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Loyola House of Studies
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
A Road Trip
Last Saturday, Shio and I accompanied Frs. Mike and Revs to Tagaytay. We went to visit the retreat house of the Benedictine sisters – the St. Scholastica Retreat House. Mike made his pre-ordination retreat there and wanted to make a pilgrimage-of-sort before he leaves for Boston to pursue post-graduate studies in education. We had Mass in one of the small chapels there and Fr. Revs asked each of us to share our thoughts on the Gospel.
It was a spiritual encounter.
But it was also a gastronomical experience.
After Mass, we were introduced to Sr. Bella -- the sister of Fr. Bernas. She showed us the library which she helped put up. Then, to my great delight, she accompanied us to the Dining Hall and served us with freshly baked empanada for our morning merienda and freshly squeezed dalandan juice. We left with a bag of peanuts!
Then, we headed for Silang, Cavite for lunch at the Gourmet's Cafe. There we met Frs. Mike, Mario, Tony and Peter and Bishop Fred Escaler. We were introduced to the owner of the place -- Mr. Ernie. It was a beautiful place and the food was superb. My favorite was the Bishop Burger.
Pictures below.
It was a spiritual encounter.
But it was also a gastronomical experience.
After Mass, we were introduced to Sr. Bella -- the sister of Fr. Bernas. She showed us the library which she helped put up. Then, to my great delight, she accompanied us to the Dining Hall and served us with freshly baked empanada for our morning merienda and freshly squeezed dalandan juice. We left with a bag of peanuts!
Then, we headed for Silang, Cavite for lunch at the Gourmet's Cafe. There we met Frs. Mike, Mario, Tony and Peter and Bishop Fred Escaler. We were introduced to the owner of the place -- Mr. Ernie. It was a beautiful place and the food was superb. My favorite was the Bishop Burger.
Pictures below.
The Way Things Are
Prayer Points for SEDL
• Consider first that God the Lord creates all things at every moment. We tend to focus on “the Big Bang” at the very beginning, or on evolving life. But God continues to create at each moment.
• Even as we grow and mature, God continues to create me out of nothing. His passionate, creative love burns at the core of my self.
• God creates me in the concrete. God chose my time and place, my parents, my gifts. God keeps shaping my humanness, my personhood and my self.
• God creates out of love – that is, God wants to share His love, to have others to love and to be loved by. I am intelligent and free so that I can love, as God loves.
• In calling me to live my special qualities and characteristics, God planted deep in my self an original purpose – the concrete expression of God’s hopes in and for me. My life is to discover in myself that original purpose – what my concrete self adds up to – and to live it out.
• If I grow to be the person God has been hoping I would become, I manifest God’s power at work, God’s glory. For the glory of God is a human person fully alive. If I know who God is and who I am, and live out that knowledge, I will praise God in the morning and thank God in the night, and intend to fulfill God’s hope for myself and for my life world.
• All creatures have such an original purpose. I am so to live among created things as to reach my own, using or not using, enjoying or not enjoying others, depending on whether they help me express my original purpose.
• Yet even in this order and harmony, the Creator courteously leaves us with freedom. We are to choose whether to keep the rightness and justness and order. Where we choose not to, we wreak havoc on earth. God surely knows this. But God’s hope has always been that humankind would live out the recognition that God always comes first, and enact that recognition in creating our life together in order and in love.
• God’s will is our peace. Not the peace of silence and death, but the quiet, humming peace of a dynamic, wonderfully orderly love. This is what God hopes for on earth. This is what God hopes for you.
Source: Joseph Tetlow, S.J. (1989). Choosing Christ in the World. Saint Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources.
The picture of the Crucified Christ was taken in one of the small chapels in the St. Scholastica Retreat House in Tagaytay.
• Consider first that God the Lord creates all things at every moment. We tend to focus on “the Big Bang” at the very beginning, or on evolving life. But God continues to create at each moment.• Even as we grow and mature, God continues to create me out of nothing. His passionate, creative love burns at the core of my self.
• God creates me in the concrete. God chose my time and place, my parents, my gifts. God keeps shaping my humanness, my personhood and my self.
• God creates out of love – that is, God wants to share His love, to have others to love and to be loved by. I am intelligent and free so that I can love, as God loves.
• In calling me to live my special qualities and characteristics, God planted deep in my self an original purpose – the concrete expression of God’s hopes in and for me. My life is to discover in myself that original purpose – what my concrete self adds up to – and to live it out.
