Today is all we got, isn't? Who knows, what tomorrow brings. Be honest, be fair, listen. Anyone can get through one day at a time. It's light, and then it's dark again, isn't it? Persistence, that's all what gets there in the end. Believe in yourself and persistence! And don't you ever forget it, Persistence and Character!♥
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
~ Harriet Tubman ~
Life is beautiful. It's just how about how you pigment it ---- dark, tone, light, flush ; hone it ---- sharp, dull, fine, edge ; paint it ---- dye, flat, gloss, stain. However ---- coordinated, arranged, designed, patterned a course in life has, It's a beautiful life. Make the most of every opportunity ---- regrets ---- no regrets. Life is always beautiful.♥
"The classical doctrine on the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit was expanded to included yet another "movement" : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world . . . . Our mission has no life of it's own : only in the hands of the sending God can truly be called mission, not least since the missionary initiative comes from God alone."
~ David Bosch ~
The Lord knows what we are capable of. As he sends us forth, he knows what challenges we will face and when we will be ready to face them. He stretches us, so that our love will expand to include not only our relatives and friends but also those who betrayed us, those whom we would naturally want to exclude from the circle. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he plants his own love in our hearts, an instrument of his blessings for the whole world. ♥
As human beings, everything we are and have, we have received as gift from God, often through the instrumentality of others. And because we have received, we give to others the gift of what we are and have. However, it is often tempting to keep our gifts for ourselves, and not share them with others. Sometimes we are tempted to give, but only to get something in return ---- praise, a good name, status and power in society. Sometimes we give to God in order to get favors ---- a good job, success, and healing. Whereas it is admirable that we expect favors from God and not from human beings, how much more wonderful would it be if we can give, freely and joyfully, for the sheer joy of giving, without expecting anything in return, neither from human beings nor from God. Freely. Totally. Joyfully.♥
"Where your treasure is, there your heart is also." Our hearts can easily become fixed on "earthly treasure." Our tendency to look for happiness in material things is what makes us so susceptible to the clever deceptions of the world of advertising. Everyone knows, of course, that buying a certain product ---- a soft drink or shampoo will not give us the earthly paradise that the commercials portray, but as long as we long for earthly treasure, the advertisements are still effective. We are told not to waste our time storing up material wealth, such as money, clothes, possessions. These things are good when they are used for the right purposes, but they simply do not last, so they cannot give us lasting security or happiness. Since we live in an age when so many products are deliberately manufactured 'not to last', this message should be even more obvious to us. All we have to do is look at a ten-year-old car or cell phone and we can see that material things can give us only passing happiness. The odd thing about living in a materialistic age is that this very lesson is so often missed. The rapid breakdown of one gadget only leaves us hungering for the new, improved version. How can we be so easily fooled into thinking that this one will succeed in making us happy, when the previous ones all failed so miserably? We can be quite irrational about our early possessions, like the compulsive gambler who thinks that he will be satisfied forever if he can just win the jackpot one time. Even if we are to buy a product that will potentially last for generations (if it is not lost or stolen), a piece of golden jewelry, for example, or a diamond, we will not enjoy it forever ---- we will leave it behind when we die. The ancient Egyptians used to bury their kings surrounded by things that they thought they would need in the next life. When archeologists dig up their tombs thousand of years later, most of the items are corroded. But even those that remain intact are of absolute no use to the dead man buried with them. Completely Change the focus of our hearts to "store up heavenly treasure," treasures that really lasts. At the very end, nothing else will matters but, love.♥
MANILA
."She had never seen poverty on this scale. 'How can one person possibly make a difference.' For every one person Sienna fed, there were hundreds more who gazed at her with desolate eyes. Manila had six-hour traffic jams, suffocating pollution, and a horrifying sex trade, whose workers consisted primarily of young children, many of whom had been sold to pimps by parents who took solace in knowing that at least their children would be fed. Amid this chaos of child prostitution, panhandlers, pickpockets, and worse, Sienna found herself suddenly paralyzed. All around her, she could see humanity overrun by it's primal instinct for survival. 'when they face desperation . . . human beings become animals.' For Sienna all the dark depression came flooding back. She had suddenly understood mankind for what it was ---- a species on the brink. 'I was wrong,' she thought. 'I can't save the world.' Overwhelmed by traffic mania, Sienna broke into a sprint through the city streets, thrusting her way through the masses of people, knocking them over, pressing on, searching for open space. 'I'm being suffocated by human flesh!' As she ran, she could feel the eyes upon her again. She no longer blended in. She was tall and fair-skinned with a blond pony tail waving behind her. Men stared at her as if she were naked. When her legs finally gave out, she had no idea how far she had run or where she had gone. She cleared the tears and grime from her eyes and saw that she was standing in a kind of shantytown ---- a city made of pieces corrugated metal and cardboard propped up and held together. All around her the wails of crying babies and the stench of human excrement hung the air. 'I've run through the gates of hell.'
