On gratitude

This is my humble contribution to the event "Philippine thank you day," which is held today within the archipelago of the country.

I remember that when I was in Canlubang, it has been a habit for me to think of "five things I am grateful for" and carefully write it in my journal. I did this consistently before I finally bid the passing day goodbye.

A cursory glance at my journal included the following things:

• The light time with Lonx and Jake
• Ron's help during my scanning
• Witnessed how Jesvir and Marnel mightily defended their thesis
• The chocolate bar Jesvir gave me
• Fr. Joe's presence during the meditation for confession
• Dennis' thoughtfulness
• T-shirt I got from Jules
• Piatos Itchan gave me

I shared this once with a companion and after going through the pages of my journal, he was amazed and instantly affirmed the writer in me. Hands down, I realized that the writer in me does the work. But the one who initiates it is the grateful side of me.

It's just that it feels good to count the good things that took place especially when things don't go the way you expect them to be. I believe that the object of gratitude is not only the person who caused me something good but also, and more importantly, the person in me who recognized the goodness of the person.

Anyway, I realized that one thing is common among the items above. Each entry contains individuals. The good deed, or the thing, or the sweet chocolate mattered but I realize that nothing compares with the "gift of person" I receive from each of them.

This English aphorism refrains in my mind "The best thing in the world is not a thing."

Sundry

I am providing a hand to Fr. Wilbert in preparing the booklet that we'll use for our mid-year evaluation next week. He gave it to me last night. The lay-out was okay, but it needs some updating. It was the booklet used last year.

Plus, the to-do list I posted yesterday needs to be eradicated the soonest possible time.

Anyway, this afternoon, we were invited to give the unfreezers to the participants of the Social Communications arm of the congregation. They're here for a formation meeting on information and communication. The affair is being held at the Don Bosco Retreat House, just a few steps from where I am staying. A related article may be read by clicking this link.

It was a real challenge for us to do the unfreezers thinking that the participants come from various cultural/linguistic origins. But we were able to breathe in some youthful spirit.

First term is over

The exams season is finished.

Enjoying the term break?

+ i need to finish my sermonette (due on the 24th of this month).
+ i need to write a speech for the sdb communities for our salesian expedition next week.
+ i need to finalize my report on salesianity.
+ i need to finish my lesson plan for the memoirs of the oratory due this month.
+ i need to draft my research project to be submitted in two week's time.
+ i need to draft the Christology paper that needs to be submitted before this month ends.

Not yet.

Bidding godbye to a friend

We bid goodbye last night to Edward with a bang!

He leaves on Friday to resume his studies in Canlubang.

The Angels, Knights of the Altar (KOA), Aspirants, Cooperators all came to wish him "bon voyage." We were flooded with sumptuous food. The atmosphere was melodramatic. The members of the KOA provided the entertainment to perk up the night.

With his departure, I will lose a confidant, co-worker, guitar teacher, fan, and editor. But I am sure that our friendship remains.

And of course, I took tons of pictures. They may be found here and here.

I'll post the videos soon.

Exams

It's our examination week in the novitiate.

Four subjects down (Constitutions, Italian, Christology and Theology of Religious Life). Tomorrow, we'll just have one subject more: Fundamentals of Christian Doctrine. Salesianity was scheduled tomorrow. But since Fr. Ronel is not around, the exam for his subject is postponed until he returns from Tagaytay.

Just a quick assessment. I am confident in my Italian and TRL exams. I already got the result of my constitutions exams, and it’s…satisfactory.

I am not sure though with my performance in Christology. The questions made me dizzy. Plus, the questions on biblical passages baffled me (one question went like this: In what portion of the Johanine gospel can you find the “I am the Bread of Life” statement?). Sure thing, Fr. Wilbert taught us this—it’s in the handout—together with the other six “I AM” statements of Christ in the gospel written by St. John.

I failed to answer the four or so questions that fell on this category (i.e. biblical passage identification). I think, memory work wasn’t really a big task for me. But the numbers in the biblical passages intimidated me.

Oh well, tomorrow, I am secured that things will go well. We didn’t discuss any biblical passages there.

A woman named Teresa

Nada te turbe;
nada te espante;
todo se pasa;
Dios no se muda,
la pacienciatodo lo alcanza.
Quien a Dios tiene,nada le falta.

Solo Dios basta.

I first encountered this hymn when I joined the Taize movement in our parish. I was only 15 years old then. The meaning of the lyrics was, of course, beyond me. But the hymn was awesome. Gazing my eyes on the wooden cross surrounded by several candles, the song had an awesome calming effect on me whenever we would sing it.

