Speaking of Mary

The tale of two Cardinals

2010-05-06T09:16:00.000+08:00

I was in high school when I first saw the late Jaime Cardinal Sin. I believe it was sometime in 1986 after the People Power Revolution. I just felt very happy to have seen him pass by us students as we were made to stand along the street to welcome him and the late Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Torpigliani.
I wrote him after some months and told him how much I admire and respect him. He was gracious enough to respond back and even sent me an autographed picture of himself which I faithfully keep to this day.
What followed were the tumultuous years during the Aquino administration, so many coup attempts and natural disasters. Cardinal Sin would regularly call on the people to pray or even to rally at the EDSA Shrine to protect the gains of the EDSA Revolution, and I would always be there. How I loved and admired Cardinal Sin.
When I was a seminarian in the Eternal City, he would come to visit Collegio Filippino and although I did not reside there, one of the resident-priests there, Fr. Greg Gaston, facilitated my meeting with him. It was sometime in 1995. And how he was so gracious to converse with me for almost an hour speaking about so many things.
In January 2002, the anniversary of EDSA II, I was accompanying the International Pilgrim Virgin Statues (IPVS) of Our Lady of Fatima and were at the EDSA Shrine. Cardinal Sin was then very weak. I am not sure if he still recognized me, but I remember him looking at me intently. I was too “shy” to get close to him and speak with him. It was the last time I saw him alive.
To this day, I remember him with great admiration and emulation even. He was such a prophetic pastor.
March 2002, I was in a personal retreat in Lipa Carmel. During one of the “break time,” I conversed with the late Prioress, Mo. Bernadette. During the conversation, she mentioned and encouraged me to see the then Archbishop of Lipa, Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales. And I did see him. He was so gracious to speak with me, although there was no prior appointment whatsoever, and he didn’t even know me beforehand.
Then he became the Archbishop-Cardinal of Manila. Last 02 May 2010, we had the Mass for the Filipino Family and the Covenant Signing for the Protection of Family and Life. We requested His Eminence to preside over the Holy Mass and deliver the Homily. Even with such a short notice, he gladly accepted. And the Homily was such a beautiful and very timely one.
After the Holy Mass, I approached His Eminence if he was willing to meet the secular media and he did, graciously accepting the request an interview. It began at around 2:00 in the afternoon and ended almost at 3:00. I was there all throughout the time of the media interview.
His Eminence was so insistent on his being optimistic on our country and on our people, and yes, even on the electoral process. It was in that context that he was asked that if there would be fraud, as many were foreseeing then, if there was a need for a reprise of People Power. He answered that he didn’t hear any of these “prophets of doom” (my words) speak. But if there were, he does not agree since there constitutional and legal recourses. Only if all these are exhausted should we have recourse to People Power. It was also at this point that Cardinal Rosales said there were no parallelisms to the Philippines in 1986 to the Philippines in 2010. Hence, at that point (02 May 2010), he sees no need for People Power. HE DID NOT SAY WE SHOULD NOT DO ANYTHING IF THERE WOULD BE FRAUD. He simply said no need for People Power, as of yet.
Hence, it pains to see and hear other Catholic clergy and religious reacting against Cardinal Rosales. There are so many forces that wish to portray and would wish to put a wedge between Catholic leaders. I hope and pray we do not fall into their trap.
That is why among the Catholic faithful, many would like to compare and contrast the two Cardinals of Manila. That one apparently is so active and militant, the other is passive and less passionate. I really have to disagree.
The Church in the Philippines needed a Cardinal Sin during that time, and God gave us Cardinal Sin. The Church in the Philippines needs a Cardinal Rosales now, God gave us Cardinal Rosales. Each with their own prophetic role to play, each with their own charism and style, and I dare say, Cardinal heroically lived up to that role and Cardinal Rosales heroically living up to his.
I shall always remember the words of my own bishop, Bishop Florentino F. Cinense, when one time in our serious conversations, he said, when God (through the Church institutions) sends a bishop to a particular diocese at a particular time, it is because that bishop—with his style, character, spirituality, wisdom and strengths—is what is needed at that particular time. When the time comes, and God sends another, it is because in that time, that particular bishop fits in God’s plan.
I always struggle to see things in God’s perspective, at least to approximate it; that is to say, to discern God’s Will. And in the end, despite how tempting it is to look and consider things from a purely human point of view, we see the greater, the deeper, and the bigger picture when we strive to look at things supernaturally.
Cardinal Rosales—with his own particular character, wisdom, and strengths—is what the Church in Manila and what the Church in the Philippines needs now. And I most lovingly and joyfully bow down to God’s Will. There will be another that will succeed him, and we are sure, it is him that would fulfill God’s Will for that particular time. I believe it is what they refer to as the Grace of Office. And I believe that, I hope you do as well.
In this month of May, this month dedicated to Mary, may we pray more fervently for our Bishops, and for all priests as well. We lovingly consecrate all our endeavors to Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace, may She, in turn, offer them to Her Son. Ave Maria!

In the middle of the world

2010-03-29T09:14:00.000+08:00

ST. JOSEMARIA would always say we are called to be saints, contemplatives even, in the middle of the world, to seek sanctity in the very place we are in right now, at home, at the workplace, at the school, or even at the hospital as a patient or as the one caring for the sick.
At times, however, (or should I say that is often the case), the “world” would be very hostile, as it did reject Christ, and as His followers, we can expect no less.
In this world that is growing steadily to be a militant secularist and anti-religious environment, we are faced with a number of choices—to shirk from the challenges to stand up for the Faith so as to avoid “confrontation,” or to “dialogue” and compromise so as to make our Faith still relevant to the present, or to be firm and be labeled as “fanatic,” “closed-minded,” “antiquated.”
I remember even one saying and writing that although there are official Church teachings, one can read, understand, and interpret them in a “liberal” or “conservative” manner. I imagine some to be “moderates” in their interpretation of the Church. I never thought there are groupings within the Church. There is only one Church embracing many charisms therein. One Body of Christ with different parts but never diverging teachings, one undermining the other.
We in the Philippines have been spared, at least from the time being, from the engulfing flames of scandal and intrigue plaguing the Church in Europe and America right now. With most of us so engrossed with the upcoming national elections and other domestic issues, we have been insulated from these ugly talks right now.
Most certainly, in the entire history of the Church, we have seen the many sinners and saints within her bosom. She remains holy not because of her members but because of her Head who is Christ. There were several instances when the Church was at the verge of collapse but she never did because Christ sustains her.
Indeed, there were and there are many abuses in the Church, but it does not “stain” her. The Church was already “stained” by the Blood of Christ and the blood of martyrs, and that makes her holy and perfected.
What cover-up is to the secular media is the prudent judgment of the Church on her members. She does not pass judgment and imposes penalty in a public manner. She does so silently, as a good mother does to her erring children.
What I find unacceptable is what some secular media abroad are doing, forcefully linking the person of the Holy Father to these scandals, claiming his inaction and cover-up during his time as Archbishop of Munich (Germany).
Then immediately in this one very famous international cable channel, repeated newscast or documentary on so-called Church abuses. The same documentary over and over again, and suddenly, an interview with a supposed philosopher but admitted atheist asserting that we should do away with religion in finding our moral compass. Such assertions I often see in the blogs and commentaries of some of our countrymen, to do away with “organized religion,” what counts is one’s personal belief in God, they opined.
I do not blame them, probably we in the Church are also at fault. But the Church is more than her members. The mistakes of her members and leaders ideally should not affect the Church, but we live in the middle of the world. And in this world, whether we like it or not, human imperfections turn off and scandalize many.
But whenever there are crises in the Church, it is when the Lord raises up many saints among the Church’s leaders and members. For indeed, as St. Paul rightly asserts, where sin has abounded, grace has abounded all the more. Christ will never abandon His Church. She was founded upon the Rock who is Peter, human like us, a sinner like us, but a saint in the end. Like St. Peter, we live and struggle and will be victorious in the middle of this world.
This will be the first time that I consign this into writing. A grave sinner I was and a grave sinner I am. I remember in February of 1997, when the Philippine Bishops had their ad limina with the Holy Father, then the Servant of God, the Great John Paul II. I was able to accompany my Bishop since I was a seminarian then in Rome. When it was our turn to greet the Holy Father, I had the opportunity to speak to him a little. I then said, Holy Father I am a poor and sinful seminarian, but I offer my life for Your Holiness and for the Holy Mother Church. He then briefly gazed at me and blessed me.
I hope, in our hearts and in our prayers, you would join me in that filial love towards the Holy Father, Sinful and miserable that I am, Holy Father, I renew my offering of my life for Your Holiness and for the Holy Mother Church.

CARMEL

2010-02-28T09:13:00.000+08:00

LAST February 12, though already a little bit late in the evening, we took some time off to visit the Carmelite nuns gathered together at the Mater Carmeli Monastery in Sta. Ignacia (Tarlac). They represented the nine Carmelite monasteries belonging to the Federation of Stella Maris—contemplative nuns belonging to the ancient Order of Carmel.
It was a sight to behold the happy, and I should say, angelic faces of the Carmelite nuns. I feel extremely happy that there are still young women willing to sacrifice all and be a part of a contemplative congregation.
I always recall with sentimentality that during the dying days of my mother, she asked me to write a letter to her Carmelite friend in the Carmel of the Holy Family in Guiguinto (Bulacan) to ask her for prayers. We did not receive any letter-response then. But a decade letter, I would just be surprised by the Lord and by Our Lady, that a Carmelite Monastery would be built in our Diocese in Tarlac and the Foundress-Prioress turned out to be my mother’s friend to whom we wrote a decade ago.
A solace and a refuge, that is how I will describe Carmel. When the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima came over in 2003/04, we were able to visit a number of Carmelite Monasteries both belonging to the Order of Carmel (O.Carm.) and to the Order of Carmelite Discalced (OCD). We went as far as Laoag Carmel, Baguio Carmel, Burgos Carmel, Sta. Ignacia (Tarlac) Carmel, Subic Carmel, Lipa Carmel, Zamboanga Carmel. And I was personally able to visit Jaro Carmel and Guiguinto Carmel.
And both my retreats in preparation for the diaconal and presbyteral ordinations were done in the Tertiary House of Carmel in New Manila.
I have yet to see a Carmelite Monastery in which there is no one silently kneeling and praying or someone offering a votive candle.
I have come to equate Carmel to peace and tranquility, no, not a place to run away from the world and seek a momentary peace. It is a place to encounter God and Our Lady, to find strength to face and confront, and change, the world. It is not fuga mundi, to run away from the world, but to face the world with the strength of God and the joy of Our Lady. This is Carmel.
For some, perhaps, monasteries, are vestiges of the past, relics of the medieval times, artifacts of history. I just wish that somewhere, sometime in their life, they would try to sit or kneel or just be silent in monastery, and there in that silence, to encounter God and to know their true selves.
For sure, within the monastery walls, there will be struggles as well. No one is exempted from that. Yet the prayer and silence of Carmel or of any other monastery assures us we are not alone in struggling for sanctity.

It has been often said that monasteries are like the powerhouses of the Church. That the silent prayers and sacrifices of the contemplatives sustain the Church and all her apostolate. And this is very, very true.
I often envy the contemplatives, their smiles, their gentle words, their gentle gestures, betray what really is within, it is not superficial non-noisiness, it is the silence of God.
Before leaving Mater Carmeli Monastery that evening, we also paid our respects to the prioresses of the Federation two of whom, were Spanish old nuns but with gleaming smiles and shining eyes of young women. The nuns seem not to age. I guess love defies aging.
From Mater Carmeli that evening we travelled to Lipa Carmel. That’s another story and another journey. Suffice it to say, we all have to find our own Carmel—where the human and divine meet, where men and women encounter God, the God of love, the God of peace, the God of silence. May this Lenten Season lead you to Carmel. Ave Maria!

