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23/08/2022

SITTING STILL

Sitting still and wishing
makes no person great.
The good Lord sends the fishing
but we have to dig for bait.

I stopped when I read that.
How true, I said,
and then I thought,
“But wait,
While that may indeed be so,
that no one becomes great
by JUST sitting still and wishing,
it is just as true
that we will never become great
if we NEVER sat still and wished.

For, following the image the quote evokes,
even after we may have dug for worms for bait,
and even though we may trust the Lord to send the fish,
we would have no catch
if we are restless and noisy,
and do not keep still;
if, in the stillness, we do not wish
and in our wishing for a bite,
we do not sit still.

There is, then, something,
even to wishing, and to sitting still,
provided that in the wishing, the needed work is not forgotten,
and in-between the working we do keep still.

What does the Psalmist say?
“BE STILL
and know that I am God.”

Even as we work from day to day
or night after night throughout our years,
may we learn
to SIT and be STILL,
indeed, even to WISH.

What dreams may come from wishing may give us PAUSE,
but they might also give the PUSH
to make them real.

The activist may say,
“Don’t just sit still,
DO SOMETHING !”

But may we also hear God say:
“Don’t just DO something,
SIT STILL.”

***

11/08/2022

DO BE DO BE DONE
The Mary Formula for Loving God

Frank Sinatra is known not only for his decades-long
singing and acting career, but especially for carefully
enunciating the lyrics of his songs. But in his version
of Strangers in the Night, he either forgot the ending
words, or purposely omitted them to instead croon
“Doo Bee Doo Be Doo….”

Apo Hiking Society, on the other hand, had a hit song
with their purposely composed, “Doo Bee Doo Bee Doo”.

Long before Frank Sinatra and Apo, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of God, offered her life formula for loving
and following God, using the same syllables of the
afore-mentioned songs.

Her version, though, is DO BE DO BE DONE.
In her grammar of holiness, she was both PASSIVE and
ACTIVE in her relationship with God.

When the Archangel Gabriel announced that she was to
be the Mother of the Son of God who would be born as
Jesus, her reply to the difficult-to-comprehend message
was “Let It Be Done To Me According to your Word”.
This we find in Luke 1, 38.

This is the PASSIVE form of following God’s will:
“Let it Be. Let It Be Done Unto Me. I am His Handmaid.

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 2, we find the ACTIVE
form of following God’s will.

At the Wedding at Cana, when the wine was running out,
Mary told the now-grown-up Jesus about the embarrassing situation. Though Jesus initially said that the matter did not concern Him, as His hour had not yet come, Mary firmly and confidently told the waiters,
“DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU.”

Unable or unwilling to rebuff His Mother, Jesus told the
waiters to fill the jars with simple water and by the power
of that word of Jesus, the water turned to the best wine ever.

DO, on the one hand. LET IT BE DONE, on the other.
The Passive and Active Mary Way
of Loving and Following God.

May we follow: DO BE DO BE DONE.

***

07/08/2022

VENI, VIDI, VICI
But More Than A Conqueror Am I

I came, I saw, I conquered.

This is the translation of the classic Latin line traced
to Julius Caesar, boasting of a quick military victory.

In 1954, Ronald Hilton sang a song with that title.
A bouncy little tune, it told of a quick love affair.

“Veni, vidi, vici, veni, vidi, vici
the moon above was yellow
music all around her, in my arms I found her
I was a lucky fellow.
Veni, vidi, vici, veni, vidi, vici
she won my heart completely
heaven dressed in satin, as they say in Latin
I came, I saw, I conquered.

Both in love and in war, we win, we lose.
In our perpetual war with evil, we often fail.
But the redeeming love of God always wins.

In his letter to the Romans 8:35-39,
Paul is very confident:
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Trial? Distress? Persecution? Hunger?
Nakedness? Danger? The Sword?

"As Scripture says, ‘For your sake we are being
slain all the day long; we are looked upon as
sheep to be slaughtered.’ Yet in all these,
WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS
because of Him who has loved us.

"I am certain that neither death nor life;
neither angels nor principalities; neither
the present nor the future, nor powers,
neither height nor depth, nor any other
creature, will be able to separate us from
the love of God that comes to us in Jesus
Christ, our Lord.”

I thank the Lord. I bless Him all day long.

