visible rhetoric

I thought I will be forgotten now that I have transferred assignment and had my cellphone numbers changed twice and had the new one put to good use by some needy pedestrian in Manila, the latter being the more Christian way of saying “ay yatis kinawatan ako.” Most often the worst of circumstances can be transformed into good when the mind changes the way it looks at things and events. Twenty minutes after I was pick pocketed my anger dissipated, something that seldom happens. And it happened when I got myself to look the other way around and say that that cellphone, which I seldom used anyway, could be finally put to good use. I think that is what Mother Marie Eugenie meant when she said that “the spirit of Assumption tends towards joyful detachment and going beyond trials and difficulties without complaining and wasting time over them.” Indeed these are not just words for Marie Eugenie. The pains of her growing up years never became a reason to get stuck to whine and sulk about ...

One day a samurai who had too much of wine made a commotion on the streets disturbing everybody as he passed by. Seeing a monk who was walking quietly, he immediate jumped on him and blocked his way. The poor monk calmly looked for another route but the drunk samurai followed him suit and again blocked his way. Sensing that he could not get rid of him, the monk quietly asked, “what can I do for you, sir?”

Why are we baptized? We are baptized for three reasons. First, we are baptized so that we will become sons and daughters of God, our baptism makes us participate in the new life won for us by Christ who by his death and resurrection has made us sons and daughters of the Father. Second, we are baptized to cleanse us from our sins, to give us a fresh start, to rid us of sin which obstructs us from living fully our call as sons and daughters of God. And thirdly, we are baptized in order to incorporate us into the family of God, to become members of the church. Baptism marks our entry into the community of God.

I have said so many things already through the years, having been assigned here twice, regarding the feast of Our Lady of Candles and the proper liturgical feast which is the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. I have commented on the long expected child, on Mary and Joseph, on Simeon and Anna, and even on those poor pair of turtle doves. But the word of God, though ancient, is ever new, always relevant, always significant, always possessing a message that continually hounds us and draws us to the deeper realities of our life and call. Last year I reflected on our second reading, a reading from the letter to the Hebrews. Today for our reflection, let us focus ourselves on the first reading from the prophet Malachi.

Today is Christmas, Merry Christmas. I just want to emphasize this point because today is officially Christmas Day. I say officially because some of us have already started greeting each other Merry Christmas way back November and even as early as September when we begun putting up our Christmas Trees and lanterns. That was the unofficial Christmas, also known as the Filipino Christmas. Today it is officially Christmas and we are celebrating it after almost all our Christmas parties are over. We are after all a people known for postponing our grief and anticipating our joys.

The only logical thing about the movie Tanging Ina is her use of two aphorisms or sayings from which she would draw a unique conclusion. She said, Practice makes perfect, but nobody is perfect, so why practice? So you also watched that movie. I must admit I also watched that movie and I was entertained up to a certain extent, and when I could not stand it anymore I left even before reaching the middle part. I must admit there has always been a limit to my patience as my students very well know and perhaps very well experienced.

While I was committing “mortal sin” days ago, that is, eating to my hearts content pork liempo just across the plaza of Jaro, a little girl without any warning came to my table and rendered to me what at first sounded like a kindergarten child reciting, or should I say mumbling, her first poetry. It took me a while to realize that she was singing a Christmas carol, a carol all of us should have known immediately, if it had been sung intelligibly that is: Silent Night, Holy Night. Realizing that she was asking for something I opened my wallet and gave her 20 pesos, not because the song was worth 20 pesos but as a teacher I am expected to recognize and give some credit at least to effort expended, which I should honestly say was worth 19 pesos with one peso going for the song. Unluckily for me this little girl was not just interested with money, she also got interested with my pork liempo. I argued of course but sensing that she would not leave my table empty handed I gave her half ...

This is the first time ever that I am going to bless a bank. And to say it bluntly now, it is one of those things that interests me the least. For one I don’t know anything about how it works, and for another I hardly passed math and accounting in high school and college. Even now, being in charge of our chapel, I could not balance the little collecta that we receive and I have to ask somebody to do it for me. It is not because I am not interested with money. In this regard I follow the official line of our former rector in the seminary when it comes to handling the so called “root of all evil.” He often said, money is not the problem. It is the solution to our problems.

I thought all the while that if I could tackle talking about a 50th wedding anniversary, I could easily talk about a 25th wedding anniversary. I was wrong. Last night, I ended up watching the TV until 1 AM in frustration for want of thoughts to write about. I accepted this invitation because I thought all the while that I have it under my sleeve, that I won’t make great strides, great effort to come up with a reflection. I ended up having nothing. I was told this is a surprise that was hatched in the mind of Archie, I don’t know for how many days or weeks. But I tell you, you are not the only ones surprised.

Writing about “augmenting and later supplanting membership in the councils” presupposes a lot of things which this little space in our parish weekly paper cannot fully accommodate all at once. When we speak of “councils” in our parish we are referring to a gigantic structure consisting of probably more than 150 persons and divided into 3 classifications as to function and expertise, namely the Parish Pastoral Council, the Parish Apostolic Council and the Parish Finance Council. For purposes of this article I think it would suffice to explain in passing their function and their relationship to each other. THE PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL The Parish Pastoral Council is the “planning” Council. It has three functions, namely: “to investigate aspects of a pastoral situation, to ponder and reflect on them, and lastly to reach a conclusion and recommend this to the parish priest.” As a planning council they are called to identify and reflect on the parish situation, compare that situation w...