It's a curious title. This post from my blog would be fed to Facebook via RSS. It would appear next to the gazillion other things in my network's news feed as some note posted by me. The interesting thing is how people would react to it.
People will not read this post because it's just some plain boring text note. To them, I might be some babbling non-sense posting one of those lists without much relevant content, a sore to the wonderful waterfall of information from Facebook. Most people are more attracted to visuals than text. People are more likely to click on some picture or video on the web than read some scholarly article or some opinion in the net. This has psychological basis, you see. One glance at a picture would send more information and excite more emotion in a viewer than some five paragraph essay like this.
People will read this post either because they are my friends, and I hope there are many of them, or because of the way I phrased my title. The title is quite intriguing. It excites the mind by stimulating it to ask why. Curiosity took the better part and you are now reading this article.
Think about it. Media is actually exploiting the power of psychology. Think more. Media is everywhere. That is why the average person of today is quite bombarded and saturated with information which most of the time is shrugged off by the consciousness. But all these information passes through our subconsciousness. Whether you like it or not, a passing glimpse may remain forever etched at some remote memory in your mind. The eyes are the windows of the soul. We might start wondering how much media has changed us internally. It has already been proven that media and information has radically shaped culture and society for the past decades.
It's time perhaps to educate people about media deconstruction. We must learn to break apart the different layers of message that media feeds us everyday. We can't be passive information consumers forever, we are far more intelligent. While media has been used to build society it has been responsible in the corruption of our Filipino values. In a world of globalization, we can't just take in everything the media feeds us. The more consciousness we put into receiving information, the more we get to be critical, the better we utilize information we receive. Empower yourself. Think.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
To Parents Who Make Us Human
I must admit I am writing this piece to meet a promise I gave to one Salesian who admitted he was reading my write-ups. Let's hide him in the name Fr. Ron Urbano, SDB. Thanks, padz!
They say behind every man's success is a woman but I say behind every person's success are a man and a woman. Fathers and mothers could not take less merit for the effort they have put forward in raising us their children. Admittedly, they have their own shortcomings but it is nothing compared to the dedication with which they combine instinct and freedom in securing their children's future.
We went to pay our last respects to a confrere's mother. The confrere shared how his parents move from house to house, building one after another, leaving the previous to a son and daughter who has just started a new family. Here is a wonderful example of how parents can waive their rights to bring more comfort to their children. To them, their own comfort is to find that all their children are comfortable.
I find it sad to hear that in Europe, couples are more keen on adopting a pet than raising children. Is civilization slowly losing its bearings? We are blessed that in the Philippines, the love for the family is very much felt and appreciated. Parents do anything to provide for their children.
I am quite blessed to have wonderful parents who saw me grow through the years. For this, I thank them.
Instinct or social programming? No, I call it the beauty of the human race to pass on to the next generation not only the biological inheritance as with animals but also the treasure of experience, wisdom, and love with which we propagate our kind. And this is done through our beloved parents who were also heirs of humanity.
They say behind every man's success is a woman but I say behind every person's success are a man and a woman. Fathers and mothers could not take less merit for the effort they have put forward in raising us their children. Admittedly, they have their own shortcomings but it is nothing compared to the dedication with which they combine instinct and freedom in securing their children's future.
We went to pay our last respects to a confrere's mother. The confrere shared how his parents move from house to house, building one after another, leaving the previous to a son and daughter who has just started a new family. Here is a wonderful example of how parents can waive their rights to bring more comfort to their children. To them, their own comfort is to find that all their children are comfortable.
I find it sad to hear that in Europe, couples are more keen on adopting a pet than raising children. Is civilization slowly losing its bearings? We are blessed that in the Philippines, the love for the family is very much felt and appreciated. Parents do anything to provide for their children.
I am quite blessed to have wonderful parents who saw me grow through the years. For this, I thank them.
Instinct or social programming? No, I call it the beauty of the human race to pass on to the next generation not only the biological inheritance as with animals but also the treasure of experience, wisdom, and love with which we propagate our kind. And this is done through our beloved parents who were also heirs of humanity.
Flexing those Muscles Again
I must confess, I have not used my techie muscles for a while. It seems I fell into a stagnant state of passivity and indifference as the information world around me evolved and developed. It is known among computer professionals that life must keep apace with the strides of information and technology. If you don't update, you'll get far behind, really really far behind.