Vita Mutatur non Tollitur

2010-01-15T09:12:00.000+08:00

DEATH and tragedy seems to be the order of the year. If we were superstitious, the recent calamity in Haiti bodes ill for the entire year. But as believers and followers of Christ, no gravity of tragedy or senselessness of death can separate us from Him who is the source of all happiness and grace.
The tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the floods in Southeast Asia, the devastating earthquake in the Caribbean—all these natural phenomena make us think twice not only of how volatile human life is on the face of the earth but more importantly, these make us look, no, search for a somehow higher power and being.
And in this seeming despair, when somehow we are cornered either to lose hope or grasp the idea of any higher good, it is then that we have to “invent” the idea of God. To comfort ourselves perhaps or to console our weary and tired hearts?
Perhaps. Who then is God? Are we no different from our ancestors that when they were confronted with unexplainable phenomena of nature, they simply turned to nature and adore it as god? Perhaps we have just gone more articulate, more sophisticated in our verbosity yet essentially re-inventing the same old idea that since we cannot explain it, let’s call it “god,” and adore it and attribute to it anything and everything that will make our lives on earth more bearable and palatable.
Quite tempting isn’t it? It’s easier to be “philosophical” rather than to be “dogmatic” about things. It’s a lot easier to ask and doubt rather than ask and search, for when we eventually find what or who we seek, there are no excuses not to believe in nor give our commitment to that discovered truth.
And so alas, in the tragedies of this passing world, are we to discover God? And insist that God does not turn a blind eye when His people suffer? Or are we to follow the other extreme and think that indeed this world is left to its own, and that we are to tend to ourselves with only ourselves to help us? Or to consider even that it is just senseless to think more than what we see and experience, that these are tragedies and that is all, no deeper explanations, no deeper sense, no higher meaning, and no higher Being to speak of?
Last Christmas Season, I had the grace to stay at the bedside of a dying man. He was rich and powerful. I thought for a while that death was a great equalizer between the poor and the rich, the weak and the mighty. That since death is inescapable, at least in death, we are all equal.
Yet I was deeply wrong. I saw this man, in the utter weakness of his mind and body, drew strength from God and from Our Lady. In his last evening of earthly life, he exhorted us to pray the Holy Rosary. Upon reaching the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery, he summoned any strength that was left of him and led the praying of the decade, and with fifth Hail Mary, he begun to sing the prayer.
Sickness and death are not the great equalizer, God’s grace is. Conversion is for everyone, the mighty and weak, wealthy and the pauper.
Gathered together around him the next day, we sung the Hail Mary, with the repetition of this Marian hymn, he breathed his last. With the statue of Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace guarding him in deathbed, it was the true Lady who accompanied him to his heavenly home.
Tragedies do not equalize us. The grace of God does. God’s love does.
St. Augustine has these beautiful words to say:
Great are You, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Your power, and of Your wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of Your creation, desires to praise You, man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that You resist the proud, — yet man, this part of Your creation, desires to praise You. You move us to delight in praising You; for You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You…
And those who seek the Lord shall praise Him. For those who seek shall find Him, Matthew 7:7 and those who find Him shall praise Him. Let me seek You, Lord, in calling on You, and call on You in believing in You; for You have been preached unto us. O Lord, my faith calls on You—that faith which You have imparted to me, which You have breathed into me through the incarnation of Your Son, through the ministry of Your preacher.
Faced with life and eventually death, the Prayer of the Church solemnly assures us, for God’s faithful people, life is changed, not ended. Vita mutatur non tollitur.

Retracing the Footsteps of Christ (Part II)

2009-11-25T09:09:00.000+08:00

AT the Sea of Galilee, we were provided with a boat where the 21 of us Filipino pilgrims were all on board. As we started the ride, the boat operator suddenly played the Philippine National Anthem and the crew members raised a small Philippine flag. It was a wonderful surprise to see and hear the Philippine symbols in a foreign land and over the lake where the Lord walked over, at that.
While riding the boat, we read the Gospel part that speaks of the storm over the lake, and the apostles had to awaken the Lord, and with one word of His, the storm calmed down. We took the opportunity to pray and ask the Lord to calm and dispel all the storms in our lives. And that when we do pass through the storms of our lives, we shall be strong and at peace, for the Lord is not only near us but is actually with us.
The next day, October 15, Memorial of Santa Teresa de Jesus, better known as St. Teresa of Avila, we started the day by celebrating the Holy Mass at Dalmanutha, traditionally the site where Jesus sighed for mankind. It is a place of meditation marked with a Cross facing the peaceful waters of the Sea of Galilee.
After the Holy Mass we then proceeded to Yardenit, part of the Jordan river which is located within the state of Israel. Although it is not the actual site of Christ’s Baptism, it is part of the Jordan River nonetheless.
There we renewed our Baptismal vows, to renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works, and to affirm our faith in God, one in Three Divine Persons. It was such a touching experience to have renewed our Baptismal promises in the very water with which the Lord was baptized. The Jordan River is said to be the “most alive” river since all the water it receives from the Sea of Galilee it simply passes on to the Red Sea.
There was no big crowd that morning, and we were able to have our silent part totally to ourselves, there was even a closed circuit camera that allowed everything to be recorded and, of course, its DVD recording to be sold to us later on (yes Virginia, almost everything has to be paid for in our contemporary lifetime).
After lunch we drove towards village of Ein Karem, which means “the spring in the vineyard.” There we first visited the Church of St. John the Baptist, built on the traditional home of Zacharias and Elizabeth. A stone marker points to the exact place where St. John was born. Outside the Church, one will see the Benedictus, the words uttered by Zacharias after his tongue was loosened right after the birth of St. John, translated into many languages.
And deeply Marian as we are, from the gate of the Church of St. John the Baptist our small group proceeded to the Church of the Visitation in a procession, praying the Rosary and singing Marian hymns. One can just imagine and feel the delight that as we were praying the Second Joyful Mystery, we were actually retracing the steps of Our Lady as she went to visit and serve her cousin Elizabeth.
There near the gate of the Church of the Visitation were two very interesting statues in metal, that of Our Lady and St. Elizabeth, with that of St. Elizabeth obviously pregnant. We entered the rather small Church, prayed there, and outside where the multilingual versions of the Magnificat, Our Lady’s song as her response to St. Elizabeth’s praise. The Tagalog version could not be absent, and singers as we are (well, that is, our group excluding my non-singing self), we sung the Ang Puso Ko’y Nagpupuri.
At the Upper Chapel is the Blessed Sacrament, there we paid our visit and to my surprise, a painting of the Wedding Feast at Cana, with the following words at the bottom, Mediatrix Nostra Potentissima. Indeed, there at the Wedding Feast when Our Lady acted as truly the Mediatrix between men and Christ who is ultimately the source of and who is All-Grace.
From Ein Karem, in the late afternoon, we travelled towards the Holy City of Jerusalem, the highlight of our pilgrimage.
We arrived already in the evening, going straight to the hotel knowing that the next days will be spent in this holiest of all cities. Truly, if in our religious pilgrimage the highlight is Jerusalem, in our spiritual pilgrimage on earth the ultimate end is the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Early the next day, we left for the town “City of Bread,” Bethlehem. There, true to its name, was where Word became Flesh that became our Heavenly Bread. At the Shepherd’s Field, we celebrated our Christmas Mass. Just a note, in the Holy Land, as in other duly recognized shrines, one can celebrate the Mass proper to that Church. Hence, even if it were not Christmas, one is allowed to celebrate Christmas Day Mass in Bethlehem.
After the Holy Mass, we excitedly proceeded to the Basilica of the Nativity which houses the Grotto of the Nativity and the Altar of Christ’s Birth. A silver star marks the traditional place where Christ was born. The line of people was long! We had to wait our turn and, mientras tanto, we prayed the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. It was such a wonderful feeling as we drew close to the exact site and when it was our turn to venerate the exact place, one but cannot help to feel the divine presence. There at that exact very place, God became man and dwelt amongst us. The very reason of everything and for everything, there at the simple but most hallowed of place, He was born. I am very sure for those who have been there, each succeeding Christmas celebration would be a deeper and more special one having seen and touched where Christmas begun.
After lunch we proceeded to the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, literally the cock crows signifying the fulfillment of Christ’s prophesy that Peter would deny Christ three times before the cock crows.
The door of the Church shows it all. On one side of the panel is Christ with three fingers straightened looking at Peter telling him that he would deny Christ three times and at the other side of the door panel is Peter with the rooster near him, his left hand at his chest, his right raised up palms open as if saying, No, I can’t do that to you.
The place was originally where the house of Caiphas, the High Priest, stood. And at the lower part of the Church is where the prison cells are located, including a pit where Christ was probably kept some hours before He was sentenced to death. It was at that pit that He was all alone, it is a cold and dark pit. We read part of the Gospel, sang a religious hymn, and where we spent some moments of silence to contemplate Christ’s passion. During that silent moment, the lights were put off, and one can just feel the coldness and darkness of being alone. Shut off from the world outside, with memories of betrayal in His heart, what could have Christ felt? But He endured it for you and me… (to be continued)

Retracing the footsteps of Christ (Part 1)

2009-10-27T09:06:00.000+08:00

We had the privilege of undertaking a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 09 to 20 October 2009. It was unexpectedly very hot weather, and it was just an approximation of what summer heat is.
We started our pilgrimage first to the land of exile of the Holy Family, Egypt. In Cairo, we were able to go to the more famous pyramids and the Sphinx. These were wonders to behold, man-made and were magnificent. Paradox that we were told by our Egyptian guide who informed us that once a Pharaoh assumed the throne, he was already preparing his grave and this was the pyramid. And their belief all the images that were included in the tomb would come alive in the next life. And hence, statues of the favorite things the Pharaoh wanted were included, and of course, there were statues of slaves so that in the after-life, the Pharaoh would still have slaves serving him. It was very interesting; they went out of their way and took pains to prepare for the after-life, at least, in the manner they thought it best to prepare.
Our Egyptian guide also commented how Egypt is so rich with natural resources but that only 25% of the population benefit from the 75% of the resources while 75% of the population benefit from the mere 25% of the resources. Sounds too familiar, isn’t it? And guess, what is the proposed solution of the government to this misdistribution of wealth? Curb the population. Now that’s very familiar!
One evening which was a Saturday, we had our dinner cruise along the Nile River. As our guide pointed out, it was not the cruise that was the highlight but was the Nile River itself. That Egypt and surrounding areas survive and even flourish only because of the Nile River.
The next morning we proceeded to Mt. Sinai. No we didn’t dare to hike the Mountain, it is supposed to be an arduous four-hour early morning trek, as in early morning, 2:00 am. Well, our group opted to sleep further and to celebrate Mass in the morning. We then proceeded to St. Catherine of Alexandria Monastery which is at the foot of Mt. Sinai. There, with the usual dry hot weather, we walked a short distance towards the Monastery. No there were no more monks. There is an Orthodox Church instead. Inside the compound is the fire bush, the burning bush through which the Lord spoke to Moses. Yes, it’s still an alive bush. And Filipinos as we are, some of us tried to have some souvenirs from the fire bush and ended up with wounded fingers, it was so full of thorns. Probably that was why Moses dared not go near it. Our group found a silent corner near the fire bush despite the multitude crowd, we prayed and sung a song, O Lord, You are near. (Just one remark, per Vatican instruction, we avoided mentioning the revealed name of God and substituted it with the title Lord.)
It was such an experience knowing that in very place, the Lord God revealed His Name to Moses and there instructed him to be His instrument to set His people free.
From Mt. Sinai, we travelled by bus towards Israel, a seven-hour drive, and we took the opportunity to watch the classic film, The Ten Commandments.
Our first stop in Israel was the Dead Sea. We arrived early evening. Most still took advantage to dip their feet at the Dead Sea. Well, I took the advantage to sleep longer (ehem…).
Next morning, the 13th of October, we proceeded to Nazareth. We first visited the house of Our Lady where the Archangel Gabriel greeted Our Lady and announced to Mary her particular and singular vocation to be the Mother of God. The Ave Maria was translated into many languages, including Tagalog, and was displayed around the Basilica. It was, as in any sacred place, a touching moment, realizing that there, Verbum caro factum est, the Word was made flesh.
We also visited a church marking the traditional spot where the house of St. Joseph was. There we prayed that we may encounter Christ in the fulfillment of the ordinary duties of life. After lunch we proceeded to Cana, there we celebrated Holy Mass and where five couples of our group renewed their wedding vows.
After the Holy Mass, I asked a religious nun who happens to be a Filipina if she was familiar with the statue of Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace, which was given there some months ago, and she said yes. She ushered the entire group into their convent, and inside their chapel is the statue of Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace. The group was so surprised since earlier on I was telling them of the story of Lipa Carmel. They promised to help me promote the cause of Our Lady and also the Confraternity of Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace.
Then on we went to the Tiberias region. Our first stop that morning was the celebration of the Holy Mass at Capernaum, the place where Jesus called His first apostles among the humble local fishermen. Here in this area, Our Lord taught at the Synagogue. On we went to visit Mount of Beatitudes where the Lord preached His Sermon. We also visited Tabgha where the Lord multiplied the loaves of bread and the fishes. Then, we visited the Church of St. Peter’s Primacy, the traditional site of the third appearance of the Lord after the Resurrection. It was here where the Lord asked Peter the triple question of Do you love me? And Peter responded thrice in the affirmative. Contrast that to his triple denial of Christ during his Agony and Passion. There it was also recognized the Primacy of Peter among the Apostles.
Later on the day we visited Mount Tabor, the site of the Transfiguration of the Lord. We cannot but help feel how Peter, James, and John must have felt when the Lord was glorified right before their very eyes.

