Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category

Money, money, and more money or power, authority, influence.  I see a lot of people working, struggling, trying hard each day to achieve any of those things.  I see them do everything just to have more money or to gain power over others.  Every now and then, I become one of them.  I know how good it feels to have the money to buy everything I want.  I know how it feels to have the power to have other people follow your every word.  It feels good since you feel like you can do anything but it is a feeling that for me, remains empty probably because of the absence of love.

I think that is what makes people strive harder and harder to gain more money or gain more power.  The good but empty feeling.  The emptiness drove them to strive for more, thinking that the emptiness will be gone as they go on.  They never stopped to realize that the emptiness will not be filled with more money or more power.  Like animals, they fight to get a bigger part of their share.  They drove away those who are weak.  They step over those who fall.  Not realizing that if only they help those weak get their share.  If only they stop to help those who fell to stand up again.  If they will only stop to realize what was really missing, they will realize that getting more will not fill the emptiness but love.

In my journey, I have come to realize that only in giving will I find fulfillment and contentment.  Only in helping will I find joy.  Seeing the faces of the people whom I have helped one way of another fills my heart with an overflowing joy.  Hearing the words thank you makes me feel that it is all worth it.  Gaining new friends fill the emptiness I use to feel before.

I am not saying I am perfect and that I never trample on the weak in my entire life.  All I am saying is that, now that I have come to realize these things, I have become more sensitive to my own actions. Whenever I feel that I am trying to get more than my share, I stop and ask myself what I will gain from getting more and most of the time, the answer is none.  What profits a man when he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?  Nothing.  I would rather lose this world than lose my soul.

I am a Catholic and I will always be proud of it.  But trust me, I was also lost for while.

I grew up in a Catholic family.  My great aunts, with whom I grew up with, were churchgoers and they sort of force me to go to mass with them.  Then there is also the evening prayers, the rosary, the chapel visits every May to bring flowers.  There are also the prayer for the souls in purgatory, the no-taking-a-bath on Good Friday, no pork and no meat Lenten.  I use to dread all those, stopped practicing all those things when I had a chance, and even said that they were not in the Bible anyway.

Then, I went to a Catholic school in college.  They taught us about the different religions.  I was even fascinated with Buddhism.  I almost went to an Iglesia ni Kristo church.  I attended Bible studies under the protestant church.  Went out with a Seventh Day Adventist, and almost went to their church.  I did not eat pork for about a year during the time when we were dating.  I then got into a relationship with someone from Dating Daan.  I did not go to church for years and I probably would have gone searching for the right church until my brother entered the seminary under the Alliance of the Two Hearts.

Even after my brother has entered, I still went on with my promiscuous life.  Materialism and other worldly things succumbed me.  Until that day when I went to a test I never even imagined would happen to me.  I thought I was too smart for that.  You will probably say that after going through the test, I would have become a better Catholic but I was not.  I still went on.  Everytime I will come from  a retreat, I will be good but days after that, I will be back to my old life again.  There are things that I never understood and if I don’t understand something, then you cannot really expect me to believe and follow. Until I have encountered another problem, probably the worse I had been through.  My boyfriend left me for another woman and I was so broken.  I was too proud to accept that someone has fallen out of love for me and has chosen someone else whom in my opinion, is a lot less than I am.  From that brokenness, I found healing.  After I became so broken that my God started fixing me.  If you have been reading my blog, you would have seen my long journey.

Slowly, God has started making me understand the value of the things He taught us through the Catholic church.  Now, I believe in the mass, the rosary, the prayers, the rituals.  No matter how much my mind rejects some of the things I learned, my heart keeps telling me that I am at the right track.  That I have never felt at peace until now.  The teachings were not easy but I surely believe they are from Jesus.

Let me try to explain some things and I hope you will understand but believe me, you will only do once you opened your heart.  It is like love, you just know you found the one.

