I didn't understand what she really meant of 'choose life'. Along the retreat, I finally understood what she meant to 'choose life', not only because life is beautiful but to choose life is to choose always what's the best and good, to choose life is to choose wisely and appreciate life's beauty despite of trials and enjoy to the fullest that God's gift has given to us!

Finding What's Outside

When the first time I decided to leave the seminary, I decided to find a job that will suffice my family's everyday needs including myself. Just like others who would drag themselves to the limit just to get a job despite of small salary, work loads and pressures from supervisors, I myself had to be competitive and assertive to impress the interviewer. The experience of finding a right job is a painstaking process, it was not a piece of cake that I would eat right away but it was a difficult time of having a cake to bake and finding necessary ingredients.

This is what life outside the seminary. It's an everyday struggle. It's an everyday survival from the jungles of hustle and bustle of city's fast-paced changing lifestyle. Some former seminarians I know who are finding their luck outside maybe facing the same situation I had before. How did I survive? Three Ps: Persistence, Patience and Prayer.

Waiting Awaits Graces

Waiting awaits graces...

Today's reflection is very rich about our Sunday's Gospel (Lk.12:32-48) on the cost of waiting and doing our responsibility. Waiting for a certain person especially on long hours makes us very impatient and sometimes we would never mind to go ahead. Waiting makes us irritated and disappointed on a person we expect to come on an agreed time but he never did. Have you experienced all sorts of irritation and disappointment while waiting so long? Perhaps you might need to add more patience for this for which the servants in our today's gospel did well on waiting. The servants of the master did this with faithfulness and with prudence that their master will come although they do not know what time but still they wait and guard. They did not give up waiting for they know that their master will come even  though waiting for more hours or so and they kept on guard too.

The experience of waiting is truly excruciating and much more, instead of waiting, it is wasting some precious hours instead doing more productive work. The servants could went to bed that time but they kept vigil. They did not abandon what was their responsibility for their master and that to serve him whenever he comes though in an uncertain time. Are we also capable of doing this? Perhaps we might,  but nevertheless if it is a call of

responsibility and our duty to wait, why not? 

We take a look and observe what the bodyguard of a very important person is doing...waiting and guarding because that's the call of his duty is and the bodyguard is responsible to the safety of the person. Even our security guards in our company, school and other establishments are doing this too. When we wait, we don't see the real value of it but we mumble and complain, but waiting puts our patience to test and makes more valuable to us to gain wisdom. In patience we gain wisdom to be more responsible and vigilant to our work and thus it follows that patience gains everything. 

Our responsibility to wait is not something punishable likeof standing and sitting for a long time but there is wisdom behind this. And this wisdom makes us more wiser, faithful and prudent. We cannot reap the fruits that are not yet ripe on time unless it ripens on a particular day of harvest. To wait is also a responsibility to do what is necessary, pruning and gardening, keep guard and be vigilant, so on the day of harvest to come, we harvest blessings abundantly. We can learn from waiting, and from waiting we become more responsible person, a person with patience gains wisdom and a person becomes prudent knowing the right time that makes more blessings to harvest graces from God our master, so rich and abundant! 

Seeing, Believing and Faith

(Another text of my homily during Spiritual Pastoral Formation Year at Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City)

Today’s Gospel speaks about believing. At times we have difficulty to believe on something that seems impossible to believe on but at the end, this belief strengthens and nourishes our faith. For quite sometime the disciples were puzzled by the words of Jesus has spoken about and now they understood what was Jesus’ mission and the imparting mission for them. We have heard this cliché ‘ to see is to believe’…what is really then to see in order for us to believe?Or what is then to believe if something is impossible to see? Perhaps, this is what the disciples’ objective was. So many times that Jesus have tested their faith in order for them to believe such as several miracles he performed yet the disciples doubted.

We have sometimes doubt something so unreal but yet in the end it has become a fundamental ground of believing. I too experienced several instances of having doubts and asking for evidences to suffice or satisfy my doubts. I remember back when I am still studying Philosophy in college seminary. We were formed and trained to reason out on certain arguments with philosophies of well-known philosopher lashing out each other’s opinions. Quoting from one philosopher to another, giving the best quotes and lines that amazes my classmates and professors and powerful style of delivery of words were necessary to win over an argument or debate. I would ask for evidences to prove an argument certain or just merely speculations and if my opponent couldn’t interpolate my argument then I believe I won my case. I was so proud that I can win in arguments with my reasoning ability. Awards and honors were given giving boost of confidence. There were some words of praises and encouragement coming from other people which sounded like bells in my ears, floating in the heavens as if I was so blessed to become the best in the class.

All of these were our training in college seminary but then, the intellect I gained was not enough to answer the deepest longing of my heart especially the challenge of vocation. God posed me a deeper question of what really do I believe to follow His ways and answer His call? Intellect then was not enough. No matter how I reason out but there’s still spaces that need to be filled and filtered with understanding and prayer. Not even books, encyclopedias, dictionary or Google or Yahoo Answers could fill the answer that my heart is trying to search.

In the second reading, we looked at Paul asking the disciples at Corinth if they received the Holy Spirit when they became believers but they were never heard of it. It is only through John’s baptism of repentance that they became believers. The Holy Spirit fills the heart with understanding and wisdom that sustains the faith. Repentance is not enough but with the understanding and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Intellect may answer academic and specific questions but it cannot quench the thirst of the heart. And as I continue to search for answers of my heart’s longing it is through the understanding and wisdom of the Holy Spirit that is needed. It is not enough that I use my reason but the capacity to pray for the Holy Spirit to grant me understanding and wisdom truly enlighten the way to fulfill my heart’s longing for answers to several questions.No need to doubt. Just pure trust and whole lot of faith! A leap of faith is necessary! It is then the Holy Spirit provides the best evidence that there’s something to hold on and keep grounded on our faith. Ang matibay na sandigan ng ating pananamaplataya ay ang karunungan at pang unawa na nagbubuhat sa Banal na Espiritu.

