Today is the second anniversary of the death of my father. He was only sixty-two when he passed away in 2006. Whenever I think of him, I think of happy memories. He was such a loving, selfless person - a father in the truest sense of the word.

He was always there for me (I’m sure [...]

This is a slideshow presentation based on Matthew 21:33-43, the Gospel reading for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). You may embed this slideshow into your own blog/website or download the original PowerPoint/Pdf file so you may use it in your liturgical celebrations.

This morning I attended the launching of “Sowing for Peace in Mindanao”, an inititiative calling everyone “to pray fervently and demonstrate Muslim-Christian and interfaith solidarity for peace in Mindanao and to call for the immediate cessation of hostilities which bring suffering to civilian communities”. Scores of people attended the event at the Bantayog Ng Mga [...]

“Be a part of something. Don’t live for yourself alone. This is what I know for sure: In order to be truly happy, you must live along with and you have stand for something larger than yourself. Because life is a reciprocal exchange. To move forward you have to give back. And to me that [...]

1. Play his favorite game with him.

2. Cook for him.

3. Drink his preferred beverage with him.

Before kissing Fiyero, Elphaba hesitates for a moment and declares with a smile, “It’s just for the first time, I feel … wicked”. Although at first she appears to be a menacing witch (well, she is called the wicked witch of the west) in the stage musical “Wicked”, Elphaba is anything but wicked. On [...]

Aming Ama, ikaw ay mahabagin, matapat at mapagmahal. Nagsusumamo kami na palakasin ang aming pananampalataya at aming pagmamahal sa Iyo upang magamit namin ang blogging bilang kasangkapan na maisakatuparan ang Iyong mga dakilang layunin. Nawa’y maging bloggers kami ng katotohanan at tagapagtaguyod ng kapayapaan.

I am now in a retreat house in Tagaytay. From my window I can see Taal lake and volcano. I can also see verdant mountains, sinuous clouds, and other things that make me think of heaven.

But what is heaven? Is it a place? An experience? A relationship? A mystery? A state of being? There [...]

Three summers ago I went on a pilgrimage to Fatima in central Portugal. The city is famous for the Marian apparations that took place there in 1917. I celebrated masses in the Basilica and in the Sanctuary with a group of Dutch-Filipino pilgrims. Aside from checking out Fatima’s shrines, museums and bookstores, I also visited nearby towns and communities.

One place that is worth mentioning is Cova da Iria. For it was there where I met an old woman sitting at a well. She claimed to be a relative of Lucia, one of the three peasant children who witnessed the apparition of the Virgin Mary. The other two were Francisco and Jacinta. The old woman explained to me that Cova da Iria was the place where the Virgin Mary first appeared to the three seers. She added that the first thing the Virgin said to the children was “Be not afraid, I will not harm you.”

She related to me many other things – the miracle of the sun, the visions of hell, the deaths of the seers, and the number of times she had to repeat all these information to a curious tourist. But the most curious thing of all is that she was talking to me in Portuguese and I understood everything she said. To think that I have not studied Portuguese at all.

I spoke to her in Italian and she seemed to have understood everything I said as well. To think that she did not know any other language except Portuguese. We were speaking in entirely different languages yet we understood each other perfectly.

The experience taught me something about understanding and being understood - that the most important thing in any communication process is not grammar, nor syntax, nor spelling, nor the language itself, but the will to understand and be understood.

A few days ago I went to the Power Plant mall at the Rockwell Center to purchase some stuff. In the lower ground floor I saw this thirty-something man playing the piano. I did not think that he was paid to do it because he was playing his music with an exclamation point!

I stopped and listened to his music intently. Even if he was playing with such passion and deftness, nobody else cared to listen to him. People just passed him by and those in the nearby cafes and restos did not appear to have noticed that there was music at all. The romantic in me assumed that the pianist was playing the melody for a loved one because he played it with an intensity only a lover could muster.

My untrained ear could not recognize the piece - it could have been a Mozart or a Beethoven. I looked at his adept fingers, the sways of his head, his closed eyes, his mesmerized self. The rhythm of his music found its way into my soul, and it washed away my stress and engendered some positivity in me.

Sir Thomas Beecham once said that ”great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty.” How true.

I waited for the pianist to finish because I wanted to let him know that somebody was listening to him, that I was listening to him with as much passion as he was playing. When he finished he opened his eyes and looked around. He saw me and I smiled. He smiled in return and then closed his eyes again to play another melodious tone.

Even on my way out of the mall I still listened to his piano and somehow everything else was canceled out - the chatters, the opening and closing of doors, the cash machines, the cacophony in the mall.

That pianist taught me something worthwhile: that when I do something with passion, there is always somebody who appreciates it and is touched by it - even if I do not recognize that somebody’s presence.

I was waiting for the arrival of my nephew at the Manila domestic airport when I wrote these lists. I knew I was in for a long wait so I brought my notebook and pencil with me. I didn’t really have a theme in mind but somehow I ended up with the following:

Ten Of [...]