I go to mass to be with Christ, to commemorate the breaking of the bread which He did during the last supper.  The priest represents Christ and reminds us of how Jesus died for us.  It is a celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection.  It is in the Eucharist where Christ lives and when we take part of the communion, Christ starts living within us.  God is present in the Eucharist and I pray, whenever I take the communion for Him to be part of me, to stay with me and guide me through this pilgrimage.

The rosary is a contemplative prayer.  You pray each  mystery contemplating on the life and death of our Lord.  Some say it is repetitive prayer.  I have no argument about that.  But each bead of the rosary is a prayer offered for the salvation of souls in purgatory or here on earth.  It is like a sacrifice you offer God to save souls.

I use to think confession is useless and why would I even bother telling the priest about my sins when I can tell those to God directly.  Yet, come to think of it, would it not be so much better if God can tell you that you have been absolved from your sins?  He gave the disciples the power to absolve His people from their sins and the priests are His disciples.  I have gone to various confessors but only those from the Alliance made me feel that I am really talking to someone sent by God.

I use to just disregard the Blessed Mother.  Yet, come to think of it, if God wanted and needed to use her for Jesus to be born here on earth, why would He disregard her once her mission has been served?  Do you think God is someone who just casts out people or things that He no longer have use for? Of course not.  If God used Mary as a vessel for Christ for Him to be born here on earth, don’t you think she will also have the power to be the vessel to Christ now that He is in heaven? I do believe she does have the power to talk to Jesus and be our mediator. And when I talk to her, it is like I am talking to my mother asking her to ask my father a certain favor.  Don’t we all go to our mother in time of need?  Mary is our mother, our mother in heaven and she is always waiting for us to knock on her door and implore her mercy.

What about the statues?  If I remember it correctly, God did not want us to worship statues of animals and other creatures.  But do you think God will also not be happy if we worship an image of Him?  Jesus have become man, thus He has a face, a body, an image.  What is wrong with making images of Jesus according to His human form and have it as God’s representative, a reminder that God became man and is truly present? We do not worship the wood, the painting, the statues, we worship God represented by those statues.  It is not easy to believe in something we do not see and having something to show us that it is real even if it is just an image, a representation that is probably based on man’s perception, make it easier for us to believe.  It should not be the end though, it is meant to be something we can start with.  This may not be the stand of the Catholic Church but this is how I have come to accept and believe in the sacred art.

I have had a rough journey but it sure feels good to be home.  The Alliance teaches us of victimhood, of redemption, of a reparatory lifestyle.  That we can offer our actions to console our God.  Jesus has suffered enough and to console Him, we should all take our cross and walk with Him.  I will not lie and say that the cross does not scare me.  No man would probably want to suffer but if suffering will bring me to Jesus and will at least, lessen His pain, as a Catholic, I willingly accept it.  Like what St. Francis de Sales said: “Many would be willing to have afflictions provided that they not be inconvenience by them”.  I wish not to be one of those people for as St. John of the Cross said: Whoever does not see the cross of Christ doesn’t see the glory of Christ”.

I am Catholic and I will always be Catholic.

My sister was a bit sick for a couple of days and my parents decided to bring her home to the province leaving me alone in my apartment.  It was actually perfect timing since I felt that I needed some time alone to think about what I really want and also to get that taste of complete independence once more.  These past few months or probably years, my mother had been giving me too much attention that although I can do things on my own, I sort of let her do it since it seem to make her happy and give her a sense of purpose.  So, I was alone for a week in my apartment, cooking, cleaning a bit, coming home and having to do everything by myself.  It was a good feeling, just looking after myself and not thinking about anyone else.  Of course, my mother keeps on calling me at night just to check if I am home but that’s it.  It felt like I am free.

The week went by quickly.  It was both boring and fun and tiring all at the same time.  My mom even asked me if I am not scared.  I guess she never really learned that I am not scared of anything that can destroy the body but that which can destroy my soul.   I can risk being physically hurt but I cannot let anyone or anything destroy my spirit.

