discreta caritas

THIS IS MY NEW BLOG

2006-02-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

2006-01-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

2006-01-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

Fr. Trinidad died last January 6 at the age of 79.

Countless years of service to the Lord and His people.

To labor without counting the cost.

Priest.

Jesuit.

Brother of us all...

Will I die this way?

Photo taken at the Oratory of St. Ignatius-LHS, 2006

MY SCHOOL

2005-12-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

LRC Building

High School Building
College Building
Loyola House- Jesuit Residence
The New College Building
Covered Courts

The most significant place in my life is my school: Ateneo de Zamboanga University. This is the place that taught me to do magis and to do for the greater glory of God.

ON MY WAY HOME

2005-12-20T05:56:00.000-08:00

Basilan Island

sunset in Zamboanga City

Malapit na sa port, yehey

Super Ferry 17- Ganda!

malapit na talaga sa port, hehehe

Sunrise near Mindanao

Manila Sea Port

2005-11-22T23:16:00.000-08:00

MY NEW BLOG

2005-11-10T16:48:00.001-08:00

My new blog entitled: Photography and the Spiritual Exercises at this site: http://jeffsj.blogspot.com

thanks

2005-11-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

The Presence of God
(from Sacred Space)

As I sit here at my computer, God is here.
Around me, in my sensations, in my thoughts and deep within me.
I pause for a moment, and become aware
of God's life-giving presence.

One: Jesuit Brothers' Meeting in Malaybalay

2005-11-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

it's a rare opportunity for us Jesuit brothers in the Philippine province to meet and talk about our vocation. Since there are no good places to visit in Malayabalay, Bukidnun other than the Benedictine Monastery, most of us stayed in the Jesuit Retreat House, talking and sharing experiences. It's surprising to know that there are good number of young breed of Jesuit brothers in the Society. There are Jesuit brothers in every stage of formation now: four novice brothers, one junior, one philosopher, one regent and one theologian. During one of our sharings, one brother mentioned that we came from different background, religious experience and calling but one thing that is common in all of us: that we love and desire to serve the Lord.
To see some of the pictures taken during the conference, visit: http://jeffsj.multiply.com/photos

MALAYBALAY, BUKIDNUN

2005-11-01T00:16:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Malaybalay

2005-10-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

We had our villa last October 25-27 in Baguio and I had to go back to Manila on the evening of the 27th of October, fly to Cagayan de Oro then to Malaybalay, Bukidnun for the Jesuit Brothers' Meeting at the Jesuit Retreat House from October 28-29.

It was very tedious to travel from one mountain in Luzon to another mountain in Mindanao. My whole body ached due to stress and fatigue but it was such a relieved to wake up one early morning and to be greeted by a cold and soothing wind and relaxing view of Malaybalay. Bukidnun. It was a profound experience of God's grandeur and majesty.

Lord, grant me the grace to see you in all things.

2005-10-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS! It was my greatest consolation to see AtSCANs getting closer to their God and ready to be of service for God and country. I'mproud of you guys. AMDG

AtSCA Retreat 2005

2005-09-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

We invite you to make "sacred space" in your lives...

Ignatian Prayer Suggestion 1

Read Luke 24:13-35.

You are one of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter afternoon.
Close your eyes after reading the Scripture passage and try to relive the whole scene from beginning to end.
Draw some spiritual fruit from the experience.
For example, invite Jesus to stay with you:
"The day is nearly over. The night is at hand. Stay with us!"

Who are the JESUIT BROTHERS?

2005-09-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

Some men receive a special calling from God. They are not interested in doing the work of a priest, but they love God and want to serve the people.

A JESUIT BROTHER is a man called by God to do the apostolic and missionary work of the Church. He shares with the priest “one and the same vocation” as a Jesuit. As a Jesuit, he commits himself totally to God by taking the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Paradigm

2005-09-23T01:13:00.000-07:00

Can I disconnect my self from paradigm?

One silent evening I met Gadamer in the hallway and I asked him this question because I was confused about what was going on in our country. Could it be that all my knowledge about the political crisis were just my own personal convictions? He looked straight into my eyes and uttered these words and left: How many times do I have to say this that knowledge is justified true belief. I was left dumbfounded and made me think on my own. It is true that what we know we take it as our own and it represents what is out there but we must rigorously search for the truth, for what is really there. Yes, we always see things base from our own perspective. We are bound by our world, condition and historicity. Gadamer called this prejudice. But prejudice can be enabling and at the same time disabling. Hope that I should not stop desiring to look for the truth given my own finitude and situatedness, in so doing, l will enable my self and others to go beyond, to transcend and see the vastness of the horizon.

