Pagpangga ug Pangilin

Kun sa kaugmaon ako mapanaw
Ug pangalan ko sa yuta mahanaw
Kanimo di ko kapugngan nga ihambog
Akong gugma nga wa'y isig-kaisog

Kahilimtan man sa kalibutan
'ning kinabuhi kong nahimungtan
Apan di ko tapigan ni tagu-an
K'ing halad ko nga tanan

Saksi ang mga adlaw sa akong paningkamot
Sa kasing-kasing nga di malimot
Ginapos sa gugma, kini nagtibok
Maabot lang ang mga panghinaut

Sa kangitngit ang bulan nahibalo
Sa mga pag-ampo ug pangamuyo
Nga kagabhi-on lang ang namati
Mga damdam nga wa'y pili

Gugma sa kahilum nag-alaab
Para sa hinigumang nahisalaag
Bisan sa silop ang awit magpabilin
Pagpangga ug pangilin

For

Be strong for those who need you
Be knowledgeable for those who will learn from you
Be ready for those who will call for your help
Be present to those who are alone

Be pure for those who'll be inspired by you
Be there for those who love you
Be truthful for those who listen to you
Be honest for those who deal with you

Be life for those who are dying
Be hope for those who despair
Be faith for those who doubt
Be love for the unloved

Be nothing for those who need everything
Be something for those who have none
Be everything for those in need
Be someone for the no one

Be forgiveness for those who hurt you
Be healing for those who hurt
Be trust for those who are dubious
Be light for those who are lost

But most of all...

Be the voice for the one who called you
Be the vessel for the one who cares
Be filled with the One who emptied
Believe in the One who believes in you.

To Open Sea

My sail is still, my sail is still
How soon, O Wind, will you blow?
No one to fill, no one to fill
A heart that longs to go

Out to sea, to open sea
Where adventure lies ahead
Here I remain with an open plea
A wish in sea I tread

Glide and move on top the waves
But still do I remain
Until, O Wind, the way you pave
With a blow to ease my pain

The Lark's Song

The lark breaks the cold gray morning

With his own brand of sweet song

Though he sang with all his heart's beating

No one else would bring it along

Yes his song is sung alone

It rings in the silence of the air

No song as beautiful is known

Yet none for him to share

A sweet sad song he sings

Perhaps a song of true warm tears

Flowing amid deep cold mornings

Falling on dull deaf ears

Yes, his song is sung alone

Across hearts that fail to breathe

Within such a peaceful tone

Harmony sung incomplete

The sun will not rise again

Though sky is pink in blossom

Till the lark finishes his song

With someone to sing it along

In the Light of Truth

"There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing secret that will not become known and come to light." Luke 8:17


If I Bro. Carmelo Martinez, SDB would ask me again what's on top of my hierarchy of values I still would answer "Truth". (Bro. Melo has been our Values Clarification teacher in the pre-novitiate, and the best.)


I believe anything that is not founded on truth would be consumed by its own lies and swallowed by its own shadow. The verse suddenly popped in my brain as I was saying vespers with the community. I have met people who blind themselves by their own lies because the truth is simply too bright to look at. It is a sad sight for people who can see but refused to see the light of truth. There are people too who have been courageous enough to embrace the light of truth despite the initial fear. In the end, the truth has set them free.


As I try my best to become a good and holy Salesian, I nail it in my brain to always abide by the truth. There are lapses of course, considering the technical glitches in my circuit board, but the effort of staying with the Truth and living with the Truth is worth more than living in the comforts of the shadow.

Down Mt Tabor

I have heard of people wanting to go up Mt Tabor, the mountain of Transfiguration. Many times in retreats and recollections, a metaphor to the mountain is used to illustrate how we remove ourselves from the cares and worries of the world in order to be alone, atop a high mountain, and there be transfigured with Christ. The social weather we have today is full of pressure and concerns that the natural tendency for the post modern man is to recluse himself in order to cope better the problems he faces. For us Christian Catholics, this is going up Mt Tabor with Christ.

Yet we mustn't forget that what comes up must go down. Nobody can live forever, yet, in Mt Tabor. Life moves down below, in the very concrete circumstance of life. I believe it is wrong to assume that the experience of spiritual "high" is the very end of transfiguration. Rather, we are transfigured in order to be sent down, to bring the experience of God back to ordinary life and to ordinary people.

I think of many participants of retreats and seminars and how after a period of staying with Christ, they glow with the joy and holiness of the Encounter with Christ. The challenge for them is to sustain that experience even after the "high" has faded. We are not spiritual junkies.

I also think of people who recluse themselves, going into their own inner Mt Tabor, and who because of lack of courage to really face truth, could not take the step down back to the real world. Sadly, they are stuck in high in the mountain enjoying the solitude that will soon becomes loneliness then despair as the Spirit of the Lord does not rest on despairing hearts.

My experience of life taught me that Mt Tabor isn't just the "high" but it is also the "lows" of life. Even intense sadness can bring the transfiguration that Christ desires for us. But either high or low, we must go down Mt Tabor, to be in the world but not of the world.

Befriending People, not Friendship

I have a terrible realization these past days. There are times when people befriend friendship and not the persons. I mean, they make friends out of convenience, out of status, out of insecurities, but they really are not interested in the person. It is so easy to say that we are friends, but it is not that easy to prove it. Only time can tell.

