Open Space...

Random Musings

2011-11-10T21:25:00.000-08:00

On life...

We only see the opposites in the ironies of life, we seldom acknowledge the "in-betweens" which is the sanctuary of maturity that which eventually bears the fruit of wisdom...

_______________________

On loosing faith on oneself...

Lately I become cynical over things I'm painfully sarcastic about, ostentatious on circumstances complementing on what i perceive to be imperative. Like a leaf wavering in the air after it fell from a tree, the wind perceptively becoming my captain bringing me to ambiguity, transparently loosing my ground.

_______________________

On uncertainties

The oblivion lingers my head. Trudging a voyager to wander about in the abyss of wisdom. Wondering how this incurable insanity appearing in a lucid dream becomes an existence which is apparently an illusion.

_______________________

On helplessness...

Murmuring inside is an emphaty to heed the call of the mute, each word subdues his own propinquity, inexplicably desiring to pierce the adversary not known to his prudence.

_______________________

On Solitude...

Venturing into the waves that roll between loneliness and solitude. Sometimes thinking of drowning my own sublime truth.

_______________________

On fear of Love...

Where to find this Love in whose yearning tends to diminish? Or perhaps fear is just lingering to the mere absence of fortitude? This might just be playing in my mind. So then please take my wisdom and buried it to the deepest chamber of love's sanctuary, never known to man unless exhausted by ecstasy.

_______________________

On finding Love...

In solitude on that which my soul is in salutary, i constantly finding my peace which are invisible and intangible. However, it remains as it is until such love surpasses my being. For love alone can unite and fulfill two individuals at the very core - Where are you then my love?

_______________________

On loneliness...

It's hard when i see it's raining, dark as the world of man. Yet into each life some rain must fall. I have played in rain before, in which i played with my tears as well, hiding it together with the raindrops.

Wala sa Mood!

2011-09-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

photo credit

Hay naku, nakalimutan ko nang magblog. Last post ko dito noong May pa. Wala lang akong ganang magsulat. Mahirap kasi situasyon ko ngayon, maraming iniisip. May mga bagay na gustong mong gawin pero hindi mo magawa-gawa kasi may mga bagay pa na mas importante dito. Minsan nagtatanong narin ako kung importante ba talaga ang mga bagay na pinagtutuunan ko ng pansin. Pero napagtanto ko naman na importante ito - ang isipin muna ang iba bago ang sarili. Konting tiis lang siguro. Napaka unfair naman ng Dios kung mananatali nalang ako sa ganitong sitwasyon panghabang-buhay e halos buong buhay namin eh nasa katayuang sapat na o minsan ay salat talaga.
Minsan nagtatampo narin ako sa Kanya. Kahit wala akong karapatang magtampo pero ginagawa ko narin. Wala syang magagawa kasi eto ang feelings ko sa Kanya. At alam ko na naiintindihan Nya ako - sana nga.
Hanggang dito nalang at ako'y walang ganang magsulat.

Blessed Pope John Paul II

2011-05-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

“Santo Subito!” (Saint Now!)This was the loud cry of the people at the funeral of the late Pope John Paul II last April 8, 2005 6 days after his death on April 2. Six years later, Pope John Paul II is beatified - the third of the four steps to sainthood.

The First step is the initial investigation of the person's life after he/she is considered for sainthood. It will be in the Diocesan level. After being confirmed, the Vatican will acknowledge a "Nihil Obstat." A Latin for "nothing hinders." In this stage, the person is called "the Servant of God." The second step is the establishing of the heroic act of the person. This will be led by a Postulator who coordinates the causes for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes which includes conducting thorough investigations into the life of the candidate, his works (writings) and deeds. It will be presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. In this stage, the person is called "Venerable." The third is the Beatification. One requirement here is the miracle through the person's intercession. On JP II's case, it was a French nun named Sister Marie Simon-Pierre who was "miraculously" cured of the incurable Parkinson's disease. This was officially declared by the Vatican to have an "intercession" of Pope John Paul II. This time the person will be addressed as "Blessed." The last stage is the Canonization. This stage requires another miracle after the beatification. After thorough investigation, the Pope will declare the person as "Saint."

I'm one of the millions of people around the world celebrating with this great event! Hope this will draw inspirations to many.

Hahay, Ang kinabuhi sa tao - Istoryaheee!

2011-04-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hahay, kuyaw gyud ning kinabuhi, usahay dili ka kasabot. Lisod tugkaron. Daghang mga pangutana. Daghan kaayong mga panghitabo nga makapalibog. Bisag ako nakapangutana na sa akong kaugalingon. Daghan kaayo ko ug pangandoy sa akong kaugalingon ug sa akong pamilya. Pero mura man dili mi magkasinabot sa akong pangandoy. Sa tinuod lang, usahay makapangutana ko sa Ginoo kung ngano ingon ini man ang akong/among kapalaran. Kitang tanan gusto nga mahimong maayo ang kahimtang sa kinabuhi. Gusto nato nga himsog atong panglawas, walay sakit, naay maayong panimalay, maayo ang pamilya, walay gubot, nakapahuman ug eskwela ang mga anak, malinawon ug haruhay nga pagpuyo. Basta ang basic needs makab-ot lang, pwede na. So far makaingon ko nga maayo man among pamilya, although dili mi open sa among mga gibati sa usa't-usa pero makasulti ko nga ang gugma nagpatigbabaw gyud. Bisag pobre ra mi pero maayo man among relasyon sa usag-usa ug sa ubang tao. Pero lagi, aduna pud baya miy mga butang nga gikinahanglan. Lisod-lisoron pud lagi ta usahay usa pa makab-ot bisan ang mga basic nga panginahanglan sa tao. Pero proud baya ko nga bisan sa among kapobrehon, daghan baya mi natabangan sa among mga paryente ug sa ubang tao. Pero mas makatabang pa unta mi ug dako-dako kung abunda pud mi.

Bitaw, wala mo kabantay? Katong mga ngil-ad ug mga kinaiya or batasan, katong mga kurap, hakog, killer, mangtas, mga dili mutoo sa Ginoo, katong mga demonyo sa atong panahon mao pa hinuon ang nakatagamtam ug kaharuhay sa kinabuhi. Ingon sa Bibliya, "Blessed is the Poor (in spirit or materially)because theirs is the Kingdom of God." Pero unsaon man nimo ang Kingdom of God kung gutom ang tao? Unya moingon kita nga "sige lang, ana jud ng pobre, antus lang usa kay sure naman ka sa langit inig kamatay nimo." Toinks! Estoryaheeee!!! Dili ba pwede paboran pud ta sa Ginoo? Usahay, walay mahimo ang tao kung dili mag romanticize nalang, we appeal to our emotions. Dili ko muingon nga maayo na jud kong tao pero kung ikompara nato sa uban - sus! ambot lang. Usahay i-justify nalang nato ang mga butang nga nahitabo. Ihapon nalang daw nato ang mga blessings nga gihatag sa atoa without the monetary value like - kinabuhi, ginhawa, maayong panglawas, pangsinabtanay, walay kaaway, malinawong pagpuyo, mga higala, ang kinaiyahan ang simpleng katawa ug uban pa (by the way, mutuo ko ani) Well, acknowledged, even those who are not entitled aning mga butanga natagamtaman man pud ni nila - so what's the difference? To answer this, dili usa nato iapil ang out of this world notions, diri usa ta sa unsay nahitabo sa adlaw-adlaw - ang karon. The difference is --- sila busog, ug ang mga buotan - GUTOM. Hahay ang kinabuhi gyud. Pero sa laing bahin, Maayo nalang pud nga ingon ani ang nahitabo kay siguro lisod pud ang kahimtang nila kung buot hunahunaon. Ikaw, gusto nimo mahimong killer? Di ba dili? Libuga nako noh? hehe..Pero usahay makahuna-huna baya ko nga magbinugoy, basin pa diay,hehe. Bitaw, ang ako lang hangyo sa Ginoo ba, (kung makabasa man gani ka ani akong blog) nga unta, ayaw lang palabii ang pag-antus sa uban. Dili ba pwede nga abunda ka unya maayo pa jud kang tao? Unsa na sila nga category? - the middle force? Mga pinili? Mao ba ni sila ang makaadto sa purgatoryo? good for them.

Ingon nila, ang pobre kuno kay nahimong pobre kay mga tapulan man sila. Pero kung muadto ka sa mga bukid, ang mga farmers nato, mumata na sila ug alas 4 sa kaadlawon para magandam sa ilahang umahan, mapabulad sa adlaw sa udtong tutok, unya magtugway sa kabaw, mouli na sa ilaha gabii na sa alas otso -- karon, tapulan ba na sila? bahala namo mangutana kung nganong igon ani man ang nahitabo. Ug usahay sudlan dayon ni siya sa rebolusyonaryong panghuna-huna, tungod ang gobyerno nato kay dili makatarunagnon, adunay inhustisya, mao mga ang pobre musamot kapobre ug ang mga datu musamot kadatu, ug dapat atong isalikway ang Gobyerno ug atong ibarog ang tinuod nga Gobyerno sa mga Tao. Well, tinuod ni sya pero usahay we become so idealistic pud nga usahay mahimong idea nalang pud ang tanan --- Waaaaahhhh ambot! galibog nako. Pero usa lang akong masulti. Bisan pa man sa mga panghitabo nga dili maayo, padayon gihapon ta sa atong kinabuhi. Paglaum. No choice pero maglaum nalang jud ta, wala tay mahimo, free man ni sya. Kung duna gihapon kay paglaum, mutuo gihapon ka nga mahimong paborable ang tanan sa imoha, diri sa kalibutan ug sa laing kalibutan... Dili ka mutuo? Hala, Pagminatay diha ug hilak sa kilid, tan-awon nato kung naa bay mahitabo sa imoha, hehehe... Bitaw, naa man Siya kanunay namati sa atoa, muduol lang gyud ta sa Iyaha.

wala lang...

2011-04-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

kapag nananatiling bulag ang puso sa kalayaan na nais nitong matamasa, at pilit mo itong nililinlang sa mga kasinungalingan ng pagka-imbot, pagbabalatkayo at pagkagahaman, hinding-hindi mo makakamit ang ninanais mong kaligayahan...magparaya ka...maging bukas ka...

Confused religious brother?

2011-03-31T09:28:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine who just graduated from a theological school here in Manila sent a message on my mobile phone asking me to pray for him for his final decision to embrace a religious life perpetually.

"Bro pls pray 4 me. yes or no ba me sa buhay relihiyoso."

What can i say? I believe religious life is a gift. It is something that is given to you by God just like any other vocations - single blessedness and married life. None of these vocations supersede the other, these are equal calling from God. And this guy is responding to the call of becoming a priest. Was the text expressing his confusion? Can he make that decision? Or maybe he just want my prayer.

I would be happy if he's confused. It only shows how serious he is in whatever life ahead of him. This will make him think over and over to a lifetime decision he has to make. We need priests right now, and not just priests, but good priests. And i just hope he will be able to go over and reflect his vocation story. It is God who initiated the calling, and it's up to us to respond to that calling. I just hope he will go back to the very first encounter where in he felt he was first called by God. Hopefully i can find time to talk with him the matter. For the meantime, all i can offer right now is also a text message replied to him:

" Try to reflect what makes you think otherwise and identify those things. Kaya ba nimo i-let go? Can you also picture out yourself 30 years from now? Would you be happy by that time then to whatever decision you will make today? "

-melskiens-

4 Seasons of Loneliness - captivates my heart ever since.

2011-03-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

When can I hear the music again?

2011-03-19T03:56:00.000-07:00

Am I running out of passion on music? I guess not and hopefully not. But every time i pick up "eng2x" (my violin) and think of practicing the piece composed by Pachelbel that I promised to master this year, my hands are suddenly tied up and loosing its grip on the fingerboard. I've always wanted to be a good instrumentalist to my favorite stringed instrument but I failed. It's been three years since i bought it and until now i can't even finished book II of the Suzuki method, too bad. Poor "Mr. Time," he always falls prey to my conventional scape goat which is "i don't have time to practice."

Ever since I was a child, the typical sound of this instrument have always been like a lullaby for me. I like its music because it feels like the notes are physically coming out from within every time you play it. It's dredging up those emotions that have been long hidden from uncertainties and letting it soar as if everything else is freedom. The real me is engaging, communicating, giving, speaking and loving. Not that I am living a bogus life all these years although I have reservations on my own, consuming my appetite for individuality. Not that I'm boring or a paranoid of some kind because I"m not. I can be jolly, funny and a clown. You can even have me sing (R&B, Boys II Men)type of songs, and dance. I can be nice, wild and serious as well. Did I mentioned being holy?. Yeah, I can be, maybe, perhaps, i guess so.

People are coming to me to tell their stories, may it be the happy and the not-so-happy one. I don't know why but what I only noticed is that I listen. A very good trait for a musician. You have to be a good listener to have a good grasp on music. However, I find it hard to do otherwise in terms of telling stories. It is refreshing that you were able to put smile on faces of other people that are drench in tears. However, there is also this emptiness while seeing yourself deprived of that same happiness you gave to them. I not the type of person who tell stories, especial my own story to others - personally. I can write it, though sometimes I'm lazy and I'm not good at writing I should say. It's better to keep it myself. I am more attuned to it and more comfortable and in time like this, music fills in. I always consider Music as the best alternative way in expressing myself. I've done sketching and went to painting. But the ink only runs in my veins once in a while and i can't just fit my image on a canvass. But lately I felt the need to revitalize my inclination to music. I guess this is the right time to be in touch again with eng2x. I have a good grip this time, maybe?. Inspirations are there waiting to be discovered. Or perhaps all i need is an open heart. Now, it's not anymore all about mastering a piece or becoming a very good instrumentalist, technically speaking. What is important rather, is the language and its message that is conveying to you as the one who plays and that you are able to perceptibly transcend that connectivity between your being and the music beyond your limited horizon. There certainly, i can beautifully hear the music.

Japan 8.9 earthquake and Tsunami Photos

2011-03-11T04:07:00.000-08:00

I THANK GOD FOR MY SECOND LIFE!

2011-03-06T01:08:00.000-08:00

I was on my way going home from my work that usually ends at 11:30 PM. I arrived at the tricycle terminal station and then i took the next tricycle bound for Bagong Silangan, the place where I live. I really don't like to be seated at the extension seat inside the sidecar of the tricycle for the place is to narrow. But i have no option since the seat at the back of the driver was already occupied. For me it was just a normal night, I do this routine every night except during my day off. I was tired that time and almost fell asleep when suddenly the tricycle stopped. I don't know what exactly happened in front of us since i was inside and facing the entrance of the sidecar. Then suddenly i heard gun shots. At first i thought it was just a firecracker, but who could have done that this month? Suddenly i got outside the tricycle to see what happened. And what i saw was several young men running away and a man holding a gun going to the place where i was standing trying to hide(later i found out that he was a policeman). He was also one of the passengers behind the tricycle driver. It was then i realized that i was in the middle of the gun fire and that those running were the young men who are trying to rob us. I was so afraid especially when i saw "sumpak," an improvised gun and a wounded man lying in the street (who eventually died later on). I also saw a car behind us trying to get away from the scene. What i did was to ran away, afraid that those young men might get back to us. I started to touch my body to check if i got wounded and thank God I was safe but not the one passenger. I heard the tricycle driver saying that the dead man was the passenger seated behind him. I just walk away from the place where the robbery took place, trying to calm myself and also reflecting that It could have been me who's lying dead on the street. I felt sorry for the dead passenger but thankful that I'm alive. I rode a tricycle going to my place and there were already policemen and media from TV 5 covering the incident. I arrived home safe this time. Fresh from my mind about what happened - i reflected about life. I prayed and thank God for the second life He gave me.

Medal eyed for cop who foiled robbery
By JEFFREY DAMICOG
March 6, 2011, 3:22pm

(Report from Manila Bulletin)

MANILA, Philippines - A 16-year-old robber and a passenger were killed while an off-duty policeman was wounded during a foiled hold-up conducted by a group of youths on the passengers of a tricycle in Quezon City before dawn yesterday.

Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Ariel Capocao, deputy chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Inves-tigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU), said that recommendations have been made to give PO1 Santos Osorio a medal for his actions.

Capocao said that Osorio, who is assigned to the Regional Mobile Group of the National Capital Re¬gion Police Office (NCRPO-RMG), managed to kill one of the robbers despite being shot and hurt.

The police official identified the young dead robber as Rey Joseph Bartolome, 16, a resident of No. 8 Sampaguita St., Dama de Noche, Barangay Payatas, Quezon City.

Capocao said that Bartolome was the only one armed with an improvised shotgun among seven other male youths during an attempted holdup of a tricycle at around 1 a.m. yesterday along Sampaguita St., Dama de Noche, Barangay Payatas.

Bartolome shot Osorio as well as killed a passenger identified as Agosto Violata, a resident of Barangay Bagong Silangan, Quezon City. Violata died on the spot.

Capocao said that Osorio was already off-duty in civilian clothes and was on his way home at No. 98 Springfield St., in Payatas A, Quezon City.

Osorio and Violata were both riding behind the tricycle driver while three other passengers were aboard the sidecar when the robbery took place.

Capocao said that a group of youths blocked the path of the tricycle and declared a holdup.

For no reason, Bartolome suddenly fired a shot at the direction of Osorio and Violata. Violata sustained multiple gunshot wounds while the policeman sustained gunshot wounds in left leg and left side of his torso.

2 patay, 1 sugatan sa Payatas hold-up
(News from REMATE)

PATAY ang dalawa katao, habang isa ang sugatan sa panghoholdap sa isang tricycle sa Payatas Quezon City.

Sinabi ni Senior Police Officer (SPO) 1 Remo Duro ng Quezon City Police Station Six na bandang 1:00 ng madaling-araw nang harangin ng pitong kabataang lalaki na armado ng sumpak ang tricycle na may mga pasahero, papunta ng Barangay Bagong Silangan.

Nang malaman umano ng mga suspek na pulis ang isa sa mga pasahero ng tricycle ay agad nagpaputok ang mga ito na ikinamatay ng pasaherong si Agusto Vilota.

Gumanti naman ng putok ang pulis na si Police Officer 1 Osorio Santos ng National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Regional Mobile Group at napatay ang isa sa mga suspek na si Rey Joseph Bartolome.

Nagtamo naman ng tama ng bala sa binti si Santos ngunit ligtas ang ibang pasahero ng tricycle at driver nito. Remate Online

2 killed, cop hurt in QC robbery try
Report from Dennis Datu, dzMM TeleRadyo: ABS-CBN NEWS

QUEZON CITY, Philippines – Two people were killed while a police officer was wounded when armed men tried to rob tricycle passengers in Quezon City early Sunday morning, police said.

Seven men armed with homemade guns blocked a tricycle carrying several passengers around 1 a.m. in Payatas, according to Senior Police Officer 1 Remo Duro.

One of the passengers, however, was a police officer.

The robbers apparently panicked and fired their guns, killing passenger Agusto Vilota.

PO1 Osorio Santos, who was one of the passengers, immediately returned fire and killed one of the suspects, identified as Rey Joseph Bartolome.

Santos himself was hit in the leg by gunfire while the other passengers and the driver were unharmed.

The robbers, who have yet to be identified, escaped, according to police investigators.

-melskiens-

The Irony...

