Life's a Happy Song

I hope everybody had a great Easter. 

Before we get back into the thick of things, I want to share with you a song that reflects - in a unique way - the message of the Easter season. 

In the Risen Lord, faith confirms our hope in the triumph of life. Now, this might not be a religious song but to me it confirms nonetheless, that same hope for life.

Enjoy!

---<--@

Christmas 2014

Maligayang Pasko po sa ating lahat!

The Queen of Broken Bread

I once was a sower. Sowing seeds.
I planted in heaven. My own needs.
There once was a Lady. She came to see.
From a Kingdom of Sowers. Who were we.

My name is happiness. I said to her.
I carry a yoke. Too heavy to bear.
The land is barren. The water is poor.
The harvest is thin. The weather unsure.

I am a Woman of such those things. Said she.
From a Kingdom of Seeds. Came her to me.
Do you know me? This Woman asked of me.
A kindly dressed maiden from across the sea...

Saint Maximilian taught me my Marian spirituality.

Honestly though, I am far from being the Marian Knight that my Patron Saint is - in service to the Queen of Heaven and Earth. So very far...

Our Lady filled the skies above my soul with stars.
She is the Queen of Broken Bread.
She magnifies Christian joy.

Knowing her is to understand an easy kind of splendor unmatched by any Saint...

A magnificence so pure and awesome yet sweet, 
kindly relenting to souls of much lesser brightness.

God broke me before I came to know religion. Religion was for me, an mere extension of myself - a way to project ego. It was a kind of power that made me feel good about myself.

All of this happened mostly unnoticed by my mind numbed and distorted by sin and vice. It was a fearful thing when I think about it now. Terrible. It exposed me to dangers everywhere, seen and unseen.

I was a self-righteous ass. Stubborn as a mule. This was the me deep inside of me - and above my soul was nothing. My soul was dead to itself, it saw not, it heard not, and it lived for nothing.

I wasn't all that bad. All that time, I strived to be good. I tried my best to be better. But always fell short. I was never truly happy about anything I did. Nothing seemed to stay on.

I think as human beings we instinctively understand that doing good is good for us. Animals instinctively understand it too. But to us humans, there is a bit more - for we seek a happiness animals shall never either understand or desire.

In all ages, all our attempts at society everywhere have ebbed and flowed with this same basic human desire for happiness in mind.

Animals are content to be content. But human beings wish for the power to dictate how it is that we shall be content - we desire a freedom which is simultaneously a happiness and we desire it in perfection. 

This perfection to us is blessed felicity. At the same time, it is a time honored impossibility.

Neither Man nor his society alone may satisfy what we all ultimately want. Thus, we warred and fought and died in droves through the ages. Terrible.

Now, this need to be happy and this want for a perfect happiness is also in me.

But as I was yet unbroken, I received a lot of pounding from Providence indeed. And it was Mama Mary who gave for me that one final blow that broke my ego.

She made me realize she was a reality apart from my own reality. That she was separate...

It might sound simplistic right now. But at the onset of it all, it was terrifying to me... Many of my old selfish notions were overturned - much like the tables of the sellers in the Temple.

I had our Lady's support though. And she made it so that I also had the support of more than a few good friends, seen and unseen, who helped keep me sane though it all.

In letting go of old molds, I understood the character of lasting friendships - that connection that in the Gospel our Savior mentioned is as brother, sister, and mother all in one - the friendships of angels.

That we are like a sky, night and day, full of multitudes - shining for God.

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, through those years it had pleased our Lady to teach me to see each my relationships and their connections in a wholly different light. Suddenly, the skies above my soul were not so empty after all.

It was this one whole sky that led me to Jesus and to God.

After all, can one navigate the night of the soul without light or sight of any kind?

One can pretend as I did. Or one can know. We can pray.

I am not perfect still. I don't think I ever will in this life. The difference now is I know joy. I am no orphan to joy. At the core of me, there is joy. Amidst my problems and my struggles, there is joy.

And it all began with the Queen of Broken Bread.

It is just like Pope Francis said, those of us who neglect loving and knowing Mary are like orphans...

God never intends for any of us to be orphans though - in more ways than we may know. Isn't this joyful in itself? The embodiment of all of that reflecting in our humanity - is Mary, our Mother.

