Active faith in the Holy Eucharist

Faith without action is dead. When one does believe the consecrated Host to be the Body of Christ, it shows in his actions. It manifests on the way one treated this seemingly lifeless, almost insignificant thing. Reverence in action -- like bowing, kneeling or genuflecting -- before the Holy Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is faith in action. Kneeling (and not standing) while taking Communion on the tongue (and not in the hand) from the hands of the duly-ordained Catholic priests (and not from the hands of non-clerical laymen), CLASPING both hands in prayer (and NOT CLAPPING the hands) within the mass, placing the tabernacle in the center (and not on either sides) of the altar... are among active reverence towards the Eucharist. Reverence in one's mind is not yet an active faith -- but still a thought. Thought to become a reality is to translate thought in the language of the body. Also, reverence done ONLY in private is false humility! God is God both in private and in public. His Being does not diminish in either situation. So to worship Him privately and publicly is faith and humility in action.

Cause-oriented vs. result-oriented

The Cross atop the Hill of 'Kalbaryo' (Calvary) in Gov. Generoso (Sigaboy), Davao Oriental

Good Friday is out: Easter is in? But, a Good Friday is the CAUSE of a Happy Easter; a Happy Easter is the RESULT of a Good Friday. If the cause is good, then we have a perfect result. If Easter never happened, the sacrifices of Good Friday are futile. As Easter did happen, undergoing a Good Friday is necessary to attain Easter. But, we always think of the "result," trying to achieve it to the point of neglecting its "cause." Be cause-oriented rather than a result-oriented individual to keep always on the right track. Good Friday happens every time the Holy Eucharist is officiated. Easter is perfection. When the Holy Mass is done haphazardly and without faith, love and reverence, can we attain perfection?

The Spider-Man

The other night, the spider spat and spun a web to make a home. The next morning, man destroyed it to sweep clean his dwelling.

Last night, the spider spurted and knitted a web to build a home. This morning, man ravaged it again to sweep clean his dwelling.

Tonight, the same spider has spewed and coiled a web to remake and rebuild a home. Tomorrow morning, will man shatter it again to sweep clean his dwelling?

And the spider, will it redo its thing if thrice its home is ruined?

Whose faith will survive? The one that never gives up. 

The spider knows the truth. So does man.

Diary of St.Faustina introduces me to experience beyond ordinary

I have become interested on "life after death" since my mother died. I wanted to "know" at least what her life "over there" would be like. That is why I bought myself books that deal with the topic of the "life after." One is "My Dream of Heaven;" the other, "Divine Mercy in My Soul," the diary book of St. Faustina. Little did I know that this diary would introduce me to experience things beyond the ordinary. Don the prophet calls it "spiritual experiences;" he wrote me beforehand about it but he never gave details. He only said that, during jubilee time, God would grant me "spiritual experiences." St. Faustina, in her diary, called it "divine delights." Others call it "ecstasies." Or, that which were experienced by saints! I bought the diary book in 2003, two months after Mama's death. Since it is a thick book, I took my time reading it; and I read it only in my leisure time. And I noticed as I went along, some experiences of St. Faustina that she wrote about in the diary, I came to experience also!

Rainbow-winged

"What you are is God's gift to you..."
Before one enters a portal new to him, he finds himself at a loss, afraid, and apprehensive as to what is in store for him beyond that door. 
One thing is certain, however. By the time he decides to tread the path leading to that portal, what he has just made is the greatest decision he ever thought of -- the acceptance of self... the first step in achieving great goals.
Sure enough, if he did not take that first step, accepting himself as he really is, he would be an ugly green caterpillar, crawling on the branches of endless uncertainties.
But the caterpillar soon learns the golden message that the stepping stone to achieve great things lies in the threshold of accepting its real self.
That threshold alone spells nothing but courage.
And that same courage is put to real test -- the caterpillar has to lock itself behind the bars of cocoon for a long time... a dark, warm, painful, lonely battle to reach the unreachable.
We, humans, share the same experience... the same struggle. Now, they are brave people in our midst who accept themselves as they are.
And are determined enough to move on from there.
For a long while, the cocooned caterpillar has to end what it has started. And taste the ripe fruits of its toils.
Yes, if there is a beginning, there is an end. But for those who understand its real meaning, the struggle has not died yet.
It only opens a new chapter in life.
As it came out slowly from the cocoon's door, the different creature was greeted with the stillness of the darkness -- the same darkness when it entered that same world.
But the caterpillar -- now, a rainbow-winged butterfly! -- knows, for sure, that the night is different from the night it was once before.
A new horizon is taking shape in the distance.
One wondered, before, what lies beyond that horizon. But the butterfly is certain that ahead of those far-fetched mountains is a new day that is about to unfold before the eyes of the world.
There is a new hope, new life that promises a new beginning.
Now, the butterfly has to flap its wings and see and do new role, new responsibilities that await him.
For us, humans, whose struggle in life is patterned after the cocooned caterpillar's, what we have achieved of late is only a beginning of another higher level of achievement.
Ours is a lifetime quest.
As the sunflowers await the butterflies, the world awaits these promising men and women.
This is where the truth from the saying comes back to heart.
"... what you become is your gift to God!"