2011-02-27T00:03:00.000-08:00

They say that those people who are tough, strong, sturdy, are people who are actually weak, vulnerable - only looking for affection and love... they hush up or conceal themselves to a pseudo-narcissism. Why can't they just be true to themselves to save the hassle of deceiving their ego? A pity! - just a thought though...

-melskiens-

Question about Question...

2011-02-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

"Spiritually speaking, what do you do when questions no longer inspire you?" I quote this one from one of the contributors of Yahoo Answer named "Just Be."

It's just a simple question - not inspiring, though, thought-provoking. Somehow if one will think of it, you will really ponder what if, indeed, questions will no longer inspire you? /Ms./Mrs./Mr. Just Be is only asking this in the context of how he indulges himself/herself in answering or posting questions on Yahoo Answers. However, on my part, this question also hovers to my own individual deeds as i try to venture on my own life's exploration. I usually go to this web site just to scan questions of no-where-to-be-found, none sense, not-so-nonsense, and sensible ones. Maybe because I'm a type of person who has a lot of questions to offer "to my own consumption," that's why this question poses chastisement on my kinda bewildered (in the sense of leaving the formation i had) but exhilarating journey of life.

Pondering... what if indeed, questions will no longer give impression on you? Questions like... What is my purpose in life? Is there God? What am i living for? Is there life after death? Why is there no Justice? Why is there no Peace? Is there salvation? Why i have to suffer? Why the death of my beloved ones? Why ...why ...and why...?

A Person asks because he wants to know something. And that something somehow gives explanation in which may be beneficial or non-beneficial to himself. This is expressed in a communicative way to a person or to a certain situation where the one asking can extract information. "A certain situation" because sometimes you ask question to yourself without the presence other person/s, or to a certain phenomenon, scenario, circumstances. You are inquiring something to the things ambivalent to you. And by way of trying to throw these questions to yourself, that means you are capable of answering and discovering what seems to be unclear. But not all the time you can always find answers. That is why you keep on asking and asking until you ran out of questions. And if i may say, after you ran out of questions, this is where the role of Spirituality comes in. When life turns out to be so unfair of the things you may want to know - there you will find the wisdom of the things you ought to know not. When situation grabs you of the knowledge which leads you to liberation - there you will find the freedom of innocence. When circumstances exhaust you of everything you can have - there you will see the richness of nothingness.

I am not saying that we have to stop asking, because if we do, it is also like depriving us of who we really are. This is what differs us from any other creatures. This only shows, however, how limited we are and yet can be limitless at the same time.

Health and Blessings

-melskiens-

Alone at the Office...

2011-02-04T01:15:00.001-08:00

I'm all alone right now at the office. My office mate wasn't around. I heard from her yesterday that she needs to be with her family for some urgent reason. I don't know if she got a permission to take a day of absent or just took it her way. I was scheduled to have a day shift (Manila time)for the 24/7 operation of our eBay account. The usual operations with some other departments will start at around 9PM Manila time which is 5AM US Pacific time. While writing this, it is already 4AM eastern time or 1AM Pacific time. No calls coming in since I clocked in and I'm just here sitting at my station browsing some online news reading some current events. By the way, I was 10 minutes late because i went to Tandang Sora with my friend, who is a priest, before heading to work. I was rushing to be on time but i failed. I guess I have to settle that concern later on and bear the consequences. Every minute and even seconds in this kind of job counts, that's the thing.

Anyways, I had with me my mug which i bought at SM during my first months in this job. Price tag is still sticking on it. It's a good mug for a price of 179.75 PhP. I just had my 15 minute break and went to pee and opened my FB account as well. There i saw my Bunso wrote something on her wall. She was talking about the unbearable feelings she had. I thought she was sick and so i asked her what happened. Later i noticed that this has nothing to do with some kind of a sickness but rather a kind of a feeling bursting inside. I guess this has something to do with relationship. Since i don't have much time to discuss it with her, i just told her to write what happened and send it to me so i could say something about the situation. I love my Bunso and i don't want to see her sad. I don't have a biological sister and so after i met her at Escalante during my assignment there, i became close to her immediately. She is already at her first year in high school. She is a promising student with beauty, intelligence and talent (playing chess - she even won in different tournaments in the province) to be proud of, not to mentioned her being a good person. I just hope she is fine and will be fine.

It's getting dark as i see it beyond the glass wall of the building. Our office is at the 10th floor and we occupy the whole floor. I can only see very few people from the different department adjacent to our stations at eBay. I can see manong guard few meters away from me at the main entrance to the stations. I can also see from my vantage point a maintenance personnel cleaning the pipes and the lights using a ladder. It's very quite and you can only hear the sound of the air condition. People will start coming in at the office at around 8 PM Manila time - 2 hours from now. I haven't taken my lunch break yet. People not working in a call center might wonder why lunch break at the early hours of the evening. It just that I'm on a different shift and my 1 hour break for me to eat falls between 5-7 PM Manila time. Now it's totally dark. Street lights are already on. Streets are starting to get busy because of the people going home from work, while I'm here in the middle of my shift. This will be the scenario for the next months to come unless changes occur along the way.

It's quite unusual seeing very few people in the office but i like it this way. I can have time to think and observe my life at the moment different from what i used to have. To some point, there comes a time where I long to go back to the quite place where in you can reflect and see your inner being. A place where in you only see the grass, the leaves, the trees and feel the air touching your being. There you can have time to talk to the person who loved you first and also listen to what He is telling you. I know that it will happened again but not this time. There are things that i need to settle first. Besides, I want to be sure of any decisions i am making especially if it will entails a lifetime commitment. This decision once have been made is not like a job where in you can just file a resignation and look for another one as you wish or you can just leave without a trace. It's not a race. After all, I'm not only answerable to my own decision but also to the people, like my office mates and Bunso, whom i will be promising to be of service, and especially to Him who initiated first this journey. And if indeed that will happened, there will be no turning back and i can own that decision with a happy face and a happy heart.

Health and Blessings!

-melskiens-

Naguguluhan po Ako!

2011-02-03T01:02:00.000-08:00

Hay naku! Naguguluhan ako kung ano ang isusulat ko. Andyan yung pagcecelebrate sa Chinese New Year, Kurapsyon sa AFP, Rebolusyon sa Egypt, Valentines day, Love story nila Piolo at ang crush na crush kung si KC Concepcion. Ewan ko ba!. Sya nga pala, hindi ako nakakain ng Tikoy (Nián gāo) sa Chinese New year na ito . Sabi pa naman nila na swe-swertehin ka kapag kumain ka ng tikoy, eh paano ngayon yan, hindi ako nakakain ng tikoy, ibig bang sabihin hindi ako magiging swerte sa taong ito? Gustuhin ko mang isanguni sa aking sodiac sign pero mas lalong magulo - ang dating pinakamamahal kong Capricorn ay napalitan na ng Sagitarrius, tsk,tsk. Pumasok-pasok pa kasi sa eksena ang Ophiuchus. Kung sabagay kasali naman talaga sya. At ngayon, naguguluhan narin ang mga taong nagbibigay kahulugan sa mga sodiac signs, goodluck sa kanila. Pero ito lang ang masasabi ko, hindi man ako Capricorn pero gusto ko parin and papaitan, kalderetang kambing, at kilawin - hmmmm sarap!..tulo laway!

Nakakatulo laway din ang mga kaganapan sa ating lipunan ngayon, lalo na sa AFP. Nakakainis talaga, parang gusto kung pagbubugbugin sila. Pero sa kabilang dako, ngayon ko lang din nalaman na delikado pala ang maging AFP chief kasi may tendency na magkaroon ka ng amnesia, tsk,tsk. "Pababaunan" ko nalang si Reyes at tatlo pang dating AFP chiefs ng mani - kasi brain food daw ang mani. At least may maalala man lang sila kahit konti noong sila pa ang AFP chief. In fairness kina Army Col. George Rabusa, Col. Antonio Ramon Lim at isama narin natin si Mrs. Heidi Mendoza, matapang silang humarap sa Senado para ibulgar ang kanilang mga nalalaman - Kudos!! pababaunan ko rin kayo ng aking panalangin! Amen!

Speaking of panalangin, ito ang nanaig noong 1986 Edsa people power. Naalala ko pa noon habang naglalaro ako sa kalsada eh may naririnig akong ingay ng mga tora-torang lumulipad, yun pala may kaguluhan na sa Metro Manila may rebulusyon ng nangyayari. Maliit palang ako noon pero may malay narin ako nun (ayan medyo pinapahalata ko na sa inyo ang aking edad). Ito rin ngayon ang nangyayari sa Egypt. January 25 ng nag simulang magprotesta ang mga tao. Nainspire sila sa matagumpay na rebolusyon sa Tunisia. Akalain ninyong namuno si President Hosni Mubarak sa Egypt bilang presidente sa loob ng 30 years! Talo pa si Marcos! Ininireklamo ng mga tao sa Egypt ang katiwalian, kawalan ng trabaho, kahirapan at otokratikong pamamalakad. pinagbawalan din ang mga tao sa Ehipto na gumamit ng Twitter(meron po pala akong twitter account kaso nakalimutan ko ang password,hehe)pati na ang internet providers - dito kasi inilalabas ng mga tao ang saloobin nila. Marami narin ang namatay at patuloy parin ang pagproprotesta ng mga tao doon. Dito sa atin, mabuti naman at umaksyon na ang Gobyerno sa pagpapalikas ng mga kababayan natin na naipit sa kaguluhan sa Egypt.

Sa ngayon, wala akong nakikitang aksyon sa darating na Valentines day. Maliban sa mangyayaring pagbabaril ng mga firing squad sa mga taong walang ka-date! Aray ko po! Isa na ho yata ako roon sa mga mababaril. Strict kasi ang parents ko eh. Goodluck nalang sa mga may kadate. Ako neto ay magsasarili at maghahanap ng wala ring kadate sa tabi-tabi, hehe. Eto pala ang mga tips ko para maging memorable ang date nyo: 1. magpahabol sa aso - (ang cute nyo tingnan kung magka-holding hands kayong tumatakbo papalayo sa aso.) 2.) kumain ng street foods ex. isaw, kwek2x, atbp (tipid to the max - mahal sa resto) 3. maghiking sa gilid ng edsa (naglalakad habang tinatakpan mo ng panyo ang ilong ng kadate mo dahil sa usok - diba ang sweet?) 4. kissing under the rain: (pumunta sa northern mindanao o eastern visayas - kasalukuyang inuulan at patuloy ang pagbaha doon -) 5. magmovie-marathon sa bahay - (maagang magpunta sa quiapo at bumili ng 30-in-1 DVD 30 pesos lang - murang-mura na!)Ito po ay gabay lamang, patnubay ng magulang ay kailangan.

Kailangan kong mapag-isa ngayon sa kadahilanang nalaman ko na sila na pala ni KC Concepcion at Piolo. Masakit iyon para sa akin. Wala na akong pag-asa kay KC, ang aking long time crush. Una ko syang nakita noong 9 years old pa lamang sya sa concert ng kanyang mommy. Mula noon, ako ay nahumali sa angking ganda ni KC. Eh ngayon na taken na sya, i have no choice but to look for someone other than KC. Ayoko ring maubos ang aking panahon sa kakaisip sa kanya. Well, andyan naman sila Sam Pinto at si Georgina Wilson. Ibabaling ko nalang ang aking atention sa kanila. (gisingin nyo po ako!)

Hahay, wala talaga me maisulat. Heto at matatapos narin ang aking shift. Pauwi narin me maya-maya sa aking tahanan. Buti at nakapag-blog pa ako habang nasa work, hehe. Wala na talagang pumapasok sa utak ko. Kailangan ko nang mag break muna. 'till next time!

Health and Blessings!

-melskiens-

Back to Blogging!!!!

2011-01-29T16:04:00.000-08:00

Magandang Araw, Magandang Buwan, Magandang Bituin, Magandang Ulap, at Magandang Langit! (kasi parati nalang si Araw ang bida, at least mapagbigyan din natin ng pagkakataon ang ibang bagay na nakikita sa langit at pati ang langit mismo, toinks!) A beautiful day to everyone! it's been a long while since i haven't posted here on my blog. The reason being is that i ran out of things to right - and to simply explain that- Katamaran! hehe..

With my new schedule sa work- hopefully i can go back to my blogging activity. i missed so many things worth writing on my blog. And so i missed so many opportunities expressing my being in the web world. i don't want to share with somebody the things that are happening to me. i better express it in a different way. for one, i have with "eng2x" accompanying me though i haven't spent so much time eng2x lately. i sometimes left myself alone, wandering things inside my head - reflecting, thinking, daydreaming? nah - whatsoever! the thing is, there should always be a way to express yourself in a manner suited for you. writing, though not my kind of craft (is there any?), is one of the many ways in which one can bring oneself out of his own hidings. So much of these - i'll write something in the following days, hopefully! - hopefully because i might ran out of things again to write, weeeh!!!

health and blessings for all!!!

-melskiens-

LIFE...

2010-08-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Life is unfolding realities each day. And as i go into the details of it, i started getting into a deeper sense of knowing what my purpose is... indeed, everybody is asking what's life to offer. hmmm...would you know? this is a classic question and there are countless attempts to answer it. those attempts though would only reach in philosophical books and discourses and if your are not enrolled to any of the universities, or have enough luxuries of time and money, to read or buy books. you wouldn't be able to access those profound words of wisdom. nevertheless, these are just mere cognitive and only in the form of intellectual masturbation. real answers on the question would differ on one's life experience and perspective within the context of what environment each person is into. this doesn't mean we stop asking questions because it seems that we don't have access on those proposals written on papers. however, if we quit on asking, there's no sense in what we are doing. there's no sense of direction. there's a danger in becoming just a mere player in this world. we should rather ask valid questions that would trigger the innate being we have. questions that can be found in ordinary circumstances - formulating extraordinary inquiries of life. to be continued...

-melskiens-

REST IN PEACE BROTHER!

2010-06-10T08:44:00.001-07:00

REV. FR. CHRISTOPHER "TOPI" LAO EXALA, O.CARM.
February 27, 1967 - June 6, 2010

Fr. Topi died last June 6 due to fatal accident (road mishap) happened on his way to Sto. Tomas (Tibal-og), Davao del Norte for an early morning Corpus Christi mass in the parish. He is 43 years old. He was my first formator in the college formation and he was the one who responded to my 3 application letters i sent to the Carmelites. He played a big role in my vocation story.

You will always be remembered.

Condolence to the Carmelites Family

Brother, May You Rest In Peace

-melskiens-

just a thought

2010-05-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

being independent isn't about getting away with your family of friends, it's the other way around..it's rather making you see the connection in a perspective where you seem alone and far from them. - you live not because of yourself, you live because someone needs you for them to live..

What's in Goodbye that exhaust sinew?

2010-04-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

LOVE?

2010-02-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

You're done with this, and you had enough of this. But why is this feeling keeps on haunting you inside again? You know this feeling and you know that your heart is starting to act strangely. you promised once that you will never had this kind of feeling again but here you are, eating your own words, engulfed by the reality that you're into it right now.

Some would easily express what they feel inside to the one they love. Some would prefer to hide it instead. you did hide your feelings for quite sometimes but this made your feelings so heavy, that sometimes you feel like bursting inside... and what if you tell this to her?...does in telling her what you feel inside would lessen the burden? What about her? does mutuality applied here? you told me once that she's facing her own problems right now, she's confused...what will you do? do you think this will help her? but you already expressed your feelings to her... are you happy? are both of you happy? Come on..!

If it is in keeping that feelings would make the woman you love at peace, then gave her that peace, gave her that freedom and made her focus on her life, don't bother her... you should not have express your feelings then. Things are complicated and it's getting even more complicated as time goes on... i don't know what makes your situation complicated, but i guess, the time and the circumstances are making it complicated... or probably, both of you are making it complicated...aren't you?

Are you happy? ...Love is happiness. love is magic, love is love! It should not have been love if you don't feel no happiness at all. Yes, you are happy, happy to see her, to talk with her, exchange ideas and stories, happy even in just a mere presence. i already heard this from you...No words can describe that happiness. No reasons, no explanations, just happiness and happiness alone would suffice love. Love has its own reason that can't be fathomed. it will just flow like a river and fly like a dove hovering the sky, like a wind that touches your skin. You just have to wake up one day and feel it inside. you are already blinded with all the sadness and only happiness appears before your eyes. you can no longer wait for another day to cherish what you feel inside. You're in heaven! but then again.. Are you happy? Are both of you Happy?

Is it All Happiness? it should be... But sometimes Love is not always milk and honey...i know you want it that way...you would have to... you don't want to end it... you want to remain to where you are, stop the click of the time... afraid of the time that this will end... you want to be under the spell of love forever... Love has no end as they say and indeed i would agree on that. But love must not be dictated, Love must be free, love must be given, love is not synonymous with mercy.. love must be open.. love is understanding, love is love...

But Love sometimes dwells on the other side of happiness...here comes the Irony of Love...Setting her free... giving her freedom... sacrifices... cries... loneliness... do you have to feel this way? do you have to let go?... to sacrifice? ...to be lonely? if it's hurting you inside... why do you have to feel this way? Are you afraid of commitment?...of decisions?...of love itself?... but if it's in sacrificing that love can grow... can you dwell on it? can you survive on it? can you fight for it?.... Or can this be stupidity?
Are you confused, perplexed?... you really don't know what to do?...Can anyone help my friend?

-melskiens-

Welcome 2010!

2010-01-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

New Year Comments

GoodLightscraps.com

Merry Christmas to all

2009-12-25T09:38:00.001-08:00

Animated Christmas and New Year Greetings

Merry Christmas to All!!!

2009-12-25T09:16:00.000-08:00

Animated Christmas and New Year Greetings

:-(

2009-11-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

i feel lonely these days...

Perahan lang ba?