I think that is what Marian spirituality is really all about - being joyful.

And of finding ways to share Christian joy through works our faith teaches us, that our Savior taught us.

Not being dour and overly solicitous about the complexities of life and of being trustful as a child, even in the midst of the roaring lions of everyday problems that seek to devour our little hopes.

So today is Mama Mary's birthday. Let us be joyful for her that we may in ourselves discover how simple it is not to be complicated in a complicated time.
---<--@

St. John Paul II, 
Pope of my heart, my Holy Father most memorable.

You were to the Church in the world, our Good Shepherd during the formative years of my life.

And saw my generation through those tumultuous years.

Help us build a better, brighter, safer world.

Lead us on today...

Help us to know Mary. Help us comprehend Christian joy and see in loving others as Christ did the wealth neither tyrant nor thief may remove from our souls.
---<--@ 

Sunday Evenings

I haven't really watched much TV for about two months in a row now. I don't like ingesting too much news. I'm neurotic enough as it is. What I've been watching is House and some good Anime (like SAO). Perhaps, a documentary or two once in a while.

Other times, I either read a good book or play puzzle games on iPad. I still manage to keep abreast though. I think well of our free press. One or two headlines a day however, seems enough for me at the moment.

Notwithstanding my personal idiosyncrasy, there are issues that needs to be looked into with more width and breadth though. Those issues seem to jump at you I have found. You can not not notice them. 

Today though, we will rest. 

We will find ourselves a nice enough far away place with family and friends. Be close to nature. Be near to God. We shall find the time to smile, to pray and be still. To ponder in the calm, the challenges of the week that lies ahead of us.  

Together let us recharge our spiritual batteries.

While we let time in the world play itself out from a distance.

---<--@

Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,

Let us revere the LORD because it is right. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Let us love God because He is God.

Let us come to Him. To the Son of Man as Lord of the Sabbath. To Jesus Christ our Savior Who is to us, our most efficacious rest.
---<--@

Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Acts of Citizenship
serve the cause of Justice in the Nation.

But if you want to be more perfect, our beloved Starshine,
exercise Christian Charity and transform these praiseworthy civic works
into Catholic Action.

Justice alone can not make one richer than one already is -
Justice can most certainly remove those impediments
to the obtaining of wealth and happiness
but Love alone always increases,
always multiplies.

We help the poor
as citizens to each other -
by building up the Inhabited Earth.

Or we as Christians address
the roots of poverty itself in Man
by building up the Kingdom of God:

In each ourselves.

- selah -

All of us, brothers and sisters,
who are fostered in our Churches
and the parish communities She shelters
from within our Nation are capable of doing both.

Therefore,
let us labor to make
His Divine Governance
in each ourselves - sovereign:

Christ in us, the hope of glory.
---<--@

Be mighty in the Peace of thy Prince.

The Patron Saint of Addicts and Prisoners

August 14 is the Feast Day of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.

Saint Maximilian, Patron Saint of addicts and prisoners, we confidently implore you -
lead us out of unhappy vices, and deliver us from evil places.

Through thy victorious love -

- of the Father, God of our hearts,
help us who have become too hard of heart.

- of the Son, God in our hearts,
hear us who have become too afraid to pray.

- of the Spirit, God through our hearts,
heal us who have become too weary of life.

- of the Father, Son, and Spirit,
make haste to help us.

- of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us.

- of our suffering humanity, pray for us.

- of God and Country, pray for us.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, help of addicts and release of prisoners,
I love you and I trust in you.

Amen.
---<--@



Auschwitz was not a Polish concentration camp. It was a Nazi concentration camp on Polish soil; a wound in the spirit of our common humanity.

Saint Maximilian preceded my Anne in Auschwitz - but in my heart, in the hidden places in every human soul where time as we know it does not apply - they led me to each other.

And believed in me long before I believed in myself.

The Book of the Unfolding

Within
each human heart,
our precious Starshine,
God had placed a little book.

This is the book
written within each thy own heart,
Beloved of the LORD.

The book that contain
the words to each
thy own story!

Words each thy living soul
deeply longs to drink - to the fullest
that thou may know the secrets
that make thee who thou art
forever before thy God.

The Mystery of which
thy spirit aches to unfold
- in its entirety -
unto a world entirely asleep
to each thy own precious wonder.