And before the evening set in, we found ourselves in the boat over the Sea of Galilee… (to be continued)

The Great Flood

2009-09-29T09:04:00.000+08:00

News from the recent calamity relates of a woman who survived the flood, holding on to her copy of the Bible, and recalling the Ancient Testament event of the Great Flood. That flood, survived by Noah and his family, was God’s way of purifying His Creation bloodied and tarnished by man’s sins.
The calamity that just visited our people is not a punishment from God for our sins. It is a consequence of climate change. That is how many would like us to believe. I do not wish to thread a different path nor hurt the already hurting and mourning people. I could only painfully recall of what the rescuers found when they were looking for the victims of the landslide in Pampanga. There were two brothers embracing each other buried in the mud. Probably the older one was trying to protect the younger sibling. I wrote a year ago, and I write it again now: Where was our God when His people were dying?
So many heart-wrenching pictures and videos: the poor died with the rich; the young with the old; the sinner with the saintly. One survived, some other died. Does God choose at random whom He will save and whom He will simply allow to perish? Does God turn a blind eye and turn deaf when we suffer? Does He even care?
Some may label me as overly spiritualizing things and to take things as they are: it was a natural calamity and none other.
But it is not. God saw all these from eternity and sees everything until eternity. God saw the drowning. God saw the suffering. God saw the dying. God saw those mourning. And God sees the resurrection of all. He withholds miracles not to hurt us but to give us even a greater miracle: a stronger character, a more compassionate heart, and a more trusting spirit in Him. And yes, God was crying, and is still is, for He sees His people suffering and still don’t get its meaning. Tears purify our soul, suffering turns our hearts into gold, death makes our spirit turn toward the eternal.
I hurt when I write this, but I have to write it. This is no mere natural calamity, and that after this we have to be simply more prepared. Sure, disaster-preparedness is a necessity. But we have to see there are much greater things behind all these events, deeper messages, if you may.
The Gospel speaks of the resurrection of the just, that those who believe in Christ will not perish but will have eternal life.
In some few hours, countless lives were changed forever. Laughter turned into tears, joy into mourning.
I remember the father of those siblings who died. He was saying that, in fact, before the landslide, they were decorating their home with Christmas lights, and cleaning their electric fan. They were looking forward to that most wonderful time of the year.
Then tragedy strikes. Tragedy, for us. Grace, overwhelming grace, from God for us. So great a grace that we could not understand and we could not accept it. But God understands and waits.
Did God punish for our individual and collective sins? Perhaps, and may He forgive us. To purify us? Probably, His Will be done. But does He really love us? Certainly, and through it all, He knows all things. He knows how much we strive to love Him.
To our dead, may the angels lead you into paradise. May they bring you safely home. To the mourning, may the angels wipe away your tears. To us who survived, may the angels tame our happiness and remind us of heaven. And to You, Dearest Lord, I do not understand so many things, I only beg You to make us love You more and more.

The final battle

2009-08-30T09:03:00.000+08:00

Have we ever felt that in ourselves and in the cosmic order, there is raging battle? To do good and to avoid evil? But do we not feel that somehow in the times we are living in right now, the battle is so great? When the Church and her teachings have come under severe attacks? When being a faithful follower Christ means being left out and marked as out of tune, politically incorrect?
But what is we indeed are living the time when the final battle is to be waged? We take a look at the Marian apparitions of the past and search for the clues for this final battle that we are part and parcel of.

I. Guadalupe
Why would the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing to a Native American of the recently conquered Aztec empire, and speaking to him in the native Nahuatl language, call herself “of Guadalupe”, a Spanish name?
Some believe that Our Lady used the Aztec Nahuatl word of coatlaxopeuh which is pronounced "quatlasupe" and sounds remarkably like the Spanish word Guadalupe. Coa meaning serpent, tla being the noun ending which can be interpreted as "the", while xopeuh means to crush or stamp out. So Our Lady must have called herself the one "who crushes the serpent."
We must sadly remember that the Aztec priest class executed annually at least 50,000 inhabitans of the land, men, women and children, in human sacrifices to their gods. In 1487, just in a single four-day long ceremony for the dedication of a new temple in Tenochtitlan, some 80,000 captives were killed in human sacrifice. The same practices, which in most cases included the cannibalism of the victims’ limbs, were common also in earlier Mesoamerican cultures, with widespread Olmec, Toltec and Maya human sacrificing rituals.
An almost universal symbol of that religion was the serpent. The temples were richly decorated with snakes. Human sacrifices were heralded by the prolonged beating of huge drums made of the skins of huge snakes, which could be heard two miles away. Nowhere else in human history had Satan, the ancient serpent, so formalized his worship with so many of his own actual symbols.
Certainly, in this case She crushed the serpent, and few years later millions of the natives converted to Christianity.

II. Fatima: Queen of Peace, Lady of the Rosary
During World War I, when millions were killing each other, on 05 May 1917, the Holy Father, Benedict XV, added the title Regina Pacis. Over Vatican Radio, he read his message, begged God for the restoration of peace and implored Our Lady to obtain peace for the world.
Barely eight days later, Our Lord sends His Mother to three children bringing with her the Peace Plan from Heaven. Peace that comes not simply from the cessation of armed conflicts nor from the strong subduing the weak nor from the defeated submitting to the victor, but from prayer, from reparation, from the true devotion to Mary.
At Fatima, Our Lady warned that wars are punishment from God for sin. She said that many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray for them, and that many souls perish more because of the sins of the flesh.
For peace to be obtained, she asked for the Consecration to Her Immaculate Heart, the consecration of Russia and also the consecration of ourselves. In fact, Our Lady told Sor Lucia that she would stay longer on earth because through her, God wishes to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
If at Guadalupe, innocent lives were sacrificed to the false gods, in Europe during the time of the Fatima apparitions, millions of innocent lives were sacrificed at the altars of the wrong notion of nationalism and sovereignty. At Fatima itself, Our Lady forewarned that a greater war would ensue if her requests are left unheeded.
"When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father," said the message. There was special mention of Russia, which was about to turn atheistic. The Virgin asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart to prevent a dangerous future. "If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace," the Blessed Mother prophesied. "If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated."

III. Lipa Carmel 1948: “What I ask here is the same that I request at Fatima”
World War I in Europe would not end in the 1920’s, it would continue on. Just as Our Lady told Sor Lucia that once she sees a strange light illuminating the skies, it will be the sign the greater war would have begun. And indeed there was the very strange Aurora Borealis in 1938, and came later the invasion of Hitler of neighboring Austria and started World War II.
At the Pacific, it was imperial Japan that subdued its neighbors including the Philippines. Hundreds of thousands died. There were many killing fields, among these the vacant lot in Lipa City in Batangas. After the war, no one wanted to build anything at that vacant lot. It became instead the Carmelite Monastery where Our Lady would transform it from a place of death to a shrine of light and life.
In the 1920’s there lived a Cardinal in Belgium who was devoted to Our Lady, especially under the title, Mediatrix of All Graces. During his time, there was a recently beatified Blessed Louis Marie Grignon di Montfort whose love for Mary was so known. Cardinal Mercier decided to promote both devotions. In fact, to his thinking, through the canonization of Blessed Louis, the definition of the dogma of Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces would be ushered in.
There were a number of theological objections to the possible dogma of the universal mediation of Mary for the obtaining of all graces. The Pope then, Benedict XV, in accession to the requests of Cardinal Mercier decided to institute the Feast of Mary Mediatrix of Grace, set on the date May 31st.
Cardinal Mercier died in 1926 without seeing neither the definition of the dogma of Mary Mediatrix of All Graces nor the canonization of Blessed Louis Marie Grignon di Montfort. He died uttering over and over again Mary Mediatrix, Mary Mediatrix.
In 1947, Blessed Louis Marie Grignon di Montfort was canonized. And less than a year, in the far away island of the Philippines, Our Lady appears and identifies herself as Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace.

IV. The First and the Final Battle: The Woman and the Serpent (Gen 3:15 and Rev.12)
In Sacred Scripture, in the very first book of Genesis, Our Lord promised a Woman who would have that enmity, that battle against the serpent. That Woman who would bear a fruit and that fruit that would crush the head of the serpent.
In the very last book of the Bible, that same Woman reappears, again bearing a fruit in her womb. The Woman, in fact, was about to give birth. The dragon, the serpent of the Genesis, was about to slay her and her child. Michael the Archangel then appears, defeats Satan and chains him in hell. That was the Final Battle. Satan is defeated.

St. Louis, in his book True Devotion to Mary, prophesies:
But what will they be like, these servants, these slaves, these children of Mary?
They will be ministers of the Lord, who, like a flaming fire, will enkindle everywhere the fires of divine love. They will become, in Mary’s powerful hands, like sharp arrows, with which she will transfix her enemies. (TD, 56)
They will be like thunder-clouds flying through the air at the slightest breath of the Holy Spirit. Attached to nothing, surprised at nothing, troubled at nothing, they will shower down the rain of God’s word and of eternal life. They will thunder against sin, they will storm against the world, they will strike down the devil and his followers and for life and for death, they will pierce through and through with the two-edged sword of God’s word all those against whom they are sent by Almighty God. (TD, 57)

We are part of this Army of Our Lady. We are at war. All those consecrated to Mary forms part of her army, and through this army, Our Lady will defeat Satan.

