Christ's Presence (reflection for May 28, 2006)

We will soon die, and when that day comes, we will not be seen anymore. We will either be crimated or burried in a tomb. People whom we left will not hear from us anymore. But there is one thing that will remain here on earth when we die, the memories. We may not be here anymore once we died, but our memories live on, the good things that we do or say, all of these will be remembered when we die.

While we are still living, it is up to us to do good, so that when the hour comes that we will die, and go to the next life, the good things that we do shall be remembered. Saints, from the good that they do when they were still alive still lives on. We must be saints to be followers of God. God wants us to become saints. Our goal in life is to sanctify others, and to do that, we must be saints.

Some people fear death. They probably think that death is the end of everything. No! death is not the end. It is the start of a new beggining with God. It is judged based on how we lived our lives while we are still alive.

The same thing goes with Christ, who died to save mankind. My friends, today is the solemnity of the Lord's Ascension, Jesus went to heaven body and soul, but it does not mean that it is the end of His presence in this world. By ascending into heaven, Jesus changed His way of being with us spiritually.

Christ is present in the church, priests, ministers, or simply just the people around you, all you got to do is just to open your eyes.

Finally! Da Diego's Code!!!

I do not look 18!!! that's for sure. I wasn't able to watch the movie. The guy selling the movie tickets said that I was "obviously" under 18 so he did not sell me some tickets. Jealously speaking, some of my friends (even younger than me!) watched the movie!!! But it's ok! :) I've read the book anyway so what's the point in watching the movie? The Da Vinci Code sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and now it's a film by Columbia Pictures.

I've heard of people posting in their blogs to boycott the movie.

I've heard of people leaving the catholic church after watching the movie.

I've heard of people changing their religions from catholic to protestants.

I've heard of people doubting the teachings of the church after viewing/reading the novel.

I've heard of debates concerning the novel wether to publish it or not.

I've heard of people rallying in the streets because the movie is being published.

I've heard and read of people's opinions after watching the movie.


We all know that the book/movie is a novel, so that makes it fictional regardless of the facts that are in the book. Brown simply used the facts in real life to create the fiction which is in the book/movie, there are alot of booklets, books, and documentaries concerning the Da Vinci Code telling all the inaccurate things about the Novel.

There is nothing bad in reading the book or watching the movie. The book is simply a book and the movie is simply just a movie. Then why are we so affected in the production of the movie? or the copying of the book. It's just a fictional novel, just enjoy it! And even if Jesus did fell inlove with Mary Magdalene, why focus on that??? That's the problem with people today, they only notice the things that are wrong with Christ, but not focus on what He did for mankind, which is to offer His life to save us from sin.

Let me give Kobe Bryant for example, Kobe bryant was accused of sexual harrasment, so publicity practically harmed his reputation being a basketball player and all that. Like Jesus, why do we focus on the sexual harrasment case of Kobe Bryant, while we can focus on the great things he has done for his basketball team, LA Lakers?

Some people after watching the movie, or have read the novel, changed their religions. From a catholic to a protestant, free-thinker or simply an anti-Christ. People who have been affected by the novel simply shows that they lack faith in God, knowledge in the scriptures and most of all, love for Christ. For some, the movie may be a threat to their faith. They tend not to read the book or watch the movie cause it might bring harm to their souls. We Catholics know that Christ died on the cross just to save us from sin! He died and raised from the dead! It is what we are suppose to believe! So there is nothing to fear!!! There is a post in this blog saying that there are 9 ways to know that the Gospels of Christ are true. So there is really nothing to fear!

What's the point in reciting the Apostle's Creed if we still have doubts about Christ in our hearts?

For the people who still doubt the Catholic faith and to those who still have "hang-overs" after watching the movie, I pray for your souls!!!

The movie is just a movie! the book is just a book! just enjoy it!

Da Diego's Code!!! (coming soon)

These past few weeks I have notice the blogs of other bloggers posting things about the movie, "the Da Vinci Code". They are asking to boycot, protest, or they just simply tell their reaction after watching the movie. I come to think that my blog is simply "out of this world" cause not one of my posts tells or talks about the movie.