There were times when loneliness creep in.  I guess, I am starting to realize how I really feel about one person and it is scary.  It is a mixture of feeling happy, scared, and sad at the same time.  I am happy when I am with him.  His presence gives me a sense of security.  Feeling secured that someone understands how I feel, where I am coming from, my frustrations, my happiness.  He makes me smile.  His smile is so contagious that I cannot help but smile when he smiles a me even if I don’t really feel like it.  Scared because there are too many things at stake.  It is a rather complicated situation.  And sad that no matter how good it feels, no matter how right it seems, something tells me to stop because of the risks that goes with it.  Sad to think that when I feel that I finally found someone who perfectly suit me, I have to give it up because it seems to be the right thing to do.

I am turning 31 soon and the first question that people ask me when I meet them is if I am married already, why I am not married and when I am going to get married.  I hate it when they ask me that question.  If I know the answer, then I would have been happier and maybe I am already with someone.  I am not sure if God wants me to be married, maybe He does or maybe He does not.  I guess, only time can answer that question.  I just pray that if this man is not the one, I hope God will take him out of my life soon.  I cannot face another round of loving, hoping and losing.  My heart seem so weak now and it cannot take another fall, another hurt.  I guess, all I can do is pray and wait for God’s will to unfold.


If it pains me, I wonder how much you bled because of this tragedy.  How you weep because your children have lost sight of your love and succumbed to their weakness.  How painful is it for you to witness your children killing one another or watching a child of yours hurt or kill his brothers.  My tears are falling now but you must be crying a river.  Maybe that is why it rained hard today.  To show us how hurt you are with what is happening.  Each drop of rain is your tear pouring on us all.  Each raindrop for each drop of blood that shed.  The lightning and thunder reminding us to prepare for what is to come, to repent for our sins and stop hurting one another.  Show me how I can ease your pain.  Show me how I can make up for the pains that you have experienced because of us.  How can I console you?  My arms are open wide, ready to comfort you.  My heart is waiting for you, aching to see you smile.

I attended the mass this evening.  A boy, about 5 feet tall sat beside me.  He looks rather untidy and a bit of a kanto boy type.  Upon seeing him, I immediately moved away, wanting to transfer to another seat which is not possible because the church is already full.  Then, it dawned to me.  I was singing praises, telling the Lord that I love him when I cannot even sit beside this guy.  I judged him based on his looks.  How can I say that I love God when just sitting beside this guy makes me feel uncomfortable?   Guilt began to creep inside me that I almost cried.  This guy is here to worship God and yet I think of him as an outcast.  God is happy to see him here yet I wanted to send him away.  It’s really shameful.

I just read an article from Bo Sanchez’s blog about being blessed and making our dreams come true.  I realized the mistakes I have been making.  I have always believed in self-fulfilling prophecies and he actually confirmed it.  You become what you believe.  So now, I am going to start dreaming again and I hope everyone who reads my blog will do the same.

First step, according to Bo, is to visualize your dream.  Know what your dreams are and start visualizing it, feeling it, and really seeing it.  Well, let me start with my own dreams, from the short term to the long term.

1. Learn to play the violin

2. Learn how to dance

3. Learn how to play the drums

4. Learn how to play the piano’

5. Start taking up my MBA

6. Go to a place I have never been- outside the country

7. Pay off my credit card debts

8. Save at least 100k until my next birthday

Those are the dreams I have that I want to happen in the next 12 months.  I have already made my plans. Of course, what stopped me before is that my finances is not in a very good shape but with the increase I am going to receive this month and the expenses plan I have in mind, I will be able to save at least half of my salary starting July of this year.  This will give me enough finances to finance the activities I have in mind and still save some money.

1. Have a car - a second hand Honda Civic will be fine.

2. Have a house and lot - I plan to start with the lot by next year, probably somewhere in Laguna like what my boss keeps saying

3. Invest in the rice business of my cousin and re-start the duck farm -I want to start with this early next year.

4. My longer term plan is to have a farm in the province where I have a house, a fish pond, lots of trees, cows and pigs.