Assumpta est Maria

2009-08-13T09:00:00.000+08:00

The month of August marks the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15) and the Feast of the Queenship of Mary (August 22). The latter intentionally celebrated seven days after the Assumption to mark an octave of celebration.
We have heard it often now, it used to be seldom in the past, that many who are supposed to be better educated than us (for they hold so many degrees in theology, philosophy, or what have you) questioning so many traditional teachings of the Church, or at the very least, “re-reading,” re-defining the Church’s teachings. And even to the extent of questioning the historicity of the Resurrection of Christ.
I find this entry in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia very educating:
Catholics do not admit that, as is sometimes alleged, dogmas are the arbitrary creations of ecclesiastical authority, that they are multiplied at will, that they are devices for keeping the ignorant in subjection, that they are obstacles to conversions. Some of these are points of controversy which cannot be settled without reference to more fundamental questions. Dogmatic definitions would be arbitrary if there were no Divinely instituted infallible teaching office in the Church; but if, as Catholics maintain, God has established in His Church an infallible office, dogmatic definitions cannot be considered arbitrary. The same Divine Providence which preserves the Church from error will preserve her from inordinate multiplication of dogmas. She cannot define arbitrarily. We need only observe the life of the Church or of the Roman pontiffs to see that dogmas are not multiplied inordinately. And as dogmatic definitions are but the authentic interpretation and declaration of the meaning of Divine revelation, they cannot be considered devices for keeping the ignorant in subjection, or reasonable obstacles to conversions, on the contrary, the authoritative definition of truth and condemnation of error, are powerful arguments leading to the Church those who seek the truth earnestly.
Oops. Probably I sounded very technical here. And yet, we do need to realize that the not so-called educated are wise. We can only turn to the Gospel and hear the Lord telling his listeners that many truths have been hidden from learned and have been revealed to mere children.
And among the dogmas always incurring the criticism of non-Catholics are the Marian dogmas. Among these, of course, is the dogma of the Assumption. But lest we forget, the Church defines dogmas not in relation to their acceptability to other religions nor to the general public but the Church proclaims them as such because they are objective truths.
Hence, the Church proclaims certain truths as dogmas of Faith not because of whim and caprice of some or of many but that basing herself on the Revealed Truth which is Sacred Scripture and on Sacred Tradition, she is able to define dogmas definitively.
Regarding the day, year, and manner of Our Lady's death, nothing certain is known. The earliest known literary reference to the Assumption is found in the Greek work De Obitu S. Dominae. Catholic faith, however, has always derived our knowledge of the mystery from Apostolic Tradition. Epiphanius (d. 403) acknowledged that he knew nothing definite about it. The dates assigned for it vary between three and fifteen years after Christ's Ascension. Two cities claim to be the place of her departure: Jerusalem and Ephesus. Common consent favors Jerusalem, where her tomb is shown; but some argue in favor of Ephesus. The first six centuries did not know of the tomb of Mary at Jerusalem (The Catholic Encyclopedia).
By promulgating the Bull Munificentissimus Deus, 1 November, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared infallibly that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma of the Catholic Faith.

Of Angels and Demons

2009-06-03T08:59:00.000+08:00

With last year’s firestorm of criticism from the Vatican and many Church institutions to the film Da Vinci Code, it became an instant box-office hit around the world.

With this year’s muted reaction, the sequel film, Angels and Demons, promises to be way below the producer’s expectation.

Hence, certainly there is wisdom in the silent treatment of things. Yet, on the other hand, our faithful needs guidance and firm teaching or otherwise, one would be misled to think that it’s OK to watch and even promote films that are contrary to history and to the Church.

When is the time, therefore, to endure things that are happening? And when is the time to defend and speak out?

I believe, we are to defend always and all the time. The only question is the proper place, the appropriate time, and yes, the proper and fitting words.

As Pope Leo XII aptly puts it, The first law of history is not to dare to utter falsehood; the second, not to fear to speak the truth.

Within the Church, we need to constantly form our faithful—clergy, religious, and lay alike: to point out incorrect teachings, incoherent beliefs, and inconsistent lives. Outside of the Church, the bigger society, for example, we need to exercise prudence and wise judgment. We cannot afford to speak out all the time, or else, we lose the essential meaning of our prophetic mission.

In the public arena, there is a time to be silent, a time to speak, a time to condemn, a time to praise, a time to correct, and a time to be corrected as well, a time to forgive, a time to ask forgiveness.

Human as we are, there will be times when we shall be confusing the moments of silence and retreat and the moments of militancy and defense. And we have to learn. At times, our pastors and leaders would not be able to rise above the confusion and would confuse the same. During those times, we need understanding and certain degree of courage but never losing hope. We remember St. Catherine of Siena. It took an uneducated woman, but a very holy woman, to put an end to the Avignon Papacy and bring back the Pope to Rome.

Our Bishops are human beings like us, they need sincere and truthful feedbacks and inputs. That is our role in the Church. Not everyone can exercise the mission of governance in the Church, God has reserved it to our bishops. We help them in the wise governance of the Church. When they do commit mistakes, we should be there to help and assist. Remember when in the Old Testament, Lot became drunk and his daughters saw him naked? Were they simply scandalized and ran out? No, they covered his nakedness.

When we see the fallen human nature of our leaders, we “cover” that weakness. No, not covering up the truth. But making up for what is lacking. That is being Church, we fill-up in what we see are lacking in others.

In the great spiritual warfare that we are in, that great fight between the forces of Light and darkness, to unjustly judge and be discouraged is to give in to darkness. The more we see the human side of the Church, the more we stay close to Her, the more we pray, the more we make-up for what is lacking.

These are passing thoughts that I have as we approach the day we mark the culminating stage of the birth of the Church: Pentecost day. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the weakened and discouraged apostles became empowered and strengthened. The Church was born in the midst of human weakness but supplemented by the grace of God.

We belong to this Church. We are both humbled and proud to be in this Church.

And the Church was born with Mary in their midst. She was there in the Upper Room praying with the apostles. We stay very close to Her, Mater Ecclesiae, Mother of the Church, and that She fills up what is lacking in us. Ave Maria!

Ubi Petrus Ibi Ecclesia Est

2009-05-04T18:30:00.000+08:00

THE Pope, better yet, the Popes have consistently preached the Church teaching on the sacredness of the marriage act, that down through the ages the Church has affirmed that only within the sacrament of Matrimony will the marriage act come to its fulfillment and noble end: procreation and the education of children. It also means the marriage act, which nourishes and strengthens the marriage union, is always open to procreation of new life; that the love between the spouses is so great that it becomes a person, a new life. That human love is shared, and yes, it diffuses.

Unfortunately, in our time and age, when every teaching of the Church is put into bad light, the recent pronouncement of the present Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, while he was en route to Africa, that condom use is not actually a help in combating HIV-AIDS, many were up in arms. So much so that the Belgian Parliament even condemned his words and demanded a retraction and apology.

The Church, in fact, takes care of the HIV-AIDS victims. In Africa itself, many institutions taking care of them are run by the Catholic Church. We do not condemn them, just as we do not condemn the homosexuals. But the solution proposed by the Church stems from her consistent teaching: sexual intimacy is only within the sacrament of Matrimony. And why is that? Because, simply put, intimacy is reserved for those who are committed. And commitment is best (wholly and holy) expressed when the spouses enter into a covenant, that covenant which we refer to as the Sacrament of Matrimony.

The Church is not being simply legalistic when she insists on the Sacrament of Matrimony. She, in fact, safeguards that love between the spouses. She so safeguards that love, that she envelops it with God’s blessing through the Sacrament of Matrimony. And she so zealously safeguards the sanctity and beauty of human love that she so insists in teaching that physical and sexual intimacy—consistent with the Gospel truth—finds its true meaning only within the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Amazingly but tragically, it was not the Africans that were protesting the Holy Father’s words, it was the Europeans and North Americans who were condemning him. It is such a paradox that African Church Health workers were even praising the Holy Father for his courage to tell the world that it is not condoms that Africa needs but true acts of charity.

One cannot help but be surprised and saddened as well in hearing and reading the news that one beauty contestant who was the front runner for Miss USA lost the chance of being crowned because she had the guts to tell the audience and the judge that she believes that marriage is only between a man and a wife.

And another recent news item as well, again from the US, in a Congressional hearing participated in by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, she was taken to task about the turn-around policy of the US with regard to abortion-promotion around the world. And these were, among others, her words:

We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women’s health and reproductive health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal, and rare. (Emphasis mine).

Well, there you have it. For all the denials that reproductive health does not include abortion, it comes from the biggest advocate and promoter of reproductive health; yes, our dearest Juan de la Cruz, reproductive health does include abortion.

What a world we are living in today, it is so secularized, that being an openly Christian faithful now becomes a stigma and something to be ashamed of. Christian persecution has returned, albeit not a bloody one (not yet anyway). We are called to be martyrs of our Christian Faith. Martyros in Greek means someone who gives a testimony, a witness to the Faith. May we be the contemporary martyrs that the Church needs, living witnesses that the Christian Faith, that to follow Christ, is well worth living and even dying for.

Courage, dearest followers of Christ, we can rise above our petty concerns and come to defend the teachings of Christ. And yes, let us be comforted, so long as we remain united with Peter and his successor we are with the truth. For where Peter is, the Church is there. Ubi Petrus ibi Ecclesia est.

May Mary, Mother of the Church, Mediatrix of All-Grace, come and help us in this hour of great battle. Ave Maria!

Stabat Mater

2009-04-01T22:43:00.000+08:00

Stabat mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa,
Dum pendebat Filius

She stayed standing there, the Mother,
In sorrow rent, next to the cross,
Lo, with bitter tears overcome, sadness bent,
While on that rood there hung her Son.

IF there are some things that a priest never forgets, it is the times when we have to administer the Anointing of the Sick. Fear and despair are the initial things one would readily notice. Fear of death perhaps, or fear of the unknown more probably, what happens after this life on earth. Or perhaps even a fear more on the part of the family, the fear of losing someone. Yet, one cannot deny that always after administering the Sacrament, there will always be that sense of peace and acceptance, be it from the sick or from the family. Is it because the Church gives that false hope of something better lies hereafter? I think not.

I remember one time I administered the Sacrament to a dying old woman—she was a member of the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites—I never saw someone whose face was so peaceful. In fact, I thought I even saw her face so radiant. She died as she lived: in the intimacy with God. And aren’t we all to pass through the same: we shall die as we have lived?
The efficacy of the Sacraments of the Church is rooted from the One who gave the Sacraments: Christ Himself. If ever we find the Sacraments comforting and consoling it is because it is Christ who comforts and consoles us.

Hence, whenever I administer the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, it would not be too much to really affirm, I act in persona Christi. It is not me nor my presence nor my words that comfort and console the sick and the dying, it is Christ.

Cuius animan gementem,
Contristatam et dolentem,
Pertransivit gladius.

In her grieving spirit,
Sore afflicted and vast empained,
Has a shining, sadding, sword of sorrow
Been soul-blood stained.

Kinakaya ko na lang Father para sa anak ko. I am sure we have heard this said many times over again. And it is the truth. Many of our mothers had to endure sufferings and sacrifices for their children. One can only think of the countless Filipinas who migrate to find work. Or they do not even have to go abroad, how many of our mothers have to go to the urban centers from their rural homes in order to find work. And yes they endure, because they truly love.

We see that the love of Our Lady towards her Son and towards us that enabled her to endure all possible sufferings. She accepted that prophetic sword that pierced her heart because she loves. She loves God foremost, and she loves us because of her love of God. She accepted that the death of Her Son and her sharing in this suffering and death would merit for us the ultimate gift of all, salvation. Kinaya nya para sa kanyang mga anak.

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigeniti!

O how grieved, how sore beset
That most holy Mother of the One
Whom alone saw fit the Father to beget
As beloved, sole-born Son.

Have you ever been in section of the hospital that they administer chemotherapy? Ever seen young people, yes children even, undergoing the therapy? That somehow hidden beneath their suffering bodies, there is beauty shining from their souls reflected in their eyes and faint smile. And one wonders why God gifts a treasure only to slowly and painfully take them away? Why beauty would be decayed right before our human eyes?
And yet the gifts from God would return to God. Why then call them gifts if they have to be returned? I remember that scene in Kung Fu Panda, when the mentor says: The future is mystery, the past is history, the today is a gift that is why it is called present.

A gift is treasured. And as everything is from God, every gift would eventually return to Him. We are gifts to one another, not private properties. Only Him possesses us. And herein lies the difficulty, time comes, and it does come sooner than later, when the gifts of God, that includes you and me, returns to Him. What pains us is that we have come to feel that we own us and one another.

