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.