Number 4 can happen in the next 5 years.  I want to retire from regular work at the age of 40 and just work from home and spend time with my family - kids and husband (another short term dream =)

Once you already visualize your dream, you start working on those.  And last will be to Surrender your dreams to God.  Of course, there are dreams that will come true and there are dreams that won’t.  Yet, it does not really matter for things happen and don’t happen for our own good.  I believe that good things will come my way.  The best things I can imagine for I believe in God’s goodness.  His infinite goodness.  Problems will come, but cliche as you may say, there’s a pot of gold at the end of each rainbow.  I believe and I know that my dreams, the dreams that I have listed here will come true.  I will keep you posted.

Article by Dr. Harold J. Sala of Starweek

Put your house in order, because you are going to die (Isaiah 38:1)

More and more of live is lived in a fast lane.  Many will take precious hours from you in the form of phone calls, interruptions, and endless detours.  How do you get out of the fast lane?

Guideline 1: Have a plan and stay with your plan.  You can’t do everything, so list the “must do” items in one column, “should do” in another, and the “can do” in the third.  Begin with the most important “must do” item and stay with that unti you are finished.

Guideline 2: Prioritize what isn’t negotiable - time with your spouse, family and God.  At heaven’s door, you won’t be asked how much time you spent at the office, but your relationships and how you’ve spent your time will all be on the docket.

Guideline 3: Simplify, simplify, simplify.  Having more does not always satisfy; having less usually simplifies.

Guideline 4: Make every day count.  That was exactly the point that Moses made when he wrote: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

The person who lives judiciously knows that the days of our years are numbered, and that’s why he strives to make each one count, waiting on God at the beginning of every day to know how to live with purpose.

Guideline 5: To the degree that you can, live every day without regrets.  You should so live that when you die, even the undertaker would be sorry.

Guideline 6: Slow down and enjoy the flowers.  You have no second chances for some things.  So say it now, write it now, enjoy it now, and leave tomorrow in God’s hands.

“What does the worker gain from his toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  He has made everything beautiul in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. (Eccleciastes 3:9-12)

Article by renowned Catholic Author Michael H. Brown

 

Lost in the hullabaloo over the economy is the trend toward global consolidation.  Astonishingly, the United States has taken over private financial institutions and may now send hundreds of billions into additional private interests on Wall Street, as it absorbs debt and assumes a degree of control.  It is a ’soft’ socialism, something that would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago and places tremendous power in the hands of the Federal Reserve, which long has been feared as a behind-the-scenes player that will control the economy and work toward a consolidation (first of businesses, then of nations) which in turn would lead to a new world order, and perhaps even a single world system of finance and governance.

 

For many years, this has seemed in the realm of wild conspiracy, but to increasing numbers, it is not quite so wild any longer.  No one here is saying that a small group of strategists is controlling the world, but terms like ’secret governing’ directed by a relatively small number of officials are a consideration that has grown more acute in recent days.  We have long said the conspiracy is more a spiritual one, a spiritual trend, than the work of any single brilliant Geneva-or-Brussels-based cabal.  Many different entities, some large, some small, some open, some secretive, are moving in the same direction: consolidation first of finances, then of governments.  One sees this most starkly with the United Nations, the European Union, and now the move (at least at the level of finances) to dissolve borders too in the Western Hemisphere.  A former leader of Mexico even used the term ‘North American Union’ as a goal for his nation.  And a number of U.S. presidents – including Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush Sr. – have employed the term ‘new world order’.  Recently, former British leader Tony Blair, a Catholic, was a Yale speaking of the need to merge faith with globalization.