The certain realization that the disciples drew from Jesus is the first step of the greater mission that they have to face. The first step is to believe and from this believing comes the gift of wisdom and understanding that soon that they will be receiving. Again, pure trust is necessary. Without solid trust,  believing is impossible to do. And as we await for this promise, we could only pray for guidance that may the Holy Spirit brings us to full understanding of our mission to one another.

Of Becoming Peacemakers...

(This is a full text of my homily during my tenure in Spiritual Pastoral Formation Year at Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City)

We have heard the phrase ‘an eye for an eye and a t tooth for a tooth’ a phrase from an ancient code of Hammurabi, who reigned in Babylon four thousand years ago…a phrase that entails punishment specifically penalties of the same kind for the offender. It is giving due justice with an equal and same degree as the offender did, the principle of exact reciprocity is very clearly used. For example, if a person caused the death of another person, the killer would be put to death (Hammurabi's code, §230). Though not as so violent as Hammurabi’s code but this is sometimes our response to our offenders on a situation wherein a person greatly attacks another person either by physical or psychological means to destroy him completely. For some of us, the offense committed should be penalized with the same way as vengeful and as harsh as possible. I am not a fan of Pinoy action films but somehow you will be able to identify from this genre especially local ones the same principle or theme in the predictable storyline:  3 Vs: violence, vengeance and vindication. Ika nga ng namayapang actionstar sa kanyang pelikula : Masagasaan na ang dapat masagasaan pero kailanganpatas lang…walang personalan trabaho lang. Nothing personal but seems synonymous to the thinking’ I only did what is right and what is due.’

Discussions and negotiations are out of the question and what matter is to attain justice even to the point of no consideration of mercy and forgiveness. Is this genuine justice? Or are we just refining violence in the sense of giving the same degree of punishment to others because they have hurt our ego so bad and trample our personhood to the lowest? Is violence an answer to offence committed?

I have been in some squabbles and fights with a friend, classmate or a sibling in school or at home, and whenever someone hurts me so bad, I do the same thing for that person but at the end did I really attain justice for my personal satisfaction? Or Am I just being selfish just to meet my personal due? Well maybe there was satisfaction but considering also that I just made the situation so hard for me instead of lightening up. It did not help me to ease my revenge after all.  In a certain reality, it is difficult to be merciful to others especially on circumstances that totally minced our very being and reputation. But let us think if we answer violence in a different way, in a process which breaks the principles of vengeance and punishment?

Jesus has offered us quite remarkable ways that instead of resistance, openness; of retaliation, mercy-giving, and of revenge, forgiveness.  The call of attaining justice does not impound us to vengeance alone but to go beyond and answer the call of grace of mercy, compassion and forgiveness and that challenges us to be peacemakers as Christians should be. Jesus invites us to transform relationship in a deeper sense of human understanding and values, beyond physical vengeance, insults and injustice but the call of grace to treat others not as they deserve but as God wishes them to be treated with loving-kindness and mercy, be with our enemy or friends, foes, offenders and law abiding citizens. This is our call to be peacemakers, be an instrument of peace and builders of hope and mercy-provider,a unique call for every Christian in response to our God…a God who gives due justice, a God who knows no hatred but a loving and merciful God who looks at us despite our human transgressions and weaknesses and a God that is not a violent God but the God of mercy, compassion and forgiveness.

We challenge ourselves to this transforming relationship: resist any forms of violence and become more generous to the call of giving mercy, let others feel our compassion and forgive what they have done wrong to us, do greater deeds of transforming hatred into acceptance and willingly embrace the hardest thing to accept even it hurts us so badly.  Let us pray to God that He grants us these gifts and to set aside any of our personal hurts and pride, to be more open and understanding and selfless. Let us ask God the grace to open our hearts with prayerful and hopeful intentions to become peacemakers, hope-builders and mercy-givers.

As we continue the celebration of the Holy Eucharist let us utter the famous prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, and now becomes our reflection prayer to respond to the challenge:

“Lord, make me an instrument of

your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

Amen.

Beloved Santo Nino

The famous Santo Nino de Cebu

January marks the start of fiestas here in the Philippines. Aside from celebrating New Year, January also the date of several well-known feasts of the Filipinos that include
the feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila and the well-loved Santo Nino. Perhaps
the famous image of the child Jesus has been venerated nationwide and most of the
towns here in the Philippines have patron which is the Santo Nino. Famous are in Tondo and Cebu.

The image is being venerated by most adults and young ones alike...it depicts the
playful and innocent youth of Jesus. The image is being processioned with a parade of
loud drums and beating to the tune of ethnic dance or even modern ones. People dance and sway as the Santo Nino is being tossed and sway. The feast of the Santo Nino is a festive occassion where children marches in glee.

Truly, the feast of the Santo Nino gives more color to our Filipino culture and we can
joyfully celebrate our faith by this kind of veneration.

Celebrate 2013

Another year has just began...we celebrate 2013! 

We thank God for all the blessings we received from the past years and we are praying

for the best to come in 2013. Amidst of trials and challenges, we firmly hold on to

God's divine hands for us to meet up these challenges.

I wish you all A BLESSED NEW YEAR!!! May this year brings hope for us!