A little surprise came my way that jump start my interest again in the field that has caught my passion. Such a surprise is too early to be revealed so I'm keeping close tabs on it. Yet it drove me to dive again into the pool of 1's and 0's and I found out I was born to swim in the sea of information. I was actually discovering ActionScript when I felt my adrenaline rise. I feel so geek.
I realize how much layered technology has become that to understand the whole system, you have to learn bits and pieces of everything. Your web is at the top of the food chain. It feeds on lower technologies and the layers go down until your teeth sink deep into the hard bones of electronics. Not many people realize it but it took years to prepare and hours to conceptualize the simplest of websites.
A little surprise came my way that jump start my interest again in the field that has caught my passion. Such a surprise is too early to be revealed so I'm keeping close tabs on it. Yet it drove me to dive again into the pool of 1's and 0's and I found out I was born to swim in the sea of information. I was actually discovering ActionScript when I felt my adrenaline rise. I feel so geek.
I realize how much layered technology has become that to understand the whole system, you have to learn bits and pieces of everything. Your web is at the top of the food chain. It feeds on lower technologies and the layers go down until your teeth sink deep into the hard bones of electronics. Not many people realize it but it took years to prepare and hours to conceptualize the simplest of websites.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel
Today is the Feast of our Lady of Mt. Carmel. I was surprised when I logged into Facebook, a video from the nuns of Carmel Cebu appeared on top of my News Feed. I was greatly amused by the video seeing the nuns dance their prayer. Who ever expected these nuns would appear on YouTube? I had to shift paradigms. Contemplatives can dance!
The Carmelite order has always amazed me. These are the brides of Christ who continually pray and commune with Him on behalf of the world. It is a treat to see these hidden women express their prayer in dance. These women must love Christ very much.
The rosary I use everyday came from them way back 2010 when our novitiate community met their community. That is why they are very much close to my religious life. When my prayer is dry, I think about the community that gave me my rosary and I am inspired to pray despite the unwillingness to. In a world that is slowly forgetting its God, to kneel before the Divine, the Carmelites are powerful witness to prayer.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us! Happy feast day everyone.
Additional Note:
Today is also the birthday of Bro. Carmelo Napoleon Martinez, SDB, one of the best and great Salesian Brothers we have today. Happy Birthday, Bro. Melo!
The Carmelite order has always amazed me. These are the brides of Christ who continually pray and commune with Him on behalf of the world. It is a treat to see these hidden women express their prayer in dance. These women must love Christ very much.
The rosary I use everyday came from them way back 2010 when our novitiate community met their community. That is why they are very much close to my religious life. When my prayer is dry, I think about the community that gave me my rosary and I am inspired to pray despite the unwillingness to. In a world that is slowly forgetting its God, to kneel before the Divine, the Carmelites are powerful witness to prayer.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us! Happy feast day everyone.
Additional Note:
Today is also the birthday of Bro. Carmelo Napoleon Martinez, SDB, one of the best and great Salesian Brothers we have today. Happy Birthday, Bro. Melo!
Friday, July 15, 2011
She
Roses lie softly
Beautiful just where you are
And I feel content
Then I see your eyes
Of amber burning fiercely
I am mesmerized
You gait of breeze calm
Takes my breath away as you
Slid past by my side
I long to touch you
And hold you in my arms tight
You're my needed warmth
My heart stops beating
Aching in letting you go
Don't fade lest I die
Dream of dreams dissolves
Forgotten in wakefulness
Yet heart remembers
It hopes to see you
Once more before the rose die
And wither away
For you bring me life
Just by being around me
You keep my heart beat
Beautiful just where you are
And I feel content
Then I see your eyes
Of amber burning fiercely
I am mesmerized
You gait of breeze calm
Takes my breath away as you
Slid past by my side
I long to touch you
And hold you in my arms tight
You're my needed warmth
My heart stops beating
Aching in letting you go
Don't fade lest I die
Dream of dreams dissolves
Forgotten in wakefulness
Yet heart remembers
It hopes to see you
Once more before the rose die
And wither away
For you bring me life
Just by being around me
You keep my heart beat
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Church of Sinners
In a quest to attract more members to their congregations, many church denominations advertise themselves, putting forward the best image they could conjure. But here is a Church who gains and loses at the same time, who seldom speaks for herself, and gets more bad publicity than what she deserves, or is it? After all, she is a Church of sinners.