AMDG
Ad Moirem Dei Gloriam+

The Heart of Cognition

2005-09-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

Those Children Are Starving

It is said that human has capacity, though not absolute, for comprehending the nature of reality . As Vincent Potter mentioned that the start of all cognitive knowledge is the sensory experience-these are evidences in support of the sense as the sources of human knowledge which is experiential in nature. This is turn will be processed through concepts and perceptions, then with the given preposition and evidences, one is ready to proceed to the last stage which is judgment.

An example of this process is my experience of encountering two children on brink of starvation when I passed by the overpass near Miriam College and the urban poor area of Marytown. Down the overpass, the heat waves danced, and dry dust rose in clouds from the dirt roads near the filthy area. Below the overpass stairs are two children, with shabby and ragged clothing and dirty faces. As I look intently to these two children, I saw the older looking child begging for alms while the younger looking child was laying on the floor seemingly lifeless. They both look hungry to the point of starvation. They look skinny, pale and malnourish. Skinny probably because starved individuals lose substantial fat and muscle mass as the body turns to these tissues for energy. The skin pale and dry appearance attenuates this emaciation. A one slice of bread for the two won’t satisfy their hunger. They reminded me of a picture in the television about those children in Africa who are suffering from starvation and famine. Then an old woman passed by their side and offered her piece of bread. The older child grabbed the bread hurriedly and in deep humility said thank you to the older woman. He broke the bread and shared it to his little companion and they both swallowed it rapidly. When I passed closer to these children, I heard the younger looking child saying to the older looking child, “paano pala si bunso sa bahay, hindi pa yun nakakain simula kagabi.” The clock struck five in the afternoon and the sun was setting in the west.

birthday, etc

2005-09-18T04:20:00.000-07:00

it's good to end my 29th birthday with a recollection. i gathered all graces received and brought everything to God. this year is a special one because i spent it with my atsca family. i'm thankful that God gave me a chance to be in this world and serve Him. Deo Gratias!

2005-09-08T06:15:00.000-07:00

I'm through with my Philosophy of Science oral exam but was very tough and hard. I'd almost cried after the exam because I couldn't get why Hempel critique the auxiliary hypothesis of McMullin.

But there's one thing that I agree with Hempel that there's no absolute truth even in empirial science. Time to rest now for tomorrow another work is waiting...God give me strength

2005-09-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

i don't know why i don't appreciate the beauty of philosophy of science. my classmates seem so engrossed with this subject but in my case, i usually fall dead asleep in class, in a way, that gives me chance to snore more often than to think about the importance of hypothesis and validation in modern science. tomorrow, i'll be having my second oral exam with fr. green, i'm praying that angel gabriel will appear before me and offer good news. hope its good news.

2005-09-05T03:29:00.000-07:00

I'm too saturated by what is happening in our country due to the political crises arising everywhere. The impeachment issue against Arroyo keeps me anxious on what will be the future of our beloved country. So it's time to shift to another aspect of life which is not that critically important but will surely help in relieving stress: basketball. But the unexpected came that gave me more stress. I was so affected when Ateneo bowed down to UST in the UAAP second round of season 68. I was so shocked and sad that brought me in affirming my own existence. It made me realized that I'm alive. I feel something and that I'm affected by what is happening around me even though it came from a little and uncritical aspect of my life: basketball.

Being in the World

2005-09-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

It's funny Mr. Husserl that you somehow solved the wound which Descartes created with his subjective consciousness but actually still ended up talking about consciousness in the end. Your consciousness is still the cogito, transcedent cogito but still the cogito. But it's good that you lifted philosophy to another ground with your intentional consciousness. That I do agree with you Mr. Husserl, that our consciousness is always CONSCIOUS OF SOMETHING.

I can't wait to read something that will solve the wound and reconcile the subject and the object.

Ateneo Statement

2005-08-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

Let the Truth Emerge,

Let the Impeachment Process Go Forward!