2009-09-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

Gaano ba kahalaga ang pera? Parang ito na kasi ang nagpapatakbo sa lahat. Halos lahat ng gawin mo ay may kinalaman sa pera. Bawat bagay ay may katumbas na pera, kahit buhay ng tao ay tinutumbasan narin ng pera. Ang Pagkakaibigan, Relasyon, Pamilya, kumunikasyon, kaugalian, kultura, pagkatao, puri, dangal, pananampalataya ay minsan may bahid narin ng pera. Pagsilang mo palang ay may katumbas na itong pera hanggang sa paglibing mo. Perahan nalang ba ang buhay?
Ako ngayon ay nagtatrabaho sa isang call center. Sa totoo lang, nain-ganyo akong magtrabaho dito dahil sa naririnig kong mga kwento na malaki daw ang sweldo. Hindi ko rin masabi na malaki ba o maliit and sweldo dahil first time kong magtrabaho. hindi ko maikumpara kung pagbabasehan sa aking karanasan. Ang naririnig ko lang ay "more or less" 12,000.00 Php ang sinasahod ng ordinaryong manggagawa. Subalit kung ikaw ay nagtatrabaho sa mga call centers, pinakamababa mong sahod ay umaabot ng 15,000.00 Php, at umaabot ng 40,000.00 pataas sa mga natatanggap nilang kumisyon sa pagbebenta. Malaki nga naman kung tutuusin.
Bago pa man din akong maghanap ng mapapasukan nito lang june ay marami narin akong narinig na mga feedbacks kung ano ang magandang trabaho. Mas maganda raw na trabaho kung ito ay hiyang sa iyong pinag-aralan. Oo nga naman. Mas gusto ko yung trabahao na malapit sa mga tao, at nakakasalanmuha ko sila. Sa sarili ko, nagdalawang isip rin akong ipagpatuloy ang pag-apply ko sa call center. Sinubukan kong maghanap ng mga eskwelahan, mapa high school o kolehiyo na pwede kong pasukan, ang problema, June na noong nag-apply ako, closing na raw ang hiring. sinubukan ko sa isang international voluntary works abroad, ang kaso, kulang ako experience as "professional" social worker/advocate. Sa kakapusan ng oras at malapit narin ma-expire ang aking vow at tila mag-ooverstay na ako sa seminary, at sa katotohanan na wala akong sapat na pera para maitawid ko ang sarili sa pang-araw-araw kong buhay kapag ako ay nasa labas na, sinunggaban ko nalang ang pag-apply sa call center dahil marami sa kanila ang hiring. Sa awa ng Diyos, ako ay natanggap agad.
Hindi madali ang magtrabaho sa call center. Ang parati kong sinasabi sa mga kakilala ko ay isa na akong aswang sapagkat panggabi ang trabaho ko. minsan binibiro ko sila na ang totoong trabaho ko ay isang "Call Boy" at hindi sa call center. Hindi ako masyadong naninigarilyo, ika nga, "social smoker" lang ako pero three weeks akong nagsimulang manigarilyo ng tuloy-tuloy at sa awa ng Diyos, ako ay nagkasinusitis, ayon at nabawasan ng mamimili ang Winston Lights. Kadalasan ang sinasabi nilang happy hours ay gabi na kung ginagawa, pero dito ko ring naranasan na maghappy hours ng "6:00" ng umaga! Imbes na mainit na gatas ang iniinom ko, tumutungga na kami ng beer sa ganito kaagang oras, tsk,tsk,. Lahat ng gusto mong "P@#*%$ Ina" na tono at paraan ng pagbigkas ay naririnig mo. Kanya-kanyang ugali na nakakasalamuha mo, May mabait, maarte, malandi, maangas, bading, tomboy, silahis, babae, lalake, at eto pa...si Miss Minchi ng princess sarah ay nandito rin...
Sabi nila, ok na raw ako kasi malaki ang sweldo, pero hindi nila alam na kung gaano kalaki ang sweldo mo, ganun din kadami ang kailangan mo. buti pa noong nasa seminary ako kasi kahit isang libo lang ang allowance sa isang buwan, buhay na buhay kana nun, minsan may sobra pa. HIndi madali sa akin kasi nagsisimula palang ako sa buhay sa labas, isa pa, mahirap lang din kami at kailangang magpadala ng pera sa amin, may college pa akong kapatid na kailangan ng tulong, walang bahay at walang lupa. isang dukha, tsk,tsk.. Pera ba ang kailangan? Minsan, nabanggit sa akin ng boss ko na magsumikap daw ako para malaki ang perang makukuha ko, sa sarili ko naman, pakialam ko sa pera, ayaw ko ngang kumilos dahil sa pera lang, ayaw kong mag-improved dahil sa ganung motivation, para akong asong sumusunod sa isang malaking buto. Ganito ang naging reaksyon ko nung sinabi iyon ng aking boss. Ang gusto ko kasi ang iyong nagsusumikap ako kasi para sa development ko at hindi dahil sa kung anong reward ang matatanggap ko. Ang yabang! hehehe... Sabagay, sa formation kasi, parating dinidiin ang personal development and maturity ng isang formand, hindi ko rin masisisi ang boss ko kasi may sarili rin siyang pinanghuhugutan ng ganung pananaw. Pamilyado at ngayon kabuwanan ng kanyang asawa, first baby nila. Unti-unti ko ring naiitindihan kung bakit nya nasabi yun. Sa sarili ko. may mga bagay na gusto kung gawin at mangyari pero hindi ko magawa dahil wala akong pera. Isa sa mga frustrations ko ay yung hindi ko nadevelop yung mga talents ko, hanggang basics lang parati at walang experties sa particular na talent. iba kapag may luxuries of time and money. (nag-emote ba!)... Oo nga ano? Pera ba Talaga?
Sa ngayon, pwede ko itong sagutin ng OO o HINDI, pero kung pagninilayan ko ng mabuti ang tanong na ito, mahirap at mabusisi ang pagsagot nito. Kung seryoso nyo akong tatanungin ngayon kung masaya na ba ako na mayroon akong trabaho at sumusweldo, ito lang ang masasabi ko...tuwing malapit na ang sweldo, ako ay tuwang-tuwa. hanggang sa pagtanggap nito at mailagay ko na sa aking palad. hanggang sa aking inuupahang kwarto at binibilang ang sweldong natanggap, nag-iisip ng mga bagay na dabat paggastusan, magkanong ipapadala, pagbubudget at iba pa. Ngunit pagkatapos nitong lahat, habang ako'y nakahiga na at handa ng matulog sa oras na buhay na buhay si haring araw, may mga sandaling katahimikan na hindi mo makitaan ng ngiti ang aking mga labi...Sa tingin nyo... Pera lang ba talaga?

---------------------------------------
singit ko lang to ha, inis kasi ako habang sinusulat ko rin ito,hehe

n.b. walang hiya talaga si Mikey the Money Maker...pati narin ang nanay nya!!!waaahhhh...kainis!!!

kawawa naman ang anak nya...sa ginagawa ni Mikey, parang tinuturuan nya rin ang anak nya na magnakaw sa murang edad..

-melskiens-

...

2009-08-17T02:18:00.000-07:00

iba talaga ang buhay sa labas....

nagagawa mo kung ano gusto mo...

hawak mo ang oras mo...

dahil sa trabaho mo, may pera ka na...

nabibili mo ang gusto mong bilhin...

napupuntahan mo ang mga lugar na gusto mong puntahan...

hawak mo ang buhay mo...

pero ang buhay ay hindi lang ganito...

may mas malalim pa na dapat mong matuklasan...

iba sa nakagisnan mong buhay sa loob...

at ito ay kasalukuyan kung tinutuklas...

Welcome to the World Outside!!!

2009-06-15T01:23:00.000-07:00

i just want to welcome myself to the other side of the fence!!!

This is going to be an exciting journey of my life.

i hope i can make it and find the things i'm looking for.

Happy Easter to All!!!!

2009-04-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Myspace Layouts

-melskiens-

Life in Death

2009-04-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

Death maybe understood as the end of life, a state in which the internal organs and the whole system of the body are not anymore functioning. The Passion of Christ showed how His body gone through the same process. In our observance of the Holy Week, we mourn of Christ's death. We feel guilty of what we have done that caused our Savior to die and not to see Him anymore. Indeed, we never saw Him but the promise He said that He would be with us until the end of time, brings new eyes for us to see Jesus again. To be able to do this, one has to see that wisdom of a Son of God hanging on the cross. His death was indeed a mystery but he left something for us to understand the whole thing - LOVE. Love is common by the time Jesus was born and until His death on the cross. This is a love of a Father for his children, a love of Jesus for all of us. There we can see how life is formed in each one of us when His body is suffering. While the body of Jesus is dying, a new strength in us is flowing, the blood of Jesus is giving us strength. There we can see how life is being formed while Jesus is cleansing our sins. Love is shared to us like a flower blossoms on a dead plant. There is life in death and he fulfilled that on the third day when He resurrected.

i guess all of us are afraid to die. Even Jesus himself felt troubled while he was praying at the garden of Gethsemani. Nevertheless, the will of His Father remained in his heart and prevailed. I for myself am afraid to die. I felt this fear more when my inner self confronts me, but nothing will happen in living my life if I stick on my fear. I will turn this fear into love, love for God and for my neighbors. In this way, I can be with Jesus in doing the will of the Father. I should accept that all of us will die and i will prepare for that day. Jesus, having died on the cross, taught me how to do it. One has to die in order to live. Jesus offered His life and in the same way, Jesus is asking me to die for myself in order to live. I will let the love of Jesus fill my heart in order to conquer and kill my fears, anxieties, doubts, dark nights, my sins and transform these in the form of fulfilling the will of the Father. I should know how to clean my heart. Prayer brings me closer to Him. In this way, God is revealing in me His own Being. In this way, Jesus is teaching me to embrace death and savor the life it brings to me. Now, that i will be going to another stage of formation, I feel happy that i was able to go along in confronting my inner self and lean on God for all my problems. It's good to die and be a new person. I thank Jesus for being with me all the time. He taught me the meaning of dying on the cross. I feel light celebrating the Easter season for Jesus gave me new life, what more, he taught me how to do it. Indeed, there is Life in Death.

This is a reflection i made during my Novitiate year last 2004. I saw this in my files. I though of posting it and made this as my Lenten reflection.

-melskiens-

Carmelite Seminarians, NABUKING!!!!

2009-04-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Manila Bulletin (Wednesday issue: April 2, 2009) pls. click the link for the whole story...
Fr. Rico Ponce (center) says some Carmelite formators even encourage seminarians to go out temporarily to find growth and development. (Photos by RICHARD VIÑAS)

http://mb.com.ph/articles/201098/a-peek-life-inside-seminary

A peek into the life inside the seminary
By RACHEL C. BARAWID
April 1, 2009, 8:39pm

Religious Life: Where is it Heading?

2009-03-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

“The mystical state is the highest level of religious experience and the goal of all religious life. It is also the goal of all human development, both on the individual level and in term of human evolution.” This is the opening statement of the first chapter of the book of Willingis Jäger entitled Contemplation, a Christian path. I find it also fitting to start my reflection with this statement because I find it true that indeed, religious have all something to look up why they dedicated themselves to a life less traveled. This is not only for us Catholics but also undeniably for other religious beliefs. They too, if not for the mystical experience, have also some goal for them to attain, may it be in another description fitted to their own context.
What is then a mystic? I’ve learned from Fr. Martin, a carmelite priest, in one of our discussions in Prophets that a mystic is someone who had the experience of God. This experience of God is of the experience of Love because God is Love and this must be put it into practice. “This (mystics/mysticism) is from the Greek verb mou (closing one’s eyes or mouth) and mueo (initiating to mystery)…This would entail a connection with the mystery initiated upon …” You are then in the mystical state when you yourself is experiencing God in a special way. On this aspect, we can’t deny that all of us are aspiring, whether or not you are a religious, to be in this state of life. We don’t have however, a claim over this. Others too have this longing for the Divine. This are universal phenomena and other beliefs long way before us have had a great experience of their Divine. We all know that even before Christianity, in early Mesopotamia, along the Tigris and Euphrates River; in Egypt, along the Nile River and the early civilizations in China and in India, they have already been indulge to this consciousness on the spiritual dimension that shaped their identity even in our contemporary time. The three major monotheistic Religion, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, for instance, have gone through this path of looking God in the very lives of the people. Karen Armstrong, a British journalist and a former nun, elaborated this further in her famous book “A History of God.” She gave a very systematic portray of how people, in the course of the years, experienced their Divine.
The early centuries were then promising as individuals during that time took a radical way of following Jesus. From the early Christians, to St. Cyprian and Origen, to St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp, down to Paul of Thebes, St. Pachomus and St. Anthony, the founder of Christian Monasticism, laid the foundation of a religious life. Then on, Monasticism, whom St. Benedict did a great contribution, flowed smoothly with its peak during the early centuries down to the middle ages. This brought development not only in the church but also in the whole of the history of Europe and of the world. Mendicant Orders came into being as the new alternative to the way of life during the medieval times. These four mendicant orders, Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian and Carmelites did a great impact to the History of the Church. Came next to it in the history was the renaissance and the rise of different schools. This brought a new concept and thinking of humanity. This made a great contribution in the development of the Protestantism and later then, the reformation, not only within the Catholic Church but also outside of it. The Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius of Loyola is a very important figure during these times. There were reformations also within the congregations like that of the Carmelites. The reformation gave rise to the different congregations, societies that answer the needs of the time. Women congregations then were also becoming visible these times and missions were everywhere. Specificity of missions of each congregation was becoming evident. The different responses of these congregations did answers the call of the times and they find themselves of great help to the people, as this “…specific charisms of religious life is to explicate the experience of God in Jesus Christ, lived in fellowship, expressed by public consecration, introduce into the world as a prophetic sign of the future of the world.”
Today we can’t deny the strong presence of the religious in the society and all of these religious institutions have only one in common, and that is the life centered in Christ. If we take this away from the religious, there is no way the consecrated life to prosper. This encountering with Christ awakens us from the long nights of sleep. As what John of the Cross would tell us in his poem, The Living Flame of Love “…our awakening is an awakening of God and our rising is God’s rising.” This awakening is what we look for and this is what we work for. Religious life had gone through times of ups and downs and God is a witness to that. It never was a smooth flow in the line of history. Gone are those days though it molds the way what religious life offers to us at present. History was part of it. History shapes the overall life-line of religious life. Gods’ hand is working in that history. Religious life really grew and this growth did a great impact in the lives of the people.
Nonetheless, question was already asked about how this religious congregation have sprout like mushrooms everywhere. It is said to be that the reason for this is the clash between the ideals and the reality, and it is very evident. Indeed it’s a question of how we view life as it is experience. Why do splits and reformations in the orders are so apparent? While religious are inside the monastery, people outside are struggling for survival. Religious have all the security they want, people outside on the other hand are full of insecurities. Is prayer enough to answer the common questions of life or it is the other way around? We forget prayers in our apostolate to the people. There is an emerging need to response to this kind of situation where sometimes religious are confronted as to whether or not adaptation to the reality in fulfilling the mission is a must while affecting the existing form of mission they have. We cannot hold the trend as much we cannot hold the clamoring of the people who are continuously asking help to the different problems they have. I guess the new congregations are not born out of nowhere. There must be something that moves then to found another congregation to respond to the needs of the people.
But where all these development will go? I guess there is a new trend here. There is this new face and form of mission. It is not anymore a monastery-like living out of vocations but of the empathetic work/respond to the call. What I see here is the very evident presence of listening. They must have heard the people’s plea. And they responded to it. Monastery before was covered by big walls and so they only see the walls and contemplate on it. Today, in the very new environment, things have change and so our way of looking into vocation, it must change also without compromising the very essence of religious life and the spirit of the founder/foundres. I would say the prophetic dimension of religious life was given a flavor. Not only that the people could now easily see religious brothers and sisters walking around the streets or joining the march but more so on the way the religious people think, reflect and act to the current issues of the society. Thomas Merton when ask about the dichotomy of talking about social change and being a monk, said “…we are not going to solve social problems or the problems of the community unless we solve them in universal terms…the task of the solitary person and the hermit is to realize within himself, in a very special way, a universal consciousness and to contribute this, to feed this back in so far as he can, into the communal consciousness…” We see, even the typical medieval way of living out religious life, the monk or even perhaps the contemplative nuns, are aware and trying to be “in the world” on their consciousness, through bringing it inside their community.
What important here is how are we going to materialized the mystical experience we have with our God. Our experience of God should not only be kept by us but must be work out and acted upon. The word love is never a love if it remains a word. It should be put into action. The church is developing because we are now going to the people not going to monastery. Of course it should be holistic and not a one sided shot. Prayer and action must come together and I guess more and more religious people are doing and professing it along with their own charisms and spirituality. We have gone a long way and this way is a never ending journey towards God. The good thing here along the course of the history of consecrated life is that we did not remain at one phase and become stagnant. We moved on and we sided to the people whom we promised to give service. This is not anymore the question in terms of numbers of congregations we have now but this is now a question of the number of people we help because we believe that God is in the people. This is our goal, to be in the mystical stage, to be with God. Furthermore, if ask where are we heading? We are heading to the people – we are heading to God.

Refrerences:

Boff, Leonardo O.F.M. God’s Witnesses in the Heart of the World. Robert Fath, C.M.T., trans. and ed., Chicago, Illinois: Claret Center for Resources in Spirituality, 1981.

Capps Walter ed. Thomas Merton: A Preview of the Asian Journey. New York:
Crossroads, 1991.

Gerlock, Ed., ed. Lecture Series on Spirituality. Quezon City: Institute of Spirituality in
Asia, 2003.

Willigis Jäger. Contemplation: A Christian Path. Ligouri, Missouri: Triumph Books,
1989.

Notes on Vita Consecrata II

-melskiens-

She's safe now....

2009-03-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all individuals who showed concern and spent time in forwarding this mail/blog regarding the niece of our friar. For now she's safe...One of her friend took her from where she is working. She has been very sick and her employer didn't do anything about her condition. she is now taking cared of...May God Bless you and repay all the good deeds you have done...

Fr. Toto is extending his thanks to all... we will keep you all in our paryers...

-melskiens-

PLEASE HELP! VERY URGENT!

2009-02-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

This is the letter sent to me by one of our Friars. He was asking help if i can post this letter in my blog hoping that someone might see this and could be of help, in whatever way, especially in locating her niece who is in Singapore right now.. please spare a little of your time in reading this letter and perhaps forward this letter or this blog to your friends who is in Singapore or to those who could be of help..thank you very much and may God help us all...

Dear Melskiens,

Our family has been alarmed by a call of our niece working in Singapore. Her name is CHERRY MAE “Mecai” CAINOY GLODOBE. She’s been working as an OFW since October 2008. The address of her location is c/o Kohmci Jacelyn, 3 Jalan Khamis, Singapore 577849.

The other day, February 24, 2009 (Tuesday) my cousin Armondo Cainoy Tagocon, in Baungon, Bukidnon received a frantic call from her… she was crying very badly and seemed on the run. Between sobs, she requested that our family sends $600.00 to her. When she was asked what is her problem, she replied, “I cannot tell it to you now. But you need to contact my agent, Celine with number 0656911606 when the money is available. The money should be sent before Friday, February 27, 2009.” Then the cell phone was cut. The number she used to contact my cousin is 006568205261. (Seemingly this is a phone line and not a cell phone).

Now our family is thinking that something bad has been done to her and she wants to escape. We are just poor family and doesn’t knew politicians or rich influential people who can help us in Singapore. We requested the help of Migrante in Manila but we do not know if they can find our niece in the given address. Our family is praying hard that nothing bad happened to her, for if we try to contact her with the phone that was used to call our family in the Philippines, the number is not working. The number of Celine, her agent, is also wrong. Seemingly, in her haste she made the mistake.

Confusion and fear for her gripped our family at the moment. Was she abused? Was she accused of stealing? Was she arranged to be wed to a Singaporean against her will? All these questions in our heads and we don’t know what to do.

We turn to your blog hoping that someone in Singapore might read this blog and help us in our needs. My family is at a loss… If there’s one thing we want is that she’ll be back with us here in our country safe and sound in our arms.

Hoping you will be a means of shedding light to this family crisis.

Fr. Sirenio T. Jaranilla
Relative of Cherry Mae Cainoy Glodobe

(Any information concerning Mecai please contact Armando Cainoy Tagocon with cell phone number 09103875629)or email at: jaranilla@yahoo.com

No To BNPP Revival...