 

Now, we believe that one can go too far with all of this.  Not everything is a conspiracy.  But something about what is occurring on Wall Street (and at the Treasury) does not seem right.  In the wake of the reputed financial crisis (no one is really sure what’s occurring), we see headlines to the effect that ‘global firms’ are ‘set to move in’.  That’s disquieting.  Do powerful financiers actually manipulate developments and markets to such a degree as to change he landscape almost single-handedly, and for the strategic goal of a single governance?  This is the fear because a single system could be controlled, then, or at least decisively influenced, by a personage of evil.

 

Is prophecy materializing before our eyes?  We see quotes, some difficult to verify, to this effect.  In 1927, it is claimed, the president of an international organization of educators foresaw a ‘patient and persistent’ effort of ‘long duration’ to wipe the ‘cobwebs of the old order’ from our minds in order to form specifically a ‘new world order’.  We all know the strange course of education.  Is it related?  Since the formation of the League of Nations, there has bee talk of a new order buttressed by a global police force.  Is that too part of the spiritual inclination?  In 1962, Governor Nelson Rockefeller spoke of a new order that would answer economic problems.  It would come, added a former deputy assistant secretary of state, after a ‘great booming, buzzing confusion’ that eroded national sovereignty.  Let us note that the current bailout propose by Treasury would include foreign interests.  President Bush Sr., it is said, wanted to make the United Nations a cornerstone of a new world order, but since that time others have sought other means because the U.N. thus far, has not been strong enough to finish the task.  Is the best route, now, through finance?

 

It is a timely question.  Paranoid?  Perhaps.  Or vigilant?  When both Russia and the U.S. have spoken the need for a ‘new world order’ (although often at odds, apparently, with the precise approach), one has to place more stock in fears that in fact an actual level of wealth influences governments and markets and banks on all sides to a degree the public does not recognize.  Let us go back to January 29, 1991, when President Bush S. said that what was in stake with Iraq was not just ‘one small country’ but ‘a big idea, a new world order’.  This term has been used by many other officials.  Innocently?  These are quotes.  And they seem to transcend political boundaries.  In April 0f 1992, Senator Joseph R. Biden wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called, ‘How I Learned to Love the New World Order.’  As for crises (military or financial) it is also interesting to note how banker David Rockefeller, speaking at the U.N., once said that ‘we are on the verge of a global transformation.  All we need is the right major crisis and the world will accept the new world order.’

 

Such as a financial one?  The new world order is a world that has supernatural authority to regulate the world commerce and industry, an international organization that would control production and consumption of oil, and an international currency that would replace the dollar.  We know what has been happening with the dollar.

 

Pope Leo XIII wrote of such secret power as one that ‘bends governments and forms an invisible and irresponsible power, an independent government.’  Some believe there are fewer than 500 people who control the governments behind the scenes.  Some put the number at fat smaller.  ‘It is not emperors or kings, nor princes, that direct the courts of affairs in the East,’ said Henry Edward Manning, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster in 1877.  ‘Three hundred men, all of whom know one another, direct the economic density of Europe and choose their successors from among themselves,’ intoned the former head of General Electric in Germany.  ‘Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately,’ said President Woodrow Wilson.  ‘Some of t biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something.  They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.’

 

Can this really be true?  Most of these quotes are from a hundred years ago.  And yet, that ‘patient, persistent’ effort seems not far from around us – an inexorable trend toward one-world government – as Asia consolidates, as Europe pulls together, and as the Western Hemisphere moves toward a European-Union-style of relationship among its entities.  ‘The real menace of our Republic is this invisible government,’ a former New York mayor quoted as saying.  ‘At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses.  The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the U.S. government and practically control both political parties.’

 

Oh, the finances of Washington!  Oh, the unusual decisions!  Oh, rush to consolidate financial interests, under a government umbrella.  ‘The real truth of the matter is that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson,’ said Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

 

Whatever the truth, the rush to ‘bail out’ Wall Street is just that: too rushed.  One professor warned in 1966 there was a group with the goal of ‘nothing less than to create a world system of financial control.’  This system, he said, would be controlled by ‘the central banks of the world’.

 

Is it true?  And if so: is it just greed?