~Excerpt, Inferno, Dan Brown ~
"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
~ Voltaire ~
Francois-Marie Arouet, November 21, 1694-May 30, 1778
Hello Dan Brown, 'presumed you visited Manila. As they say there is always two side to a coin. It's heart rending to depict poverty as hell. If a person realizes that some worldly element is distracting him/her from this goal, there shall be no hesitation to distance oneself from such element. As per the Mosaic Law, every sacrifice was to be salted in order to consecrate the offering and remind the people of one's covenantal relationship with God. Therefore, losing saltiness would mean losing one's purity of intent. As Soren Kierkegaard has noted, "purity of heart is to will one thing," and this one thing is God and God alone, . . . . (Sirach 5:1-8 / Mk 9:41-50). One way to identify wisdom is to recognize its opposite. If we are wise, we will not allow foolish "inner conversations" to take place in our minds. We will not give in to overconfidence, the sin which the Catechism calls 'presumption.' There are two kinds of presumption, one kind moves us to rely too much on our own wealth or personal strength, as if we were more powerful than God, the other kind moves us to suppose God will forgive us even if we are not repentant. All who are wise in the ways of the Lord know that we must often choose a path that seems more difficult now, in the future, we will be richly rewarded. One leading to reward, the other to punishment. To the foolish the choices may seem rather insignificant. On the positive side, there is the simple act of giving someone a drink of water. It is not a grand act or an impressive sacrifice ---- it will not be reported in media or change the world. We may be tempted to think that small acts of charity are not even worth doing, but the Lord says the man who does this "will not go without his reward." On the negative side, misleading a "simple believer." Causing another person to sin ---- especially one of the Lord's "little ones" ---- is a very serious matter. The world may treat sins as no more than light entertainment, but anyone who commits them merits a punishment harsher than being "plunged into the sea with a great millstone fastened around his neck." To emphasize the seriousness of any actions or decisions that will determine our eternal destiny. Which direction are we going in, toward eternal life in heaven or toward eternal punishment in hell? We are better off entering the Kingdom of God crippled than entering hell with our bodies fully intact. The roots of sin are not in the hand, the foot, or the eye. What must be "cut off" is every attachment to sin in the heart. We are better off gouging out our presumption and making a good confession than gouging an eye.
Many people consider the use of such grim images ---- like drowning under the weight of a millstone or burning in a fire that never goes out ---- to be unpleasant and improper in our days. We are not supposed to make people feel uncomfortable. Only positive messages are considered acceptable. Jesus is not so concerned about how we feel, but how we are living and where we are going. His message of love and mercy includes the disturbing truth about hell. God loves us all, therefore, "Everyone will be salted with fire" ---- the fire of divine love.
Storm come and go, as often as before, sometimes it took almost everything, sometimes it leaves nothing, sometimes it leaves us nothing. But through all these, with the beautiful sunny disposition of a rainbow, life goes on. Life always goes on. Standing tall, Manileños has but one word for you MABUHAY!♥
"Accept God's message for what it really is : God's message, and not some human thinking."
~ 1 Thessaloninas 2:13 ~
"Speechless . . . . contained . . . . words don't come easy."♥
I contained myself in words
In the dreams and visions they call
The taste of them on my tongue
I creep as they brush across my lips
Flutter as they form in my chest
A roll larger than myself
While they wind a path through my mind
Illuminating this sensation, and that emotion
Recording all the world so that no moment must die
But these are only words
Contained
And for all they do for me
I would rather hold your gaze
Drawn you in
Feel your breath as you speak to me
In a beaus nonsense no words can bring
Contained in you, I am eternally bounded.♥
~ramp 297, 290212~
Why did you say them ----
Those profound words I wanted to say?
You strung them together
One bead, one word, one feather
They were mine, you know
I held them close,
Afraid to look,
In case you saw them too
And stole them away
To write my book.
In the dark of the night,
I would look at them
Dream them,
Touch and even think them
Bold, unabashed
They would tumble
Beautiful and raw
They would flow
At day break, though,
They were gone ----
Again.
You saw through me,
You saw my soul.
You stole them all
And wrote them down
You made them real . . . .