2009-02-22T16:52:00.000-08:00

i just want to raise the awareness of the people out there to be vigilant in the plan to revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. As we all have known, this project has been mounted with anomalies and corruption since it was built in the time of Marcos. From time immemorial, this facility has never been used but we already spent millions (billion)of pesos just to pay for the debt we owe in building this facility. the amount of money could have spent to a more productive endeavor such as giving priorities in education, health or in poverty alleviation. This facility has many defects and this was confirmed by the engineers of University of the Philippines. You could have just imagine the effect of the disaster this might cause in the near future if we allow this to operate. We know that this can generate power and can supply electricity to the whole populace but considering its anomalies and the danger it will cause, i guess no amount of energy can repay to the possible casualties it may bring. The question still remains in the context of corruption and security, not only among people but to the nature as a whole. Nuclear energy is devastating, not only to the expand of the fireball this may cause but also to the amount of radiation that can reach hundreds of kilometers. Cancer and all unknown illnesses can sprout like mushrooms. We are in the ring of fire and any possible time, this may cause damage and eventually bring disaster to the maximum level. In Ormoc City alone, the Geothermal Power Plant can supply electricity to entire Philippines but because of a certain agreement, which was signed by the Government, its capacity to provide power in the Philippines hindered to give way to the multinationals who eyed to get profit such as this Nuclear Plant. this is not the time to remain silent and just sit in one corner. the Bishop of Bataan, bishop Soc Villegas together with some bishops and the people of Bataan have spoken already. And we are called to response as well as Filipinos and Christians who have concern and should act on the danger waiting for us.

NO TO BNPP Revival!

The Interfaith Justice and Peace Network (IFJPNet) is in solidarity with all sectors strongly opposing the revival of Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). The recent move in the congress to raise from the dead the said anomalous project is an act of ignorance and total denial to the scientific findings that the said power plant is indeed dangerous and risky to the lives of the people and environment in Bataan .

We have not forgotten that the said project of former dictator President Ferdinand Marcos was built with million dollars corruption that went only to the pocket of Marcos and his cronies. Again, reviving the said project is tantamount to an act of deception to the Filipino people who are directly paying the million dollars of loans and interest payments through taxes. Many Filipinos are continually suffering due to corruption of the past administrations particularly the huge corruptions under the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Given the clear pattern of corruptions under this administration, the plan to revive the BNPP is not far to become another source of enormous corruption and additional burden to the Filipino people specially the poor who are incessantly deprived of the basic social services. This is another move of stupidity to revivify the headstone of corruption and put the people and environment in an unacceptable danger and destruction!

NO TO Bataan Nuclear Power Plant Revival!

Bro. Gilbert S. Billena , O.Carm
Interfaith Justice and Peace Network (IFJPNet)
Spokesperson

-melskiens-

What an Irony! (side trip: from hongkong to San Francisco)

2009-02-21T16:42:00.000-08:00

i received a message last night sa aking phone, around 12:00 midnight ng gabi sa isang brother din sa ibang congregation...simple lang naman ang text nya:

First:
Isn't it strange how a 100 peso bill seems like a large amount of money when you donated it to Church, but such a small amount when you go shopping?

oo nga naman,minsan pinipili pa natin ang pinakamaliit na halaga na peso bill na nasa bulsa natin, 20 pesos, buti nga ngayon kasi 20 na, dati kasi meron pang 5 peso bill or 10 peso bill...minsan naman may nagbibigay nga ng malaki, with all the names in bold stroke and in capital letters na nakasulat sa envelop, minsan ipinapabasa pa talaga sa pulpito, kapag hindi man nabasa, maghanda na ang sekretarya ng parokya...(buti nalang hindi ako nagbibigay,hehe, kuripot!)... ang iba hindi rin nagbibigay...iniisip siguro ng iba na pangbibili lang ng alak o kaya ipang-mamajong ng mga pari (sad to say, may iilan)... pero matanong ko kayo, Sino ang mas malaki magbigay? ang mayaman na minsan nagbibigay ng 1 milyon o ang isang mahirap na nagbibigay lamang ng barya-barya? sa maniwala kayo at sa hindi, mas malaki magbigay ang mga mahihirap, kasi ang halaga ng ibinibigay nila ay katunbas na ng pagkain nila sa hapag...minsan ang ipinangbibigay nila ay halos lahat na nag kanilang kinikita sa buong araw...kung ikukumpara natin sa mga mayayaman na isang milyon ang ibinibigay pero tutuusin, balewala lang sa kabuuang kayamanan nila...

Second:
Isn't it strange how everyone wants front-row tickets to concerts or games, but they do whatever is possible to sit in the last row of the church?

hindi ko ma-imagine kung nagkakandarapa ang mga tao para makaupo lang sa harap ng simbahan, siguro kung may himalang nagaganap sa harap, dun pa yata magyayari ito...pero totoo namang may nagyayari ngang himala sa harap ng altar hindi ba? dito tayo inaanyayahan ng Panginoon na makibahagi sa Kanyang pagsasalo pero wala tayong tugon...ang masasabi ko lang... kahit saan man tayo nakaupo, basta seryoso tayong nananalangin, ok lang yan! (kasi sa likod din ako parati nakaupo kung nagsisimba)

Third:

Isn't strange how i hour seems so long when you're in Church, and how short when when you're having a date?

hmmm...parang tinamaan ako...Joke!(wala nga akong date last Feb 14) ...bakit nga ba? iba ang pakiramdam kung kapiling natin ang ating mga mahal sa buhay, lalo na kung ang ating iniirog ang kasama natin. Ibig bang sabihin na secondary lang si Hesus sa ating buhay kasi parang binabalewala nating ang pagsisimba? hindi ba pwedeng magawa rin natin na pag-ukulan ng oras si Hesus? yung may ngiti at pananabik na makasama Siya? Siguro dahil din sa mga pari, kasi minsan boring sila maghomily, {ano kaya ang ginawa nla sa subject na homiletics noong nag-aaral pa sila?)

napa-isip din ako dito, medyo tinamaan ang puso ko sa mga txt ng isang brother...pero after din naman akong makapag-isip2x...nagliwaliw ako sa youtube at nasagap ko ang videong ito...at muli akong napa-isip...dapat talaga maging maaga ka sa Airport before the scheduled time, or else ganito ang magyayari,...

STEVE RAY'S OPEN LETTER TO THE FILIPINO CATHOLICS:

2009-02-18T05:12:00.000-08:00

i have nothing to write for now...i posted here instead an e-mail i received from my brother priest about a foreigner's view on Filipinos...and it's worth posting here...

Filipino Catholics

Here's something very positive written by a foreigner named Steve Ray, about Filipinos.

Steve Ray authored many best-selling books, among which are,
Crossing the Tiber (his conversion story), Upon This Rock on the papacy),
and just recently John's Gospel (a comprehensive Bible study guide and commentary).

STEVE RAY'S OPEN LETTER TO THE FILIPINO CATHOLICS:

We stepped into the church and it was old and a bit dark. Mass had just begun and we sat toward the front. We didn't know what to expect here in Istanbul, Turkey . I guess we expected it to be a sombre Mass but quiet and sombre it was not - I thought I heard angels joyously singing behind me.

The voices were rich, melodic and beautiful. What I discovered as I spun around to look did not surprise me because I had seen and heard the same thing in other churches around the world. It was not a choir of angels with feathered wings and halos but a group of delightful Filipino Catholics with smiles of delight and joy on their faces as they worshiped God and sang His praises. I had seen this many times before in Rome , in Israel , in the United States and other countries.

Filipinos have special traits and they are beautifully expressed as I gazed at the happy throng giving thanks to God. What are the special traits which characterize these happy people? I will share a few that I have noticed- personal observations- as I have travelled around the world, including visits to the Philippines .

FIRST, there is a sense of community, of family. These Filipino
Christians did not sit apart from each other in different isles. They sat together, closely. They didn't just sing quietly, mumbling, or simply mouthing the words. No, they raised their voices in harmony together as though they enjoyed the sense of unity and communion among them. They are family even if they are not related.

SECOND, they have an inner peace and joy which is rare in the world today. When most of the world's citizens are worried and fretful, I have found Filipinos to have joy and peace - a deep sense of God's love that over shadows them. They have problems too, and many in the Philippines have less material goods than others in the world, yet there is still a sense of happy trust in God and love of neighbour.

THIRD, there is a love for God and for his Son Jesus that is almost synonymous with the word Filipino. There is also something that Filipinos are famous for around the world - their love for the Blessed Mother.

Among the many Filipinos I have met, the affectionate title for Mary I always hear from their lips is "Mama Mary." For these gentle folks Mary is not just a theological idea, a historical person, for a statue in a church - Mary is the mother of their Lord and their mother as well, their "mama."

The Philippines is a Catholic nation-the only such nation in Asia –and this wonderful country exports missionaries around the world. They are not hired to be missionaries, not official workers of the church.

No, they are workers and educators, doctors, nurses and housekeepers that go to other lands and travel to the far reaches of the earth, and everywhere they go they take the joyous gospel of Jesus with them.

They make a sombre Mass joyful when they burst into song. They convict the pagan of sin as they always keep the love of Jesus and the Eucharist central in their lives.

My hope and prayer, while I am here in the Philippines sharing my conversion story from Baptist Protestant to Roman Catholic, is that the Filipino people will continue to keep these precious qualities. I pray that they will continue loving their families, loving the Catholic Church, reading the Bible, loving Jesus, His Mother and the Eucharist.

As many other religions and sects try to persuade them to leave the Church, may God give the wisdom to defend the Catholic faith. As the world tempts them to sin and seek only money and fame and power, may God grant them the serenity to always remember that obedience to Christ and love for God is far more important than all the riches the world can offer.

May the wonderful Filipino people continue to be a light of the Gospel to the whole world!

Be a proud Filipino and forward this to friends!

Just Me and My Violin

2009-02-13T05:14:00.000-08:00

I'm on top of a mountain. Wind hover my entire body, never had a chance of escape loomed over its coldness. But then here I am standing still, holding my bow and about to stroke the four-stringed instrument...music fills in...

I’m now staying here in our Carmel Spirituality Center in Brgy. Milagros, Ormoc City. I would say this is the culmination of my intervention year as part of what I have asked in the formation – to be in the place where I can reflect. My previous assignments were from different communities also. You see, I’ve been traveling around the country. And whenever I go, I bring with me my violin. This is not about being a musician who performs to any part of the country. I’m no like Mozart who, as a young prodigy in music, had all the traveling experiences from Salzburg (his birth place) to Austria, Munich, Augsburg, Brussels, down to Italy, Venice and so on and so forth just to promote his talent, eagerly supervised by his father Leopold, parading his son like an ordinary performing arts. No I’m not, I was just a speck compared to him known to be genius in Music. But I like music. Whenever I hear songs of soulful drive, venturing into its musicality and creativeness of such delightful life into it, I can’t help but to pause for awhile and listen to what my heart tells me. Yes, there is something speaking inside of me while listening to music. I don’t know but maybe it’s my soul speaking to myself and It’s the same force the plunges me into music until now. These lead me to love classical music as well, hearing the music of great musicians/composers of all time (Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Vivalde, Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Grieg and more). Music has its own stories that the composers creatively conveyed to the audience. It is embedded in the musical sheets and in every note that is being played.

How I wish I am gifted as they were. But for me, it’s enough to be able to communicate with the music. Somehow it helped me to go back to my own stories while hearing the notes being interpreted. I am confronted with my own music in my life. Sometimes my life is played in “Adagio” sometimes in “Andante” if not “Allegro.” Sometimes not perfectly played but what matter is the impact it gives to me whenever my life is on the stage and performing a concerto for the audience – the people I’ve met. Each play is an opportunity for me to improve my musicality and to be mature musician of my own life. Everyday you have to practice with your instrument in order to execute your part in an orchestra. By the time you mastered it, you are not lost in the play, rather, you and your other companion are one in giving life to the music you played. In life, I have to practice how to be a good person and how to live my life that is in accordance to what we, as truly human being, ought to do.

I bought a violin last year, and started learning it since then. I can be myself when I play the violin, I can go with the flow of the notes which leads me to my inner chamber. It’s one way of expressing my self and divulging what I feel inside. Now that I am on my process of looking deeply into myself in this quite place of Ormoc, playing my violin and listening to its music really help me a lot. It is where the music in me is speaking with my self, and my self speaking to the music of my life, a heart to heart talk – just me and my violin.

-melskiens-

The Miracle of Santino...

2009-02-07T23:11:00.000-08:00

I'm on a remote place in Ormoc and all I can see are the mountains and all the trees and birds flying over it. There are no internet connection, big establishments, vehicles, etc. Houses are hundreds of meters away from the place where i'm into. During night time, the only thing you can hear is the whispering sound of the wind and some night insects singing their nightly lullabies. The night is inviting you to sleep as early as 8:00 pm. Thanks to the television we have (not a cable one). I can stay a bit late than 8 pm...(watching local tv shows)
Sometimes i find it awkward to watch "telenovelas," some of them make you stupid because of the seemingly so obvious scenes that the writer or the director wants to portray to us presuming we do know nothing. But the situation i have this time offers me no choices at all...I'm not saying that those who do watch are stupid because right now, i'm always in front of the TV set for the "teleserye" I'm following. Now it's not about the technicality of a certain teleserye but it's more than that. It's the reflection of the story that i can see in my own life, and i saw this in the teleserye "May Bukas Pa." It's a story about the orphaned boy that was abandoned by his mother in front of a church run by the Franciscan Order. He found a statue of Christ in the cemetery. the statue looks lonely for him, and so he visits the statue every now and then. He gave a name to the statue and called him - "Bro." Actually this is a copied story from the Spainish movie Marcelino pan y vino, which was based on a novel by José Maria Sanchez Silva, he is also the one who wrote for the film. I was moved by this teleserye, not because I'm a religious brother but more so because it talks about my faith , it talks about my prayer life, my relationships to people and to God. My relationship to God is not always smooth as it is sailing on. There are also doubts and questions regarding the life he has given to me, where and what to do about it, for whom and for what it is. I remember when i was just a small boy. I am so religious that time, i also have this short conversations with my own "Bro" telling Him stories of my own. There's always energy igniting in me whenever i am in front of the image of Jesus. This experience brought me to the thinking of becoming a priest. But when i grew up and started to enter in the seminary, i also started to question many things, even to the point of questioning whether there is really a God? Now, with the help of the this teleserye, i was brought to my childhood days of innocence. I wanted to go back to the time when all things matter is Him and nothing else. I want to bring back the days when my trust to Him is just like the trust of an infant to her mother. Santino in the teleserye made miracles on behalf of Jesus. And now Santino is making it again, this time not in the scenes, but to the person watching it...It's the Miracle of Santino...

-melskiens-

A New Open Space

2009-02-02T23:12:00.000-08:00

i want to explore things in writing but then my old blog name "Seminary life," doesn't allow me to do such. Since i am a seminarian, it would be unthinkable if i write something that do favors about Atheism, or some critics about the dogma of the church or perhaps my appreciation about some concepts in communism and the like. I can actually write about it but amvibalence might dwell on the minds of te reader. I decided to change it. I was thinking then of a new name for my blog, and still would have a taste of the Carmelite tradition and Spirituality. I came up with the words "Open Space." And where did i get this name? I copied and pasted an article here and this explains what Open Space is for the Carmelites. (I guess it is ok to Arie Trum if i copied this in my blog...anyway, the copyright belongs to the Carmelite Institute)

SOME REFLECTIONS BY THE ARTIST
ARIE TRUM

In the early spring of 1992 one of my best friends Kees Waaijman, a Dutch Carmelite, asked me to create--what he called--a "visual interpretation" of the Rule, with the text written in Dutch, of course. Three years later I met Jack Welch in Rome, and he asked me to do the same in the English language. The results of this question you can see here today. When I started playing with the idea, my first idea was to make a combination of image and text, that is, a painted illustration or drawing and text, like I do in most of my free works of art. However, soon enough I left that idea.

"No Image Satisfies" was the title of an exhibition of art held in Rotterdam in 1991 on the occasion of the celebration of the fourth centenary of John of the Cross. Sometimes one must indeed come to the conclusion that images do not satisfy. Stronger even: do only lead away from what is essential. Bad luck for the artist; however, a wise lesson at the same time. "No image satisfies." That seemed certainly here to be the case, because in my opinion Carmel-spirituality cannot be safely reduced to or caught in an image.

Now, does this mean I can only use a written text? I certainly do not hope so, because somehow I have this vague suspicion that I am going to need a very strong, but sober, universal symbolic sign. Reading and re-reading the Rule and the meditations on the Rule by Kees Waaijman,I certainly do not get the feeling that I am only dealing with letters, words, ideas and their pure rational meaning. After all a Carmel-life does not exist of Rule only. It is true that in my imagination Appear enough pictures and symbols, but developed into a quick sketch, they do not fascinate me long enough. There is, however, one image appearing continuously at the horizon of my imagination: AN OPEN SPACE, A PLACE IN THE CENTER. That image is gradually becoming more and more important and more essential. Obviously I have to work that out. I do have to create a center, do have to make room, to create space. Even if I should have to interrupt the written lines for that purpose, no problem. That center, that space seems to be important enough. Even the Rule has to make way for that.

Now it is my feeling that I have to enclose the center by a circle, at least a closed round form without end, without beginning. This enclosed center should not just become an ordinary center. No, it should become a radiating center, a very much alive center, an inviting center, your center, my center, THE CENTER. That is why I must decorate the circle with the most noble and most precious metal there is: GOLD, the ancient symbol of the Divine. Gold reflects light and it is the Light that I am going to need.

An open circle, that is, the enclosed inner space, is also to be experienced as a passage, a gate that leads into real life--life as it is brought to life by Jesus of Nazareth. The circle is also the cell of 2. the Carmelite where the small "p" of the word "place" gradually transforms into a capital "P" 50 that the "Lodging" can do God's work. All other images that I could think of, how beautiful or how interesting one could draw or paint them, will not be fit to hold a candle to this simple, sober but magnificent symbol: the circle enclosing space, room, interior, begin, end, begin. "The end of the journey forms the beginning of our strides," I read in the meditation of Kees. I cannot escape from that idea any more. This is what I have to do. Whatever part of the Rule I read, every time I come to the same conclusion. And the circle should be drawn in the center of the sheet, because CENTER and SPACE are the two ideas that I come across every time again. SPACE. "Through the Rule of Carmel I am being lead into the space of God," I read somewhere. I am very glad I did not allow myself to be tempted by the idea of drawing hermits in front of their caves, or drawing a picture of the prophet Elia at the spring, or Albert the Patriarch with his entourage handing over the Rule to the Carmel brothers. This has all been done many times before. No, everything I need now must be very sober, without decoration, without finery, without image--bare, poor, empty in the sense of: becoming bare and empty for God. Now I must hold on to that idea and get to work now without interruption. A circle does not know interruptions.

The inside of the circle is also the oratory in the center of the cells, the cells where the brothers or sisters are occupied. Occupied with conception. Where the living God x-rays their interiors.

The center, the open space, the place where the brothers or Sisters are to come together every morning. Not by force but conveniently, searching for their own center as well, every day again. The golden circle also represents the rising sun, conquering the night, symbol of the resurrection of Christ, the center of time. If you, however, take a close look at the golden circle, you will discover that in this very human and very earthly golden sun there is also a lot of shadow to be seen.

The written text of the Rule does not only exist of separate words and lines. Being written rather close upon, it forms a unity, a structure. And a structure is characterized by connection, so that the structure does not fall apart. The structure saves the connection.