No matter my many sins and failures,
in Him I can say, and I say now:

“VENI, VIDI, VICI,
VENI VIDI, VICI,

I came, I saw, I conquered.”

***

02/08/2022

LOOK AT THE VIEW…
The Lilies, Too, and the Birds

Anne Quindlen writes of an encounter
with a homeless man in Coney Island,
when she was doing research on how
those without homes survived the winter.

The man sat at the edge of the board walk
facing the vast ocean and they got to talking.
He said that in the summer he would ask from
tourists money for his food, that when it got
cold he would go to churches for the night.

Anne asked him why he did not go to shelters
in the winter where he could have a warm bed
and hot food.

The man who did not have a coin in his pocket.
no place to go and nowhere to be
just said, with a smile, pointing to vast ocean
ocean in front of them, "Look at the view,
young lady, look at the view.”

Not for everyone this positive outlook of the man.
But from him I still can learn the lesson of looking
at the larger context of life especially at times when
I feel cold and hungry, forgotten and alone, nursing
my pain and my loneliness.

I can learn to LOOK AT THE VIEW, the larger view
of life, and to remember what Someone said years
ago and still today, that I am precious,
that I am not forgotten., that I am loved.

“Consider the birds in the air that neither sow nor reap
nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds
them.

Or the lilies in the field that do not toil nor spin,
look at how they grow. I say to you that not even
King Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these.
So if God clothes the grass of the field which exist today
and tomorrow is cast into the fire, how much more will
Your Father clothe you. It is your Father’s good pleasure
to give you the Kingdom.”
Matt 6:27 ff; Luke 12, 22 ff.

Today, I shall look at the view
and remember
and know and give thanks
that I am precious,
My Father provides for me.
I am loved.

Salamat sa Ginoo. Dios mabalos.

Thank you, Father Mother God.

***

31/07/2022

YOU ARE THE BELOVED

There are times and will be moments
when you feel abandoned, neglected,
forgotten even by God.

There are days and will be nights
when you think the whole world is
against you, that there is no solution
to any of the problems you face.

When that happens, may you remember:

“Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness
for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I, I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU.
Upon the palms of My hands
I have engraved you;
Your walls are ever before Me.”
Isaiah 49:15-16

All I want to say to you is:
“YOU ARE THE BELOVED.”

And all I hope is that you can hear
these words as spoken to you,
with all the tenderness ad force
that love can hold.

My only desire is to make these words
reverberate in every corner of your being:
YOU ARE THE BELOVED.”

I have loved you with an everlasting love.
I have called you, and you are mine.

YOU ARE THE BELOVED.

29/07/2022

THE PRECIOUS WITHOUT THE VILE

“PRECIOUS” is something or someone dear to us,
valuable, loved, cherished, a treasure, a jewel, a gem.

‘VILE” means morally despicable or abhorrent, foul,
repulsive, obnoxious, contemptible, disgusting, evil.

In the book of Jeremiah 15,10,16, the prophet complains
to God that the Israelites to whom he speaks in the name
of God curse him, that his pain is continuous, incurable.

God’ answers him, “If you repent, so that I restore you,
in my presence you shall stand. If you bring out
THE PRECIOUS WITHOUT THE VILE,
you shall be my mouthpiece.

“Then it shall be they who turn to you, and you shall not
turn to them. And I will make you toward this people a
solid wall of brass.”

THE PRECIOUS WITHOUT THE VILE.

I am no prophet. But I pray that in my words and in my
actions, indeed in my whole life, I bring out the PRECIOUS
without the VILE.

That I give out and share my good and not my bad,
The best I can ever be and do, not the worst.
To be able to do this, I need God’s help.
I pray to Him. He comes to me.

THE PRECIOUS WITHOUT THE VILE.

***

26/07/2022

SOMEWHERE A STRANGER
(Luke 24:13-35)

Somewhere a stranger stalks
disciples Emmaus-bound
shoulder stooped with sorrow
eyes shot with pain of hopes denied
disciples dying, and dead
shut thus to Epiphany
Resurrected.

Somewhere a stranger chalks
up points, revealing God-tales
disciples-side
and simply companioning
but all the while inflaming
dismembered hearts and embered
by Calvary remembered.