The lyrics were from a poem believed to have been composed by St. Teresa of Avila. Her disciples found out a copy of this poem in her breviary. Below is a translation of the poem done by Jorge W. Suazo:

Let nothing disturb you.
Nothing dismay you.
All things pass.
But God never changes.
Whoever has God lacks nothing.
If you have only God,
You have more than enough.

Today is her feast. She died on Oct. 15 more than 500 years ago.

Her whole life is a concrete example of how it is to become in constant union with God. What she experienced wasn’t for the faint hearted. She suffered many a trial towards her way to perfection.

In fact, after professing her vows as a Carmelite nun after a year, she fell to serious illness. She was not simply dying. She already died. And when she was brought to life once again, her suffering went on.

It was from her lips that this famous quote came out: "God, if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them

Even before I was in Canlubang, I realized that I’ve been so much interested to read books on spirituality and prayer. And each book on these genres cannot but quote her or run even a cursory anecdote of her life.

Two days ago, I finished reading a biographical book of St Teresa. Grace from God is common among all saints. I believe that an ordinary mortal, even with his/her willing it, cannot become a Saint without it. But the French author, André Maurois, believed otherwise: “A saint she indeed became, but by force of will.”

I know how my weaknesses can prevent me from becoming a Saint. I will not ask for the grace for me to be one. I don’t have much courage to face the difficulties she experienced. In my prayer this morning, I only ask God for one thing: “let me see her in heaven.”

Return!

As usual, Fr. Fidel left me in a pensive mood after he delivered his good night talk last night. Good night talk is a uniquely Salesian tradition that dates back to the time of Don Bosco. Before his charges would retire for their night rest, he would bid them good night with an edifying message.

Updates on the last minute preparations for the second part of the provincial chapter were made privy to us. It will take place in about a week's time. And then, he reminded us about one of the themes of the chapter: Return to Don Bosco.

"But what kind of Don Bosco should we return to?" He quipped. "Will it be the zealous Don Bosco? or the poor Don Bosco?"

These are rhetorical questions, I guess. But his point is clear. For us not to return to Don Bosco, we should always bring a little something of him as we journey on.

Why, who is going after the Inquirer?

If I were a student of press ethics again, I would certainly pursue a research on this.

Why, who is going after the Inquirer?
By Joker P. Arroyo
Inquirer

Editor's Note: Per request of the author, the following is published "unedited and in full, including the title."

MANILA, Philippines -- When Secretary Neri pleaded at the close of the September 26th 2007 joint committee hearing on the NBN deal that he would like to consult his superiors before he could agree or not to disclose his conversation with the President, the Minority Leader Senator Pimentel broached to me the idea of an executive session where Neri could speak in the strictest confidence and thereby break the impasse. I agreed.

That was consistent with the Senate Rules on Executive Session, Rule XLVII, Sec. 127, which provides that it "shall be held whenever a Senator so requests it and his petition has been duly seconded."

The presence of DBM Secretary Andaya, as attested by the Blue Ribbon Transcript, was authorized by the lead Chair, Senator Cayetano in accordance with Sec. 126, that "such other persons as may be authorized by the Senate may be admitted to the (executive session)."

At the start of the closed-door session, Senate President Villar invoked Section 128, that everyone "shall absolutely refrain from divulging any of the confidential matters taken up by the Senate, and all proceedings which might have taken place in the Senate in connection with said matters shall likewise be considered as strictly confidential xxx."

So sacrosanct is the executive session that Sec. 129 proscribes that "any Senator who violates the [confidentiality injunction' may, by a two-thirds (2/3) votes of all the Senators, be expelled from the Senate xxx."

Three days later, on September 29, 2007, Inquirer's Malacañang reporter, Juliet Labog-Javellana, quoting four unnamed sources, filed a detailed account of what supposedly happened in the closed-door meeting which was banner headlined in the Inquirer issue of Sept. 30th.

It was a double-whammy, First, against the Inquirer for a patently baseless report that everyone privy to that meeting has stoutly denied. Second, against the Senate for the possible sources could only be the senators present who faced the prospect of the ultimate sanction under the Senate rules: expulsion.

Considering the serious breach of Senate rules, P.S. Resolution No. 165 was passed without any objection by the Senate.

The resolutory portion is simple and forthright. It reads:

"Resolved, as it is hereby resolved, to direct the appropriate Committee to conduct an inquiry into violation of Rule XLVII and/or other rules of the Senate as a consequence of the aforesaid [Inquirer] news account and to investigate any/or all Senators and non-Senators who were present during the said Executive Session and to impose sanctions as may be warranted under the Rules."