The text has been written horizontally and vertically, together forming a cross. The written lines are being interrupted by the circle-- the circle enclosing emptiness. That emptiness, that unfilled space means that there is more truth than anyone in the world could explain to us. That there is more reality than we can reach and that there are no words for. In this emptiness the things happen that cannot be manipulated. That is why you see an empty center, symbol of the unpredictable reality, the mystery of God in God's inaccessible light. In this empty center we cannot force anything to our will. Our attitude will therefore be: surrender, confidence, let it happen. To go to that center, every day again to find "Nothing" and "Everything" at the same time. I do hope that while creating this work my own center became emptier as well. If you want to be creative at all, you are going to need an empty soul.

Finally, having burnished the last square inch of gold leaf, I cannot really decide whether my work is finished or not, at least not in the sense I learned in art school with questions like: is the color to my liking? Is the composition right? These questions have been answered during the making. It seems not to matter any more. After all I have the feeling that this work has not been created according to a rational plan. As a chess-player I should have failed, because all the time I have only thought one move ahead. Subconsciously I have used the power still dormant in people--and in myself--to be appealed to by mystery, by the unmentionable.

The moment I feel that I no longer view the work as creator, but rather as spectator--even though I happen to have created it--I can step back from it and think of it as "a story told," as "a journey ended." No longer do I see the work then as "artificially made" but more as "naturally developed." The transformation is completed and I myself have become an outsider who--just as any other viewer--can decide whether to begin a new dialogue with the work, in which everyone can follow in his or her own way the process, once begun with the first insecure sketches and writings.

For those spectators, I would like to conclude with the words of the mystic: read on, there is perhaps more written than there is written. Dare to read and to look and you will change and your world will be transformed into a new and significant unity.

Thank you for allowing me to make this work. Thank you for listening to my thoughts. May God bless you all.

Thank you.

Arie Trum Jsz.

Why not write in Cebuano?: Mga Bisaya Banat!

2009-02-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

Daghan na kaaung blog nga mga author kay pinoy, uban sa ilaha taga bisayas ug ang uban taga mindanao, halos tanan sa ilaha gasulat sa pinulungang englis ug kung dili pud, tagalog. Ambot nganong wala may magsulat ug binisaya nga blog nga kung buot hunahunaon, mas daghan man ang gasulti ug binisaya sa tibuok pilipinas, mas daghan pa ang cebuano speaking kaysa sa tagalog speaking gyud (daghan lang nakabaw kay national language man nato). Siguro dili "in" ang binisaya, or kung magsulti ka ug binisaya "you are not speaking the language of the gods" toinks!... Pagxur mo oi! Aw, kung buot hunahunaon mas daghang makasabot sa imong gisulat kay ang mga mubasa sa imong blog dili man lang mga bisdak, pangkalibutanon man ang nahisakupan niini nga pwede mubasa sa imuhang mga gisulat, mas PRAKTIKAL gyud kung mag-eninglis ka sa imuhang blog, or kung dili, magtalaog ka, isip atong nasudnong pinulungan. Pero, pareho ra gud na sa ubang mga pinulungan, dili tanan kamoa pud mag tagalog ug mag eninglis. Dili pud ko kamao mag-mandarin, mag niponggo ug uban pang mga pinulingan, inubanan sa mga dialects sa ilahang tagsa-tagsa ka mga nasud. Ang ako lang diri ba nga unta mapromote pud ang binisaya nga pinulungan diha sa "internet world" kay murag nagamenus naman ang mugamit niini. Kanindot uroy sa bisaya.

Malingaw ko usahay kay daghan ug version ang cebuano language, naay cebuano-negros, cebuano-leyte, cebuano-bohol, cebuano-surigao, cebuano-agusan, cebuano-misamis, ug uban pa. Cebuano language based ilang pinulungan pero nasagulan napud kini sa ubang pinulungang lumad. "ija-ija, aho-aho", "inju tong bayay" ug uban pa...

Pero naay komento sa akong amigo nga ilonggo. Didto sa manila daghan kaaung nagasulti ug cebuano. Ngano kuno diha sa pag-ilaila, kung msayran nimo nga nagasulti siya sa pinulungang cebuano bisan tuod ug taga mindanoa siya, muingon dayon ta ug "hala! bisaya diay ka bai?" nga kung buot hunahunaon, taga Mindanao man siya ug dili taga visayas,hehe, naa pud siya'y punto... bitaw, naa naman gud sa atong huna-uhna nga ang "pinulungang cebuano" ug "bisaya" usa ra ang buot ipasabot. Ingon sa akong amigo nga unta ang komento nato mao ni "hala! cebuano speaking diay ka Bai?"

Sa manila pud murag ubos ang tan-aw sa mga cebuano speaking kay kung atong nasayran daghan sa atong mga cebuano speaking nga ka-igsounan nga naghinaot nga makaita ug trabaho didto, uban sa atong mga kabus nga mga igsuon nagpaboy ug kun dili nagpamaid. Dapat dili ingon niini ang tan-aw nila sa mga maid ug boy kay matud pa sa pinulungang tagalog "sila ay nagtatrabaho ng marangal", ug usa pa, dili unta maubos ilang pag-tan'aw sa mga cebuano speaking nga atong mga igsuon... Aron masayran ninyo maga gwapa ug gwapo ang mga bisaya, AMEN!!!!

akong namatikdan nga diri sa cebu, ang mga tagalog speaking kung magtagalog gani diri, mausab dayon ang dagway sa mga cebuano ug usahay binuangan dayon nato sila "tagalog PALAKA, bisaya BAKI", "mahirapan tayo sa kalisod" "magkano ka dumating" toinks, dayon kataw-an.hehehe!!! Kung atong buot hunahunaon, kining mga binuang nagpasabot nga kitang mga cebuano, dili kamao mag tagalog, pero mas labaw paniana mura ug atong gipakita sa ilaha nga dili sila kalevel natong mga cebuano (hambugero pud oi,hehehe) busa kung atong namatikdan, gawas sa cebuano, ang atong ikaduhang pinulungan mao ang English. (gahi nga English,hehe). mao ni siguro karon nga nahimong number one ang cebu isip call center capital of the world, (nga sa una ang nangulo kay ang India man)

Mutuo ba mo nga ang mga cebuano mga tapulan????? daghan jud ang mitistigo ani...sa dihang muingon kita nga "inyo diay ning bay" (bay-balay) Diha sa jeep: kondoktor: "O, sikit-sikitan nato diha ha, waw waw na, waw-waw...(walo-walo na, walo-walo), sa jeep gihapon= kondoktor: o, sakay namo, lamban-lamban-lamban (talamban, talamban, talamban,) ah, lupe, lupe lupe, (ah guadalupe, guadalupe, guadalupe). Unya mutuo namao nga mga tapulan ang mga cebuano?hahahaha....

Busa karon mao ni akong nahunahunaan nga magsulat ko usahay diri sa binisaya nga pinulungan. Dili krimen ang magsulat ug binisaya sa mga blog...toinks..

hangtud sa sunod nga panagsulat2x nato....mabuhi ang mga Bisdak!!!!

-melskiens-

On Eschatology: Liwanag Pag-asa

2009-02-01T18:41:00.000-08:00

Kadiliman! Multong umaaligid.
Sa mga biktima ito’y nakamasid
Krimeng nagaganap, sa kadiliman gustong manahan.
Sa panandaliang aliw ay may paglalagyan din.
Problema nasaan,
Hanapin mo’t nasa kadiliman din
Bulag na paligid, nasaan?
Halika’t subukang hanapin, kapain...

Liwanag! Lumulukob sa bawat sulok.
Taglay ay init, nanunuot sa bawat hibla ng damit.
Mata ay gumagalaw, pumaparito, lumalayo
Tanglaw ay mundo, kulay ay halo-halo.
Nakikita, mga taong naglalakad
Destinasyon hindi malaman,
Silayan, mga daang tinatahak,
Sa liwanag sya ay gabayan..

Maraming mga pagsisimbolo sa liwanag. Maraming kahulugang pwedeng iugnay sa pangkaraniwang galaw ng buhay ng tao. Ngunit paano mo ito mas lalong maiintindinhan kung ikaw mismo ay hindi nakaranas ng kadiliman? Kadiliman at liwang ay dalawang realidad na hindi dapat ihiwalay bagkus magkasama upang mas maiintidihan natin ang bawat isa.

Ang linawag ay ang unang nasisilayan ng bagong silang na sanggol. Malalaman mo na nasa huling bahagi ka na ng lagusan kung ikaw ay may natatanaw na liwanag. Minsan ang liwanag ay inihahalintulad sa mga magagandang pangyayari sa buhay ng isang tao. Kung may dilim, siguradong may liwanag din na naghihintay. Sa bawat paglubog ng araw ang may matutunghayan kang pagsilang sa hinaharap. May hihintayin ka, May inaasaahan ka, may patutunguhan ang buhay. May pag-asa.

Ang pag-asa ay realidad na hindi ma-iaalis sa ating sarili. Bawat tao ay may gustong abutin na makakabuti para sa kanyang sarili at sa ibang tao. Sa kabila ng mga problema at mga pagsubok. Nilalayon nating makaahon sa ganitong kalagayan, at nasa sa ating pagnanasa na sa kabila ng kadiliman, may liwanag paring naghihintay sa atin. May tinitingala tayong Pag-asa ng ating buhay – Ang Diyos…

-melskiens-

I say Pit Senior!!!!

2009-01-17T16:11:00.000-08:00

Pit Senior! "Pit" is a shortened word for "Sangpit," which means "call." You are actually calling to Senior Santo Niño when you say Pit Senior! A call and at the same time a form of prayer for the devotee. I haven't heard this for such along time for almost 5 years. I was away in Cebu but I'm fortunate enough to be back here again and to witness the mother of all festivals, i must say. I've been to "Dinagyang" in Ilo-ilo; Masskara in Bacolod ("panaad" also); "Panagbenga" in Baguio; "Kaamulan" in Malaybalay, Bukidnon; "Naliyagan" in Agusn del Sur; "Manlambus" in Escalante city, but i can't compare the festivity of Sinulog with that of the said festivals. When i was young, we used to live in Manila and i always hear the Ati-atihan Festival. It was more popular than Sinulog that time, perhaps until now (for the obvious reason that its already their 797th celebration compared to that of sinulog festival which just started last 1980). But now, "Sinulog" - from its root word "sulog" or water current, is becoming far more famous than other festivals in the Philippines, a celebration and a dancing with the flow of the water. What i like in Sinulog, though it's becoming more commercialize each year, is that the religiosity of the Cebuanos or the devotees remains. Just this morning, we planned to attend the Pontifical Mass at the Basilica scheduled at 6am, but later on we decided to went back home because of the heavy crowd. The crowd started almost half kilometer from the Basilica. By the time we can reach the Basilica, the Holy Eucharist is over. I saw in the faces of the people, the faith which i guess would resembles to that of the faith of the little ones. I've been to Quiapo for the Black Nazarene feast but the spirituality flows in the people is very different compared here. Maybe because the Black Nazarene reflects the pains, the sufferings, the problems of each devotee going there, that they have to brush elbows, push people and even die in order to wipe your white handkerchief to the statue (which i feel is too much). While in Cebu, people are full of confident since they can associate the little Niño to a child who easily gives in to any of their requests. There's always joy in celebrating the Sinulog. And this is what I hold as I celebrate Sinulog, the happiness, the joy and the hope that while dancing and celebrating, i can be assured of the favor i ask from our Lord who once became child and did favor to people...and will continue to do so because after all, a child in Jesus will always remain....
So see you guys and let's celebrate Sinulog Festival..Viva Senior Santo Niño...Pit Senior!!!!!

-melskiens-

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-14T01:19:00.000-08:00

Myspace Happy Birthday Comments

My Application

2009-01-14T01:17:00.000-08:00

January 14, 2009

______________________
______________________
______________________

Dear Fathers,

Health in the Lord and the Blessing of the Holy Spirit!

As you have known, I’m now in the stage where in I have to decide for a lifetime commitment in a religious life - to be Carmelite. I assume you are looking up to this in line with our hope in increasing our number and in producing good servants in ministering the people of God. I too, am looking for this considering the need of servants in our Church nowadays. This is very strong in me and I don’t want to compromise the people and especially to our Good Lord because it is to Him and to the people that I will make my solemn vow.

I have asked a year in order to address my personal concerns in line with my vocation, and I am happy with the process I am going through. I believe that formation is not time bounded that after you have graduated in your four-year theology. or after three years as simple professed, or even after finishing an intervention year, you have to take your final profession. Rather it is on how you become mature in making such big decisions and stand on that decision. As for me, I don’t want to disappoint the people, the Order and God in doing such. Making lifetime commitment will come first with the individual on how ready and mature he is.

For this, I would like to go on in my process and continue to deepen my desire to be mature and be ready for a lifetime commitment. With this, I will suspend my solemn profession of vows and take instead a renewal of vows. I see this as more reasonable as of the moment and I’m looking forward in taking my final profession of vows with full confident and maturity in the coming days to come in God’s grace.

May God give us guidance in all our endeavors in serving Him and His people as Carmelites.

In Carmel,

BRO. ROMMEL G. ESMERIA, O.CARM.

my itinerary

2009-01-05T19:02:00.000-08:00

Dec. 22, '08 - back to cebu from manila...
Dec. 23-26, '08 - Christmas with my family
Dec. 27-31, '08 - i went to Escalante city, Negros Occidental to visit the parish
and the Carmel youth. i got sick on the 30th, so i got my ticket
way back to cebu on the 31st.
Dec. 31-Jan. 2 '09 - back again with my family
Jan. 2 -4 '09 - in Nasipit, Talamban, Cebu for the "Seminary Triennium 2009". It
was a gathering of all the seminarians in all formations, that
includes the College, the Postulancy(agusan), the Novitiate(Quezon
city), and the Student Friars where i belong(Quezon city)
jan 6-8, '09 - to bohol, to attend the 40th death aniversary of the sister of
Fr. Pete Manilag, our the college formator.
Jan. 16-19 - i will attend the sinulog festival..
Feb.2009 - i will be assigned in Ormoc for two months...
April 2009 - back to Manila...

-melskiens-

Happy New Year to All

2009-01-01T16:30:00.000-08:00

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I Just Want to Greet Everyone A Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-24T23:13:00.000-08:00

Myspace Religious Chistmas Comments & Graphics

Kaligtasan?...Paano nga ba?...(Isang Pagninilay Hango sa Ebanghelyo ni San Lukas 13:22-30)

2008-12-13T05:25:00.000-08:00

Madalas nating marinig ang salitang “kaligtasan” sa usaping pananampalataya. Minsan sa sobrang paghuhumali natin dito, nakakalimutan natin ang mga mahahalagang bagay para makamit ang totoong kaligtasan. Nakakalimutan natin ang ibang tao at mas natutugunan pa natin ng pansin ang pangsariling kapakanan sa hangaring maligtas. Nakatuon na ang ating pa-iisip sa sariling kaligtasan. Sa ganitong sitwasyon, mas mainam kung babanggitin natin ulit ang tanong na ipinukol kay Hesus ng isang taong nakasalamuha o naging kasama Nya marahil sa paglalakbay pabalik ng Herusalem - “Panginoon, kakaunti po ba ang maliligtas?”….

Sa sitwasyon noon, malaking usapin ang salitang “kaligtasan.” Para sa kanila, nandoon ang pag-iisip na ang tanging mga Hudyo lamang ang may malaking posibilidad na magkakamit ng kaligtasan dahil sila ang piniling bayan ng Israel. Nagpapatingkad din dito ang mga turo ng mga Pareseo patungkol sa kalalagyan ng lahat ng mga hudyo sa pagdating ng paghuhukom. Alam natin na hindi lang mga Hudyo ang nakakasalamuha ni Hesus kundi kasama narin dito ang mga Hentil ang mga Samaritano, pati na ang mga Pagano. Marahil dito umiikot ang katanungan ng tao kung sino nga ba ang maliligtas. Isang tanong na hindi naman agad sinagot ni Hesus bagkus ipinikita Niya kung gaano kahirap pumasok sa pintuang makipot o sa madaling sabi, ang pagsunod kay Kristo – sa kaharian ng Diyos

Ngunit paano nga ba ang sumunod? Saan ba si Hesus sa pangkaraniwang galaw ng ating buhay? Anong merong relasyon tayo kay Hesus upang tayo ay makilala Nya at hindi pagtabuyan? Hindi lingid sa ating kaalaman na maliban sa labingdalawang apostol ni Hesus ay marami pa ang mga naging alagad Nya. Pero hindi lahat ay may malalim na ugnayan kay Kristo. Hindi ibig sabihin na kung makasama man natin si Hesus sa pagkain at pag-inom at makinig man sa kanyang mga aral ay garantisado na ang ating kaligtasan. Ito ay may kaakibat na responsibilidad at pananagutan bilang isang tagapagsunod kay Kristo. Ito ay nararamdaman sa puso at ipinapakita sa kapwa - isinasa buhay.

Minsan katulad tayo ng mga taong hindi nakapasok sa pintuan. Malimit nating ipamukha sa ibang tao kung gaano tayo kalapit kay Kristo ngunit kung tutuusin ay panglabas na anyo at pawang kasinungalingan lamang ito. Marami sa atin ngayon ang nasa ganitong kalagayan. Hindi na si Hesus ang nangunguna sa ating buhay kundi ang pagkagahaman sa kapangyarihan at sariling interes. Malungkot dahil nagagamit natin ang pangalan ni Hesus. Malimit nga nating paniwalaan ang ganitong klaseng tao lalo na at iba sa kanila ay may pangalan sa lipunan. Naturingan ang Pilipinas na katolikong bansa subalit taliwas ang ating mga nararanasan. Sa ngayon, kasalukuyang itinatago ng Gobyernong ito ang katotohanan tungkol sa mga anomaliyang nakabalot sa mga transaksyon nito sa pribadong mga kunpanya katulad na lamang ng ZTE, Fertilizers scam at iba pa. Patuloy pa rin nating nararanasan ang Extra Judicial killings at pagdukot sa mga taong tumitindig sa kanilang karapatan. Ang hindi matapos-tapos sa bangungot ng eleksyon ay patuloy na nagbibigay lamat sa ating gobyerno, ang napabanggit na “Euro Generals.” At ang pinakahuli ay ang muling pagbangon ng pagpapalit ng Saligang Batas na inimumungkahi ng iilang mga mambabatas na may halong pangsariling interest kaakibat ditto ang pagpapanatili sa kapangyarihan ng “pekeng” Pangulo. Iilan lamang ito sa mga pangyayaring nagpapalugmok at humaharang sa atin patungo kay Kristo. Sa ganitong kalagayan, sadyang na-aayon nga ang tanong kay Hesus “Panginoon, kakaunti po ba ang maliligtas?”