• If I grow to be the person God has been hoping I would become, I manifest God’s power at work, God’s glory. For the glory of God is a human person fully alive. If I know who God is and who I am, and live out that knowledge, I will praise God in the morning and thank God in the night, and intend to fulfill God’s hope for myself and for my life world.
• All creatures have such an original purpose. I am so to live among created things as to reach my own, using or not using, enjoying or not enjoying others, depending on whether they help me express my original purpose.
• Yet even in this order and harmony, the Creator courteously leaves us with freedom. We are to choose whether to keep the rightness and justness and order. Where we choose not to, we wreak havoc on earth. God surely knows this. But God’s hope has always been that humankind would live out the recognition that God always comes first, and enact that recognition in creating our life together in order and in love.
• God’s will is our peace. Not the peace of silence and death, but the quiet, humming peace of a dynamic, wonderfully orderly love. This is what God hopes for on earth. This is what God hopes for you.
Source: Joseph Tetlow, S.J. (1989). Choosing Christ in the World. Saint Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources.
The picture of the Crucified Christ was taken in one of the small chapels in the St. Scholastica Retreat House in Tagaytay.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
God Works Busily to Create and Save Us
Week One No. 3Grace:
My Lord Jesus I beg for the grace to be able to know and trust the Spirit of Life working in the world, unfolding patiently through time, attentive each moment to the world and to me.
Scriptural Passages:
Isaiah 40: 1-11 The Lord is my Shepherd
John 6: 28-40 Christ is the bread sustaining my life
Luke 12: 22-32 Jesus considered the lilies of the field
Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. A voice says, "Cry out!" I answer, "What shall I cry out?" "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. (So then, the people is the grass.) Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever." Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care (Is 40: 1-11).Points for Reflection:
Jesus once said, “My Father goes on working, and so do I” (Jn 5:17). For God is always the Creator and Lord, constantly making all things, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the living, not of the dead (to whom no person is dead).Some find it hard believe that God pays any attention to them or their world. You have accepted the God of Jesus Christ who “causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike” (Mt 5:45). Every day, God puts light on your face and life in your limbs.
Jesus revealed that God the Almighty and Eternal wishes to be known as a God who works tenderly as a good mother and as steadily as a good father. This is how God loves: He gives gifts, remains in his gifts, and works busily in and through them for the good of those whom he creates. And then, God shares with you even his way of loving. You can learn to love the way God loves.
Jesus declared one time that “it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work” (Jn 14:10). He kept saying that he and the Father are united. Baptized into his life, you can and must say the same. God is working in you, giving you life and light, and through you and along with you shaping your life world.
PRAYER: I am not like those who doubt you, Lord, my God. But it may be worse for me, because I pay no attention to you working in me and in my world. I would ask you to work in me to change that, good and caring God. Then I will sense and feel your holy power in my own spirit. Amen.Source: Joseph Tetlow, S.J. (1989). Choosing Christ in the World. Saint Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Amici Don Bosco
It feels good to remember.
It was a Saturday afternoon when I headed for Amici Don Bosco in Arnaiz Avenue, Makati City. My brother, Alvin, used to call Amici the "Kiosk."
Well until now, he still calls it by that name. I remember taking my lunch at the "Kiosk" when I was in High School. It was more monetarily reasonable to eat there compared to the Canteen in the School. However, at that time, we were not allowed to leave the school premises during break time. Since Amici was outside the campus, I found it fortunate to be rubbing elbows with the security guards. Honestly, ang laki ng natitipid ko from my allowance kapag duon ako kumakain. And, the food did taste great. My favorites were their sinigang na baboy and their gelato.
But now, a lot has changed. The place was cozier. Even though the place was a little bit puno, it afforded and maintained its warmth and comfort -- unlike before when it was a bit dull and too ordinary. Plus, they added pastas and pizza in their menu. It was superb, I was told.
I went to Amici to meet Carmelo, a dear and good friend from College. We were supposed to see each other by two thirty but I arrived a few minutes before two in the afternoon and I had not yet taken my lunch. Hungry to death, I was and so I told him.
I lined up at the counter not to order for what is Amici is currently known for -- pastas and pizza. But I was there to get my favorite viand.
"Manang, sinigang na baboy nga po," I asked the woman at the counter who was taking orders from their customers.