You know this book,
and yearn to read it out loud...

Because
dearest Starshine -
you must speak it boldly forth
that the truth that lives within
- each thy lives -
out of the darkness unfold,
through the Light of the LORD,
arising brightly forth - as living stars
upon the face of the deep.

- selah -

How then,
may you reveal these words
to the world, Starshine - this little book?

- selah -

Listen to the Word of Scripture.
Drink deeply of the Truth.

Hear the preaching of the Kingdom  -
the Kingdom within.

Find thyself in the wilderness -
in the wilderness of this world without.

Become totally lost to this world - listen,
listen and in seeking what you hear, repent.

Repent, that you may have hope. 
Pray, that you may have strength.
Believe, that you may have faith.

And have faith,
that you may understand...

You must complete this book.

Remember
you are loved,
each of you - as you are,
loved more than you will know.

So as you are loved,
love you must also.

By then - in time,
O Love of Emmanuel,
you shall know how.

---<--@

True Light bestows True Sight

The Little Treasure Box of Baptism

Peace be with you! 

I beheld in my heart this battered, little box. It was like a jewelry box, extremely worn. The wood of the box might have been polished once long ago. And it may have been quite ornate.

But now, it was just a plain old, little wooden box.

My Parents and my Godparents must have given this box to me after my Confirmation; the day when I was supposed to have come of age in the Faith of our Mother Church.

They had received it for me in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit - in my stead - during my Baptism. That was, I was told, when I was still very little - a babe in their arms.

Which must be true because I couldn't remember much of it. I even had to decide for myself to give myself my own Confirmation name because no one could tell me what it was.

Maximilian Mary.

So all I know to tell you, Beloved of God in Jesus Christ, is that I have it - my worn, old, little, treasure box of Baptism. And it was given to me because it was mine to have.

All my life, I assumed it was just one of those little souvenirs one usually get at parties and the like. So I tucked it away somewhere in a corner of my soul.

At times I hid it when it suited me. After all, I might get embarrassed by it. Friends might disapprove, I feared. And I want to be accepted.

Then one day I noticed it has a keyhole.

I've never in my life even thought about opening it. And to be honest, I did not know whether I had a key for it or not. I wasn't at all interested in it, you seen... until now. What was inside it?

With so much things going on in my heart and in my mind, never until now did it occur to me - once upon a calm and quiet moment - in the Stillness in the stillness - that this battered, old box is actually mine. It's mine, yes! But what was inside it?

Many times I seem to have either lost or traded away this hardy, little box. Now, I realize it is still with me. For there were other, newer boxes, you see. Seemingly better ones, more expensive looking. Not that one should compare, mind you. Covetousness leads to certain grief. Besides, the human soul may only accommodate one box, just one box each after all. I respect that.

We can not all be the same. But the fruits that all of us must bear must be edible and good - yes, just the same. Freedom in plurality, flourishes in unity: I respect that, too.

Why did this particular box doggedly resolved to stay with me - all this time, or maybe I with it? I wondered and so I wondered, and the mystery grew. Maybe it was meant to be opened after all...

What was inside it?

So I resolved to learn all about it. And I did. And in my seeking, I also did happen upon the key. It was with me all the time. It was my faith seeking understanding. So I gave the box a chance and it opened itself to my heart - and out poured the treasury of the Church and out came a vision of me.

The me my Jesus had intended for me to be - forever. The new me. Old looks but a new heart. Common outside extraordinary inside.

And with this new me came new relationships - precious as the proven, older ones.

In the one, great family of the Catholic Church, I discovered a new sense of bravery and friendship. I love the new me. And I knew this is my peace. It's true and it's mine.

More and more these days, I find myself no longer living in fear. I know my Jesus. He knows me. That little box set my spirit free.

If you're a cradle Catholic. You are like me. And most probably, no - most certainly, you have heard of the little treasure box of Baptism. Open it.

Yeah, our interior life too - is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you get... till you...

Amen to God, adoration to Jesus Christ.
---<--@

Merry Easter 2014

I kept a running journal of my Lenten 2014 experience. Let me tell you, it had its ups and downs. There was a low like a valley, sunk in the shadow. 

And there was a point in that valley where I had to actively deny feelings of creeping despair an entrance into my soul. For I was a despair-er once in my life, my beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus.