“Pagsikapan ninyong pumasok sa makipot na pintuan.” Ito ang tugon ni Hesus sa tanong sa kanya. Ito ay isang paanyaya sa ating lahat, isang paaanyayang nangagailangan ng pagsusumikap. Hindi madali ang pagsunod kay Kristo, hindi madali ang pagiging alagad nya at hindi madali ang pagpunta sa kaharian ng Diyos. Maraming pagsubok at balakid ang darating sa ating buhay. Nangangailangan ito ng patuloy na pagtinging sa ating sarili. Hindi sapat na marinig lang nating ang mga turo ni Hesus. Kailangan din ito ng kilos at paggawa. Hindi maaring magkipit-balikat lang tayo sa mga maling nagaganap sa pamilya, sa kumunidad at lalo na sa lipunan. Minsan nasanay na tayo sa apat na sulok ng ating mga bakod o magmuk-mok sa ating mga tahanan. Sana pagtuunan natin ng pansin ang mga nagaganap sa ating lipunan at hindi lang makontento sa pagpuna dito habang nanonood ng balita sa TV o nagbabasa ng pahayagan habang nakaupo sa malambot na sofa, hawak-hawak ang mainit na kape. Alalahanin natin na si Hesus ay naglakbay, nagturo, nagpagaling, nagpakain at higit sa lahat, nag-alay ng buhay para sa atin. Inaasahan din ito sa atin ni Hesus kung ninanais nating pumasok sa makipot na pintuan. Marami na ang nagbuhis ng kanilang buhay, marami na ang tumugon sa panawagan ni Hesus. Sa panahon natin ngayon, hindi lang si Hesus ang nananawagan, kundi pati ang mga biktima ng karahasan ng ating lipunan, ang mga walang malay na biktima ng digmaan, ang mga nangungulilang kamag-anak ng mga biktima ng extra judicial killings, ang mga mahihirap at ang mga dukha. Huwag na nating hintaying magmaka-awa kay Hesus na papasukin sa pintuan sa pagdating ng panahon. Huwag tayong magulat na balang araw, ang mga taong humingi sa atin ng tulong, ang mga taong nagdusa at naghirap ay siya pang bisitang pangdangal ni Hesus sa kanyang hapag,… “ tunay ngang may nahuhuling mauuna, at may nauunang mahuhuli.”

Tayo ay binibigyan ni Hesus ng kalayaan kung papasok tayo sa malawak at magandang pintuan o sa makipot na pintuan. Binigyan na tayo ni Hesus ng gabay at ito ay ang sarili Nyang buhay. Ninanais ni Hesus na makasama tayo sa Hapag ng Panginoon. Ito ay para sa lahat ng tao, hindi ito usapin kung anong antas ng buhay meron tayo o sa usaping relihiyon, ito ay usapin kung ikaw ba ay tumugon sa kanyang panawagan, ikaw ba ay nagmahal ng iyong kapwa. Dito masasabi natin na ang pagmamahal ng Diyos ay para sa lahat. Hindi na ito usapin kung ilan ang maliligtas bagkus ito ay usapin kung gaano tayo kamahal ng Diyos, na tayo lahat ay inaanyayahan sa kaligtasan na ito.

-melskiens-

The Ecclesiological Significance of Gutierrez‘s "A Theology of Liberation": A Book Review

2008-12-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

I. Introduction:

The outward show of liberation theology from the Latin American Church has gave us an alternative way of how the church must act regarding its mission on earth, on how it looks on the conditions of the people of God. This emergence has given the Church a new perspective towards the reality within and outside the church and even to the point of going through the cultural and even in the economic and political arenas that has a lot to say regarding poverty and injustice. This book “A Theology of Liberation,” will bring us to a radical consciousness implicit in the realities that are present in Latin America vis-à-vis, in the individual lives of the people in our contemporary times and in the whole Church.

Gustavo Gutierrez, a prominent and a best-known liberation theologian from Peru, has written a very good book that shaped a kind of theology that is predominantly a struggle looking for the emancipation of the poor and marginalized from poverty and alienation and gearing towards liberation in the Latin American Church context. His book, “A Theology of Liberation,” was the result of this reality reflected upon, based from both his own and the experience of the poor people in Latin America.

II. Development:

The book according to Gutierrez has three parts:

· The first part of the book is a “reflection on the theological meaning of the process of the liberation of man throughout history.”(Intro. x) Gutierrez’s theologizing does not stop from the previous works from known theologians or the classic way of understanding theology, rather, he went to the very basic of theology and that is the very situation of the people and their relationship to God. He was able to see this through the constant dialogues and reflections with the realities and to himself. Thus, he is reflecting in theologizing. The author at the same time, are putting stress in going beyond to the things he have reflected – to be critical. “Theology is reflection, a critical attitude. Theology follows; it is the second step.”(p. 11). Being critical is not only addressed to the church but mostly in the society where social justice is unclear. It goes down in the historical praxis in which the author is giving emphasis. This historical praxis is goes on what the people experience where the rich is getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Part of which is their past history of being a colonized country down to the present situation where the concept of development arises. This developmental theory brought about the aftermath of World War II has brought havoc to poor countries like that of the Latin America. The “dependency theory” and the hegemony of powerful countries – in case of Latin America – the United States of America worsen the situation of the these countries.

· The second part of the work deals with the Problem. For the author, “…the problem which the theology of liberation poses is simultaneously traditional and new.”(Intro. x)…Traditional that goes to the typical ideas, theology of the Roman Catholic Church and that of the theology coming from the experience of the people. This would also deal with the classic question of the relationship between faith and human existence, faith and social reality, between faith and political action, or in other words, between the kingdom of God and the building up of the world; the Church-society or Church-world relation. How the church would respond to it. Moreover, different responses given along the history to the question of the relationship between faith and temporal realities, between Church and the world are still relevant nowadays. Along the course of time, the church has been in a Christendom mentality, which points out that the temporal realities lack autonomy that only the Church has a say. The first response is the new Christendom arose from the new historical circumstances of the sixteenth century influence by the French revolution and some modern ideas. More so, are some critical analysis of the situation through the various disciplines like that of the social sciences, psychology and the like that would help in seeing the their context. Along with this is the use of Marxist analysis that has a far longer history in Latin America. This ideology has contributed a lot in shaping the kind of analysis in the context where there are exploitations. The second response is the view that the church as a power in relation to the world modifies profoundly, continues to be the center of the work of salvation. A third response is the church-world relationship. This has the advantage of being clear and achieving a difficult balance between the unity of God’s plan and the distinction between Church and world. Here, the pastoral level and the level of theological reflection are important to balance and to have a more holistic grasp of the problem.

· After establishing the jumping board, the third part is the question how “the Latin American Church is present in the process of liberation-especially among the most committed Christian groups-will allow us to establish the question for an authentic theological reflection,”(Intro xi), as what Gutierrez has seen it, the different sectors of the people of God are gradually committing themselves in different ways to the process of liberation. They are becoming aware that this liberation implies a break with the status quo that it calls for a social revolution. The Christian community is beginning to read politically the signs of the times in Latin America. Hence, the new theological thinking now occurring in Latin America comes more from the Christian groups committed to the liberation of their people than from the traditional teaching of theology.
More large groups of Christians of political commitment are committed to the creation of a more just society. These are the laymen, who experience more the poverty in Latin America. On the one hand, there are some priests and religious in ever-increasing proportions seek to participate more actively in the pastoral decisions of the Church. And above all, looking for the Church to break its ties with an unjust order and be with the oppressed… the poor.

Gutierrez’s model of the Church

Avery Dulles’ model of church as sacrament expresses the Church as the sacrament of Christ and, as a sacrament of salvation, the Church’s community expresses something of what salvation essentially consists of. It brings about the continuation of Christ’s ministry and a sacrament of salvation build a community of salvation in the world. The same as Dulles, evident in this book is Gutierrez’s model of the church as a sacrament. The Church has to be defined in relation to the plan of salvation, whose fulfillment in history the Church reveals and signifies to men and women. These plans are concretize and the author pushes the church to be radical and to stand prophetically in the cause for the total change, to be the conscience, educate and to make them aware of the oppression and vis-à-vis to teach them to stand on their own. Another challenge given by the author is not only to bring a mirage image of being a poor by talking a lot about it but also by being true to it.
Another model that visible is the Pilgrim Church where the people are gathered together for one cause and that is liberation. The church must be a poor Church that is in the structure and to the life style of the people in the Church. The church must rethink its mission. Its purpose is not simply to “save in the sense of guaranteeing heaven but it should be in the sense that our work of salvation is in the history.” The Church must go down from heaven, go to earth, and live with the poor people, to join them in their struggle in the economic and even in political aspects.
Gutierrez’s message is clear. The church must become politically involve with the poor and with the struggles to liberate themselves from poverty and oppression. The church cannot evade involvement by claiming that its mission deals with the spiritual and not with the temporal, the “two planes.” The church as the institutional church: its bishops, priests, religious men and women, and pastoral agents, Gutierrez hopes, would become a church for the poor.

III. Conclusion/Reflection:

“We will have an authentic theology of liberation only when the oppressed themselves can freely raise their voices and express themselves directly in society and in the heart of the people of God, when they themselves “account for the hope” which they bear when they are the protagonist of their own liberation.”

The people in the Latin America have been for years of poverty. Injustice is also prevalent. In the same way, it is on those same long years that they have been waiting and longing for liberation. Gustavo Gutierrez’s “A Theology of Liberation” is an attempt, according to him, on the meaning of the faith based on the commitment to abolish injustice and to build a new society; must be verified by the practice of that community, by active effective participation in the struggle which that exploited social classes have undertaken against their oppressors. The Church in Latin America has done a great example in trying to answer the signs of the times. The emergence of this liberation theology is a concrete example on how the church gave birth to a new theology out from their experiences.
Their experience is not alien to us, not only because we are a Catholic nation but also more on our situation where poverty and injustice is a common thing. This phenomenon has given attention by the Latin American Church along side with the opening of the Vatican II. The conference at Medellin in 1968 is a good manifestation of how sincere they are in addressing the problem and put a strong stand against it, very late if we to compare here in the Philippines with the PCPII that is only on the year 1992-93 declaring the Philippine Church as the church of the poor. On the part of the Church as a whole, there are still lots of things to do. It’s never a hidden book that the Vatican is sometimes irritated with this kind of theology but they can never deny its relevance to the faith of the people and their hope in attaining liberation.
We have many models of the Church where we can choose from if ever one model doesn’t anymore fit in trying to protect, perhaps the dignity of the Church as an institution. Nonetheless, we should always be aware of the very essence why we have a Church today. We should never forget the cause of all these things in the person of Jesus. I don’t think Jesus would be happy if ever he saw injustices, saw poverty by millions of people. I don’t think Jesus would only be standing still and do nothing about it. The same with church as sacrament of Christ, the Church must have a bias with these people. The Book “A Theology of Liberation” is a great contribution in these causes in the Latin American context and in the Church as a whole. Like what Gutierrez is trying to emphasize in achieving liberation“…when the oppressed themselves can freely raise their voices and express themselves directly in society and in the heart of the people of God.” The Church on the other hand must be with them in their struggle in achieving that liberation.

-melskiens-

Where are we Heading?

2008-12-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

I was riding in the bus going to my exposure area when i started to wonder where these people i see on the streets are going? For sure i would not go beyond the question of where these people could be for it would not be my concern as of the moment and it will never be. But one thing that made me pause for awhile and started to wonder again, "Are all of us have destinations?" On this earth, getting old is one.
I was assigned for twoo weeks at Hospicio de San Jose, an institution for the elderly. I really enjoyed hearing their experiences that made me reflect and look also into my own life. One grandmother shared how miserable life is when she was operated in the stomach after her mother died. A grandfather also shared how God abandoned him after the death of his son and how he acquired sickness after the incident. And other similar stories of reflection, abadonment, deaths, etc. One could draw a question of where God is, but in spite of this, their Spirituality grew more and more because of their experiences. It is not because they wanted to have an assurance that they will go to heaven that is why some are very religious but i guess its more on that. They drew closer to God because they "BECAME OLD" (their experiences) and not the idea that they are aready at the portal of death. Time really changes physical features of the body and we are also called to bring change into our our spirituality. I saw life that is still beautiful in them, a life in Christ and this is the wisdom of the elderly.
Indeed, the only thing that is constant is change. All of us, whether we like it or not, are changing, we are all evolving into something new. My own spirituality is also called to journey tiowards God and to be transformed. This is what these elderly have taught me in my exposure area. There is METANOIA happening in their lives. They experience life ahead of us and they are sharing this life back to us, for they too are well aware that like them, we too are heading to where they are now. After all, we have the same destination. Growing old is a good experience while God is with us.

-melskiens-

pacquiao fever

2008-12-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

Philippines is on freeze right now. zero crime rate, streets in almost major roads in greater manila turning into an airport runway, husbands caregiving their sons and daughters at home, televisions are busy (that includes the commercials). Gamblers are yeeling alleluia... when these things happen, Pacquiao fever is around the corner.
Pacman is scheduled to fight today, Dec 7. (Dec. 6 - US date) at Las Vegas Nevada with its oponent the Golden Boy Oscar dele Hoya. Many are skeptics whether manny could actually win this fight. Manny's camp are even predicting a knockout in the later rounds. but whether there is a knockout or none, hundred percent sure that all the eyes of the Filipinos and even millions of people are focus now at their fight coined as the "Dream Match."
I don't know what this phenomenon mean to the filipinos. It could probably mean a reflection of what every filipino's dream of uplifting their own situation into a triumphant success that they see in Pacquiao. We always look for someone whom we think, even for just a dream or we see in other people, would feel us like uplifting our own down situation. No wonder religiousity is very strong in our place because we are looking for someone we can turn into when time comes our life is in dreadful situation. Compared it to other first world countries whose religiousity is deteriorating, ours is very opposite. However, this does not mean a loss of faith in them but rather a change of perspective in looking into what kind of spirituality that is suited to what kind of life offers them - a life in prosperity. This spirituality is different to people who are marginalized, poor and deprived of the basic needs of human being. One good aspect in them is their strong longing of "Someone" who can actually help eliminate if not minimized their impoverish life. And sometimes they look for someone where they actually grasp for hope and inspiration, someone they can see, feel and touch in flesh - good for Pacman. No wonder he is looked upon as our hero nowadays, ( i just hope we too can benefit with the big amount of money he always get every fight he has).
When all things got worst, and hopelessness are haunting us, Pacquiao is no out of a scene. We see pacquiao as one coming from a poor family turning into a rich and famous icon in our world today - I guess he's the one we can easily associate with in terms of hoping against all hope. And i guess filipinos is very willing to be infected with the current epidemic in the Philippines - The Pacquiao Fever....

-melskiens-

come and go

2008-12-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

The scheduled time of my departure from Cebu to Manila was at 5:30 pm, . As usual, i am expecting an announcement that there will be some delays of the flight - indeed there was. And so it was moved from 5:30 to 6:00 pm, but we actually took off from Mactan Airport at exactly 6:30 pm ( i got used to it). For a few minutes upon taking off, i looked at the beautiful airial view of cebu with its grandeur display 0f street lights - and the rest was like a boring isolation in a pressurized jet flying thousands of feet above. All you have to do was to read the smile magazine prepared for the passengers (which didn't make me smile at all). If not, you can lay down a bit the back rest of the chair and sleep - which i did. i was awakened by the announcement of the captain that we are already in the vicinity of manila and that we are about to land in few minutes time. We landed at NAIA terminal 3 at 7:32 pm., I'm back in Manila - my Community Integration has just ended.
My three months stay in Escalante City is over. i had a great time in the place, meeting people of all walks of life, relating to them, sharing life itself - one of the many reasons why there is a certain heavy feeling in my heart leaving the place. it gives me a good reason of going back there soon. In a way, they have been part of my journey. It will be nice seeing them again and knowing how, despite the distance, friendship still remains.
I'm looking forward also in knowing how far they have gone through from the start of the re-organization of the parish youth. I wish that the Mt. Carmel Parish Youth Organization (MCPYO) will do better for the coming months having been reorganized last October. It was a heavy task then since we started at zero, though, all our efforts have been paid of. We did a good start and hopefully it will flourish until they can finally establish a strong youth organization.
Quite a few times i helped the St. Therese Choir introducing few new songs. Unfortunately, i'm not that good in reading the notes and so i have to rely only to what i have known about the music in my mind. I supposed i did taught them the right tune (hopefully). I can easily catch up with the songs with regards to its tune or melody but never on its technical aspects as to its musicality. I'll be planning to have a formal study soon, but for now, i still have to rely on myself studying notes vis-a-vis violin lessons, passion on music will drive me on this. But more on music, i was able to have a good bonding with them. i even almost cried during the time when we had my so called "dispedida" with them. I was good in diverting emotions that time. I'm gonna miss them. its fun to be with them.
One thing i enjoyed most is when i am in the company of the Carmel Youth. Not just because they part of the Carmel family that i felt so close to them but its more on their personality that embibes thier being a Carmelite that toucheed me so much. Sometimes i feel like they are more Carmelite than myself. I saw how they protected the CY from the negative feedbacks they get from other people, on how they give effort in making the CY alive as much as possible. I saw in them a group that is not anymore bounded only by bonding but they go beyond it - living out their way of life as a Carmelite. I hope these things will keep them alive. Though there were still individuals who only look for friendship and bonding but i am hopeful that they too can be transformed into a more mature individual in joining the Carmel Youth. This is not as easy as peeling a fruit and this has to be worked out but as long as they will start to realized this, i guess the line which says "once a Carmel youth... will always be a carmel youth." is true indeed. as for myself, i will always be one of the avid supporters of the carmel youth. i love them.
not all went that busy since i engaged in two different major activities the youth leader's assembly and an overnight activity, the Vocation jamboree with 700 participants, plus some other activities i had: recollections, seminars and even officiating the sacrament of baptism in the absence of the priests here. There are times when i caught myself alone and have nothing to do, this gave me time to think and to reflect for myself this time. After this integration i was thinking if what will be my next move? I remember what fr Harry had told me, "in doing things, it is not of how you gain, but it is more on how you give." he continue in saying, "that's service!" in my short stay in Escalante, i believe i was able to give my service to them. This experience helped me a lot in seeing things beyond what i used to think of, that is sometimes focused on what i will gain. My integration process directed me to look beyond the horizon. This i'm thankful to the community that accepted me there. Truly, a blood of a Carmelite is thicker than water. They never let me down. They are very supportive and at the same time, giving me independence in trying to do things in the best way i could possibly do. This gave me strength in walking the path ahead of me. People i've met have some way or another had helped me, unconsciously or consciously, in trying to realign myself to what is me. Paradox of life is always there, sadness-hapiness, light-darkness, death-birth, but we all have to remember that though these things are reality, it's being a cycle of ups and downs have given us always a room for improvement, in finding ourselves to what is still to be found and retaining thing that are essentials for improvements. a journey doesn't stop in one place, it has to go forward and never backward.
things will come and go, but it's never an ending story of coming anf going. i did came in esclante and surely will go back there. I will find my way back to place i 've been to and especially to people i lived with. After all, it is not the end of the journey that counts, but the entire journey itself.
-melskiens-

stock market 101

2008-11-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

If you have difficulty understanding the current world financial situation, this is the simple version...

Once upon a time in a village somewhere, a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10. The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.' The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere! Welcome to....
THE STOCK MARKET!!!!!

2008-11-06T22:02:00.000-08:00

i' ve been busy for the past days, i was assigned by Fr. Paul to organized the youth here in the parish. it was a heavy task since we have to start from the scratch but it was fun and the youth here are very participative. we had a Youth Leader's Assembly last October 27-28. it was attended by almost 130 participants from different chapels or Gagmay'ng Kristohanong Katilingban (GKK). we elected an ad hoc officers for the preparation of their summer youth camp/general assembly next year. i enjoyed thier company and they boosted my energy. the next stop is the vocation jamboree that is initiated by the school, Mt. Carmel College. i will be helping them in the preparation of the said activity. it is going to be busy days ahead. its fun though. i will definitely enjoy.

till next post..

-melskiens-

nothing...