In heaven, with God, I dare speculate, we would come to understand that the gifts of God are to be perpetually and perfectly shared with one another, that includes our entire being. In the Divine Presence, we would come to know that in “losing” ourselves, we gain everything.
Mary was greeted by the Angel as full of grace. Filled with God, emptied of herself. God was able to fill Her entirely with His grace, and became the worthy Mother of God.

The Woman

2009-03-19T11:45:00.000+08:00

THE Sacred Scripture records for us the beginning of the woman, when God saw it fit for man not to be alone (Gn). Here we see that the woman is a compliment to the man, not one simply needing the other, but that mutually the two will be a help and a compliment to each other.

Historically, however, it will take some time for the women to have the same rights as men. Let me clarify what we mean by rights. In this time and age we live in, we have invented so many “rights” that it seems nothing is left anymore in the realm of responsibility and prudence. It is also worth observing that the culture of each people defines what are the “rights” granted. Most certainly, there are universal rights accepted by all cultures such as the right to life.

And herein lay the problem and the challenge: what if culture changes, what if culture is intentionally modified? Is it not what we are witnessing now? A culture of unbridled individual freedom, without any reference anymore neither to religion nor to morals. A culture which, call it by any other name, is simply a culture against life, a culture of death.

Going back to Sacred Scripture, we see that sin and death entered through a woman, and it will take another woman to undo and untie this sin and death.

Eve and Mary

Let me liberally quote here an article from the Mary Page maintained by the University of Dayton in Ohio which prides itself to have the biggest collection of books written on Mary in the English language:

Eve's name in Hebrew means "life." She is called Chavvah (in the Septuagint, Eva; in the Vulgate, Heva because she is the mother of all the living (Gn 3:20). Her initial appearance in the Hebrew Scriptures is one of beauty, goodness, wisdom, and life. ... The rabbinic writings praise the beauty and adornment of Eve while commenting on Genesis 2:22: "The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from man." For example, Rabbi Chama ben Chanina (260 C.E.) wrote that certainly God first clothed her (Eve) with twenty-four precious decorations (those which describe the women of Israel in Isaiah 3:18-24) and then God brings her to the man.

Later Jewish writings contrast Eve's disobedience with the fidelity and obedience of the Israelites to God on Mount Sinai. ... In the New Testament, Eve is never mentioned in the Gospels. Adam is mentioned only in Luke's genealogy (Lk 3:38). Eve is mentioned in two Pauline writings:

"For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere [and pure] commitment to Christ "(2 Cor 11:2-3).

"For Adam was formed first, then Eve. Further, Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed. But she will be saved through motherhood, provided women persevere in faith and love and holiness, with self-control"(1 Tm 2:13-15).
Both passages emphasize the negative aspects of Eve's role in salvation history. Early Christian writers will contrast Eve's disobedience with Mary's obedience. However, it is only through the comprehensive reading of all texts of the First Testament that we will fully appreciate the greatness of Israel's first mother, Eve, the mother of the living.

Parallels are seen between Mary's dialogue with Gabriel and Eve's dialogue with the serpent (Gn 3:17, Lk 1:28-35). The text of Genesis 3:15 is also compared with the scene of Mary at the foot of the Cross (Jn 19:25-28a). ... One could view the process of salvation history from Eve to Mary as a double movement: first the breaking up of the human race into many disparate individuals, and then the gradual concentration of all expectations of salvation in the Messiah born of Mary, the Mother of God. All the eminent women in the Old Testament are concrete and partial realizations of the primal mother from ancient times (Eve) who perdures and extends herself in them. As the new Adam extends himself in the "Mystical Body" of Christ (the ecclesial community of the new People of God), so also does Mary represent all those "children of God, once dispersed, but now brought together" by her Son.

Jesus' words on the cross, "There is your mother" (Jn 19:27), may point to the popular etymological explanation of Eve's name in Genesis 3:20: "The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living." Just as the Church is "the Jerusalem above ... our mother" (Gal 4:26), so also is Mary the mother of believers, who, at the cross, were concretely present in the person "of the disciple whom Jesus loved."

The Rights of the Modern Woman
With Mary and through Mary, we see the authentic feminine soul: both its strength and beauty. Our contemporary time wishes to come to a full circle: that in the name of “liberating” the woman, we wish to take again the path chosen by Eve, a path away from God.

Are we becoming an obstacle to the liberation of the woman when we speak against newly coined rights such as reproductive rights, which is but a euphemism to universal access to contraceptives that includes abortion?

Or are we instead defending the authentic human rights and are even advancing what rightly constitutes as rights.

It is often pointed out that because there are illegal and unsafe abortions being performed in the country, the solution is to legalize and enable women to have their choice of a safe and sanitary abortion. And that because many women die because of pregnancy the proposed solution is not to be pregnant at all.

Our contention is, would it not be more appropriate that since many women die during pregnancy the proper solution would be to provide proper health care during the women’s pregnancy and during childbirth? Not unless of course, we have begun to view pregnancy as disease and a burden.

And that the proper solution to the illegal and unsafe abortion in the country is to have our women the proper options to carry to full term their pregnancy so that abortion would never be an option. And as to the issue of “unwanted” and “unplanned” pregnancy the solution is and will always be the proper value formation of the young that begins in the home.

Moral and sexual permissiveness will never be the solution. When we look back at history of all the great empires and nations of the past, we see that once the people give in to moral depravity the collapse of that nation begins.

Our country is yet at the crossroads again, we can choose the “easy” and comfortable way and adopt the policies and culture of the decaying countries or we can choose the more “difficult” path, less trodden, but leads to God and to the sharing of His divine Life.
May we choose wisely. Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Traveling with Our Lady

2009-03-05T14:22:00.003+08:00

FOR 26 days from 28 January to 21 February 2009, we went around the country with the Pilgrim Image of Our Lady of Fatima.

Although we were confined with the “bigger” churches, mostly the Cathedrals of the Arch/dioceses, we were able to see the entire cross-section of the Church in the Philippines.
I will never forget the vast crowds we have seen in all places Our Lady visited, and very notable among these are those of the Archdiocese of Lipa, Diocese of Butuan, Diocese of Digos, and the Archdiocese of Jaro.

We also had a brief stop at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Valenzuela on the First Saturday of February which turned out to be the last time that I would be seeing and conversing with Msgr. Moises Andrade.

St. John Damascene refers to the statues and images as visual catechisms. Without use of words and sounds, we are able to glimpse and understand aspects of our Faith through these visual representations.

The history of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue begins in 1946. At that time, after the youth of Portugal attended a Congress in Fatima, they took the Statue from display in the Cova on pilgrimage to Lisbon. As they walked the route they stopped at the towns and people gathered to pray. In Lisbon when they entered the cathedral, the miracle of doves occurred. Many other phenomena also occurred inspiring devotion and inspiring the fervor among the people.

The statue was returned to its place in the Cova de Iria but many people wished for a visit in their own communities. The Bishop asked Sr. Lucia in a letter about sending the statue on tour. Sr. Lucia responded with a letter suggesting that the new statue, just then being made, by the famous sculptor Jose Thedim be used as a pilgrim statue. The Bishop agreed and, on May 13, 1947, this new statue was blessed and named the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima.

Almost before it began its journey, so many places wanted her visit that it was realized a second statue should also be blessed. This second statue, made also by Jose Thedim, was completed and blessed by the Bishop of Fatima on October 13, 1947 (Exactly 30 years to the day after the great miracle of the sun which was to draw the world's attention to Mary's message.) His Excellency remarked that this would be the Western statue and that the two statues would travel about until finally they could enter Russia.

The Bishop of Fatima entrusted the Western statue to Mr. John Haffert, who later became the cofounder of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima in America. It entered the United States, through Canada at Buffalo, New York, on December 8, 1947. (December 8th, being our patronal Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception.) At Buffalo 200,000 people lined the streets and welcomed Our Lady on that occasion. To fulfill the mandate of the Bishop to travel, teach and inspire, Mr. Haffert assigned the first custodian, Fr. McGrath of Canada. The statue has always had a full time custodian and has never stopped traveling in its entire 54 years. Succeeding Fr. McGrath was Fr. Breault, and others have continued to the present time.

The miracles, favors, and signal graces were so numerous from the very beginning that even the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, reflected on them in his famous radio address to the pilgrims at Fatima, May 13, 1951. He recalled having crowned the Fatima statue in 1946: "In 1946 we crowned Our Lady of Fatima as Queen of the world, and the next year, through her pilgrim image, She set forth as though to claim Her dominion, and the miracles She performs along the way are such that we can scarcely believe our eyes at what we are seeing."

Physical cures attributed to the presence of the Statue have been documented many times. The changes in expression and coloration, and even the pose of the statue have been reported innumerable times. But, the important miracles are the spiritual cures and gifts Our Lady bestows. The sudden conversion of a stubborn heretic is a good example. Another important miracle is the enlightenment of someone who has resisted the idea of statues or the idea of praying to saints. The spiritual miracles are infinitely more valuable than the things we can see, touch, or measure.

The travel of Our Lady’s image has been very limited this year. If you wish to invite Her when she returns to the Philippines sometime from now, you can log on to the website: pilgrimvirginstatue.com

And by the way, March 25 is the Solemnity of the Anunciation and a day of Prayer for the Unborn. Any true devotee of Our Lady will certainly defend Family and Life!

We continue to pray, offer sacrifice, and mobilize against the passage of the Reproductive Health bill and even against the carefully “languaged” Magna Carta on Women.

Ave Maria! Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Traveling with Our Lady

2009-03-05T14:22:00.001+08:00

Life at the heart of the issue

2009-02-04T19:26:00.000+08:00

LOS Angeles. After attending the World Meeting of Families, I was privileged to attend the 36th Annual March for Life at Washington DC. There were a hundred thousand or more in the midst of the very chilly weather. And of course, Filipino-Americans were there.

Travelling from San Diego on Wednesday night, January 21st, 10:45 pm, I spent the night in the plane. Arriving the next day, 8:00 am at the DC, I was met by Atty. Joseph Cosby, an American lawyer who forms part of the Filipino Family Fund.
With only two hours of rest, we went to the DC downtown area, where to my amazement, people were already congregating. And what is more amazing was the great number of youth who were there. The feeling was thrilling and encouraging.

Mothers with their children. Fathers with their sons and daughters. Priests with their parishioners. Religious nuns with their communities.

The March was not moving for two hours, and a joke went around that it should be renamed Stand-up for Life rather than March for Life. There was a group of Latinos who started singing and playing their musical instruments, and the people gladly swayed in harmony with their music.

Some even handed me some food and drinks, and hand and feet warmers (those little things that you hold onto and it keeps you warm)...It reminded me so much of EDSA.

The March finally moved albeit slowly then finally at a fast pace. Unfortunately, we did not reach the US Supreme Court, the place of culmination for the rally, since it was already filled with people.

Abortion hurts women, many placards showed. We choose life, others displayed. Babies are life not a choice.

The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue (IPVS) of Our Lady of Fatima was also there. But with the vast crowd, I wasn't even able to get close. But anyway, I'll be catching up with her at the LA airport in coming back to the Philippines.

After the March for Life, we proceeded to the Reception in a nearby hotel for the Filipino-American Pro-lifers organized by the Filipino Family Fund. Some US Congressmen were also in attendance.

I was asked to speak briefly on the Philippine situation, and I just hope I was able to present them of the current situation in our country.

Early the next day, I proceeded to San Francisco where I had a scheduled Mass and talk to a Filipino community. Saturday, January 24, I was to have a city tour of the area. And lo and behold, our vehicle could not move. It was their March for Life!
From one March for Life in the one coast of the US to another March for Life at the other coast. And same sight! Many young people. The two branches of the Couples for Christ were also there.

I begin to see hope in this country, many young people─even according to their own surveys─are more pro-life than the adults. We just have to wait. The youth is indeed our hope.