I am proud and blessed to be Catholic. The thing that awes me in the Church are the many paradoxes that seem to decorate her. Unless one would see them with the eyes of faith, one would never understand. That is why the mystery is only revealed to the simple ones.
Again and again, the Church and her leaders are implicated in scandals. The faithful gets confused on how the moral guardian of society could err in such proportion. They start to ask, is the Church still relevant today when she cannot live up to her ideals? Is the Church relevant today when new and better promising streams of thought have come up the barren land of secular and pagan belief? Is her teaching still relevant when it is so uncomfortable and the alternative is so much better?
People begin to lose faith, and losing faith they lose hope until they fall into the spiral of confusion, then impiety and then apathy to all that is real, right, and true. The real truth of the Church is, she is a Church of sinners. Ever since her birth until this very day, she is a sinner. Her members fall day by day into the very things they speak against. She is tainted and she is weak and she forgets in the way her own members do. No, my Church is not perfect.
That is why is she an object of jeering, from a world that boasts of its own twisted values. She is looked upon as traditional, an old relic of the past that must be rid of in the post modern and accelerated times. People pick upon her for the smudges on her face. She is insulted as beast, ugly and contrary to progress. The people of the world treat her in such a way because they find in her their true faces reflected. They were so convinced of their own projected selves they forgot, and she reminds them in their reflection, of their own ugliness.
However dark the stories that haunt my Church, she remains beautiful. Not so much because of her own doing but because she was chosen. She did not come to existence by her own will nor by some machinations of twelve zealous but unlearned men. No matter how sinful she is, she was garbed in the purest and whitest of bridal garments, adorned as a celestial spouse. For although she was from mud and dirt, Christ picked her up to be His bride.
Yes, we are a Church of sinners. And yes, those we call Saints were sinners too and the rest of her are sinners, from the highest man in the hierarchy to the most unknown member. But here is a Church of sinners who was saved, is saved, and is being saved by a Lover who loved her until his last breath. For her sinfulness is nothing compared to the love He has for her.
By her imperfections she was made perfect. For if she was already perfect she would not have needed her Christ. She would not need Love but she needed it badly as the deepest human wound is hurting for its healing. So the Groom takes His bride from the wallows of her quandary and washes her. He sanctifies her by His own wishes and she is made beautiful. This undeserved privilege is unmatched and is the object of envy of the world who does not wish to be part of this union.
They call us sinners and rightly we are so. But do they see us struggle to rise up once more? Do they see the effort with which we do our best to reach out to the outstretched hand of Christ who wishes us back to our own two feet, to our former dignity? No, they only see us fall and they love to see us fall for it is sweet news to their parched lips. That is why the rejoice in our weakness. But they never know, that in our weakness we are made strong by Him who is our Strength. It is by our God that we are the chosen people, the bride of Christ.
I am a Catholic. I am not perfect but I strive to be perfect through Him who is my Strength.
I am proud and blessed to be Catholic. The thing that awes me in the Church are the many paradoxes that seem to decorate her. Unless one would see them with the eyes of faith, one would never understand. That is why the mystery is only revealed to the simple ones.
Again and again, the Church and her leaders are implicated in scandals. The faithful gets confused on how the moral guardian of society could err in such proportion. They start to ask, is the Church still relevant today when she cannot live up to her ideals? Is the Church relevant today when new and better promising streams of thought have come up the barren land of secular and pagan belief? Is her teaching still relevant when it is so uncomfortable and the alternative is so much better?
People begin to lose faith, and losing faith they lose hope until they fall into the spiral of confusion, then impiety and then apathy to all that is real, right, and true. The real truth of the Church is, she is a Church of sinners. Ever since her birth until this very day, she is a sinner. Her members fall day by day into the very things they speak against. She is tainted and she is weak and she forgets in the way her own members do. No, my Church is not perfect.
That is why is she an object of jeering, from a world that boasts of its own twisted values. She is looked upon as traditional, an old relic of the past that must be rid of in the post modern and accelerated times. People pick upon her for the smudges on her face. She is insulted as beast, ugly and contrary to progress. The people of the world treat her in such a way because they find in her their true faces reflected. They were so convinced of their own projected selves they forgot, and she reminds them in their reflection, of their own ugliness.