The old woman picked up a bowl. With her sandok, she mixed the soup; placed vegestables and pork in the bowl and filled it with sabaw.
"Hindi ba kumakain ka dito nuong nag-aaral ka pa sa Don Bosco?" the old woman asked.
"Opo," I replied. I smiled. I added, "Dagdagan ninyo naman po ng taba."
The old woman smiled and added an extra piece of pork in the bowl.
It did feel good to be remembered.
____________________________________________________________
I dropped by Amici to visit a good and dear friend from college. He is staying at the Salesian's Provincial House -- where Amici is located.
Carmelo is a Salesian Lay Brother. He is currently assigned at the Don Bosco College Seminary in Canlubang, Laguna -- that is where we both finished our tertiary studies. His primary work there is to assist young men in their studies and formation in the religious life.
I could not exactly remember when we first met but I do remember that he was the first person whom I got to talk with during my first day in College. We were thirty five in the batch then, that is, if my memory serves me right. Of the thirty five, almost everybody knew of everyone -- except for me. Most of them were classmates since high school. I was supposed to be with a fellow alumnus from high school but he came a month later.
I remember being swarmed by laughters from people I do not know -- it was all noise. I felt terrible. But Carmelo approached me and said, "I remember you sitting in front of the Chaplain's Office last month. I am Carmelo nga pala."
"Hi! I am Anthony."
From that day on, I was no more a stranger. It felt good. I felt good about it. And, this is one friendship I would always cherish. May God bless him.
Nota Bene: amici stands for friends in English. i am not sure if it is Italian or Latin.
It was a Saturday afternoon when I headed for Amici Don Bosco in Arnaiz Avenue, Makati City. My brother, Alvin, used to call Amici the "Kiosk."
Well until now, he still calls it by that name. I remember taking my lunch at the "Kiosk" when I was in High School. It was more monetarily reasonable to eat there compared to the Canteen in the School. However, at that time, we were not allowed to leave the school premises during break time. Since Amici was outside the campus, I found it fortunate to be rubbing elbows with the security guards. Honestly, ang laki ng natitipid ko from my allowance kapag duon ako kumakain. And, the food did taste great. My favorites were their sinigang na baboy and their gelato.But now, a lot has changed. The place was cozier. Even though the place was a little bit puno, it afforded and maintained its warmth and comfort -- unlike before when it was a bit dull and too ordinary. Plus, they added pastas and pizza in their menu. It was superb, I was told.
I went to Amici to meet Carmelo, a dear and good friend from College. We were supposed to see each other by two thirty but I arrived a few minutes before two in the afternoon and I had not yet taken my lunch. Hungry to death, I was and so I told him.
I lined up at the counter not to order for what is Amici is currently known for -- pastas and pizza. But I was there to get my favorite viand.
"Manang, sinigang na baboy nga po," I asked the woman at the counter who was taking orders from their customers.
The old woman picked up a bowl. With her sandok, she mixed the soup; placed vegestables and pork in the bowl and filled it with sabaw.
"Hindi ba kumakain ka dito nuong nag-aaral ka pa sa Don Bosco?" the old woman asked.
"Opo," I replied. I smiled. I added, "Dagdagan ninyo naman po ng taba."
The old woman smiled and added an extra piece of pork in the bowl.
It did feel good to be remembered.
____________________________________________________________
I dropped by Amici to visit a good and dear friend from college. He is staying at the Salesian's Provincial House -- where Amici is located.
Carmelo is a Salesian Lay Brother. He is currently assigned at the Don Bosco College Seminary in Canlubang, Laguna -- that is where we both finished our tertiary studies. His primary work there is to assist young men in their studies and formation in the religious life.I could not exactly remember when we first met but I do remember that he was the first person whom I got to talk with during my first day in College. We were thirty five in the batch then, that is, if my memory serves me right. Of the thirty five, almost everybody knew of everyone -- except for me. Most of them were classmates since high school. I was supposed to be with a fellow alumnus from high school but he came a month later.
I remember being swarmed by laughters from people I do not know -- it was all noise. I felt terrible. But Carmelo approached me and said, "I remember you sitting in front of the Chaplain's Office last month. I am Carmelo nga pala."
"Hi! I am Anthony."
From that day on, I was no more a stranger. It felt good. I felt good about it. And, this is one friendship I would always cherish. May God bless him.
Nota Bene: amici stands for friends in English. i am not sure if it is Italian or Latin.
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