In a couple of hours, I'll be returning to our country, with hope and encouragement. No matter what the US government might do, its people are slowly returning to God. I just hope and pray, our own people would not commit the same mistakes they did.

May Our Lady protect us! Ave Maria!

The 6th World Meeting of Families

2009-01-22T10:53:00.001+08:00

MEXICO CITY. Under the watchful eyes of Our Lady, the 6th World Meeting of Families is about to conclude. Although the Holy Father was unable to be physically present, he sent his Papal Legate, Cardinal Bertone to represent him. And thanks to technology, at the end of the recitation of the Holy Rosary Saturday night (January 17) at the esplanade of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Holy Father transmitted by video his Papal Message.

It is quite ironic, by the way, that here in Mexico where Our Lady appeared as a Pregnant Mother, abortion is legal and has recently been even more amplified.

There were testimonies of family members, professionals, and theologians on the shadows and lights facing the families around the world. One of my favorite ones is the study about the direct correlation between the family's eating meals together and the strengthening of family ties and growth of virtues among the children. Well, may the Servant of God, Fr. Patrick Peyton forgive me, the study shows the family that eats together stays together.

Our own Bishop Soc Villegas presented a very inspiring talk on the situation of the family in the Asian continent. Among other beautiful things, he mentioned that the Holy Family lived in Asia and hence, our particular attachment to the family. He also noted the Asian people's natural tendency to contemplation, to silence, and to dialogue. Our inclination to communion strengthens our being family. He noted as well the shadows facing the family in Asia such as the adoption of certain Western attitude that leads to rebuke of authority.

Bro. Frank and Sis. Gerry Padilla of the Couples for Christ Foundation also shared their thoughts and experiences in an ecclesial movement in strengthening family ties and values.

The concluding Mass will be at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We spent some calmer moments inside the Basilica to behold and pray before the miraculous image of Our Lady. I could not explain the utter joy and so many other emotions beholding Her.

We took advantage of the time to pray the Rosary silently to thank Her and beg Her to safeguard our country from many anti-family and anti-life forces.

Ave Maria!

Entrusting the New Year to Our Lady

2009-01-11T21:51:00.000+08:00

AT the last day of the Octave of Christmas the Church marks the Solemnity of the Divine Maternity of Mary which happens to be New Year’s Day as well. Unfortunately, people tend to think it is a Holy Day of Obligation because it is New Year’s Day. Nonetheless, by that happy coincidence, we usually do go to Holy Mass. The Holy Father, of venerable memory, Paul VI has also designated that same day as World Day of Peace.

Hence, a lot of things to celebrate that day. This Season of Christmas is always an opportune moment to reflect on the key role of Our Lady in the salvific plan: not of her own design but by God’s. And yet her constant consent is needed.

This month of January also marks the Solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord, the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, and of course, in the Philippines, the Feast of the Sto. Niño. And for us, in the Diocese of Tarlac, as is in the Archdiocese of Lipa and in the Diocese of Bacolod, the Feast of St. Sebastian on January 20.

And speaking of January 20, the House of Representatives resumes its session that day with, according to what we know thus far, the continuation of the interpolation on HB 5043: Reproductive Health Bill. Attention to our Family and Life Workers and Advocates!

Apparently, however, the legislators have a lot of other “pressing” matters on hand such as the Charter Change and the extension and/or revision of CARP. And certainly, 2009 is the year before the 2010 elections (well, hopefully there will be elections).

A lot of liturgical celebrations, and a lot of social-political-moral concerns as well. To whom do we entrust all these? To Our Lady, of course. As our Bishops meet for their regular Plenary Assembly, we pray for them, as our concerns will be doubly theirs. At times, we, the faithful have a lot of impressions, mis-impressions I should say, about how our Bishops think and decide, speak and act. We think all too human often that we forget they have the grace of office.

We cannot and we should not expect them to please us nor give-in to all our no-matter-how-good-intentioned requests. They have the best of intentions as well but they act and decide given their deeper and more extensive seeing of things. They may not be perfect, but in God’s design they are tasked to lead and govern, to teach and preach, to admonish and correct, to encourage and build. Sine nihil episcopo, as they put it. Nothing without the bishop. That is how we act as Catholics, always in communion and in obedience to our bishops.

It may sound too medieval to modern ears. Yet since the beginning of Christianity, episkopoi, the elders have been there. They may have not worn miters nor episcopal rings. But with that concept of elders—the episkopi—brought with it the hierarchical structure of the Church. In fact, the Apostles we consider to be the first Bishops of the Church.

Around the end of the first century AD, the Church's organization becomes clearer in historical documents. Ignatius of Antioch in particular, writes of the role of the episkopo (singular form of episkopos) or bishop or elder: their role already was very important and being clearly defined.
Plainly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself (Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians 6:1).

Therefore, as the Lord did nothing without the Father, [being united with Him], either by Himself or by the Apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and the presbyters (Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 7:1).

I hope and pray that given especially the cultural context of our country where the bishops’ pronouncements are given great importance, we will pray a great deal for them. And that interest groups would spare them.

And since we are entrusting all our concerns and this entire New Year to Our Lady, providentially, the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue (IPVS) of Our Lady of Fatima will return to the Philippines from 01 to 21 February 2009. She will tour the Philippines, albeit limited in some arch/dioceses only. I’ll write in this column next issue her entire schedule in the Philippines. You can also check the website www.pilgrimvirginstatue.com for further information regarding the miraculous Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima.
May we have a blessed New Year! Ave Maria Purissima!

The road to Damascus 2

2008-11-11T09:34:00.000+08:00

The next stop of our Marian Pilgrimage was in Loyola, the birth place of St. Ignatius. We were able to celebrate Mass in his "Room of Conversion." There were four Spanish people who also attended our English Mass, but then I took the opportunity to address them with some words of thanks since it was their older generations who transmitted to us the Catholic Faith.

I prayed fervently for our Ateneo de Manila professors who have publicly dissented from the Catholic teaching on the artificial means of contraception. Paradoxically, upon returning home, 40 more professors would do the same public dissent. I am sure many of us feel the pain of this internal dissension. A word of caution as well, not because they are Ateneo professors, we would take their position as something worthy of emulation and put into question the wisdom of the Church. It will be tragic to believe that their being part of the intellegentsia makes them above the Church Teaching and God's Word.

This also serves a call for the Catholic intellegentsia to make your voices be heard and articulate in the public realm the soundness and logic of the Catholic doctrines! The Catholic Faith is rooted in Sacred Scripture and backed-up by reason. Faith and Reason go hand-in-hand and in the particular issue of the Artificial Means of Birth Control (by the way, let us not fall into the trap of calling it Modern Means of Contraception, it is not modern, it is plain and simple Artificial), Faith-Reason-Science go together. The Church position on the Artificial Means of Contraception espoused and promoted by the Reproductive Health Bill, among other things, is based on all three: Faith-Reason-Science.

Our Bishop in the Diocese of Tarlac, Most Rev. Florentino F. Cinense, just came from Germany and he had a discussion with some university students. And guess what was one of the questions! Why does the Church oppose Artificial Means of Contraception when it is better than the option of abortion! And my Bishop responded that both are evil, and it cannot be a choice of a lesser evil. He went on to make an analogy: What would you want me do to you: slap you or kill you? Certainly, we would choose neither.
Let me add as well that although not all contraceptives are abortifacient, nonetheless, all artificial means of contraceptives act against the very nature of the marriage act: that is both unitive and procreative.

St. Ignatius of Loyola's road to conversion began when he was wounded in Pamplona and had to stay in bed in his home in Loyola. As time went on, he became increasingly bored. He asked for novels to read, but the only books to be found in their house were two religious ones: The Life of Christ by the Carthusian Ludolf of Saxony and a medieval best seller, variously known as the Golden Legend and the Flower of the Saints by a Dominican named James of Varazze:
When he was thinking of the things of the world, he was filled with delight, but when he had dismissed them from weariness, he was dry and dissatisfied. But when he thought of performing the rigours he saw in the lives of the saints, he was not only consoled while he entertained the thoughts, but even afterwards he remained cheerful and satisfied. ( Michael Ivens SJ: An Approach to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, p.8)

St. Ignatius' encounter with God through sound books reminds the need for good books for our children and young. We remember St. Augustine whose conversion was also facilitated by the reading of good books. Tolle and lege, Take and Read, was what he heard and followed. And such reading led him, as it would lead St. Ignatius, to encounter God and his truth.
Thus began, Yñigo's own "road to Damascus." His conversion grew and matured in time. One of the highlights was his pilgrimage to Monsterrat, a renowned Marian Shrine. There he made a confession of his entire life. Then on the eve of the Annunciation, after putting on his pilgrim garb and donating his fine clothes to a beggar, he spent the entire night 'without ever sitting or lying down, but now standing, now kneeling before the altar of Our Lady.' (Ibid. p. 11). There before
Our Lady, he "surrendered" his sword.

At Loyola, our group prayed and sung his prayer:
Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous;
teach me to serve you as you deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to seek reward,
save that of knowing that I do your Most Holy Will.

Wounded and battered are good soldiers. And good soldiers do not fade, they triumph eventually.
Ave Maria!

The Road to Damascus

2008-10-23T08:30:00.000+08:00

THIS year marks the bi-millennium birth anniversary of St. Paul. Before, he was Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor of Christians until his travel towards Damascus that God's grace made him Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

In Rome now, they have opened a special "Jubilee Door" at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. We had the opportunity to celebrate Mass there just very recently at the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. In that Chapel is the Crucifix in front of which St. Bridget received the Fifteen Prayers in honor of the wounds of the Lord.

The figure of St. Paul reminds us that no matter how we led our lives in the past, we can always atone for them, and more so, live a life that is meant for us by the Lord. Paul had that utter change. God worked in him. And to culminate his earthly life, he died a martyr's death.

Well, we actually began our Marian Pilgrimage by visiting Avila in Spain. It was my first time in Avila and I was deeply moved in being in the place where Teresa begun reforming Carmel, and in the end, reforming the Church members as well, as the Church is perfectly holy in her Head who is Christ and ever needing sanctification in her members.

We were able to offer Mass at the birth place of Teresa and her words echoed through mind and heart:

Nada te turbe
Nada te spante
Todo se pasa
Dios no se muda
Quien a Dios tiene,
Nada te falta
Solo Dios basta.
Solo Dios basta.

In the ever fleeting concerns that we are offered, Teresa reminds us, Solo Dios basta. Since we often forget that struggle for sanctity is a joyful one, I remember as well those words of hers: Spare us O Lord from gloomy saints!

From Avila, we proceeded to Fatima, which appropriately enough was the 13th of October. Although I have been there in the past, it is always a new and renewing experience. The evening procession was impressive. The group was also graced to have led in Tagalog part of a decade of the Rosary.

Early morning of October 14 we offered Mass at the Chapel of the Apparitions at the Cova d'Iria. And in our hearts, and me in my poor and sinful heart, begged Our Lady to safeguard the Filipino Family and enlighten our legislators. We cannot give up in our legislators. If Saul the persecutor of Christians, by God's grace, was transformed into Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, any and all our legislators can be transformed as well into true Christian leaders. With God, there is nothing impossible.

At Fatima, Our Lady asked for prayer and penance especially for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for sins. There at the small poor village, Our Lady told the world that many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray for them. We pray for one another, for our own true conversion.

The three children who were blessed with the apparitions of Our Lady are now all in heaven. Francisco, who could only see but neither hear nor speak with Our Lady, died the earliest. He spent many hours in prayer to console the Lord. Together with his sister, Jacinta, was declared Blessed by the Servant of Go, John Paul II, in May 2000.

Jacinta—who could see and hear Our Lady but not speak with Her—died alone in a hospital, as foretold by Our Lady, but she was never left alone by Our Lady. She spent her life offering prayers and sacrifices for the Holy Father.
Lucia—who could see, hear, and speak with Our Lady—eventually entered the Carmel in Coimbra, some hours away from Fatima. Our Lady told her she would live longer than her two cousins since through Lucia, "God wanted to establish devotion to her (Mary's) Immaculate Heart." She lived until 13 February 2005.

