Kumpisalang... Kalye

Kakaiba, di ba? Pero sa tingin ko kakaiba rin ang kailangan nang Simbahan natin sa mga araw na ito.

Itong larawan na ito ay nakita ko sa Facebook wall ko kahapon. Bilang isang Katolikong Kristyano, agad kong napansin ang "instant appeal" niya sa akin. Malago na rin po kasi siguro ang sarili kong karanasan sa pangangailangan nang ating kaluluwa nang pangangalaga ng Sakramento nang Kumpisal.

Kudos po sa inyo, Father. Hayaan niyo pong ipamahagi ko ang inspirasyon ninyo kahit man lang dito sa blog ko. Salamat po nang marami. Ang galing!

(Ang Facebook page po nila Father ay ang Resurrection of our Lord Parish.)

May every Christian soul experience the blessings of peace and renewal that this year's Lenten Season promises to bring... through repentance and faith in the Gospel of 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!
---<--@

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.

---<--@

The Alienation of Hatred

2013 to 2022 is the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures

Starshine,
when nations are angry at each other,
the reasons could be many things,
but it could never be because
they are nations.

They are angry
at the reasons they're angry
and this could indeed be many things
- true or untrue, right or wrong -
but it could never be because
they are nations.

Lest we forget,
lest we forget.

The craft of all nations is peace.

As a tree may only be destroyed from the roots,
a nation may only be undone by its willingness
to forget its own remembrances.
---<--@



A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled and asked,

"Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?"

The disciples thought for a while, one of them said, "Because we lose our calm, we shout."

"But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner", asked the saint.

The disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples. Finally the saint explained,

"When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small..."

The saint continued, "When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other."

He looked at his disciples and said,

"So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return."

(from the Internet)

In a world as small as ours,
and getting smaller each day,
do we have to keep on
shouting at each other?

Indeed, 
these distances 

can become quite near.

---<--@

Starshine,
if you understood the words of the saint,
you must now also realize - within your own self -
that this distance that prevents us
from seeing each other - as human beings -
is a spiritual reality.

For this unseeing is a form of darkness.
And this distance too is a form of darkness
the cause of which is our persistence
to choose true-blindness
over true-sight...

A darkness that (both) prevents
as well as seeks to prevent.
---<--@

Those who live for anger
know that the alienation of hatred
is permanent.

For theirs are those whose spirits move
from wilderness to wilderness
finding neither company
nor safe abode.

But those who live for love
know that, through one may become angry
and restless for a day,
one may always return to love
and find peace.

Excepted from Love that thou may live
---<--@

Starshine,
remember the impassable divide
between the rich man and Lazarus?

Truly, it is far easier for the soul of Man
to travel from one end of the universe to the other
than to bridge a spiritual distance as permanent
- as that which divides -
(the golden realms of) heaven
and (the bitter desolation of) hell.

Pray not to remain
a fugitive to thy own heart.
Release thy self (to love) and be free.

- selah -

In the end we are all wildflowers...
In the end we belong to each other...
In the end we belong to all nations...
In the end all nations belong to us...

Love is the perfection of nations.
---<--@

Remember:

When nations make war 
because they are nations, 
endless shall be our strife!

When history forgets and
its spirits live for no regret
the ruin of Man shall be rife!

Salutation #5

Freedom is to know freedom.



(Freedom)

PEACE, I salute you.

Even the smallest of lights
shines in the darkness -
so shift your focus, my friend,
if you haven't already done so
for each and every good thing counts
regardless of the darkness.

What is praiseworthy is right action.
It is what makes us distinct from the darkness -
it is ignition -
the actual point of contact
between human will and divine grace.
Right action is, in the painting by Michelangelo
of Adam reaching out to God
with their fingers extending out to each other,
that bright spark at the imagined point of contact
between the freedom of Man and the freedom of God:
Right action always results in good works.

What motivates the will to act
must also be what inspires the heart to love.
Therefore, evil action is always the result
of false inspiration -
the idolatry of sin!
So if we are to do good,
we must first learn to love the good -
and shun all that is evil.

For we profit not from evil,
my dear friend,
but from the good;
our motivation being derived
from purposes that are good,
our hopes being anchored upon things
that are true and therefore, good,
and the wings of our surrender to prayer
being ever vigilant and discerning
- in its ascent -
to the one Giver of all good things.

For evil no longer hold us captive.
We have come to know it
and forever bless the LORD for His Light.
Therefore, we seek now to unknow it
upon paths of repentance
that lead away from darkness
and into peace -
peace in our hearts -
peace with our fellow human beings -
peace with all of heaven -
and peace with our God.
---<--@

(produced 20090629)

Salutation #3

Darkness is but the darkness if it does not lead to the light.

(Darkness)

To the numberless lights 
of our kindred belonging,
greetings of sincere hope
and good will -
my love and prayers:

There is evil in our days,
as it was in those days of old.

Evil where it is allowed to endure
into every present time
to stand against the line (of our nations)
established in the Now of the moment
is an enemy that is never meant
to defeat the will of the good (nor it's Source).

For the arrangement of all past things
in every (individual, unrepeatable) person's life
like a romance between human choice
and the serendipity of God's grace
is always intended in such a way
by the beneficence of Divine Providence
so as to culminate into every present time
which is always sufficient in its own Day
with regards to the particular evils
- that - each and every individual soul
(this is equally true in the life of communities)
must in each their own time and place
learn to recognize and vanquish
by and through the grace of our LORD
in (support of) and with the support of our human communities,
(each in their own order and context, as wholes within wholes)
civic and religious, national and international (and beyond),
that exist for our (human) benefit
- in exile time (across the veil of time) -
to safeguard and foster our common good.