The Senate would go to great lengths to conduct a formal investigation of the erring senators, if any; for breach of its Rules, if there was; and to impose penalties, if warranted. The Senate cannot have four members who cannot work within its Rules. What was the response of the Inquirer?

Within hours after the Senate adopted the investigative resolution and as the Inquirer was going to press, its editors suddenly declared that it stood by the Javellana story wholesale. That is, without conducting any investigation--in sharp contrast to the Senate's careful and calibrated response.

Inquirer thought it had played a neat shell game. By absolving Ms Javellana with self-serving and indecent haste, Inquirer sought to absolve itself. Did it? Only if the accused is to be the judge of her own guilt.

But no one was accusing the Inquirer. Not yet anyway. The Senate has in fact provisionally taken Ms Javellana's claim of real sources at her word, and was conducting an investigation to uncover these sources and then check with them the veracity of the account they allegedly gave her.

Why should that so disturb the Inquirer like an inveterate cardsharp who may actually have been playing an honest game?

At no point will the Inquirer itself be investigated, only the senators and the others who were present at the executive session. Ms Javellana may invoke the confidentiality of her sources to stop herself from revealing their identities but not to stop the Senate from finding out for itself. Unless a newspaper is of the view that it has, in some regard, the last word on what a Senate may or may not do. We do not think so.

And now the Inquirer has hunkered down for a siege that no one intends to lay it, devoting four kilometric but distorted accounts of the issue on its front page, plus two editorials and numerous columns. Everyone at the Inquirer is at the ramparts scanning the horizon for enemies that are not there; for the inquiry will be of the Senate by the Senate without any regard to Inquirer. Unless the Inquirer is of the view that anything it may concern itself with is its sole prerogative to dispose of and no one else. What an odd self-important notion.

With characteristic imbalance, the Inquirer extended to me a single slanted headline coupled with a predictably editorialized news account of Senate Resolution No. 165.

It grasped at the off-tangent straw thrown in its direction by a lawyer with an axe to grind against the Senate because he was barred from attending any Senate committee hearings for unruly behavior and improper knowledge.

Amado Doronila, Inquirer's career obscurantist, joined the pride and writes about a freedom whose loss he was not around to experience.

Doronila labors mightily to transform the Senate Resolution into a battle for the liberty of the press. But the Senate has no fight with the press. Neither has the Senate a fight with the Inquirer. All the Senate seeks is the truth about the sourcing of Ms Javellana's thus far universally denied story so that it can deal with the offending senators and not with a newspaper whose feeble grasp of facts has lost it a lot of credibility though not, to be sure, any of its entertainment value.

Nor is the Senate interested in denying Ms Javellana the confidentiality of her sources, thereby hobbling the journalistic right to search for the truth. Far from it, the Senate seeks only to protect the confidentiality of executive sessions without which its effectiveness in searching for the truth will likewise be hampered.

What surprises us all is not that Ms Javellana made a claim of sources that has been roundly denied by everyone concerned but that her editors nonetheless published a story in the teeth of the declared confidentiality of the Senate proceedings, thereby damaging perhaps irreparably one of the legislature's most effective devices for getting at the truth. The fault was not so much Ms Javellana's for claiming sources that may not exist as her editors for going ahead with a story regardless of the consequences to the Senate and the larger public interest in arriving at the truth about the ZTE affair.

As the Senate grills all the senators who were present at the session, it may well be that some or just one of them may ask that Ms Javellana be invited to shed some light on the matter, perhaps also in executive session so that no one else may know what or whether she spoke. After all, as the writer of the offending article, no one is in a better position to help the Senate resolve the issue. This time we trust that the strictest confidence will be maintained by all concerned.

The Inquirer of course may refuse to allow Ms Javellana to attend or may threaten her continued employment if she does; that is its prerogative or rather that of the editors. But it cannot, in all decency, criticize the Senate for doing its duty in this matter. I hope the Inquirer publishes this statement. It would only be fair and a profound surprise.

Editors' notes:

N THE interest of fairness, the editors take exception to the author saying two less than factual items: First, that the Sept. 30 banner story about the leak of what happened to Neri at the Senate executive session of Sept. 27 had been "universally denied."

Except for Senator Arroyo himself, not one of Philippine Daily Inquirer's four news sources for the Sept. 30 news story had come forward to deny it.