In these three children, we see not only the innocence of the little ones but their simplicity and conviction to fulfill God's Will. We may have already lost our own innocence, but we could still be simple and convinced in fulfilling His Will.

May this month of the Holy Rosary inspire us all the more to pray, act, and lead lives that are totally consecrated to Mary. And may we take up again the daily and regular praying of the Rosary. Ave Maria! Ad Jesum per Mariam.

The wonderful people given by God

2008-10-06T08:28:00.000+08:00

OF late, the articles that appeared in this column have been doctrinal. Allow me to be personal again for this particular issue.

October 7 is the date of my priestly ordination, and this year marks the 10th year. The date has been a personal request on my part, that day being the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary.
I wish to look back in gratitude to all the wonderful people that God placed along the path of my life to guide me closer to God, to Our Lady, and to the journey to the priesthood.
My lola. When I was yet a toddler and child, and my parents had to earn the living, she took care of us. But I will fondly recall how she would bring us to our Parokya, St. James the Apostle Parish in Paombong, Bulacan. During my kindergarten days in St. Martin de Porres Catholic School, still in Paombong, she would bring me there and stay whole day to be my bantay. She was the first one to teach me the basic prayers. She died one morning when we were the only two persons in our home, a morning that she told my mother that there were no classes in school and we need not go there but the truth was there were classes.

The teachers, staff, and my classmates in St. Martin de Porres Catholic School and the Dominican Sisters of St. Joseph, all the basic tenets of our Faith, I learned there. Although, due to economic constraints many are unable to be part of the Catholic educational system, still it is the best place for children to learn, discover, and be nourished in the Catholic Faith. It was there under the Dominican Sisters that I came to know and fall in love with Our Lady and the praying of the Rosary. The priestly vocation, I believe, was first nourished there.

My lola had an RVM Nun as a sister, Mo. Bernarda Bartolome (she died at the tender age of 102) and a Jesuit priest as a brother, Fr. Pablo Bartolome, SJ. Fr. Pablo, our lolo padre, was assigned in Malaybalay, and whenever he goes to Manila, he would pass by our home. I remember the last time he passed by, he gave me a Rosary and told me that I would be a priest. He died a week later. Our lola madre would instead always send us religious materials, stampitas, scapularios. One of the magazines that she sent marked a very deep impression in my life, the magazine was entitled, Divine Love Magazine. One particular issue had the story of Fatima in it. The story left, I believe, a lasting effect in my soul. The Fatima Message of Our Lady became a focal point in my life. I hungered to know more about Our Lord and Our Lady, and at a tender age, I prayed the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Later on, with my fondness to write letters and ask for religious materials, I came across the Pieta Prayer booklet and there I found the consecratory prayer to Jesus through Mary composed by St. Louis Marie Grignon di Montfort. How I would pray almost all the prayers there everyday until one day my mother reminded me not to forget my duty as a student to study well. The wisdom of the mothers!

I was in high school when the National Marian Year was declared. How my father would patiently accompany me in Manila to go to Luneta for the Closing of Marian Year in the presence of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima. There were more than a million people, and because it was already late in the evening and we still have to commute back home, we weren’t able to come close to the image of Our Lady. Yet decades later, I would come across Her again and this time in charge of her travel in the Philippines.

My father would also accompany me during the National Eucharistic Year, the Mass and Vigil at the Rizal Coliseum to mark the canonization of St. Lorenzo Ruiz, regular visits at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Valenzuela, and so many other events. Thank God for these wonderful parents.

St. Martin de Porres would come to meet me again years later. It was on his Feastday, November 3, that my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989. That event devastated me. I could not believe God would allow such suffering to befall my family. The next months would be a personal suffering for me. I would spend evenings at the Adoration Chapel at the EDSA Shrine begging God and Our Lady for a miracle. But there was no physical cure that was forthcoming.

I remember one evening of December in 1990 when my mother was already very weak. I went out of our bedroom crying, I could not stand the thought that I would be losing my mother very soon. I was crying at our sala, and my mother noticed it. Despite her weakness, she struggled to get out of bed, and walked towards the living room, she hugged me and told me, Gagaling ako, huwag ka nang umiyak. But I knew she would not get well.

During her final days, she asked me once, Nakita muna ang Mahal na Birhen? Never was my answer, it will never happen. Then she told that she would see Our Lady of Fatima whenever she closed her eyes. I remembered how every Saturday we had our block Rosary, and she would carry the image of Our Lady from one house to another. She even made a request, that she hoped she could come to visit Lipa Carmel someday. She never did. My mother died in January 1991, a day before she would have turned 47.

Every First Saturday thereafter I would go to Lipa Carmel not only to fulfill my mother’s request but to request Our Lady as well, now that I don’t have my mother, You should be my own Mother. I am now unable to go Lipa Carmel every First Saturday since, I would like to believe, we brought Her closer home. Every First Saturday at the Tarlac Cathedral, we have our First Saturday dawn procession.

On the day of my ordination, I would never forget a gift to me. It was handed to me by a priest who didn’t tell from whom it came. It was a priestly stole, on one part is the image of Our Lady, Mediatrix of All-Grace, and on the other part, the words of Our Lady in Lipa Carmel which I take to mean to be meant especially for me: I am Your Mother.

From Paombong in Bulacan, the Diocese of Tarlac has been my home now for more than a decade. To the Bishop, priests, nuns, and lay faithful of the Diocese, I could not express enough my gratitude for welcoming a stranger in their midst.

God indeed gives wonderful people along our path, to draw us ever closer to Him. And the most wonderful is Our Lady: Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt, O Virgo Maria!

Hagia Maria Theotokos

2008-09-30T10:59:00.000+08:00

BEFORE the dogma of the Divine Maternity of Mary was defined (which was defined in relation to the Divinity and Humanity of Christ), there were a number of heresies that propped up and were all related to the Person of Christ. Three of these main heresies are the following:
Docetism, derived from the Greek dokeo, “to seem.” It is the erroneous belief that Christ only seemed to be human, that He did not really have a body of human flesh. It denied the Incarnation; Christ did not really have Mary as His mother according to the flesh. It was one of the first theological errors to appear in Church history, for it is probably the target of the warning of 1 John 4:2,3: “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come: and even now already it is in the world.”

Ignatius of Antioch (died 98/117) and Irenaeus (115-190), and Hippolatus (170-235) wrote against the error in the early part of the second century. Docetism was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Arianism was a Christian heresy first proposed early in the 4th century by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius. It affirmed that Christ is not truly divine but a created being. The fundamental premise of Arius was the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent and immutable. The Son, who is not self-existent, cannot be God.

Led by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, the council condemned Arianism and stated that the Son was consubstantial (of one and the same substance or being) and coeternal with the Father, a belief formulated as homoousios ("of one substance") against the Arian position of homoiousios ("of like substance"). Nonetheless, the conflict continued, aided by the conflicting politics of the empire after the death of Constantine (337).

Nestorianism is the error that Jesus is two distinct persons. The heresy is named after Nestorius, who was born in Syria and died in 451 AD, who advocated this doctrine. Nestorius was a monk who became the Patriarch of Constantinople and he repudiated the Marian title "Mother of God." He held that Mary was the mother of Christ only in respect to His humanity. The council of Ephesus was convened in 431 to address the issue and pronounced that Jesus was one person in two distinct and inseparable natures: divine and human. Nestorius was deposed as Patriarch and sent to Antioch, then Arabia, and then Egypt. Nestorianism survived until around 1300.

The problem with Nestorianism is that it threatens the atonement. If Jesus is two persons, then which one died on the cross? If it was the "human person" then the atonement is not of divine quality and thereby insufficient to cleanse us of our sins.
To address in particular the Nestorian heresy, the Church convoked the Council of Ephesus. The Council of Ephesus was held in 431 at the Church of Mary in Ephesus, Asia Minor. St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, appealed to Pope Celestine, charging Nestorius with heresy. The Pope agreed and gave Cyril his authority to serve a notice to Nestorius to recant his views or else be excommunicated. Before the summons arrived, Nestorius convinced the Emperor Theodosius II, to hold a General council, a platform to argue their opposing views. Approximately 200 bishops were present. The proceedings were conducted in a heated atmosphere of confrontation and recriminations. It is counted as the Third Ecumenical Council, and was chiefly concerned with Nestorianism.

In summary, Nestorius believed that Mary, the mother of Jesus gave birth to the incarnate Christ, not the divine Logos who existed before Mary and indeed before time itself. The Logos occupied the part of the human soul (the part of man that was stained by the Fall). But wouldn't the absence of a human soul make Jesus less human? No, Nestorius answered because the human soul was based on the archetype of the Logos only to become polluted by the Fall, therefore Jesus was "more" human for having the Logos and not "less". Consequently, Mary should be called Christotokos, Greek for the "Christ-Bearer" and not Theotokos, Greek for the "God-Bearer." Cyril argued that Nestorianism split Jesus in half and denied that he was both human and divine. This was essentially a Christological controversy.

At the urging of its president, Cyril of Alexandria, the Council denounced Nestorius' teaching as erroneous and decreed that Jesus was one person, not two separate people: complete God and complete man, with a rational soul and body. The Virgin Mary was to be called Theotokos because she bore and gave birth to God as a man. Nestorius was solemnly deposed and stripped of his Episcopal dignity. The decrees of the Council of Ephesus were later ratified by the delegates of Pope Celestine. The night on which the decrees were promulgated, crowds of the faithful took to the streets and shouted enthusiastically, Hagia Maria Theotokos, Holy Mary, Mother of God. Such cry that became the hallmark of Christian orthodoxy.
(Acknowledgments: Wikipedia, The Mystery of Mary: Rev. Dr. Paul Haffner)

In darkness, light

2008-07-06T13:52:00.000+08:00

THE 22nd day of June 2008 would simply be another footnote in history someday given the string of tragedies and calamities our nation has to endure. Yet for many, it will be day to change their lives forever.

An hour before I was to celebrate the Holy Mass at our Cathedral in Tarlac at 9 in the morning, I wanted to see and hear the news first knowing that there was a typhoon that was passing. And lo, the news was that somewhere in Romblon they were finally able to spot the missing ship, Princess of the Star, but capsized and the passengers and crew missing.

One of the survivors was able to relate later on that to his recollection it took only about 15 minutes from the announcement to abandon ship to the actual sinking of the ship. He related how he even heard the cries of the children that were trapped inside the ship, as well as the old and the young who were left on the ship as they struggled to get to the life boats.

And among the remains that were first washed ashore were the remains of a couple—a man and a woman—whose hands were tied together to each other, presumably so that they would not lose each other in the sea.

Five minutes before the start of the Holy Mass, I asked the choir if the Gloria would be sung in English or in Tagalog. English, Father, the Choir leader said. And finally I set to begin the offering of the Holy Mass. Genuflected before the tabernacle, kissed the altar, and proceeded to the Presider’s Chair. Fewer people this morning, I observed, it was a morning of torrential rains and strong winds.

I could not turn away from the thought of those who perished during the onslaught of the typhoon. I strived to pray for them and for their families. I even thought if it would be appropriate to sing the Gloria that morning. The first Reading, the Responsorial Psalm, the second Reading, the Gospel, then the Homily.

Where was God during those fateful fifteen minutes when the ship was sinking? Where was God when the children were crying? Where was God when His people were drowning?

My thoughts while listening to the readings became my spontaneous words during the Homily: did I need to reassure the faithful? Did I even need to reassure myself? No, it was God reassuring us all. He was there through it all.