They belong to you now
Lofty ---- tangible
They are ---- My words.♥
~ Words, Ameeta Agnihotri ~
Always remember that happiness comes from deep within.The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be. It is also when you're exposed to unhappy situation -person that you'll be unhappy at that moment. Sure thing it won't touch your deepest core of happiness but certainly shakes it.♥
There's too much endeavor for fleeting material happiness.♥
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you. I beg pardon of you for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.♥
~ ramp297, 080312 ~
Go out to all the world, and tell the good news.
"Flesh and blood" means the full presence and reality of a person. "Eat my flesh and drink my blood," he said. "But, but . . . . " is what we have heard people say through the ages as at the beginning. To eat is to assimilate completely : your food is in your stomach, but on its way to become you. We are invited to assimilate deeply the full presence and reality of Christ. When you become knotted up in technical ifs and buts about how Christ is present in the Eucharist, just cut the knot and go back to the basic meaning. Jesus himself gave no explanation when asked.
Let's get it on, as we continue our own "journey to Damascus," part of what we experience is an ever-greater appreciation of the mystery of the Eucharist. Indeed, Jesus' flesh is real food and his blood is real drink!
Those without faith see this claim as an impossibility and a scandal. Those with weak faith do not take the Lord's words seriously, and treat the Eucharist as a mere symbol. But we who believe know that Jesus is giving us life, eternal life, the very life he shares with the Father. Before this inexpressible gift, we collapse in gratitude and humble adoration.♥
Acts 9:1-20 / Jn 6:56 / Jn 6:52-59
Two monologues do not make a dialogue.
~ Jeff Daly ~
We feel troubled not only when bad things happen, but when unexpected good things happen as well. In other words, we feel troubled when something ---- good or bad ---- upsets our set ways of living and leaves us confused. Many of the intellectual difficulties we have with Faith come from the fact that we bring the wrong kind of mind to it. The modern world has largely lost the power of symbolic thinking and replaced it with analysis. Analysis in itself is a powerful mode of thought, but it is not the whole of thought. Even people whose conscious minds are fixed in an analytical mode are still moved unconsciously by symbolism. Our world is filled with symbols of contentment, pleasure, fulfillment, happiness ---- and these work on us all, no matter how analytical we may be. We are all manipulated by symbolism when we do not recognize its reality. Our Faith can withstand analysis, but you cannot live on analysis. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." ♥
They have come up with a perfect understanding. He won't try to run her life, and he won't try to run his, either. And beautifully their love wakes with the morning, unafraid to meet the little worries of the day and thus sleeps when evening comes delighted to see the darkness of the night.♥
A quitter never wins, a winner never quits. Winners never quit but when they do, they do it for the right reason. Right? Right! Okay let's hear something from, C. S. Lewis : *Do not dare not to dare.* ---- Right!♥
FALLING STARS : Do you remember still the falling stars
that like swift horses through the heavens raced
and suddenly leaped across the hurdles
of our wishes ---- do you recall? And we
did make so many! For there were countless numbers
of stars : each time we looked above we were
astounded by the swiftness of their daring play,
while in our hearts we felt safe and secure
watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate,
knowing somehow we had survived their fall.
A billion stars go spinning through the night,
glittering above your head,
But in you is the presence that will be
when all the stars are dead.♥
~ Rephrase, Rainer Maria Rilke ~
For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
"I am the bread of life." I am what satisfies the deepest and most elemental needs of humanity. I am the most intimate reality in your life : As intimate to you, as sustaining as the food in your mouth. I am the one who keeps your awareness bright like a lamp, your heart warm, your will healthy, strong and gentle. I am the one who enables you to raise your eyes, to see beauty and glory in the world, and to open the eye of your spirit till you see God.♥
1 Pt 5:5-14 / 1 Cor 1:23, 24 / Mk 16:15-20
Lord, Thank You.
If you never felt pain, then how would you know that He is a healer?
If you never had to pray, how would you know that He is a deliverer?
If you never had a trial, how could He help you overcome it?
If you never felt sadness, how would you know that He is a comforter?
If you never made a mistake, how would you know that He is a forgiver?
If you knew all, how would you know that He will answer all your questions?
If you never were in trouble, how would you know that He will come to your rescue?
If you never were broken, then how would you know that He can make you whole?
If you never had a problem, how would you know that He can solve them?
If you never had any suffering, then how would you know what He went through?
If you never went through the fire, then how would you become pure?
If He gave you all things, how would you appreciate them?
If He never corrected you, how would you know that He loves you?
If you had all power, then how would you learn to depend on Him?
If your life was perfect, then how would you need Jesus for?♥
~ Author Unknown To Me ~
Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give the glory.
