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

As you might know, the head of a company survived 9/11 because his son started kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because her alarm clock didn’t go off in time.

One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.

One of them missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.

One’s car wouldn’t start.

One went back to answer the telephone .

One had a child that dawdled and didn’t get ready as soon as he should have.

One couldn’t get a taxi.

The one that struck me was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today.

Now when I am stuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone … all the little things that annoy me. I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment..

Next time your morning seems to be going wrong, the children are slow getting dressed, you can’t seem to find the car keys, you hit every traffic light, don’t get mad or frustrated; God is at work watching over you.

May God continue to bless you with all those annoying little things and may you remember their possible purpose

Take my heart.  I’m so tired of loving other men.  Let me just love You and You alone.

Take my mind.  Fill it with thoughts of You.  In that way, I will only have positive thoughts.  In that way, I will be happy.  My paths will be straight and I will never go astray.

Take my body.  Let me serve you with all my strength.  Let me offer all my works to you.  Let me be your servant, let me serve your people.

Take my soul.  In your presence, I find peace.  In your presence, I feel loved.  Let me just be with you always.

All I am is yours.  Nosbody owns me but You.  Let no man claim what is yours unless you allow them to.  Let everyone who want to be a part of my life pass through you.  Screen their hearts, screen their intentions.  Only the man who will love me till the end can claim my heart from you… only the man you have reserve for me and no one else.  Please don’t let my heart be broken again.  I’m letting go Lord.  I’m letting you take charge of my life.  Take it.  It is yours.

It was a rainy afternoon.  I didn’t bring my umbrella - first because it’s going to make my bag bulky, and;  second, I just feel lazy transferring it from my other bag.  I know, it’s rather stupid but I just don’t like umbrellas that much.  So, the day went on and it’s time to go home.  It’s still early so I still have time to drop by Padre Pio’s chapel.  It was drizzling and I was actually having second thoughts about going there - since I do not have an umbrella.  Still, I found myself inside the chapel.  A bit scared that the drizzling might turn to heavy rain once I’m done with my prayer, I prayed that the rain won’t start until I’m home and that I will be able to get a cab soon.  In spite of this, my turned to a rather hasty prayer.  I normally stay at the chapel long after I’m done praying but on that day, because of my fear of getting wet, I went out immediately after.  I rushed out of the chapel and was relieved that it’s not raining yet.  Then I walked out of the chapel compound.  On my way out, a taxi was entering the compound.  It didn’t take long for the taxi to come out again after dropping off it’s passengers in front of the chapel.  I know how hard it is to get a cab on rainy days.  A lot of people are riding the taxi aside from the fact the most taxis get trapped in the midst of heavy traffic.  Even if I get one, some won’t be willing to go to Cubao where I live coz the place is known for heavy traffic.  Yet, the cab driver was okay driving me home.

It may be a rather trivial thing for some.  But for me, it is one proof that God answers our prayers - no matter how trivial it may seem.

I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease…..
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They’d laugh at me I’d fear.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.
I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book
It was the book of life.
God looked into his book and said
“Your name I cannot find
I once was going to write it down…
But never found the time”