So many thoughts crossed my mind that morning. I remembered the year 1990, my last year in College taking up BA in Philosophy. My mother was struggling to survive from cancer. Series of chemotherapy and cobalt treatment, only to end up her cancer metastasizing to her lungs, liver, and bones. Almost every evening I would spend hours before the Blessed Sacrament begging God to heal her. Going to the EDSA Shrine Adoration Chapel, spending overnight vigils alone imploring God to give my mother a longer life. And physical healing and longer life on earth were not His plans for her. The pain, the anguish, and the ultimate cry of the feeble human heart: Where was God?

Does God turn a blind eye or play deaf when His people suffer? Or does He shed a tear when you and me suffer and die?

And suddenly the Gospel of that particular Sunday of June 22: And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul... Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So DO NOT BE AFRAID; you are worth more than many sparrows (Mt. 10: 28, 29-31).

My prayer was and my prayer is, may they—when they were drowning and gasping their last—their angels would have whispered to them: DO NOT BE AFRAID. And that when they had opened their eyes—their every tear and pain would have been gone, for when they woke from their slumber, God is there.

In darkness, light. In death, life.

In the Litany of Loreto, we invoke Our Lady as Consolatrix Afflictorum, Consoler of the Afflicted. We beg you, Our Lady, help our people in our suffering and pain, for never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection or sought your intercession was left unaided. Our Mother, help and protect us. Amen.

Calling all families!

2008-06-23T14:50:00.000+08:00

Today in the world where life is born There's a struggle that is fought To be welcomed, to be cared, to be at home.

ONE of our seminarians was telling me just some minutes ago how the other day he happened to pass by a child sleeping by the roadside. He then decided to give the child the cookies that he just bought. The child's reaction was simply surprising, for the child asked the seminarian, Ikaw ba si Hesus? (Are you Jesus?)

We've grown so used to seeing the poor around us, it has become a natural thing to simply pass them by. And we've been so used to having so many children around us, some have considered them now a burden!

Today when all life seems bought and used
There's a struggle to belong
To be free and to be a gift to everyone

Still remember the news item sometime ago when a group of Filipinas were arrested in Europe because of prostitution? And the news release further stated that when confronted by the police why they resorted to prostitution, their answer was that it was in order for them to send money back home to the Philippines. In most certain terms, prostitution will never be morally acceptable. What breaks our heart is that though noble our intentions may be, the end can never justify the means.
A
nd that brings us to the myth of overpopulation. That we are poor because we are too many. Over population has already been debunked. And poverty can never be a reason for us to justify any resort to immoral means, and that includes, artificial means of contraception.

Forty years ago, 25 July 1968, the Holy Father, Paul VI, already prophetically mentioned the ensuing contraceptive mentality that will lead to disintegration of families, failure of marriages, and break down of moral standards. Forty years later, we find our world ever worsening in its moral outlook and our own country threatened by forces and movements working against family and life. We simply have to observe what is happening now, the Consolidated Bill in the House of Representatives on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood, Population Management; the various ordinances passed by the local government units such as in Olongapo City, Quezon City, Davao City, just to name a few.

We call all families Rise up and raise your hands as one Come show the world the love that binds
All God's children into one

Hence, we ask all our families to let your voice be heard. We cannot accept any legislation of immorality. Our leaders have to respect our Faith and moral beliefs. Join us at the RALLY FOR FAMILY AND LIFE on 25 July 2008, 3 to 6 pm, at the historic site of People Power at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace at EDSA.

Like the Holy Family with Jesus, Joseph, and Mary Home is where true love begins.
Love rejoices! Love embraces!

In this struggle to defend Family and Life, we cannot but be rooted in Christ through prayer and sacrifice. Our gathering at EDSA will not simply be a show of force, it is show, a manifestation of the power of Love, God's love for the Family and Life. God willing as well, after this activity, we may have stronger Family and Life Ministries in our arch/dioceses, and the Filipinos families more aware for the need to vigilant in the defense of Family and Life values.

May Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace, Queen of the Family, be with us and guide us in this struggle. Ave Maria! Ad Jesum per Mariam.

The Hearts of Jesus and Mary

2008-06-09T15:54:00.000+08:00

THIS year, many liturgical celebrations have been celebrated earlier than usual—beginning with the Holy Week, the Easter Triduum and continuing on with the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
For many that have been used in having the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart in the month of June, it became May 30 this year. And to confound us even further, there is no Memorial of the Immaculate Heart this year since it fell on May 31 which is the Feast of the Visitation.
The Biblical Roots of the "Heart"

In biblical language the heart is the vital center for life that is specifically human: sense life, the life of the will and intellectual life. For this reason the figurative use of the word is vaster in the Bible than in modern languages. The Bible speaks for instance of thoughts that arise from the heart, of the perverse designs that proceed from the heart, to open the heart of someone in understanding, or to apply the heart, that is attention and will, to something. God scrutinizes the heart, that is, He knows the most intimate movements of a person and his most secret intentions. (The New World Dictionary Concordance to the New American Bible)

Let me also quote here an article of Rev. Matthew R. Mauriello:
Devotion to the immaculate Heart of Mary is primarily based upon the Sacred Scriptures. In the New Testament, there are two references to the Heart of Mary in the Gospel according to St. Luke: ..."Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart.” (Lk. 2: 19) and "His mother meanwhile kept all these things in her heart.” (Lk 2:51) In the Old Testament, the heart is seen as the symbol of the depths of the human soul, the center of its choices and commitments. For all mankind, it is a symbol of love. In the Book of Deuteronomy we are told, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Dt. 6:5) When Our Lord Jesus Christ was asked by the scribes, which was the first commandment, he answered them by quoting this verse to them. (see Mk. 12:29-31)

It was the Heart of Mary which expressed her "yes” to God…This was her response to the message sent through the angel at the Annunciation. By her loving consent, Mary first conceived Christ in her heart and then in her womb. Our Lord Jesus, Himself: when reminded by a woman in the crowd how blessed was the womb which gave birth to Him, responds, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” (Lk. 11:28) Pope John Paul II, in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, wrote "the mystery of Redemption was formed under the heart of the Virgin of Nazareth when she pronounced her 'fiat.’” (R.H. #22)

Historically, devotion to the Heart of Mary can be traced to the twelfth century with such writers as St. Anselm (d. 1109) and St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) who is considered as one of the most influential writers in Marian devotion. St. Bernardine of Siena (1380- 1444) has been called the Doctor of the Heart of Mary due to his writings on Mary's heart. He wrote, "from her heart, as from a furnace of Divine Love, the Blessed Virgin spoke the words of the most ardent love.”

St. John Eudes (1601-1680) helped by his writings to begin a renewal in this devotion. Both Pope Leo XIII and Pope St. Pius X called him, "the father, Doctor, and Apostle of the liturgical cult of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.” Even two decades before the first liturgical celebrations in honor of the Heart of Jesus, St. John Eudes and his followers observed February 8th as the feast of the Heart of Mary as early as 1643. Pope Pius VII (d. 1823) extended its celebration to any diocese or congregation requesting it.

Devotion to Mary’s Heart has a greater flowering following the manifestation of the Miraculous Medal to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830 and the Appearances of' Our Lady in Fatima. From May 13 to October 13, 1917, our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to three children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto and their cousin Lucia DosSantos in Fatima, Portugal. On July 13 she told them: "to save poor sinners, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” The entire Fatima message is one of prayer, penance and making sacrifices and reparation to God for the many offenses against Him.
I
n 1942, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Fatima, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That same year, he assigned the feast day to August 22, the octave of the Assumption. On May 4, 1944, he extended the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the Universal Church. With the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1969, the feast was given a more suitable place on the day following the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. That is the Saturday after the second Sunday after Pentecost.
The Consecration to the Immaculate Heart

Following most specially after the apparitions at Fatima, and the very deep and personal Marian devotion of the Great John Paul II, our contemporary time is a witness to this devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. One cannot but think as well of the bronze image of Our Lady and her Immaculate Heart at EDSA in Manila. One year before the EDSA Revolution of 1986, we had our Marian Year with that profound campaign of individual and national consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

St. Louis Marie Grignon di Montfort can be considered as the prime proponent of this Total Consecration to Mary. Although he did not mention specifically the term, Immaculate Heart of Mary, it was he who devote his lifetime explaining and expounding on the theology of Consecration to Mary.

And because Mary is the one who exemplifies the Perfect Consecration to Christ, our total Consecration to Mary would mean Perfect Consecration to Christ Himself. In effect, therefore, being Consecrated to Mary means being Consecrated to Christ.

Totus tuus ego sum Maria et omnia mea tua sunt. I am totally yours O Mary and all that I have is yours.

Ave Maria! Ad Jesum per Maria

Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace

2008-05-26T15:00:00.000+08:00

AFTER the Liturgical reform of Vatican II, every 31st of May we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation of Our Lady to her cousin, St. Elizabeth. But before that, it was an almost universal celebration that every 31st of May was the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces (yes, in the plural which is quite different from the column title which is in the singular).

It was the Belgian Cardinal Désiré Joseph Mercier who started the campaign in the early part of the 20th century to have the title of Our Lady as Mediatrix of All Graces to be proclaimed as a dogma of faith. Later he would make that “twin” campaign for the canonization of then Blessed Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort side-by-side with the campaign for the title of Our Lady as Mediatrix of All Graces. In fact, in his discernment, the proclamation of this Marian dogma will be achieved through the canonization of St. Louis.

Cardinal Mercier died in 1926. By that time, neither was St. Louis canonized nor the particular Marian title defined as dogma of Faith. He had that consolation, however, that Pope Benedict XV granted in 1921 to the whole of Belgium an Office and Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces. This Office and Mass were extended by the Holy See to many other dioceses and religious institutes, so that the commemoration became almost universal.

It is told that the definition of the Marian dogma never occurred because of objections of many theologians. Whatever the reason was, the Church did not see it opportune that time.

Finally, in 1947 Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort was canonized. He was one of the outstanding devotees of Our Lady and through his many writings, particularly the book, True Devotion to Mary, he laid out his particular Marian spirituality of total consecration to Mary as her slave.

The word slavery may sound too offending to our contemporary ears. And yet, we can view it in a very positive manner. Slaves, during olden times, were considered commodities and properties of their owners. In a sense, being slaves of Mary means to be owned by her, but neither as a commodity nor a property but instead voluntarily we declare ourselves to be a possession of Our Lady. A possession that she will safeguard and protect from all harm and danger; a possession that she will treasure and cherish.

The slaves as well, in olden times, were chained. They were chained so that they could not go far from their owners. In the spiritual sense, through the Total Consecration to Mary, we freely “chain” ourselves to her so that neither sin nor evil could make us detached or run away from her.

Months after the canonization of St. Louis came the reported apparitions of Our Lady in the Carmelite Monastery of Lipa in 1948. And yes, believe it or not, in those apparitions, Our Lady identified herself as Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace (and yes it was in the singular). Our Lady even explained why it was in the singular form All-Grace, she said that such word refers to Christ who is the source of every and all graces.

In those same apparitions, Our Lady requested the Carmelite nuns to consecrate themselves to her as her slaves following the devotional manner enunciated by St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort.

Were all these coincidences? Most certainly not. We can safely assume these are the fruits of the prayers and efforts of Cardinal Mercier and many others who truly believed in the title of Mary as Mediatrix of All-Grace. And particularly, it crosses our mind that it was Cardinal Mercier who decades before already prayed for the canonization of St. Louis and through that canonization the approval of the title of Mary as Mediatrix of All-Grace.

We are told that Cardinal Mercier in his death bed repeated over and over again, Mary Mediatrix, Mary Mediatrix.

Now, that we are fast approaching May 31 and end of the Marian month of May, we turn to Our Lady yet again in a very special manner under that very special title, Mediatrix of All-Grace. Monstra Te esse Matrem, we sing in the Ave Maris Stella, show unto us that you are our Mother.

May Our Lady indeed come to intercede for all of us, but especially come to the aid of our families whose sanctity and dignity are again facing an onslaught of attacks from many fronts.

Monstra Te esse Matrem! Ave Maria. Ad Jesum per Mariam.