Somewhere a stranger balks
at “stay-with-us-for-evening” song
and stops and sups and cups
the wine and breaks the bread
revealing no death
keeps nailed forever
LOVE.

Somewhere a stranger talks
to sad hearts burning
a traveler appearing, disappearing
and disciples waking
to be His witnesses once more.

Somewhere a stranger walks
Emmaus-ward or Jerusalem-bound
Behold the stranger well
You cannot tell
(S)He can be
GOD.

***

22/07/2022

IN THE BEGINNING, GOD
Three Biblical texts form for me
The Start, the Summit, the Spur
Of SVD Spirituality.
They are the first phrases of
Genesis
Gospel According to John
First Letter of John.
In the beginning, God…
In the beginning, the Word
What was from the beginning, the Word.
God must always be in the beginning
Of anything anywhere anywhen.
God must always be in the middle
Then only can we meet Him in the end.
WITNESS TO THE WORD
is how I see and sum up SVD Spirituality.
Three related, companionate words explain:
WITH. WITHIN. WIT.
Why did Jesus call His apostles?
A quick answer is “to send them out to preach.”
Oh yes. “to cast out demons”, too. Yes.
But really, not mainly. Not primarily. Huh?
Ask Mark. Read the Gospel he wrote. 3:13-20.
First, Jesus called – those He wanted.
Second, those who were called – came to Him.
Third, He appointed them and named them.
Individually.
Why?
“that they might …”be WITH Him.”
For Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
“To be or not to be” is the question.
For the SVD, Christ’s religious missionary
Not just “to be” BUT “to be WITH” is the quest.
First and foremost, COMPANIONSHIP.
Only after comes the Mission.
In the mission must remain COMPANY with Him.
The root of the words “company”, “companion” is
PANIS – the Latin word for bread. PAN in Spanish.
A com PAN ion is one with whom one shares BREAD.
Breaking bread with the Word is Eucharist.
Breaking the Word in prayer is preaching.
No companionship with the Word, no mission.
In the beginning, God.
What and how to preach?
From actual encounter with the Word in prayer.
No prayer, no preaching.
John explains: What was from the beginning –
What we have heard,
What we have seen with our eyes
What we looked upon
And touched with our hands –
The WORD of life
Which was made visible,
We have seen it and TESTIFY to it
And PROCLAIM to you the eternal life
That was with the Father
And was made visible to us…
The ROOT and SOURCE of WITNESS TO THE WORD
Is actual encounter with the Word in prayer –
Seeing, hearing, touching.
Only when rooted in this actual being WITH the Word
Can one TESTIFY to it, PROCLAIM IT, WITNESS to It.
No such actual, personal encounter with the Word,
No prayer, no intimacy --- no real preaching.
In that encounter with the Word, John says, is JOY.
In that intimacy is fellowship with the Father and
With His Son, Jesus Christ.
To preach and proclaim that intimacy is to have
That JOY complete.
Until the Joy is preached, proclaimed, shared,
The Joy is not whole and entire, complete.
So the intimacy between PRAYER and PREACHING.
What then is SVD Spirituality?
It is WITNESS to the WORD.
How?
Jesus CALLED those whom He WANTED.
They CAME TO Him
He APPOINTED them so they might
BE WITH Him
And He might SEND THEM OUT TO PREACH
And TO CAST OUT DEMONS
HE called them BY NAME
Simon, whom He named Peter;
James the son of Zebedee,
and John, the brother of James
(whom He named Boanerges: Sons of Thunder);
Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew;
James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus;
Simon the Canaanite;
And Judas Iscariot – who BETRAYED Him.
To preach is to proclaim what one has heard
And seen and touched and experienced:
The Word of Life.
Without this personal intimacy with the Word
All preaching is hollow. Is empty. Is like a gong.
To preach is to proclaim what was prayed on.
Not to pray is to BETRAY the Word.
As Judas did.
To be SVD is to WITNESS TO THE WORD.
Word-WITH-ness.
Word-WITHIN-ness.
Word-WIT-ness.
To be or not to be – SVD:
This is the QUESTion.
This is the QUEST.
WITNESS! (verb) –TO THE WORD
This is Arnold Janssen’s RE-QUEST.
To be WITNESS (noun) TO THE WORD
May this be our continuing BE-QUEST.
***

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101 E. Rodriguez Sr, Avenue
Quezon City

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