Some people keeps on sending me emails to post something about the movie (they probably want to hear the reaction of a kid)... Here in the Philippines, the movie is rated R-18 so the movie is restricted to minors. Some of my friends say that I look like 18 so let's see if I can get pass the cinema without being noticed... haha...

If I don't get a chance to watch the movie in the big screeen, I might as well wait for a few months before the movie may be released on HBO or Star Movies.

This post is not mainly about the movie. The real reaction would be longer than this.

So... I'll end here and do the reaction. I already created a draft but it's not yet finish. Wait for a few more days before I can post it... patience...

Bye and God Bless!!! :)

Onimusha warlords

There's a game in the PS2 called Onimusha Warlords. You can see from the name itself that the game is Japanese. The game is really hard to finish and it took me a quite a time before I could finish it. Some people who likes to play games might know this game published by CAPCOM.

The game is all about a young samurai named Samonusuke Akeshi and his quest to rescue someone he loves, a princess (princess Yuki) that has been kidnapped by monsters. The game is violent and full of blood and gore. Everywhere you go (in the game) you'll se blood. So that makes it so unpleasing to see.

But let us not focus on the game itself being violent and bloody and all that. Let us focus on what the story of the game tells us. Let us focus on the heroic role of the samurai. He sacrificed everything, and I mean everything even his life just to save someone he loves. The game does not have an happy ending cause in the last cut scene, the hero of the game died and the princess whom he loved was saved because of his sacrifice, his life.

Like the story, I come to think that our soul can be kidnapped and be trapped in darkness. We sometimes be the spitting image of the monster that is within us. Then God comes in who would do just everything just to save us from what makes us fall to the darkness.

The Lord is always there, saving us but we just don't see it...

The thing called love (reflection for May 21,2006)

It's hard to love someone that you do not know.
It's hard to love someone that does not love you.
It's hard to love an enemy.
It's hard to love someone that you have not yet seen.
It's hard to love when you are in sorrow.
It's hard to love when you are hated.
It's hard to love when you are discriminated.

There are so much difficulties when it comes to love. Yet the Lord tells us, "love one another just as I love you"... Hard words isn't it? It is one of the secrets towards sanctity. Loving unconditionally.

It is hard to love especially to the ones who hate you. I for one know that alot of people are hating me right now. Hating me beacause of who I am. I once prayed to God to give me the maturity of a 60 year old man beacause having a mature mind can help me achieve sanctification.

St. Josemaria Escriva once said that the will of God is sanctification and we must sanctify others and to do that we must be saints, and to become a saint, we must love one another. See the connection? It all ends in love.

Haec est voluntas Dei: Santificato vestra... This is the will of God: Your sanctification.

Nine Ways to Know That the Gospel of Christ Is True - By: Pastor John

I just surfed the net and I found this article. It's a nice one and it may be an "additional knowlege" to some...

1. Jesus Christ, as he is presented to us in the New Testament, and as he stands forth from all its writings, is too single and too great to have been invented so uniformly by all these writers. The force of Jesus Christ unleashed these writings; the writings did not create the force. Jesus is far bigger and more compelling than any of his witnesses. His reality stands behind these writings as a great, global event stands behind a thousand newscasters. Something stupendous unleashed these diverse witnesses to tell these stunning and varied, yet unified, stories of Jesus Christ.

2. Nobody has ever explained the empty tomb of Jesus in the hostile environment of Jerusalem where the enemies of Jesus would have given anything to produce the corpse, but could not. The earliest attempts to cover the scandal of resurrection were manifestly contradictory to all human experience - disciples do not steal a body (Matthew 28:13) and then sacrifice their lives to preach a glorious gospel of grace on the basis of the deception. Modern theories that Jesus didn't die but swooned, and then awoke in the tomb and moved the stone and tricked his skeptical disciples into believing he was risen as the Lord of the universe don't persuade.

3. Cynical opponents of Christianity abounded where claims were made that many eyewitnesses were available to consult concerning the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. "After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:6). Such claims would be exposed as immediate falsehood if they could. But we know of no exposure. Eyewitnesses of the risen Lord abounded when the crucial claims were being made.