However dark the stories that haunt my Church, she remains beautiful. Not so much because of her own doing but because she was chosen. She did not come to existence by her own will nor by some machinations of twelve zealous but unlearned men. No matter how sinful she is, she was garbed in the purest and whitest of bridal garments, adorned as a celestial spouse. For although she was from mud and dirt, Christ picked her up to be His bride.
Yes, we are a Church of sinners. And yes, those we call Saints were sinners too and the rest of her are sinners, from the highest man in the hierarchy to the most unknown member. But here is a Church of sinners who was saved, is saved, and is being saved by a Lover who loved her until his last breath. For her sinfulness is nothing compared to the love He has for her.
By her imperfections she was made perfect. For if she was already perfect she would not have needed her Christ. She would not need Love but she needed it badly as the deepest human wound is hurting for its healing. So the Groom takes His bride from the wallows of her quandary and washes her. He sanctifies her by His own wishes and she is made beautiful. This undeserved privilege is unmatched and is the object of envy of the world who does not wish to be part of this union.
They call us sinners and rightly we are so. But do they see us struggle to rise up once more? Do they see the effort with which we do our best to reach out to the outstretched hand of Christ who wishes us back to our own two feet, to our former dignity? No, they only see us fall and they love to see us fall for it is sweet news to their parched lips. That is why the rejoice in our weakness. But they never know, that in our weakness we are made strong by Him who is our Strength. It is by our God that we are the chosen people, the bride of Christ.
I am a Catholic. I am not perfect but I strive to be perfect through Him who is my Strength.
He Waited
He waits for me and this I know
But I did not give a care
Still he sends me flowers and kisses
And he longs for me to share
A gentle walk under the sun
A soft sleep under the moon
But I was blind to see this all
I was lost and numb too soon
So he wakes me up so gently
From darkness of my slumber
Greeted me with music and song
Crooning 'til I remember
Days when we used to laugh and cry
While everything else is blur
Content to live life together
In a love all time endure
Yes, I hear him singing his love
And he's crying as he sang
For this poor, old soul now amiss
Life's real sweetness and its twang
One deaf to hear his lovely voice
Blind to all nice things he bared
Lost in my darkness he found me
And held me tightly, he cared
The beauty of it all was that
Not much 'bout his gifts of gold
But that he waited long until
He can have me back from cold
For he waits for me and this I know
'til I learned to love his light
Even at night his stars burn bright
'til I would regain my sight
But I did not give a care
Still he sends me flowers and kisses
And he longs for me to share
A gentle walk under the sun
A soft sleep under the moon
But I was blind to see this all
I was lost and numb too soon
So he wakes me up so gently
From darkness of my slumber
Greeted me with music and song
Crooning 'til I remember
Days when we used to laugh and cry
While everything else is blur
Content to live life together
In a love all time endure
Yes, I hear him singing his love
And he's crying as he sang
For this poor, old soul now amiss
Life's real sweetness and its twang
One deaf to hear his lovely voice
Blind to all nice things he bared
Lost in my darkness he found me
And held me tightly, he cared
The beauty of it all was that
Not much 'bout his gifts of gold
But that he waited long until
He can have me back from cold
For he waits for me and this I know
'til I learned to love his light
Even at night his stars burn bright
'til I would regain my sight
Until She Will
He only wished to find love
She found hers so she thought
He knows more than she'd admit
A love destined to be nought
Life's been cruel to her sight
She whose beauty is delight
To him, wished, touch this star
She who loves to fly afar
How long can he hold his reach
That one soul his heart still seek
To love and be loved one day
If above she chose to stay
But he loves her though she can't
He gambles time by the sill
Till she passes by through his thoughts
He will love until she will
She found hers so she thought
He knows more than she'd admit
A love destined to be nought
Life's been cruel to her sight
She whose beauty is delight
To him, wished, touch this star
She who loves to fly afar
How long can he hold his reach
That one soul his heart still seek
To love and be loved one day
If above she chose to stay
But he loves her though she can't
He gambles time by the sill
Till she passes by through his thoughts
He will love until she will
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