My soul drank of the foul bilge water of that sunken kind of unbelief; that secret sense of doubt, in the glorious Redeeming power of Almighty God truly - present and active and alive - in all living souls.

But like the Apostle Paul and Silas in prison, the Spirit of God made a way out for me. 

In no uncertain terms can I be that way again. Yea, a sinner I shall always be but some sins whose taint the Father through the Son have deigned to remove from me, I can not somehow bear to allow my Jesus to bear again for me. They are my Quo Vadis, Domine! (At the forefront of these is my Recovery - which will not only profit me but many others like me).

Truly, our God is a mighty and amazing God! A God of Mercy and Justice and Love is He - the LORD, our Peace. In the pits and in the heights, the song I shall sing for Him is - Alleluia to God in the highest, Thou art mine, and I am Yours! 

So you see, I had to slog through some slow, uncertain days. Some days, I had to tell my impassioned spirit - be calm, and to sit still. Everything led me up - led us all up - to this Easter mountain high.

The Lord is Risen! He is truly Risen! 

If I am to summarize my experience of Lent 2014, I would encapsulate it in this way -

Good Friday - I am sorry, my Lord Jesus;
Holy Saturday - I love You, my Lord Jesus;
and Easter Sunday - Thank You, my Lord Jesus.

The 3 days correspond also to the 3 stages of the spiritual life - the Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive.

One is redeemed by the Blood on the Cross of Christ, then justified by grace through faith in the Love of the Father in the Son, then through the Spirit of Truth united in Joy to the Joy of Christ and our Father. This Joy unites us to Jesus. So Christians must profess in Faith, witness in Love and justify it all - in Joy. No Lent can ever be without an Easter!

The Wounds our Savior retained in His Glorified Body - calls, leads, and then completes the Way of the Church. How awesome a God is our God!

sweet

Our Easter Vigil Mass at our Parish and Shrine was utterly magnificent. I hope yours was too.

God love our priests! God bless His faithful priests. God bless His faithful priests in our Parish. O what a blessing it is to be in the presence of His good and humble priests!

His good and humble deacons, priests, and bishops from all the Earth who along with Laity from every Nation - keep us truly Catholic.


Merry Easter greetings of Peace and the Goodwill of God to all Mankind!
---<--@

Palm Sunday 2014

Good evening, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus the Lord:

I hope everybody had a blessed Palm Sunday! I know I certainly did.

I and my family have decided to make the most of Holy Week 2014. Indeed, I pray we all will.

As a matter of fact, my family and I have already worked out a daily schedule of activities. This is apart from my official schedule with my brother EMHCs at our Shrine.

It is a joy to discover what one can do with Jesus. Let me witness to each of you that in spite of my sins and despite of my weaknesses, our blessed Savior has never once failed me nor my family. Nada. Not a one.

Trouble with me always begins 100% - when I fail in my duties - communal or personal - to our God.

The health of my spiritual life is always a good indicator of the well being of my whole soul - this means my prayer life is always where I draw the line. And as regards my prayer life, my Queen is our Lady.

If prayer to a Catholic is battle, our Lady is warrior-in-chief. And Mary always leads to The Victory so we have to be sharp.

So there - most of our Holy Week activities are designed to sharpen our attitudes toward prayer. We have to be in love with the act of praying. Because prayer is an attitude of the heart. This is #1.

Because we seek God in prayer - if we are to know how to deepen our prayer life, we should learn to relate with God on a more intimate basis. We have to know the Father and there is no better way of knowing the Father than through the Son.

And so this is the reason for the season - everything that leads up to Easter, Jesus the Lord, designed for us, even here - in our own times, so we could maximize on knowing Who it is we have come to see, and Whose voice it is that constantly calls out to us, "Come and see".

That we may together discover that as Christians, our Lent is truly never without an Easter. And that this Longest Night shall not be without a Morning.
---<--@

We, of the Laity, have a duty to initiate in ourselves the Spirit of the New Evangelization.

We, of the Laity, who Jesus Christ sent forth into deep water have a duty to honor and to make His peace more and more known in our present time, that His Kingdom may be in us and His good will among the Nations prevail for all Mankind.

We have something to give to our world. It is Love - the perfecting Covenant.