4. The early church was an indomitable force of faith and love and sacrifice on the basis of the reality of Jesus Christ. The character of this church, and the nature of the gospel of grace and forgiveness, and the undaunted courage of men and women - even unto death - do not fit the hypothesis of mass hysteria. They simply were not like that. Something utterly real and magnificent had happened in the world and they were close enough to know it, and be assured of it, and be gripped by its power. That something was Jesus Christ, as all of them testified, even as they died singing.

5. The prophesies of the Old Testament find stunning fulfillment in the history of Jesus Christ. The witness to these fulfillments are too many, too diverse, too subtle and too interwoven into the history of the New Testament church and its many writings to be fabricated by some great conspiracy. Down to the details, Jesus Christ fulfilled dozens of Old Testament prophecies that vindicate his truth.

6. The witnesses to Jesus Christ who wrote the New Testament gospels and letters are not gullible or deceitful or demented. This is manifest from the writings themselves. The books bear the marks of intelligence and clear-headedness and maturity and a moral vision that is compelling. They win our trust as witnesses, especially when all taken together with one great unifying, but distinctively told, message about Jesus Christ.

7. The worldview that emerges from the writings of the New Testament makes more sense out of more reality than any other worldview. It not only fits the human heart, but also the cosmos and history and God as he reveals himself in nature and conscience. Some may come to this conclusion after much reflection, others may arrive at this conviction by a pre-reflective, intuitive sense of the deep suitability of Christ and his message to the world that they know.

8. When one sees Christ as he is portrayed truly in the gospel, there shines forth a spiritual light that is a self-authenticating. This is "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 4:6), and it is as immediately perceived by the Spirit-awakened heart as light is perceived by the open eye. The eye does not argue that there is light. It sees light.

9. When we see and believe the glory of God in the gospel, the Holy Spirit is given to us so that the love of God might be "poured out in our hearts" (Romans 5:5). This experience of the love of God known in the heart through the gospel of Him who died for us while we were yet ungodly assures us that the hope awakened by all the evidences we have seen will not disappoint us.

The people around me (a poem out of sufferings)

The people around me

People pull me down
People discriminate me
They worked upon me as a team
But that’s not enough to stop me in pursuing my dream

They try to change me
They try to understand me
It just made it more difficult
For no one can ever see.

What could be my relevance here on earth?
What could be my purpose?
It has been so hard for me
For years I have been treated as dirt.

I must be strong.
I must be tough.
How can I do this?
If the world to me is rough?

All my life I have been searching for answers
I hope that my Father could hear
Because the good voices around me are becoming unclear.

Sins are around me
I must not show any sufferings’ tear
I fear nobody and that’s that!
For God is my only fear



By: Rodrigo A. Escobar

Have Jesus, and have everything... (reflection for May 14, 2006)

In today's Gospel, Jesus used the vine to represent the bond between us and Him. He said that we are the branch and He is the vine and we are nothing without Him.

In reality, the branch from a vine will be nourished and bear fruit if it is connected to the vine, the nutrients that it receives from the soil will also be given to the branch, then it will live, grow, and bear fruit.

The same goes with our spiritual life, we will be indeed lifeless once cutted off from the vine. One of the goals in life is too find Jesus. We don't need to find Him. For He is right in front of us but we don't see Him for we have not open our eyes yet. Some people who had visions of seeing God and Mary said the similar thing, they wished that they were dead, (parang gusto na nilang mamatay)... so anyway, those people had their spiritual life to be more stronger and filled with more love. We can't deny the fact that there are still people who don't believe because they have not seen any miracle yet.

Well... That's the problem with people today, demanding, before believing. That is also one of the defects at the time of Jesus, remember when Jesus was asked to change the water into wine? or in the cross when He was mocked to go down from it? Well... up to now, there are still people who are like that, demanding for miracles before they could accept it as the truth.

Seek Him, and you shall find Him. Have Him, then have everything...

Canticle of the Sun

The Canticle of the Sun

By: St. Francis of Assisi

Most high, all powerful, all good Lord! All praise is yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing. To you, alone, Most High, do they belong. No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name.

Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and clouds and storms, and all the weather, through which you give your creatures sustenance.

Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten the night. He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong.

Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

Be praised, my Lord, through those who forgive for love of you; through those who endure sickness and trial. Happy those who endure in peace, for by you, Most High, they will be crowned.

Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whose embrace no living person can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Happy those she finds doing your most holy will. The second death can do no harm to them.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks, and serve him with great humility. Amen.


St. Francis of Assisi called the fire "brother", the moon and stars "sister"... He speaks with animals and he treated them as his siblings...

My friends, we can be like St. Francis. Let me put it more correctly, we must be like St. Francis, a person who with all his heart loves nature and the animals who lives in it. He treats them as if it was his own sibling. He has seen the love of God through nature that is around him. His love for nature came from his deep love for God. He knows that everything around him is God's abundance and all is in God's grace. He has found a new way of connecting with God, which is through nature...

See and appreciate the beauty of nature... then you'll see the goodness of our Lord...

The sheep of His flock... (reflection for May 7, 2006)

In today's Gospel we are reminded that Jesus is the Good Sheperd and we are His sheep. He assures us that He will lay down His life for His sheep...

Today we are reminded of how much Jesus loves us and how he is ready to sacrifice everything for us. All of us are part of that flock that Jesus is taking care of. He loves His sheep and He never takes off His sight to us.

I surfed the net few days ago and one article caught my attention, the article has a title, "Jesus is asleep, he does not hear me.. Wake Him up!!!" and another one with a title, "wake up Jesus! wake up!"... Well.. The content simply says that it has been alot of years that they are praying... But their prayer has not yet been answered... They still keep on praying but their patience is about to reach its limit.

My friends, we must not rush the graces that will be given to us. We must be patient in everything and in every situation there is. As some of the great saints say, "patience is a virtue"... For some, prayers have been answered decades before they first asked for that blessing...

Jesus loves us, because of that love we are still alive, He is never asleep... He is the Good Sheperd who will do everything just for His sheep... Now, how can we give credit to the love that Jesus has shown to us?

It depends on whose hands it's in...

I received an email few days ago and I just decided to share it to you guys... :)

A basketball in my hands is worth about $19. A basketball in Michael Jordan'shands is worth about $33 million. It depends whose hands it's in.

A baseball in my hands is worth about $6. A baseball in Mark McGwire's hands is worth $19 million. It depends whose hands it's in.

A tennis racket is useless in my hands. A tennis racket in Venue Williams'hands is a Championship Winning. It depends whose hands it's in.

A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal. A rod in Moses' hands will part the mighty sea. It depends whose hands it's in.

A sling shot in my hands is a kid's toy. A sling shot in David's hand is a mighty weapon. It depends whose hands it's in.

Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in myhands is a couple of fish sandwiches. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in God's hands will feed thousands. It depends whose hands it's in.

Nails in my hands might produce a birdhouse. Nails in Jesus Christ's hands will produce salvation for the entire world. It depends whose hands it's in.


Let us be reminded that all of us has a purpose in this world. Our existence has a relevance. Some people who are depress and who are in deep sorrow affects their behavior. Some people who are in deep sorrow tend to commit suicide... My friends, we are not "owners" of this life that we live, we are only stewards... So let us give importance to life and to the One who gave it, God...

Change is all that matters...(Reflection for April 30, 2006)

What have you done for Christ?
What are you doing for Christ?
What will you do for Christ?

In the spirit of renewed hope and heartfelt thanksgiving of the easter season, we are all called and missioned to action, to a lived faith.

The only place where the prophets are not welcome is their hometown and their own family. We can connect with Jesus' experienceof rejection by his very own people.

We can be used to seeing and treating people in a certain manner as we've known them in this way. But people grow and change. We all deserve a chance and we are all given a chance.

Once again I repeat, change is all that matters. Before easter sunday (lent), we had a great chance to repent, but today we are reminded that there are still chances that we can change...

For the past five days, my computer inherited a virus, I can't connect to the internet or open some icons, that made me delay all of the posts... sorry.. and hope you understand..