2008-10-06T05:20:00.000-07:00

i don't know what to write here. i'm just here inside the inter cafe and facing this computer. im surfing the net for the possible things which may caught my attention and so far there is none. i'm just killing the time. that if i can really kill the time.. now i'm thinking what to write.........hmmmm, i hear gun fire from my neighbor's computer...he's enjoying much.. while i'm here waiting to finish downloading my naruto episodes..my cell phone is beside the keyboard, waiting for someone to text me... and my fon is quite for almost 15 minutes... now, i'm about to finish my writing here.....

-melskiens-

gggrrrrrrrr.......

2008-10-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

one thing i hate about Escalante? it's their internet connection...grrr... i've been to different internet shops and all of them have the same problem. now i'm facing the computer in the convent waiting until the sun is finally went down before i can finish my business here. imagine this, it took me an hour to finish this up. my temper is almost up...gggrrrr...

-melskiens-

the smallest volcano in the world!!!

2008-09-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

Together with my community, we were able to visit the smallest volcano in the world inside its crater. Imagine that! That was amazing! It was awesome! Superb! ... The place was so peaceful, i feel like i'm in paradise.. you will see how wonderfully it was made from inside the crater. all we know, volcanos are violent but on this case, it was heaven...Its beauty was made out from the gusty, fearful and deadly works of nature. Now it is a place where you can find peace and serenity. Soon i'll be posting some of my pictures, I don't have it for the moment because i left it in Manila, I'm in Negros by the way.
i arrived here last September 8. So far, in happy in my stay here in Negros. I was able to see the people here once again especially the community, the carmel youth and to all the people whom i knew when i was here last summer. For now i was given a task to revive the parish youth here. I am happy with the task given to me. Here i can fully give what i have. Although it is a task but it is becoming more of a passion to me rather than a task. I'm excited with the series of activities which we are about to plan for the coming days...I'm enjoying my stay here... hopefully for the coming days still... until my next post... God bless!

-melskiens-

the next popular choir!!!

2008-09-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

My scheduled date of departure for Negros was changed. So by next Monday (Sept. 8), i'll be flying to Negros. For the moment, i've been going to Bagong Silangan in our inserted community. i feel at home every time i go there, people are so warm, i'm enjoying there company. i'll be staying in Escalante for about three months. Though it is only for a while, still i'm going to miss the people in Bagong Silangan.
Last night we brought the choir of San Isidro Parish in Bagong Silangan in a recording studio to record a song composed by our priest Fr. Aries and was arrange musically by our brother Sheldon. they were very excited for it was their first time to record a song. (i also did record a song there last year, though i feel like my voice is only for my own consumption, lol!) i was happy seeing there faces full of excitement. I would say this choir has a potential of becoming popular soon, i tell you!!!hehehe...
'till here for the moment, i still have to buy some things that i need in my journey.
God bless to all!!!

-melskiens-

going back to Escalante

2008-08-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

i'm planning to go to Escalante this coming wednesday Sept. 3. i don't know what awaits me there, all i have to do is to enjoy my stay and share what i got that can help the parish, the people, the community and to my self. by now i still have to prepare things...

-melskiens-

bowling time...

2008-08-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

i feel like my right hand is still heavy until now after we played bowling!..ate fe, ate mau and myself were enjoying the rest of the afternoon. we went to Ever Gotesco mall to have some fun there, not to mention the heavy snacks we had at chowking...burrfff..!! .. thanks a lot ate mau!!!

-melskiens-

Let Me Love the Storyteller

2008-08-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

long dark night has passed
sun is on its way up
birds are singing, chanting
welcomes a day beginning

from purple to yellow then white
shines in the blue sky
heat is rising
burning me from within

oh, fire that has long been died out
waiting, searching, wandering for torch
oh, there i feel, someone is standing
a child i see, in the memories i knew

where have you been?
I am looking for you, I asked
for how long you've been sleeping?
I'm just waiting here, the child replied

am i been this for so long?
dullness its on me like a vulture
pending changes i can't muster
shouting in a vacuum no one can hear

then let me hold you my dear
the child i ignored for years
let me know your stories
and let me love the storyteller.

-melskiens-

damn...!!!

2008-08-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

trinoma and batman

2008-08-02T01:10:00.000-07:00

we had a community outing that was supposedly a swimming activity but it was not push through because of the bad weather. so we decided to have it instead at Trinoma Mall. we had our lunch there and we watched the movie The Dark Night. i'll give it a two thumbs' up!!! I had fun watching it, not to mention the beautiful scenery (the park) of the mall..

-melskiens-Post Options

cheeseburger...

2008-08-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

i just stayed here the whole day...nothing that much spectacular things happened, just me and myself was here...though a friend of mine called at 2:00 pm. she said she needs someone to talk to. she called for about an hour... she felt alone and crying..i was just in the phone trying to make myself present and there to listen to her... at the end of the conversation I felt happy that i made her smile and somehow ease her pain, even for that moment... hmmm... I was thinking if were in her position...who am i going call? naahh.... i like cheeseburger, i'll buy one,hahahah!!!!!

-melskiens-

rainy friday...

2008-07-31T17:55:00.000-07:00

i am just here in the inserted community house facing this computer. i guess i'll be staying here for the rest of the day, its raining outside. i feel like sleeping but i doubt if i can really fall asleep, maybe i should try...

-melskiens-

have a good night sleep...

2008-07-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

my mind as of the moment is stagnant. ideas are already mounted on my mind but i don't know how to go about it. do i have to wait for someone to push me on what i have to do? nah, nothing....
i'm just sleepy....!!! have a good night sleep... God Bless!!!

my Journey

2008-06-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

It is almost a decade since I entered in the Carmelite formation. Many great things happened to me and I am very grateful to these. It was clear to me then why I entered in the seminary. It is because of my desire to be a priest and to be of service to the people. These were molded from my experiences since I was a child and part of it was the guide of my parents and some people whom I happened to met along my journey. I’m happy that until today my family is still there with me in my journey in Carmel. College formation life has its own dynamics if I were to compare it to where I am now. Being a college with a young mind and almost with the people of same age, you are always filled with awe, wonders and curiosities. I used these as my opportunity to grow and to be mature in my formation process. True enough that I graduated and made myself ready for the next challenging stage of formation in the Carmelites – the Postulancy..
When I was still in the college formation, I heard already many stories about the life in the Postulancy. You are to immerse yourself with the people for six months. These made me feel excited with my next stage since I love adventure and on this stage that I can experience for myself the lives of these people. Indeed, my experience in the postulancy did great changes in my life. I started to understand the life-situation of the people. I became more critical in seeing the realities in life. In this stage I felt the presence of God in the lives of the people. I remember when I was asked by Fr. Eddie during my evaluation in the postulancy when he said, “What are you going to bring in the novitiate?” I told him saying “the Rommel who happens to finish the postulancy program of the Carmelites.” I brought in the Novitiate with me my rich experiences during my postulancy program. I grew in my process
Novitiate for me helped me go back to my personhood after the college and postulancy experiences. I saw this as my opportunity to act out what I saw during my postulancy. I felt the energy in my initiation as a religious. I was able to find my spirituality along with my experiences. Though there arose problems but these did not block me to see the beauty of living a life in the novitiate. I would say my spiritual life grew in this stage. My personal readings of some spiritual books, the learning from the Carmelite studies and the silent environment inside the novitiate house made comfort in deepening my spiritual life.
I felt happy when I first stepped in the student friary. I had my first profession last June 4, 2005. I had with me all my experiences from my previous formations. I would say it was a different setting then. From a quite life in the novitiate down to a more open and busy life in the friary. Indeed life here is freer than novitiate or in postulancy and even in the college formation. You are looked as a responsible individual and this I like most. You are trained to be mature enough and see things beyond what appears to be so obvious and bold – to be critical. The learning I got from ICTC exceed to what I perceived from people outside about theology to be scholastic and dogmatic. I learned that theology is a study of life that is grace-filled; a grace filled by God and is rooted in the very lives of the people. I saw the love of the community, value of sharing, understanding and acceptance, that when we gathered for some drinks, we don’t only share laughter but instead the very lives of the brothers. The simple hello and tap on the shoulder, shows camaraderie beyond words. The people I’ve met from the pastoral area and in the inserted community play a very important role in my journey. These are the same people who taught me many things about life.
In this stage also that I felt I’m detached from myself. In the morning, seldom you can pause for a moment because you have to prepare yourself for the classes in the next couple of hours. During night time you can’t even recall what had happened to you the whole day because of the many assignments filed up in your table. Sometimes you have to sleep early in the morning for that matter. During weekends you have to clean the house, do your laundry, do your marketing, etc. Only on Sundays you have your time not to reflect on what had happened to you for the past week but rather to take a rest ready for another busy week ahead. Sometimes problem comes your way and you can hardly find time to settle things up. There are sometimes feelings of regret for not having utilized the immersions in a deep reflection-based sharing of experiences that will somehow help individuals in their personal growth and use this as an opportunity in trying to look into themselves from the busy academic schedules we have. One may throw these things to me and say it’s my fault because you are not managing well your time; you didn’t go to your formator or someone else and for what ever reason one can say but still the fact remains that these are realities. And when you are in these realities, the best option you may do is to be like a bird and see things with the bird’s eye view. After you have been into the forest and able to see things inside the forest, sometimes you have to get outside the forest to have a look from afar and then start to say something about it from your experience.
Together with all my experiences in the formation, my brothers, my family and all the people I’ve met, their stories showed me what life is. That life isn’t about where we are heading but rather on how we are going to live life to where we are heading.
This made me reflect my life as of the moment. After my studies in theology, I’ll be having my solemn profession and I can even ask the council with the approval of any of the bishops to have my solemn profession together with my ordination to the Deaconate at the same time. After six months, I can have my ordination as a priest. And if I will go on to these processes, by next year December 2009, to be exact, I will be a Priest then.
Many things happened along the way. And my reason of entering the seminary when I was a graduate from high school has to be revisited. Now, I am not anymore a high school graduate. More than 1/3 of my life I spent it already with the Carmelites and I am proud to say that I am indeed a Carmelite though officially, I still have to have my solemn profession. For me, the gauge of becoming servant doesn’t have to be a priest. The gauge of successfully completing the Carmelite formation doesn’t have to be at the graduation in ICTC, or during solemn professions, or even in the priestly ordinations but rather your whole life is the whole process of formation for Carmelites.
For now, I’m looking not on the finish line but rather on how I ran as of the moment to where I am heading. There are times that I forgot to look into myself to where I am now because of the busy schedules in the school, some papers and the like; some expectations of the people around you asking when will be my ordination; family problems and even personal. Sometimes I feel like my life is already in the system of ‘chronos’ forgetting about the ‘kairos.’ I don’t want to compromise the people whom I am going to serve. My family, my Carmelite community, my friends and the people are my inspiration and I don’t want to fail them, much as they also don’t want to see me unprepared in serving God.
For these I guess it’s not a loss if I will find time for my self and reflect on the processes I’ve gone through. This will rather help me a lot in seeing things ahead of me better enough.

-melskiens-

Who Leads Us?

2008-06-17T18:04:00.000-07:00

“If anyone wants to be the first, he must be the very last and make himself the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)

I find this quotation very interesting. Not because it is coming from the verses of the Bible but more so on the value it portrays to us. But how could this be? How can we do that? These are probable questions that would rise up confronting this line of phrase. It is ideal I would say and seldom is it being done in our own experiences. Nobody would want to. Nobody understands.
A politician during the campaign, getting hold of the microphone, often sounds like clashing cymbals when he/she started to be on the stage. Service is the most corrupted, abused and misused word during those none sense talk in the election time. The sad thing, many believe.
My stay in Baranggay Saysain, Bagac, Bataan offers me a different view of what leader is all about. Maybe because it wasn’t election time during our stay there. Moreover, our group, composed of my other three classmates, were actually not discussing what is a leader but we just go on our pastoral concern and able to set plans and discuss things during our meetings. We just appointed one person to be our coordinator and that’s it. Much emphasis on the group was addressed, of how each one feels, thinks and stands on certain issues and problems arise, of how each individuals contributes to the group, not compromising our goal in staying there. We know there are expectations from people around us as a group but what stands out was the fact that we work as a group and we work hand in hand with our leader. There were indeed some problems arose but what important here is that we discussed it, laid down our points and therefore came up with a concrete actions that would not only benefit ourselves but especially the people involved in the ministry we are doing.
I guess it is important to look closely of things concerning what we ought to do and as what must be acted upon accordingly as leader and as member in a certain group. This would entail the giving up of oneself to the cause you are into. Jesus sets a good example on this when He said that those who are the least will actually be the first and vice-versa. Much more, He did what he said by dying on the cross. Serving doesn’t mean getting on top like most politicians do but rather by becoming the least and able to serve the rest of the people leading them to a life pleasurable to all. Nowhere can we find such great leadership Jesus showed to us. Up to now, these traits Jesus has are still openly spoken by most people, especially the politicians but, seldom is it sincerely being done. Jesus is the one guiding us all in everything we do. Israel was guided and so too the disciples and so are we. Ask if who leads us? Jesus did…

-melskiens-

my batch...

2008-06-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

this morning i attended the Holy Spirit Mass at ICTC (Inter-Congregational Theological Center) - my theology school. there i was able to see my batch mates. they have no knowledge about my plan of having an intervention year as i saw this as a good venue for my growth in the process of my formation... we elected a new set of officers as my term as vice president of the (I-SEC) ICTC-Student Executive Council and the rest of the officers has just ended. i'm going to miss them. probably by the time i'll be back to my studies, they are already ordained deacons or maybe some are already solemn professed friars. i guess things are going to be that way. i have no regrets after all, for i know this could help a lot in discerning things ahead of me.

-melskiens-

i'm taking a rest..

2008-06-09T01:38:00.000-07:00

i'm happy with my community integration in Escalante, very opposite from what i have expected before going there. i enjoyed the company of the community members, of course not all are happy moments. there was one situation where i was scolded by one priest there in which he had a very shallow reason in doing so. why can't he just talk to me in a calm voice? i'm not a stupid after all who can't understand things. he's so arrogant, no wonder many people there like him so much... especially when he has to leave the place for a new assignment..and good luck for the people there in his new assignment...
i got my inspiration with the people there, i had a beautiful experience with the carmel youth and i thank them for the warm welcome they showed me... i'm looking forward of going back there soon...

just a couple of hours ago before i sat on this computer, i happened to talk to my formators. 'twas about my plan of taking a rest in the academic concerns of the formation. i requested if i can stop schooling for a year and spend time for myself... and i'm happy that they granted me my request... this will be my year of truly looking into my vocations and purify it. i can't compromise the people whom i'm going to serve if ever i become a pastor and i can't do my responsibility to them. its almost a decade since i entered the seminary and i want to recollect all my experiences in the formation and somehow try to reflect on it and pray...
for now i'm happy because they agreed on what i believe would be helpful to me yet i still have many things to do especially my personal journey in life...

-melskiens-

summer?

2008-03-07T03:41:00.000-08:00

i heard that i'll be assigned in Escalante, Negros Occidental for two months. this is part of our summer program for the third years like my self. it is called community integration. i don't feel excited about it, maybe because i'm burn out of the busy schedules i have lately and that i wanted to take a rest even for just one month staying in a quite place. i was thinking of going to ormoc where we have our pilgrim site there. its best suited for me i suppose. i want to be in a place where there are no traffic, pollution, noise, and the like. i want to go to a place where i can rest my mind of the schedules and the daily routine i do here. i want to be myself alone and reflect on the experiences i had and feel the presence of God. its quite a time since i had a quality time to God and hopefully this time i can stop the ticks of the clock and spend time with Him. well, hopefully i can appeal to them to consider my request. after all, it's for my own good.

...

2008-02-25T05:05:00.000-08:00

We went to San Francisco Agusan del Sur last Feb 16-21 for the celebration of our 50th year presence in the Philippines. We had our concert there and so far it was successful. All my efforts to play the violin on the night of the concert was so far good. it's really different if you have an inspiration. i was really trying my best to be able to play it and mastered my piece for one month. i'm happy for it.. it became a way for my soul and my heart to speak up for themselves through music.
im very happy that i was able to go back to that place. it was 4 years ago since i last stayed there. my visit there was so special. there were mix emotions i experienced during my stay, happiness stands out of all those emotions. i will never forget those precious moment i have in agusan...i will always remember that time..i will...however, all i have with me is the memory of that experience. there are times that you have to say goodbye. but like the beautiful lyric of the song "somewhere down the road" by barry manilow, "sometimes goodbyes are not forever," my goodbye is definitely not forever, i'll be looking forward to see her again.. friendship is worth keeping because it is bounded and rooted.. i will not let that friendship lost because it's all i have...it's all left to me...

natal day...

2008-01-15T04:10:00.000-08:00

i started it with a bad day. i was drunk even before the 14th of January enters...honestly i was expecting a greeting at the very start of the 24 hour cycle of the day from a friend whom i considered dear to me...that's the problem, why should expect it to happened? i don't have a claim over it...that was a thing of the past.. i realized that i'm in the present, gone are those days... (damn! how hopeless am I..)

it was then before the sun would come out that she texted me and she even called me later that evening...happy though, reservations are there...where will i place my self?

we just had a dinner with some friends and chat a little...i'm happy that most of the people close to me are there. i love the gift that was given to me by the youth...it really shows how they love me...it gives me strenght and sooth my innermost being...i thank them and i love them...

i just wish that i'l be faithful to where i'm into, to the Order and to God....

melskiens

can't think of a title...

2008-01-09T05:12:00.000-08:00

what will i write?...

i love it....

2008-01-07T06:12:00.000-08:00

i arrived here in manila last jan 6, 5am...'twas a very exhausting travel back here from bicol, a 12-hour journey...until now i feel tired and dizzy...anyways, i got boosted when i bought a present for my self, hehehe...tell you later about it when i finally mastered it...soon..:-)
we will going to have a small concert in our school and we have with us, no other than mr. Noel Cabangon..hmmm...you see my caliber now? my talents are already with these line of people,..they told to me sing in the concert....wahahaha...
nah...still have to fix my present,hehehe....see you then..Godbless...mwuaaahhh...

-melskiens-

happy new year to all

2007-12-29T17:36:00.000-08:00

i hope this coming year would be fruitful to me. i hope i can do better this year.
im happy being with my family, except maybe in the affairs of the hearts, lol... by jan 1 i'll be heading to bicol to spend time with my relatives there.
be back in manila by Jan 6...see you guys...
wish you all a prosperous new year ahead...be good always..
God Bless to All!!!

-melskiens-

she's getting marry...

2007-12-28T04:04:00.000-08:00

just recently i heard a news about this dear friend of mine who are going to settle down, she is going to marry by next year. what else could i wish for her? i just wish her to be strong amidst difficulties in life, prosperity and a healthy family. i wish her to live life full of love.. i wish to see them together getting old, guiding thier children to be a good individuals ...to be faithful to their vows and that only death could do them apart...these i long for them.--- in all of these, i want her to be HAPPY!
that's all i long for her......

i'll be home for Christmas...