We are the children because we are the most vulnerable.
We are the children because we are also the most precious.

Palm Sunday 2014 in Pakistan. You are such a beautiful people, don't you know? May Peace be in Pakistan, India, and throughout South Asia. God bless us all.

We awaken to a calling

Change, they say, is the only constant in this life. This is true for me. Life is a constant change. As in the beautiful song by Jose Marie Chan.

But within all that change, I have found, lies a common thread hidden in the everyday lives of all people. It pulls us invisibly towards something. And it pulls at us at different times of our life.

We do not end up all the same in life.

But all the same, the experience of life in this world leaves us all changed. The seasons themselves say it by their cycles. The Liturgy of Mother Church also, as the seasons of Earth and Sky, speak of change in their great and mysterious rounds. Life is a constant change.

And it pulls us all towards a spiritual transformation.

The ends by which we live our lives as a means is this change.

The presence of death in this world not only prepares us for the crossing of a Greater Sea but is the Angel that is to also guide us through and comfort us when the time comes for us to "pass over" from temporality into immortality.

For death is but a passage by which we are come to another experience of change. Yea, in this life - before the hour of our passing away - we die a little each moment, each day.

It pulls at us to remind us to be watchful of the living moment. Not to be afraid of it. But to learn from it. And to learn from the living of this life. And to start thinking about the deeper questions of life. Not to fear the changing. But to live as we must. To gather up those changes into a bouquet that we may offer up to our Lord and Lady each day. To love.

And to realize in the end that it is but our Lord Jesus pulling at the thread of our lives, that it is but He Who is with us and Who loves us so much Who is tugging at our weary, wandering hearts - "come to Me, and I will give you rest".

And that that is the answer we've been looking for - the Change to master change!

When we come awake to our calling, we soon realize the Voice Who calls us to our greatest freedoms - and to the Christian, as it is for me - Jesus Christ is the Change to master change...

Only Him can set me free.
---<--@

 

Today we had our EMHC Lenten Recollection.

I am proud to be with my brother lay ministers from our Shrine. Apart from preparing my soul for the last stretch of our Easter journey this year, I also learned so much today.

We tackled core concepts from  the Exhortation of Pope Francis, "Evangelii Gaudium", about the New Evangelization. It is a very relevant theme in today's world indeed. And many are the things the Laity may expound from it.

But the central spirit, in my own opinion, is that the Church needs to transform - not with the world - but against it. That we may as Nations be helped to persevere, overcome and together prevail against the challenges of this new age. And the joy of knowing we have...

Finally, let me share here what a brother EMHC today shared: To be a Christian without "Christ" is to be just an "ian"; an "i am nothing".

True indeed, Christ is the Vine and we are from among all the Nations, the branches - intended by God the Father to bear for each other, human fruit - edible and good everlasting.

Let us know that this world is diverse and that our Catholicity understands implicitly that the world is such a place - that we may not all be Catholics or Christians in our own places in time - but the most important thing these days is not that we are all the same - but that we flourish in our distinctions!

So let the past be the past.

Mabuhay, I love you all.

A Season for Faith and a Time for Reason

All things happen for a reason. And verily, Man is made to understand them. But all things under sun come each in their due season. So that Man is made to trust in his faith as well as to his reason.

Faith is a season to trust. Reason is a time to understand. And they come in cycles, great and small. T'is the First Sufficiency, and true for all. T'was with the Peace that never did fail nor fall.

The Lord Jesus many at time left trails in His Incarnation. Proclaimed in the Good News - He often left things He did to faith, and then gave faith in each person their own due season, so that each Man through his reason may in time hear - and understand His Word - and see the Truth they came to see.

That nothing in this world was built on random purpose, and that this is true! And so to those who feel their freedoms constricted because "everything" happens for a reason, the Lord Jesus says, "come and see", thy faith will you set free.

Faith and reason is like two freedoms reaching out to each other. Where they meet they kiss, and when they embrace the embrace of peace - as heaven and earth must always do, in the soul, and in time too - Truth is, for God is with us and Man hears, and faith remembers, and reason too, understands - all is well, all is well...

Therefore, Starshine, you must lead with your mind, but always think with your heart.


To understand the Trinity is to know more and more that God is one - and to proclaim Amen to the Truth: Amen to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - the LORD indeed is one God alone!