Second, that the editors stood by the story bylined by Juliet Javellana without investigating first. There was no need. Juliet was assigned to check out a tip the editors got about what happened behind closed doors at the Senate executive session. Certain other editors were in on the whole process of Juliet's news gathering for and verifying and cross-checking the story. From the start, Juliet was not acting in a vacuum. Though she alone wrote the story, the editors were there all the way. There was nothing to investigate. All this time, the editors were on top of the story.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=94185

writing spree

Fr. Nioret asked me if I could write an article on the Preventive System. The request came from Fr. Fidel, the head of the commission on social communication of the FIS province. I heard that the article will be for the Salesian Bulletin.

This morning, after working on my third draft, I turned the final article to Fr. Fidel.

Since I worked on the article, Fr. Nioret gave me the option to answer only four mandatory items out of the 10 questions in our constitutions exams next week.

Yipee!

leg injury

Last Saturday, I had a check up with a doctor. I complained about the still painful left leg, a month after I figured in an injury in a football game.

I sensed the deep concern in his face when I told him that it's been a month already that I have been limping. I couldn't run well because of the pain. He compared the calf muscles of my both legs and he marked that the right leg was rather big. While the left one shrank.

He concluded that since because the left was painful, I tend to use the power of my right leg more often. Hence, its enormous size.

And after a series of squeezing the injured portion, he sighed with relief. His diagnosis: torn muscles.

Good thing, it wasn't a fractured bone after all. He told me that I would need to rest for three months for the muscle to heal. I ought to avoid strenuous activities. Carrying heavy loads is a no-no. Climbing stairs need to be avoided. And games, too.

When my mom called up last Saturday evening, I was hesitant in telling her my condition. I didn't develop the habit of making my mom worry about reporting to her the pains I experience. But something has pushed me to tell her about it. She needed to know, after all, she's my mom.

So, when I finally had the courage to tell her about my injury over the phone, I didn't hear the barrage of maternal words I was anticipating. Instead I got this from her: "Why do you have to play? You're not used to that sport. You're lame and..." Let me cut the quote there.
She's my mom and that's the way she shows her love and concern.

By the way, this afternoon, one of my wishes came true. I got the book "The Faith Explained" from my mom. Perhaps, this will make me busy as I while away my time during game time--for the next two months!

On forgetting

This morning, we were down to our nth conference on obedience.

Fr. Nioret, our Novice Master, shared with us a text message he received from Fr. Wilbert, our Socius. He recited it from memory.

It was something about forgetting. He told us that in some ways, forgetting things is good.

Especially when we forget the bad things others have done to us.
And when we forget the good things we’ve done to others.

A Piece for the Cardinal

Exactly one week ago, we were given the privilege to meet the Archbishop of Cebu, His Eminence, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. Below is the piece I delivered before him.

As I deliver this piece I cannot but recall how our beloved founder, St. John Bosco, showed his tender devotion towards his own bishop.

When he was still a young diocesan priest, Don Bosco never failed to speak about His Eminence Louis Fransoni, his archbishop, with reverence and love. Don Bosco always turned to him for advice whenever he was faced with difficulties in his ministry. He never embarked on any apostolate without the knowledge and consent from his archbishop.

With these recollections, I deliver this piece to you with a filial attitude like that of a son to his dear father.

This is the first time that I have met you, but ever since I was a young kid, I have already associated the archbishopric of Cebu to the name Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

Some years ago, If Sin spoke about a burning issue that had something to do about the country, people would be delighted to hear what Vidal of Cebu had to say.

One of our seminarians who hail from Cebu told me that he had the privilege to meet you last year, and he was awestruck by your holy persona: A majestic simplicity that is filled with peace and humility.

I did a little research about you and I realize that you mark your 25^th year as the archbishop of Cebu this year.

Congratulations!

It must have been tiring to serve the Church especially because we know that you're not getting younger each day. However, we know that Shepherds don't rest. They are always anxious to see that even the lowliest of his sheep is taken care of.

And we thank you, our dear Eminence, for being a shining example of how it is to live a life of service. We thank you for setting a good example of a leader who is sought by the people, not because of his position, but because people believe in his wisdom.

The Church is constantly in need of people like you. And we, the younger generation of ministers, are delighted to find icons from whom we can find a source of inspiration.

In our discussion of our Rules last week, our venerable Novice Master quoted the Canon Law about our primary duty as religious. The Church expects us to "pray and to contemplate God's presence."

And taking a cue from this let me end this piece with an assurance of our prayers for you and for the whole archdiocese.

Image speaks

Think of all the beauty that’s still left in and around you and be happy!
- Anne Frank

Memoirs of Don Bosco

Am working on another blog. It's a requirement in our salesianity class.
I hope that it could be of help to spread awareness about this great man I desire to follow.