I was sad because a friend recounted a story of how friendship that appeared to be real and deep is but a shallow relationship that verges on using people to get yourself on by. How does friendship really work? I don't have THE right answers, I can only offer my experience.

First, I believe friendship is all about PERSONAL ENCOUNTER. You meet the person and take him for who he is. You affirm the good and bear with the bad. And in this encounter, both persons grow and the relationship grows.

Second, friendship is very much like the banking business. You INVEST time, effort, energy, and gifts. It's not a matter of withdrawing the interest later, but more of investing in each other because there is much to be discovered and developed in one another.

Third, friendship is ART. You make one another beautiful so as to be the persons God want you to be. Holiness or sanctity or self-fulfillment could never be achieved alone. You have to work it out with others to discover the piece of God in you.

My prayer now is that should I have to undergo the relationship microscope, I be found worthy to be called a friend by people. It would be a sad case for me if I have become a parasite that has stuck to people to suck them of their goodness and goodwill. Yes, companionship and friendship is good, but we must remember it is all about dealing with people and persons.

I Live On A Ball

I am reading the third book of the Chronicles of Narnia, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", these days when my mind starts to boggle down reading Philosophy. There is this one curious episode in the story that really captured my attention. (By the way, the movie adaptation is coming soon.)

When the passengers of the Dawn Treader were nearing the edge of the world, they were asking what's at the rim. Would it be a chasm where their voyage would end plummeting down with the water? One of the Pevensie kids remarked that the world of Narnia would be different from our world. We live on a ball. At that statement, Caspian quipped wouldn't it be nice to live in a ball where people on the other side live upside down?

It's a funny episode but it's worth reflecting. If I live in the Philippines, certainly people living on the other side, say United States, would be living upside down! But the earth so, so big, it seems flat. We forget that it is round, and that the horizon is but a line that hides the other face of the earth.

Our way of thinking is all about perspective, and having a good one at that.

The Tree that Bore Much Fruit

Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We remember the tree that witnessed the Sacrifice of the Lamb. We remember the tree where Love himself was nailed. We remember the tree that turned the world upside down.

The cross is a symbol of torture and pain. It is a morbid symbol. People, no criminals, were hanged in it and capital punishment was delivered on the cross. Yet, we Christians venerate the cross because we believe that it is through the cross that God showed mankind his highest act of love: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) It is no longer a symbol of pain. It has become a symbol of love.

It is unthinkable then for us who call ourselves Christians, to be ashamed of the cross. Are we not proud of the cross that won for us our victory, dignity, and salvation? Or are we too concerned with our Good Fridays that we forget the Easter Sunday that follows the cross?

The world will teach us to escape pain and suffering. Dash as you may, but running away is futile. Pain and suffering is inescapable. There will come a time when you have to face it. It is there as a passage of transcendence. It is in embracing our cross that we come to see the Truth and who we are in the light of the Truth.

In the cross, one may find abandonment, fear, rejection, and pain. But also through the cross one can witness the people who will stand by you until the end: the Father who is in Heaven, the parent(s) who will never abandon their child, and the friend who truly cares.

My Urban Adventure

GMA Skyline

At first it was unthinkable, unconquerable, and impossible. It was like facing giants and legions of soldiers charging at you. I thought I could not do it. I thought wrong.

I have to admit, I was shaken at the thought of going back to Canlubang alone. Passing through the Manila metropolis, along the tangled mesh of roads, passes, and streets that seem to have captured in its web the many tall and imposing buildings in whose feet the populace walk to and fro, all breathing the undeniably toxic atmosphere of city smog. I'm a lonely boy from the province of Cebu (which by the way is a metropolis too, but much less complicated) who thought it too much to wade through the sea of people, people he doesn't know, people who might hold him up, people who might just suddenly jump on him anytime, biding their time...

Ahh... the imagination of a cowardly, chaining an adventurous heart! But I was also on the challenge. Some people know that Keith Amodia has a side that befits a room in an intense psychiatric ward. With that side challenged, no once can stop it. I wasn't really conscious of what I was doing. My hand automatically took my backpack. My legs walked on their own. I was entranced by the urban adventure.

It wasn't scary afterall! I felt so free and independent walking the business avenue of Makati. The thrill of getting lost in the city made my heart beat faster. Adrenaline kept me at my guard against the elementals of the city... too much adrenaline, I was getting paranoid. I was simply high on the experience I did not feel the distance of the long walk.

I suddenly found myself facing the famous dragon, Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. The dragon that embraced the heart of the metropolis. The dragon that embraced Philippine history. It is alive, vehicles zooming in its traffic veins. This is a rare sight. The cleric meets the dragon.

My bus ride along the Skyway

I took the bus. I jumped on one when I saw its signboard shouting "Calamba". It was a lucky coincidence. It fit perfectly on my ideal adventure of taking a ride the way ordinary people do. The bus wasn't airconditioned. It was crammed with ordinary people. I was ordinary once more. I have been going around Manila in a private van for too long. I felt one with the ordinary people around me. It felt good experiencing the traffic, the  sights, the stops and go's, and the wind that carries with it the smell of a motor engine. Discomfort! what a comfort!

When my feet touched down Mayapa, I felt fulfilled. I did a journey I thought was impossible. I had the courage to face the scare, and it wasn't so scary after all. I did it! I did it! It was an adventure. Now I have to continue it.