2007-12-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

yuppy...i'll be home this Christmas.. this maybe the longing of almost all people who happens to be far away from their homes, to be with their families especially this Christmas. Wherever we are, always remember that Jesus, the Immanuel will always be with us in spite of the reality that some of us can't make it this Christmas. we may not be able to share the laughter, the joy among our families, friends and relatives but thinking of their love for us and the love of God will supplement anything that we for ourselves are longing for.
my 2007 was very exciting and full of surprices, there were laughters, joys, but there were also times when i sometimes question my vocation, cried a lot, hurt,....this is also the year when i learn to find myself and able to go look where i am. i learn a lot...i grow...with this, my prayers to all my family who always been supportive in everything i do; to my friends who are always there and cheer me up in times most downfall. to my brothers in the community who are helping me to be mature in dealing life ahead of me, to the people i met in the exposure area, they are the Alter Christus for me..to Danielle who made me srtrong and showed me how is it to be whole as a person, for this, you will always be cherished and will have a special place in the deepest chamber of my being...Above all to God! Christmas is a season of love and hope. may we be filled with these in our hearts...Godbless us all !!! Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to All!!!...

melskiens

i feel like i'm in heaven...

2007-12-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

the whole night i was awake...with that, i missed the "simbang gabi."..the following hours and the rest of the day would be a disaster to me..that if i will choose not to sleep,lol...but, do i have a choice? surely i'll be high...possibly like walking in heaven,lol,.. "Wow pare! heaven pare,hik hik!!!!".. :-)

I'm Back People!

2007-12-11T01:43:00.000-08:00

i was thinking if my stay in Saysain was really an immersion or a vacation, lol...I enjoy my stay there. It was not that busy compare to my previous stay. i was able to spend more time with my host family. i arrived back here last Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. the night before it, we had a vigil and incorporated film viewing which features family values. they loved it and enjoyed a lot. that was also an opportunity for us to say goodbye to the poeple there. anyways i will still visit them, i can go back there if time permits me...and so leaving them was not that heavy, though i already miss them.
when i arrived here, i feel like im back to the real world. schedules of activities are piling up, so maybe you notice that it was only this time that i wrote something here on my blog. Dec. 10, monday, we already had a class, straight untill friday. i still have to conditioned my mind again that i'm now back to the reality that i am a student. not only that, we had three nights of practice for our caroling. and now we are already on our fourth day serenading certain homes. the proceeds of our caroling will be used for our fare going to San francisco, Agusan del Sur for the celebration of our 50th year of Carmelite presence in the Philippines, that will be on February next year. i'm looking forward to that, though i feel like i'm still not ready for some reasons which i would prefer to keep it on my own, except maybe for some who knows the reason.
tomorrow is "simbang gabi," churches will be busy by then. i love it! people certainly did already some preparation for the simbang gabi, on may case . i have to finish writing this so i can sleep early tonight, lol... we will be going to Cabanatuan tomorrow for the caroling, we will leave after simbang gabi. i'll be flat tired tomorrow night,hehe...
Dec. 22 is the date to remember...its VACATION time! hehe... my scheduled time of flight is at 8:40 am... so i'll be expecting myself to be home at around 3 pm...yaaahoooo!!!!! i'll be in my hometown for two weeks..at last, i can see my family, relatives and friends again..
hey, did you already ask me about my gift to my self? a violin...but i still have to work for it..huhu..hope i can see generous people in cebu, i had my savings already but i guess it could only buy the strings of the violin,.hahaha...
certianly, my vacation will be fun...my batchmate in college already scheduled a reunion for our batch.. i miss them and this will be an opportunity for me to see them again and hear their own stories...
hmmm...i have to go. i still have to prepare the things to be needed on our journey to Cabanatuan tomorrow, and to get sleep early...hehehe
ok now,,,'till next post...godbless you all!!!!

-melskiens-

immersion time...

2007-11-07T15:56:00.000-08:00

my semestral break was a tiring one, i travelled a lot, i got sick (cough and runny nose), almost got fever, with all those classes we had... but somehow it was fulfilling. i was able to visit my home place and see my family, relatives and friends whom i miss so much. that was the consolation...

now it's time for the real world, by tomorrow i'll be heading to Bataan for my immersion program, i'll be staying there for another month, aside from the one month immersion i had in the same place last july. i'm excited but there are reservations on my part regarding what had happened during my previous visit there. i'm caught between two situations. there is this friend of mine in the area who was a rape victim. what i did was to console here and tried to show here that i'm there to support her and give her courage to go on...the thing was, people was so suspicious about the two of us. there were rumors that im having an affair with her...i can't just simply get mad with these people because my purspose of going there is to organize them and help them build a Basic Christian Community. i pity my friend because the situation is like raping her twice. the focus was with her, and this has nothing to do with me simply because "i'm seminarian." they said that they are only protecting me from temptation, so to speak...and i hate that branding of women as temptations of the seminarians/priests...i guess the problem here is how to explain to them the context, of what is the real score of the matter, to balance the situation. i can't blame anyone. i guess i have to exert the effort twice on how to handle such, after all, what i'm doing is for them.

from the lighter side, i like the place. people are so accomodating and very hospitable. what we did regarding the formation of BEC's are doing well. not to mention the beautiful sceneries one could emagine. i'm staying near the sea. every early morning i used to walk along the seashore and somehow able to reflect things about my life. i would say i'm still happy with this life, especially seeing people. these are people who inspire me and give me strength. this will be another opportunity for me to reflect and do my part in what i must do as a servant.
i'll be spending 4-hour travel time going to that place. i hope i can do my obligation to the people and able to do my ministry to them...God will guide me...

i'll be off for one month. inernet services are so difficult in that area...write you then by next month...for now, may God bless u all...take care and please pray for me... :-)

-melskiens-

My visit to Cebu

2007-10-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Exhausting i should say! Oct. 15 when we arrived in cebu, it was a bad flight. It must have been the pilots' first flight,..Anyway, we manage to went there safe. Tired though, my excitment prevails...Changes,changes,changes! Big structures sprouting like mushrooms, development must have been so dear in cebu. I would say, cebu is booming!
Well, the retreat?...of the many learnings i got, there are few things that i easily remember, like the "finger," and the song "you raised me up" by josh groban...the finger is the anology given by our speaker Fr. Paco, a former benedictine monk and now a diocesan priest, who said that in pointing something, we should not stick to the finger, instead, we should look on what it points. we transcend, he said...more or less that was the tone of the talk...the funny thing was.. while fr paco was so serious on this, some of my companion (many are priests) started to go beyond transcendence..they even went up to heaven, by imagining what other things finger can do aside form pointing..(you know what i mean,hahaha..) you see, we're so advance, lol!!! and the groban thing?...i never heard anyone who sings "you raised me up" the way fr. paco sang it...it was disaster on the part of josh groban and on the composer,hahaha...but you see, 'twas very effective that untill now, i sing that song not anymore in the version of josh Groban, but more so on Fr paco's..lol!!!
Bohol..we went there and stayed in our formator's residence in Getafe. we are bombarded with delicious sea foods like shells and fresh fish..my apetite was 101% working that time,hehe..it was like hell,lol!!!....we went to a house floating on the sea, and started to get our glasses of beer and brandy,hehe..it was so hot but i still manage to enjoy myself fishing, i caught many enough to feed a family, maybe not a family of my own,lol!!! during that night, some of my brothers who's passion is singing, (though music has no passion on us,hehe) went to see a videoke bar, luckily there is one, but the thing is, we have to wait for an hour for our slot to sing...oh my..!!!! i bought five calamays that time at 20 Php. each,hehehe...
back in Cebu, in the seminary, we started our carmelite classes...we started with the history of the carmelites, in the first day, the life of titus, on the second, JPIC on the third, while the topics on the life of st. john of the cross and the summary of all the topics was given at the Pangga Bata Foundation at Carmen Triumpo... i miss the place, i used to go there when i was still a college student...
ohh..i almost forgot our "hang-outs" with my batchmates....my classmates now are all gorgeous! they are all coming out from a cocoon,hehehe...we went to paseo, a nice place for hanging out...i miss them and 'twas a good time seeing them..and mind you, we're planning to hold a reunion again by december, this time a more organized one...i hope to see some of them that i haven't seen during my visit here...i smell beer and vodka already,hahaha
the time to said goodbye....Oct. 27 was our flight back here in manila...our time of departure was set at 645pm. but when we checked in..we were told the scheduled flight was moved to 745pm.then later, moved at 845pm (my goodness!) and we finally flew back here in manila at exactly 915pm...imagine that!!!! we were all starving that time...my temper almost statrted to get stir up, thanks to instant noodle soup,hehehe..after that we went directly to our house and ate a heavy meal....then took a rest for awhile. finally went to sleep at exactly 2ooam......snoring...groookkkkkk,grooookkkk .....

-melskiens-

13 hrs from now...

2007-10-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

My goodness, my pants are still wet and i only have 13 hrs left from the time our departure going to Cebu, tsk,tsk,...i got lazy yesterday, i did my laundry just this morning and i thought my pants would be dry by this time, just a thought,hehehe...hmmmm, what else? yeah, about the retreat...its a goodthing...i'll be having time for myself. Moreover, the uniqueness of this retreat is that all of us student friars, including the solemn proffesed friars are together. This is in preparation of our 50th year presence in the Phils - 50 years guys!...50 years!....We even have plans of going to mission to Papua New Guinea----who knows, i'll be sent there and be the first missionary O.Carm. in the Phils who would go there! why not! i love it,hehehe....'till here...i still have to check all the things in the big travelling bag i have.,hehe...

i received a comment from mariar, i wonder who she is, she even knows bebang,hahaha..you can join..and let's celebrate the octoberfest,hhhahaha....kita unya ta didto...(kinsa gani tuod ka?hehehe.i don't know how to locate your profile...hehehe)

-melskiens-

i'm done with the first sem.

2007-10-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

At last! The first semester is over. i fee like being taken out of a hot pot. Gone are those heavy schedules and paper works (atleast for now). and i'm happy now 'coz i'll be spending my semestral break in Cebu, my beloved Cebu. We'll be having a retreat there for one week and another week for Carmelite studies (not to mention our outing in Bohol,hehe, fun!fun!fun!). This will be a day of rest for me and for the rest of the brothers. I'm now preparing some of the things i will bring back to Cebu. Of course some of my former classmates are preparing something when i get there - the usual cases of beer,lol!!! This is for the observance of the Octoberfest,hahaha...i'm excited now. I miss many of things in Cebu. Well i guess i have to reserve some of my excitement and burst it out when i get there. OK. i still have to wash my clothes, for i might wear nothing in Cebu..hehehe...

-melskeins-

i'm so lucky

2007-10-09T03:31:00.000-07:00

Remember my previous post about the exam? It was postponed. And now i have another day to prepare myself for the exam,lol..Today i slept the whole afternoon, that's how i prepare my self, hehe..nah, it's already 6;30 pm here and i will spend my whole night reviewing, hopefully i can concentrate on my studies. For the time being, i still have to watch the news on TV. Godbless...
-melskiens-

busy

2007-10-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

I'm so busy lately(of what?). We're going to have an exam on canon law. The problem here is that until now (even up to this point while writing this) i still haven't read any thing from my notes or the book. I'm so lazy in studying. I rather play online games, lol!!! Nah, i really have to study, and so i will end this writting for me to study..and hopefully won't be tempt in playing online games....

Immersion

2007-09-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

One can’t deny that every time exposures are said to be conducted, different feelings are coming out. Minds are focusing on how the exposure or the immersion will come out as what it is expected. Perhaps this would be the reason why some students in ICTC would claim that immersion is a challenging experience. No doubt, it’s true. The clashing of feelings is undeniable.

I consider my immersion with the community in barangay Saysain in Bagac, Bataan as successful one. Three of my classmates, including myself, went there. I cannot deny the many meetings, tedious schedules, and the squeezing of every idea we shared just to come up with what is best for the people. This however, has proven me how a group can come up with the best decisions that we can work out. We worked as a team and the credit becomes a sweet welcoming of each individual’s personhood. All our efforts as a group have become a living witness of how we consider each person’s capacity and ability to merge as one. The openness had become our doors in accepting each other and eventually radiated it to the people in the community.

The Spirit moves us. We all recognized that if we put all our self into our pastoral trust, everything else will just come naturally. Our pastoral trust, building communities of Christians is never easy, as what people in the time of Paul have experienced. But the spirit of being “a Community” is what makes them grow as a nation. Today, this spirit continues to unite the community of Saysain. The Kingdom of God will be the very goal into which everything else is leading to that road. This community holds the very Jesus whom we see today as the Love, the very foundation in building the modern Christian communities in Bataan – KrisMa, Kristiyanong Magkakapitbahay. It is still a long way to go and we only finished the first half of the required number of days we will spend in the community but the initial result is positive and I for myself, am looking to this.

I can summarize my immersion at Saysain as a joyful one. It is joyful because our team, composed of four individuals, have become one. The beauty of becoming one brought smiles to every decisions we made. Moreover, I’ve seen the responses of the people that are so alluring to my heart. It is true that once you give your heart to the people, they too will show their hearts to you. Sometimes you have to let go of yourself and think only of the people whom you are serving. You don’t have to think or worry things ahead of you. You have to let go of your fears and doubts and anxieties in giving ministry to the people. You don’t have to think all things you want because the people will provide everything because they’ve seen that you’re giving your self to them. They are the one will be looking and attending to your self. The sharing becomes so alive that you go beyond what you expected. The spirit of Jesus is engaging in the very lives of the people and to my self. This is what I hold on to in ministering to the people. This is what I experience with them and I’m happy.

Know Your Flock

2007-09-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

Conducting ethnographic study does not only happen in any non-government or government organization specializing in investigating social structure of a certain place but also to any institution that wishes to study a certain place. Inter-Congregational Theological Center (ICTC) is one of it. With what we have done in the area, the school has put a certain degree of pastoral flavor on the study. It is pastoral because for me, the study does not end only in conclusions or recommendations written at the end-part of the paper, rather, the study has just begun through opening up experiences from both the people and the one studying it. It does not end on what we can do as researcher but on how we open up talk and dialogue. For I believe, it is the church’s responsibilities to have the community known and understood.
The study becomes a medium of both experiences of the researcher and the people learning from each other. There is relationship building up where the concerns, plights and dreams of the people are seen in the light of how we, aspiring to be pastor, would learn to own it as ours. The people and the one studying are both pastors to each other. It is important, for example in a parish, to study the whole structural components of it in order to know what are the possible concerns and how are the pastor will be able to deal in relations to the ministries he have. Here, a concrete manifestation of how you give importance to your parishioners by knowing them and understanding them as community.
As a pastor, he can never be separated from the lives of the people, not only in the spiritual aspect a community has but also on the economic, cultural and even in the political dimension of a society. Thus, in trying to be more equip with the knowledge and to have a deeper understanding where the pastor play in terms of his responsibilities, ethnographic study is a must.
As for my self, I’ve learn to go beyond academics. I went into a level of going through the lives of the people whom I met during the study. It is here also that the collaboration of the different minds from my group and the experienced-based wisdom of the people have come to terms in coming up a substantial paper for the community. Learning is never an ending story. And you can never claim that you know already. In our study in the area, there are still things to discover. It was just a pinch of a salt if I was to compare it to the vastness and richness of Barangay Capalong. This experience has done enough for me to see the praxis and to concretize this praxis in the form of building up relationship not far from the realities that people are into. I’m very glad that in someway, I’ve contributed in identifying the uniqueness of Barangay Capalong that can be seen in their history, demographic profile, economic, political, socio-cultural and spiritual aspect of the community that in a way, reflects in the lives of these people living in the area.

The Same Weng I Used to Love

2007-09-25T03:04:00.000-07:00

Standing still on the seashore, sand was on the ground,
Gazing heavenward, purple sky is watching my eyes;
Waves are singing, songs of lonely lullabies,
I knew it then, sun is setting down…

Light and darkness are catching their breath,
Yet, is on its way back home;
Cool breeze touches my skin, gentle as it goes on and on,
For the golden sunrays found a place to rest…

Do stars and moon would bring joy to me,
Whose happiness wanders under the glistening Sun?
Can they paint the face of the woman I love?
That would bring beauty to a dark color hovers the sky…

But when and when this long waiting would end?
The long night of so much pain I suffer;
Years have to be counted for that new morning ahead,
Offers tomorrow that is not of the past…

But still nature has taken its own course,
Of sun and moon traveling here and there;
The dawn has not resembling though,
I will stay awake ‘till I reach so…

No worries would I become,
For I know it brings beauty on my palm;
Though yesterday wasn’t that of the future,
But happy I might be for having the woman of the past…

Rise new sun from the east,
Arise man for your appease;
A new day will be born from the mountain peak,
Bringing fresh dew falls from the trees…

Would a man be happy with this new day?
This infant not of his known;
Yet as he grows old and old,
He carries the man out from his loads…

Woman stay where you are,
If not a lover …a friend you may become;
For this I am more than willing to endure,
Much pain for the love I care…

Countless nights and days may pass,
Or even years might bring us apart;
But you will remain forever in my heart,
The same Weng I used to love…

2007-09-24T02:37:00.000-07:00

My Personal Spirituality

The term spirituality is very broad and ancient. Even before the word spirituality came about, it was already expressed and seen in the very lives of the people. For this I would say that my own definition or description cannot embrace the totality of what spirituality is, for it can never be. However, I would say that my experience of spirituality is never far from what the ancient people have experienced.
Spirituality for me is experienced. This experience has something to do with my whole being. This is brought out from the consciousness gain from my relationship with people and creation that was geared towards the realization of a deeper reality that there is Someone higher than me that sustains my life and the whole of creation. It is on how you became whole and one with the creation of God, the people and the environment and even the cosmos. In our tradition as Christians, Jesus became the mediator between the God and the humanity. Jesus is the bond that links us to the Father. Christian spirituality is centered on the love of God who is Jesus. And this love, as what Jesus had shown to us, is towards the totality of the human person through our neighbors.

2007-09-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

NEW GENERAL GOVERNMENT

OF THE CARMELITE ORDER

On 13 and 14 September 2007, the members of the General Chapter, gathered in Sassone (Rome), elected a new general government of the Carmelite Order for the coming six years.
Those elected are:

Prior General: Fr. Fernando Millán, O.Carm. (Baet)

Vice Prior General: Fr. Christian Körner, O.Carm. (GerS)

Procurator General: Fr. Josef Jancar, O.Carm. (BM)

Bursar General: Fr. Kevin Alban, O.Carm. (Brit)

General Councillor for Europe: Fr. John Keating, O.Carm. (Hib)

General Councillor for the Americas: Fr. Raul Maravi, O.Carm. (PCM-Per)

General Councillor for Africa: Fr. Désiré Unen Alimange, O.Carm. (Ita-Congo)

General Councillor for Asia, Australia, Oceania: Fr. Albertus Herwanta, O.Carm. (Indo)

The new Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millàn, was born in Madrid, Spain, on 19 August 1962. At the age of nineteen years he joined the Carmelite Order in the Betica Province. After his year of noviciate, he made his simple profession on 3 October 1982. On completion of his studies in philosophy and theology, he was ordained priest on 21 January 1989. Fr. Millàn then continued his studies in Rome at the Gregorian Pontifical University and also in Ireland. He graduated in philosophy, completed a Master’s degree in theology and a doctorate in Dogmatic Theology. Until the time of his election, he was lecturing in theology at the Pontifical University of Comillas (Madrid) and was a member of the Carmelite Institute in Rome. Fr. Millàn has also served his Province and the Order in several commissions.
--Fr. Anthony Cilia, O.Carm.--