On 8 July 2005, in response to numerous calls for her to resign, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said, "…take your grievances to Congress where I'm very willing to submit to due process as called for by our Constitution."

On 10 July 2005 in their pastoral letter calling for moral values in Philippine politics, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) declared: "To restore trust would require a thorough, credible, and independent process to examine the authenticity of the so-called Garcillano tapes, verify any possible betrayal of public trust, and mete out due punishment on all those found guilty."

Today, there is an amended impeachment complaint filed in the Committee on Justice of the House of Representatives, charging the President with culpable violations of the Constitution, betrayal of the public trust, and bribery, graft and corrupt practices.

We, concerned administrators, faculty, professionals, staff and students of the Ateneo de Manila University call on the members of the House Committee on Justice to let the truth emerge by hearing the amended complaint and voting on its merits in form and substance.

Moreover, we ask the undecided members of the House to let the impeachment process go forward by signing the amended complaint for it to be endorsed to the Senate for trial, and thus facilitating a peaceful and constitutional resolution of the present crisis and stalemate. We call on our representatives in Congress to vote according to their conscience.

To express these sentiments directly to the House of Representatives, we call on the Ateneo de Manila community and other sympathizers to join us on Tuesday, 30 August 2005, to let our position be heard at the site of the hearing of the House Committee on Justice at the Batasang Pambansa. Assembly will be at the Bellarmine Hall parking lot at 9 am. Participants are encouraged to wear black/white or Ateneo shirts, and to bring their own lunch and P50 for transportation.

Ipaglaban ang Katotohanan!

Hope

2005-08-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

I'll continue to hope in the Lord for it is the only meaningful thing to do when uncertainty surrounds me.

Picture taken in Panukulan Island, Quezon Province during my summer apostolate with ISO.

2005-08-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think that I am following

     your will does not mean that I am

     actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

     does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire

     in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart

     from that desire.

And I know that if I do this,

you will lead me by the right road though I

    may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I

    may seem lost and in the shadow

    of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face any

    perils alone.

-- Thomas Merton

He Needs to Totalize Other

2005-08-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

I wonder why he needs to totalize others in order to know fully himself. In Absolutizing other, one will know oneself, one's consciousness will surface. I asked him why, he smiled at me and said, "Its the process of dialective movement." D#*n! I counldn't comprehend it fully. He uttered, "it's like a mirror, one will be conscious of oneself when one go out of one self, reach the other, totalize other, thus one attain self consciousness." AHHHHHHHHH. My brain couldn't take it anymore, I went outside my room saw somebody and invited him for a badminton. He agreed. Wheeeew, time for a break. Sorry Hegel, I need to leave you for a while.

ONE BIG FIGHT

2005-08-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

The Ateneo Blue Eagle won against Adamson last Saturday, August 20, 2005 and just this afternoon, La Salle bowed to a school along the university belt.

Trust

2005-08-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

The hardest thing to do in this world is to reveal oneself to others. To show one's weakness, strength and vulnerability. But if we find someone to whom we can TRUST, it's easy to remove the mask one is wearing and open the door to our very soul and allow others and God into our hearts.

Jeon Ji-Hyeon

2005-08-21T04:28:00.000-07:00

My Sassy Girl

Matteo Ricci

2005-08-21T04:18:00.000-07:00

Matteo Ricci

On Hope and Service

2005-08-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

My head is saturated with questions like "What is real?" and "Does what we know corresponds to the reality out there?" because of my philosophy class in epistemology. Tonight, we are having a recollection and these questions came into my being again. I'm spending my whole evening praying and cried because of the consolations received. But the question came into me about what is truly real. Is it real that I'm feeling closer to God through prayer or is it real that there are poverty, hatred and division out there. Everday, we hear acts of terrrorism all over the world. Every minute, there are people dying in Africa because of famine. Every second, there are people being raped and murdered. Even in our own country, we hear how the poor becoming poorer and the rich, richer and our government officials, EHEM! are contributing in degradating our democracy . These are all real.
But what also real is that people, just outside Ateneo, agreed to break the barrier and reach out to one another. The wall in Marytown has fallen. Love, peace and hope are also real. God's love for us is even more real. They are all indeed truly real. Yes, darkness exist but light makes its existence felt even more when there is darkness. God, in a quiet and gentle way is telling me two things: that is to hope in Him and not only to hope but to share that hope to others. We can serve even in undramatic and unheralded ways by hoping and sharing that hope and smile to people. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Matteo Ricci: On Tantum Quantum