And in Peace to proceed in God - with the Goodwill of God - for all Mankind.
---<--@


Mabuhay! May you always be in love, Beloved of the Love.

O How Long the Wait

How long shall I wait in weakness, my God?
How long shall the brokenness of sin
haunt my shadow, my LORD?

I live in wait and suffer to offend
Thou Whom I love
by my sins.

O forsake me not, my God,
and have mercy on my poor soul!

O my Savior, save me -
O my Jesus, deliver me.

And so I weep with scornful tears
at my failures before thee,
O Mother of my God!

For numerous are my offenses
and before me my sins persist
like dark tomorrows.

O Mary Ever Virgin,
and Ever Chaste Queen,
though doubts rise and hopes fall,
I will cling to you!

O my Savior, save me -
O my Jesus, deliver me.

---<--@

Memorial of the Guardian Angels

Remember LORD, 
the unfailing faithfulness of thy Guardian Angels,
Who deigned through their vigilant and loving stewardship
to vouchsafe in the life of our souls,
the unfailing truth of Thy paternal love and solicitude
over our Everlasting safety.

We ask Thee Eternal Father
Thou bless us with a Remembrance of them -

Who stand invisibly to watch over our thoughts
and guard our memories against the spirit of evil;
who against the Devil and the desolation of the War
keep safe for us - the enabling reality of thy own Truth:

Our Angel Guardians, who keep for us a way of safe return
away from the Night - and the sin which hides in the darkness
unto Christ, our Light, and unto Thee, dear Father of our hearts,
unto Thy Sacraments, unto Penance, and the fruits of Repentance -
which is the fullness of each these Friendships - Thou hath ordained.

Which is Truth everlasting in the knowledge of the Father and the Son
on this day of their Eternal Memorial, O LORD, united in Thy Holy Spirit -
alleluia, alleluia, glory to one Most High God forever, alleluia - forever.

AMEN.
---<--@

A Church of Greater Things

A Faith of little things, that's us - a Church of greater things, that's us too.



Love in the truth - Realize in reality the Love that shines from Eternity and see Beauty reflected in the little things and love it back - embracing it all.

Love us All, darling Starshine - for in our smallness, in our needs - we can dream. There is beauty in every human hoping - and in our togetherness - strength in our common believing, it shall be well.

Smile and feel the radiance of a smile. Feel the warmth of human faith in believing, all shall be well... Learn to miss it - long to fill the skies above thy soul with it - serving with all thy heart. 

Learn to look for thy happiness in the happiness of others. Dream two dreams, one for thy self and one for such as thy self - make them one: God is, and that is all!

Say to the sinner, O I love you anyways! - For in Christ, I hope all things for you - let us first remain in God and all things we shall through Him overcome - together, always together in Jesus Christ, the Lord.

We shall be great, O little Church, strong in spite of our littleness and despite our individual failings and our spiritual woundedness - forgiven - beyond reach of doubt - a thousand times over - and made whole by our God - out of love of us - yes, for love of All of us - together - so let us be one in this hope: Victory is won at the Cross! - once and forever - so let us be joined in this - just one belief, one victorious heart of prayer!

Say to the evils of this world, I know you now - so therefore, I shall seek to no longer understand you, O sin of the world, but shall have unfailing recourse to the everlasting Truth of my Savior and the reality of my God and Father to my heart - so leave us be, O Adversary of all the living souls - for I serve thee not - and leave my brothers and sisters alone - for I am their keeper.

Receive the Peace of the one Redeemer of Mankind - and know, O Christian, that thy gift belongs to all Nations - cherish all human community and embrace their very human hopes - weep for brokenness and be the salt that preserves - work for healing and be the light that leads - grow in Justice, shine in Love - live in present Memory of God and of each other - pray for thine enemies, give them hope - for they are restless - know their evil and abhor it - but become the freedom they never knew.

Fall and stand right up - and be chastened by thy failings - cling to thy faith, and do this without count - forgive as thou art forgiven - calling out to God for strength and forever trusting in Him - go discern the unfailing grace of the LORD in the darkness of thy soul and you shall know joy - Light in the darkness - and when you know, my darling, your interior skies shall be filled with stars, God with us - Come and see! 