 

Or is it something more sinister?

All of us are looking for answers. We want to know the reasons behind our predicament or the troubles that haunts us.  We search everywhere - through other people, places, books, movies.  These thirst for the truth and for answers that most of us have, our desire to find meaning, is perhaps one of the reasons why there is the abundance of self-help books in the market.  Books that claim that they have the answers.  And who can give us the best answer other than the One who created us and knows us by name?  Our God.  Yet, even if others claim that they have the answers, how can we know that their answers are  true?  That they did not write the book just for the sake of profit - promising us the answers that we so desire.  That the author is not an instrument of deception?  Against this, we must be vigilant.  As Christians, we are fully aware that the devil roams about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).

One good example could be the book Conversations with God written by Neale D. Walsch.  It has a teen edition called Conversations with God for Teens.  As one concerned Christian wrote in the October 2008 edition of Emmanuel:

-quote-

These books are devastating.  They sound harmless enough by their titles alone.  They have been on the New York Times best sellers list for a number of weeks, and they make truth of the statement, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover or title’.

The author purports to answer various questions asked by kids using the  ‘voice of God’.  However, the  ‘answers’ that he gives are not Bible-based and go against the very infallible Word of God.

For instance (and I paraphrase), when a girl asks the question ‘Why am I a lesbian?’  His answer is that she was ‘born that way’ because of genetics (just as you were born right-handed, with brown eyes, etc).  Then he tells her to go out and ‘celebrate’ her differences.

Another girl poses the question, ‘I am living with my boyfriend.  My parents said that I should marryyou him because I am living in sin.  Should I marry him?’  His reply is, ‘Who are  you sinning against?  Not me, because you have done nothing wrong.’

Another question asked about God’s forgiveness of sin.  His reply:’I do not forgive anyone because there is nothing to forgive.  There is no such thing as right or wrong and that is what I have been trying to tell everyone, do not judge people.  People have chosen to judge one another and this is wrong, because the rule is ‘judge not lest ye be judged.’

-unquote-

Let this serve as a wake up call to parents, to priests, and religious ministers.  Let us be vigilant.  Our youth is in danger, unless we guide them and guard them from these schemes.  Teenagers can be passionate, with great hunger for answers and belongingness.  Let us bring them to where they belong - in our family, with God.

I have read this in one of the forums I had been visiting lately. I hope this inspires you as well as it has inspired me….

Dear God,

I am about to commit myself to someone I fell in love with. Can I take him now? I have prayed for him for quite some time now.

But God answered:

Not yet, not until you are satisfied, fulfilled and content with being loved by me alone. You need to give yourself totally

unreserved to me because in me your satisfaction is to be found. And when you learn to commit yourself to me alone then,

only then is the right time for you to be capable of a perfect human relationship that I have planned for you, long before you

thought about it. You will never be united with another until you are united with me. You will never learn to speak and

understand the true language of love until you hear me speak it. You will never learn how it is to love and be loved until

you feel the tender touch of my LOVE. I want you to stop planning. Stop wishing and allow me to step in and give you the

most surprising and exciting plan that you can imagine. You are my child. I want you to have the best. Please allow me to

bring it to you. Fix your eyes on me and expect the greatest things as you watch. Keep experiencing the satisfaction that

I AM. Learn all the things I tell you and be patient. Just wait. Don’t be anxious. Do not worry. Don’t look around and feel at the

things others may have got. Yours will be different because I LOVE YOU. Don’t look at things you think you want. They may

not be the things I want for you. Look up straight at me because you might miss what I want to show you. And then, when

you’re ready. I’ll surprise you with a lover far more wonderful than what you would ever dream of. But I won’t let you have it

until you are ready and the one I have prepared for you is ready, until you are both satisfied exclusively with me and the LIFE

I have prepared for you. FIND ME AND EVERYTHING ELSE THAT YOU THINK YOU NEED WILL BE PUT INTO YOUR LIFE!

Loving you,

God