2005-08-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

Matteo Ricci: On Tantum Quatum

It was said that Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit Missionary in China year 1583, was one of the few jesuits who gained favor from the Emperor. Ricci's success was due to his deep prayerful life that allowed him to adapt Chinese way of life and introduced science, especially astronomy, in the middle kingdom. The Encyclopedia Britannica reports, "Probably no European name of past centuries is so well known in China as that of Li-ma-teu (Ricci Matteo). Matteo Ricci exemplified the ideal of TANTUM QUATUM. That is the ability to adapt to new situation where God is calling him to do and at the same time ready to get rid of it, if it does not serve the higher purpose-that is to love God.
One author defines it well, "in so far as" they help you reach the destiny for which God made you and, logically, avoid them, get rid of them, sacrifice them, escape them in so far as they hinder you in your pursuit of your heavenly goal.."

Dearest God, I beg for the grace of having your heart and to see the world the way you see it.

BEHOLD MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN

2005-08-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Errol and I were busy organizing communities for the fisherfolk in Polilio Island during our summer apostolate. The entry point of ISO to every community is the MFARMC or Municipal Fishery and Aquatic Resources Management. It’s a two day orientation seminar for the leaders of the municipality about coastal management and law. The first day of the seminar devoted on how and why we should take care of our environment. With this, the community has to be informed about the different marine and coastal laws and the municipal police has the responsibility to reinforce that law. When people ask on why do we have to follow that law and order from the municipality, the community organizers always have this so called ready made answer, “may batas tayo dahil ito ang sagisag ng ating pagmamahal sa isa’t isa.”

Now, how will I connect this to my main point?

BEHOLD MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN , MY BELOVED... THE NATIONS WILL HOPE IN HIM. These words of the prophet Isaiah are cited by St. Matthew just after he records the decision of the Pharisees to put Jesus to death because he repeatedly violated the Sabbath rest. The Evangelist does not explain why he chooses this context in which to present the Lord as God's chosen servant, and set him up as the hope of the nations. Certainly there is a large irony in the fact that just as his enemies decide to do away with him as disobedient to God's law of the Sabbath, he is proclaimed by the inspired writer as the beloved, chosen Servant of the Lord. The same prophet, known as the Second Isaiah, in another passage gave his characterization of God's dealings people.

My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord. . As the heaven are high above the earth, my ways are above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

The implication of Matthew's text is that if the interpreters of the law were guided by the Spirit of God they would understand that the purpose of the law is love of God and of neighbor. IT IS LOVE I DESIRE, NOT SACRIFICE, said the prophet Hosea, and it was in the service of love that Jesus violated the traditional way of keeping the Sabbath. The religious leaders had erected the law into a system that was absolutized and abstract all too often in its application (may natutunan pala ako kay Tonet Angeles). The result was, as St. Paul observed, that the law enslaved those who followed it. But its intended function is to prepare people worthy of God through the restoration of human dignity; rather than fetter its subjects it should rather enhance life and show the way that leads to freedom. Freedom that lead us to the end in which we are created.

May the Eucharist we offer this morning obtain for each of us that increase of trust and love we require to devote our best energies to this high purpose all the days of our life.

discretas caritas

2005-08-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

Discretas Caritas (Discerning Love)

I couldn't imagine my self giving without expecting something in return when I was still a child. Everthing is conditional for me then. An experience still vivid in my mind when I was in Grade 6 teaching my classmates how to operate the computer using DOS and Wordstar, in return, they had to pay me reasonable amount of money for the time spared. This morning I met an old friend who is now working here in Manila. This friend, reminded me to give without counting the cost. You see, his is just earning enough for him to have something to eat for three times a day but still, he can afford to help someone go to school by supporting a scholarship program in Zamboanga. A rare occassion to meet someone with magnanimity of heart. It has been said that people today know the price of everything but the value of nothing. Some people who are having a great time would be sorrowful if they knew what lay ahead. If only they took eternity into account, they would recognize true values in life..

We must learn how to see things with discerning heart. To discern is to gain the ability to see the permanent from the temporal. That is to be always aware of God's movement in our lives.