Should there be evil in our day,
even if the past had a large part to play
in its appearance in our present time,
indeed, it should not be here to give us reason
to conveniently dwell on the darkness of past things
(and allow our spirit to be absorbed into the darkness,
with hearts sunk into the unfeeling, unknowing nothingness
of the void of all things that never were).

- selah -

Where evil is allowed to endure
- into the present reality -
of souls and communities of souls,
it is so that we may learn in our own lives
how to effectively close the doors of past things.

Believe that evil endures
not to defeat the human being
but to allow him or her the unique opportunity
to recreate in every present moment
through God and with each other,
the beginnings of better, brighter
and nobler things (for all Mankind).

Peace.
---<--@

(produced 20081208)

20111016 PM

Salutation #58

Lead me, Lord Jesus, to where I end and You begin and all these things shall fall into place behind Thee, my God and my All.

(The Peace of Jesus Christ)

The Peace of the LORD escapes human comprehension

- God encompassing God -

but the Peace of Jesus Christ is given to you,

O Beloved Starshine

of the Christian communities from among all the nations,

- as a blessing, a sign, and a promise -

and with it, a joy without limits.

May the Peace of the Lord Christ be to you, a blessing.

For the Peace of Jesus Christ is the one whole peace

unto which All of living creation forever belongs.

May the Peace of the Lord Christ be to you, a promise.

For within it, you acquire a foretaste of the things to come -

the restoration of the reign of God at the consummation of time.

May the Peace of the Lord Christ be to you, a sign.

For through it you gain strength in the unity of all things -

a truth in thy heart that give thy prayers their ascent to God.

Cherish this gift entrusted to you -

embrace it freely and with an understanding spirit

that thou may stand at one with Christ and the victorious hosts of God

against the War in thy own heart

and the divisions wrought by it upon the earth.

Multiply the Peace of the LORD, thy God

- in all thy Churches, in all thy Masses, and in all thy prayers -

that you may pray to God, beloved Starshine,

- united - as one nation among a family of nations.

For the Peace of Jesus Christ is not a cause of division

but of strength for our national communities.

Neither is the Name of Jesus Christ

a source of division, discord, dilution and dissolution

among the nations but of peace!

- selah -

The beginnings of a better world

begins with Jesus Christ in our heart of hearts.

Therefore,

incline thy hearts to Peace -

forsake War today while it is still today.

As it was before must never be again!

---<--@

Sunday Evenings

Good evening, the Philippines - mabuhay!

Today's Gospel: Matthew 22: 15-21

To give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar and to God what belongs to God is the usual Biblical reference for the Separation of Church and State.

However, the doctrine of the Separation of Church and State does not mean the exclusion of the reality of Man from the reality of God.

- selah -

To God belongs everything first. Know this, O my nation, and all things shall fall into their proper places before the face of the LORD.

---<--@

God never fails -

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus the Lord, I am not the most suitable of persons to proclaim to you the Word of God or the Peace of Jesus Christ which is the Peace of the Times so know ye that I am like you utterly reliant on Jesus Christ!

I know my failings and I know my short-comings and because of these I have no reason to boast and so, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, let me offer to you instead, this one, abiding truth about my little life - our Lord, Jesus Christ, has never failed me - not once!

Truly, my greatest desire is and must always be to serve the Lord, Jesus Christ, in whatever capacity He assigns to me and to fulfill this vocation with a constancy of devotion worthy of the title Christian - an Alter Christus!

Though I want to return to the safety of my previous ignorance of God, there is no more holding back once the Spirit of God calls thee from the heart. How can one resist the one Irresistible!

My refuge now is the LORD!

I must repent of my sins and if I fall a thousand times over, it shall always be the same with me - for I want my repentance to bear fruit for Christ Jesus, my Holy Redeemer, my God, my All - He has never failed me!

It is I who is a constant failure to my Savior. But never again shall I fall into the pits of despair - my Savior has never once failed me!

I have already absolutely determined to give to God what belongs to God - not I but He, I will decrease and He will increase until I am no more - God never fails!

Not I but He - the LORD, He Who Is, He is God and God never fails!

Therefore, if you are a fallen-away Christian of whatever denomination, know this now - come home to Jesus:

Give to God what belongs to God!

Seek a deeper knowledge of thy faith and cling to Jesus Christ believing in the Word despite thy own self and in spite of all things and you will surely come Home in thy heart first and in Eternity with God forever when forever comes around again.

---<--@

Before You, O Christ,
I knew only darkness!
I was a child of the void
destined for destruction.
Until Your Spirit came
I knew no Peace, my God.

But You came to me
to make me anew...
I do not understand, LORD,
but You came to me.

And as Thy Love hovered

over the waters of my heart
to calm the raging storm
I began to see... myself.

- excerpted from Foundling

---<--@

Everybody have a great working week ahead! Remember, there is always work in the vineyard of the LORD - do not be worldly-wise, be wise with Jesus in thy heart and God in thy world and all will be well for thee - God never fails!

Glory to God the Father!

Adoration to Jesus Christ!

Alleluia, peace be unto our nation

and peace be unto all our nations;

good will to all men and women of Peace.