We sometimes wonder why God does not reveal himself more obviously in the world. Why does he hide his face from so many people? He could easily display his presence and power, and, it seems to us, this would move more people to believe in him.
We are all aware o f the names and faces of famous celebrities ---- movie stars, entertainers, and sports heroes. They have been "revealed" to us by the media. We can see and hear them everyday if we want to. But do we love them? We may admire them, or be grateful for what they have done. We may even idolize them. But we do not really have a relationship of love with them. In fact, we do not even really know them in a personal way. Something more than media exposure is necessary ; we need a more personal encounter. The same is true of our relationship with God.
God shows us more than beauty and vastness of creation. He reveals himself to us in his Son, and in his name sends us the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. This God alone is worthy of our worship and adoration. We cannot make an idol of him because he is true and living God. He reveals that he wants a relationship of love with us, for he himself is an infinite communion of love. so Jesus tells us : "Anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my Father will love him ; we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him." God wants to share his very life to us, to dwell within us. Together we form one living communion of love. "The image of the vine and the branches."
Memory is a mysterious part of our being. We see or hear or smell something that takes us right back to our childhood, and we remember something that had lain for many years in our memory. It is important to remember the right thing! And imagine what you would become if you remembered all the things you should forget! Two people can grow together in one home and one of them remembers goodness while the other recalls only misery. In some measure you are what you remember. The Holy Spirit is God's Reminder. This spirit can heal your memories, working deeply in your past, rearranging, freeing, healing everything there. It is the continuation of Christ work in us. "God has come to us in the form of men!" but as a true man, in Jesus Christ : "Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father"♥
Acts 14:5-18 / Jn 14:22 / Jn 14:21-26
Into your hands, O lord, I entrust my spirit.
It is the ordinariness of the bread that is so astonishing! Jesus wants to be ordinary for us. "A very precious relic," wrote Meister Eckhart, "is not willingly allowed to be touched to be touched or seen. Therefore He clothed Himself in the cloak of the likeness of bread, just as my bodily food is transformed by my soul, so that no corner of my nature is not united with it . . . . There is not so much as a needle's point that is not united with it. What I ate a fortnight ago is as much one with my soul as what I received in my mother's womb. So it is that whoever receives this food purely becomes as truly one with it as my flesh and blood are one with my soul."
Jesus' patient responses continue to draw us further into the real meaning of the bread from heaven. The manna, as great as it was, was still only a sign of "the real heavenly bread" which the Father gives for the life of the world. With the request, "Sir, give us this bread always," Jesus reveals even more : "I myself am the bread of life." . . . . He has not come simply to give us loaves, but to give us himself.♥
Acts 7:51, 8:1 / Jn 6:35 / Jn 6:30-35
If you really love me . . . . Have you ever been asked by a loved one to exaggerate your accomplishments or qualities in order to impress their colleagues or friends? It can be heartbreaking, because it can feel as if they do not accept you as you are. However, you should have never to pretend in order to prove your love to another person. You do not have to act like someone different in order to be lovable. Real love always prefer the truth. He loves you and accepts you just as you are. Rejoice that he brings out the best in you ---- who you were truly created to be ---- and that you never have to hide yourself from him. Be thankful that real love is about truth. "Your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth." Just As You Are.♥
I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved ---- all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors . . . . Perhaps I would have liked to be my father, who wrote and had the decency of not publishing. Nothing, nothing, my friend ---- what I have told you : I am not sure of anything, I know nothing . . . . Can you imagine that I not even know the date of my death?
~ Jorge Luis Borges ~
There is something prosaic and shallow about the listeners of Jesus. They are very literal people, paralyzed by the immediacy of what is before their physical eyes. They simply cannot see beyond the physicality of Jesus into the immense possibilities of Christ. Thus they confuse the meaning of death or age that Jesus speaks of. No wonder they pick up the stones in their hands. In total contrast to these people is Abraham. Abraham has the capacity to imagine, see beyond the literalness and limitations of the physical world and his own physical self into the possibilities of God. In other words, he walks easy on the road of faith. He understands the language of God, and God finds it easy to converse with him. How would it be between God and me ---- you? Do we talk and hear the same language?♥
~Gen17:3-9/Jn8:51-59~
Compassion :
You may be thinking, "There is a lot of hurting people out there. I can't help them all!" If, however, one hurting person crossed your path and reached out to you in need, could you stop long enough to hear what he ---- she hears, to feel what he ---- she feels, and to be there in his ---- her time of need? That is where compassion begins, my dear friend.♥