Silence: a deeper level of trust

God, at times, puts a soul into the most adverse situation (the gravest of the desert soul experience being Divine-Friendship-turned-Adversity) to extract from the soul a deeper level of trust in God. In such a situation, a soul is silent, trusting, submissive to the Divine Will without resorting to self-defense but allowing God-now-turned-Enemy to wreck the soul as He wishes. God, however, is true to what He is about so that Divine Defense takes place at the time He knows right and rescues the soul from further wreckage while polishing the genuineness of the soul's calling. It is painful experience to the soul but likewise joy knowing something good is going to come out from all of this -- either to continue with the soul's Divine calling or stop it once and for all, thus relieving itself from the big responsibilities that the calling entails.

A Thinker with a Heart

I dreamed of this statue of the Lord Jesus of the Sacred Heart -- only He was alive as a normal human being without a Heart exposed on His Chest. He was clad in a vivid gray garment and in a deep-red cloak. It was a fleeting dream of a quarter of a minute or less. It was night. I was in front of Him looking but He seemed not to see or mind me at all. I see Him as a thinker as He sat, stood, walked to and fro and sat again in the lighted hallway back of the Church of the Sacred Heart. And, then, the dream disappeared.

"The capacity to THINK is what makes humans distinct from the rest of creation." -Aristotle, a Greek philosopher

Jesus Christ is the greatest Thinker and Philosopher of all time because He thinks with a Heart. Wisdom revolves only in Love.

The confessional: tribunal of mercy

A good counselor is not measured if one is a good adviser, but a good listener. Attentive, silent listening encourages the troubled to unload. Unloading empties the excesses of the heart. When the heart is emptied, illumination comes in. A solution to the problem! Wisdom from above! Eureka! God speaks to the heart of a person! That is the essence of confession. A counselor needs not give advice, but facilitates the troubled to have a good confession so that God Himself can speak to man's own heart. But when a confessor does give advice, it is not one that reprimands: for, the confessional is a 'Tribunal of Mercy.' God is Mercy: so must the priest-confessor, God's own representative on earth, show mercy. Reprimanding discourages further and later confessions. Confessing sins committed is not an easy thing to do. Confessing itself is a sign of repentance -- even if confessed sins are habitual. Will a man be denied the sacrament of confession just because of habitual sins? Is his lot a condemnation? Bad habits are signs of being under an ancestral bondage and curses which can only be broken off by the highest form of prayer, the Holy Eucharist! All the more that the person prone to habitual sins, needs mercy: attention, prayers and frequent confessions of temptations to avoid committing the same sins. When people are discouraged to confess again and they receive the Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist with unclean hearts, men of God in the confessionals are answerable to God. One more thing: does face-to-face confession encourage a good, honest confession? Certainly not, because most withhold the shameful, secret sins of the heart. Go back to the confessionals with windows covered with linen or something that prevents the confessor from knowing the identity of one who confesses. The confessor must not even look at the window. Trying to know who confesses is already committing gossip in his heart as well as comparing confessed sins with fellow confessors, directly or indirectly. Jesus Christ is One Who hears confessions using the ears of priests; thus, what is heard inside the confessional must only be between the Lord and one who confesses.

The wind in the wilderness

Wisdom is not gained by age. Wisdom comes from God Who whispers it to the heart of a person: young, middle-aged or old. Everyone can hear it -- if and when one chooses to live a simplified life. A life of simplicity is an invitation to live in the spiritual wilderness. The wilderness experience leads one to his own heart 'where God speaks.' Life in excess shuts up our spiritual ears from hearing it. 

Self-respect

When we think others are 'devoid of respect' towards us, we, sometimes, demand respect from them. But why do we think we are disrespected? Why do we know? What are our basis? Why do we think? We think because we are doing what we are thinking. We point our index fingers at others; but three fingers are pointing at us. Let us see within ourselves first. Maybe, it is we who are devoid of respect towards our own selves!

Silence is wisdom

Interpreting a poem varies and depends on or is based according to the consciousness -- or, life experiences -- of the readers. But, mostly, not according to the very experiences of the poet as he wrote the poem! If a reader had the same experience as the poet, he would agree and understand the outpourings of the heart of the poet. If a reader disagreed, it might be because he had the same experience but not at the same level of experience as the poet. He may have an experience of allowing himself be bitten by an ant when the poet is being bitten by a swarm of ants which is not a one-time experience but an experience on a regular basis. Same experience but of different levels of experience. When a reader who knows nothing of the experience as the poet's and is silent as to make a comment, silence is wisdom.