Develop a Marian character and you shall multiply this joy - strength unto the Morning.
---<--@

"Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” - Matthew 17: 20


Mabuhay ang ating Santo Papa Francisco!

On Original Sin

Pride is the first sin of the angels and led to disobedience. Disobedience is the first sin of Man and led to pride. Man is not inherently evil but inherently weak and this is the foundation of Original Justice.



Original sin is the inherent weakness against the Truth that was in spirit acquired by the family of Man through the disobedience of our First Parents.

It is not primarily an inclination to evil but a fatal lack of supernatural strength in the human soul that prevents it from applying itself freely and completely, according to its labors, in total submission to the Spirit of God.

It is a weakness; a frailty that in all humanity is transmitted across the generations of Mankind directly through Man's spiritual lineage which is, as an unbroken lineage of light that is ever begun from the Light of Creation, perpetuated like a terrible shadow that stalks with fear and death, the life of our common humanity.

(It's transmission across our generations can be illustrated with a flashlight whose beam when obstructed with any opaque object will project as shadow, the image of that particular object.)

It is not the effect of something that is present in the soul, as in personal sin, but of something that is absent in the soul which is the Presence of the Spirit of God brought about by the loss of our Original Peace with the LORD, our Creator.

To restore us to this Original Peace requires a Savior that can become the new Source of Light for all of the one family of Mankind; a Savior that can not be man alone lest we delude ourselves; this Savior has to be of God being God Himself and so God the Son came Incarnate to us, clothed in our humanity, as willed by the Father through Jesus Christ, the Lord, our Emmanuel.

Our baptism makes us into new creations because we acquire through the salvific nature of our faith in God through Jesus Christ - quite literally, a new Way, a new Truth, and a new Life: Christ is our new Adam.

For through Jesus Christ, Justice is perfected in Love and in this Love, the strength to overcome sin - original and personal, social or individual - becomes a grace that is available to all our humanity through baptism and the instrumentality of the Church with and unto all people of good will.
---<--@

Salutation #174

(Holy Week 2013)

Dearest Starshine,
of the Christian communities
scattered like the stars - among all the stars -
spread across the nations of the children of Mankind
with peace and love, I salute you -



In His Sacred Humanity
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word
deigned to show unto all mankind
the Face of the Father of all living souls,
the one God of all heaven and earth,
despite the nakedness of our humanity
that we may in our own suffering
utterly and completely identify
with the LORD's longing for our love.



In the terrible suffering of Jesus
in His Passion and death by Crucifixion
and in the desolation of the Crucified Christ
the LORD has chosen, for all our good,
even before our exile was begun,
to bear with all of our common humanity
the depths of our pain and tribulations in this life
shouldering with each of us, the cross of our sufferings
- even unto death, even an ignominious death on a lonely Cross -
that through the same Passion and Blood of Christ
God may bridge for each of us the dark and infinite chasm
of the original sin that stole all our generations away
from the True and Eternal Light of His Presence
and the glorious Eden of our perfect Peace
with God and with each other.



And in the glory of His Risen Person
Jesus Christ kept for each of us - His Holy Wounds -
to remind us, always to always - over and over and over -
   through every faithful commemoration of Holy Mass
   the infinite grace of His seven Sacraments,
   and the presence of His Church here on earth,
of the wondrous power and unimaginable greatness
of God's fufilling love for all His creatures.



- selah -

The faith of our common baptism
gives us a share in the hope of this Victory,
the innermost life of our Christianity
being a constant celebration of Christ's love
- this mighty and mysterious Love -
that came at the heights of our unknowing
that even in the midst of all our un-loving
God may by His overcoming Love
save us all.



Alleluia, alleluia!
Truly, truly, how great is our God -
How majestic His mysteries,
how glorious His truths!



May the Holy Spirit bless each of us
with a renewed vigor of our Christian faith
that we may again live its glories
here on our earthly sojourn
for Christ and the peace of His Kingdom
at the approach of this
Holy Week 2013.



May the Blessed Virgin Mary,

Queen of all our hearts, pray for us.

And may our Lady ever accompany us
unto the completion of God's work
in each our lives, as she did Her Son.



Amen.
---<--@



O my Jesus,
zealous for souls,
thirsting for the love of mankind.

Come my Jesus
be Thou the God of my heart
and accomplish in me Thy will of peace.