WANTED: Sincere Teacher

We need teachers who cares about the learning of their student rather than the salary being given to them. Teachers nowadays only care about the salary instead of teaching their students. I heard teachers say to their students, "I do not care if you learn, I'm present and that means I'm being paid"

What was that? Is that what you call a teacher (Salesian Educator)? A teacher who became a teacher just for the money? She can choose not to become a teacher when she was younger, she could take up another job with a higher salary than that of a teacher if that's what she want. But what can I do? right? The person chose her career to become a teacher and I can't take any action about it.

My friends, we are still young, and being young means that we can still choose what we want to be when we grow up. It's just that when you choose to become an educator, make sure that it's what you want and you care for the learning of your students rather than the salary which will give you no idea of what kind of person you will be. All I want to say is...

When you choose a career, make sure it is what you want.

Feng Shui and other superstitious beliefs.

Kris Aquino, an actress/host here in the Philippines played as a mother who believed in Chinese superstitious beliefs in their movie with a title, "Feng Shui". In the movie, she noticed an antique "bah-gua" left by a man in the bus. She found that bah gua and decided to find the man who left it in the bus, but sad to say, she was not able to find that man. So she decided to take ownership of that bah-gua. On her way home, the guy who left the bah-gua in the bus was suddenly hit by a car, and this was followed by numerous deaths to the people who looked at their reflection in the mirror of the bah-gua. For each death, Kris Aquino gained good luck, she won raffle draws, earned big money from her job. And this luck also became a benefit for her family. Now she has to stop the curse of the bah-gua before it can affect more people including her family.

In this world that we live in, many people believe in superstitious beliefs. I'm not only reffering to Feng Shui, I'm also reffering to some beliefs that other people dovotedly believed. Most of these beliefs are a complete non-sense of unreaserched crap. It's sad to hear that most of these people are catholics, catholics that are active to their faith in serving the Lord, and catholics that belong to religious organizations. They tend to say that they love the Lord and are willing to offer their own life for Him. Yet when you go to their house, you'll see a bah-gua above the door of their house and inside the house, also above the door, you'll see a crucifix. A perfect example of unfaithfulness to the Lord, both Christianity and Feng-Shui being practiced.

When you go to some restaurants, you'll see in the counter a gold cat waving its hands vertically forward and backward, a green frog with a coin in its mouth, or a happy Buddha raising its hands in the air holding something. All of these next to a Sto. Nino (image if the infant Jesus), an image of Mama Mary, sometimes, even a relic of a saint.

My friends, if we are really catholics, we must have our faith 100% in God. He is the only one that we should trust. We shall not follow any other God's before Him.

Constant activities... (reflection for July 24, 2006)

If you would recall the Gospel last Sunday, Jesus sent the 12 on a journey by pairs in preaching the word of God and casting out demons but in today's Gospel, Jesus asked the 12 to come back from their journey to rest.

Recalling Genesis, when Yahweh created the universe, He kept the 7th day for resting. It only shows that we must value resting. Some of us may find it hard to rest. We tend to work constantly without having any rest at all. By this, we lose our sense of connection between Him. God valued resting as a necessity in life. We cannot work without a rest, like a cellphone without being charged.

We are all tools being used by God for other people, and like a tool, if we do not rest, we would worn out easily and this may lead to the destruction of our own mortal being.

No one can work without having a rest first, so let us stop on whatever we are doing, relax ourselves and rest. Rest, and you shall see God.

Missioned... (reflection for July 16, 2006)

In today's Gospel, Jesus sent the apostles by pairs and He gave them the authority to cleanse spirits. Jesus ordered them to do their tasks without having any money or food, just themselves. It is really hard for someone to preach the Word of God with an empty stomach so it must be really hard for the apostles but they did not let it become a burden. The apostles continued to preach and drive out demons.

My friends, we are armed with nothing. Like the apostles, each one of us has a mission to spread the Word of God. Like them, we must do this without any big backpacks, but let us do this with great faith and love. Jesus did not assign the apostles alone in their mission to spread the Word of God and casting out demons. Jesus assigned them by pairs. So every apostles has a companion with them.

We too have a mission given by God. Each and every one of us has a mission. But are we doing our mission or are we just making a fool of ourselves in doing and enjoying sin? My friends, we must not waste time. Use your time wisely. We are missioned to spread God, we are missioned to do good, we are missioned to service. But are we doing our mission?

In my life....

In My Life

You’re pure as snow,
You’re clear as rain,
I can't keep you off of my mind,
You are driving me insane.

You’re hard as a rock,
You’re strong as a tree,
Come to me when you have a problem
You can cry on my shoulder for free.

You’re angelic as a saint,
You’re sweet as a candy,
When you need me,
I’m just here, being ready.

You’re fast as a bullet,You’re sharp as a knife,
I would be the happiest man in the world if you could be in my life

By: Rodrigo A. Escobar

The girl next door...

The movie, "the girl next door" is all about Matthew Kidman (Emil Hirsch) who is graduating from High school and dreams to get a scholarship for studying in Georgetown to become a politician. One night, Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) who will live next to their house moves in. The 2 of them became friends then they fell in love with each other. But it was not long for Matthew to find out that Danielle is a pornstar. Knowing the news, Matthew invited Danielle in a cheap motel room to have sex. But Matthew changed his mind. This changed Danielle's view to Matthew, so she decided to go back to Las Vegas to do porn again. The movie also focused on the life of a pornstar who wants to make a change by finding the man she loves.

My Friends, Let us not focus on the movie itself as a teen comedy about pornography. Let us look at the facts about the movie that leads us to reality. Not all prostitutes and "sluts" sell themselves for the sake of pleasure. Women who has this nature of work does not want this.

We sometimes judge these kind of women who stands every night in the streets waiting for some rich politician or foreigner to pick them up and fuck them (sorry for the vulgar word, but it's true).

We sometimes keep on thinking what they do. Can't we look at the positive side wherein they sacrifice their pride and dignity for the sake of feeding their families, children, or simply just helping others? The Filipino people refer to them as "mababa ang lipad" but they still have a chance. Everyone has a chance as long as there is still life.

Prostitutes are still people so let us help them make a change in their lives.

Prayer:

+ Lord, help our sisters make a change in their lives. Help them not to give in to poverty that makes them prostitutetheir bodies. Instead, may they find delight in serving You. Help them to be inspired by the lives of saints, so that they may also be saints. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

St. Mary Magdalene... pray for us.
St. Dominic Savio... pray for us. +

Superman returns...

Superman is strong and fast, he can withstand anything. He manages to take care of any problem with ease. But there is something that superman is not capable of handling with, and that is the element Kryptonite. The element kryptonite is a small fragment of a planet where superman once lived. It is deadly to superman. Any contact made by superman to a Kryptonite weakens him and might bring him death. There is an opposite alternative to a Kryptonite and that is sunlight. So Kryptonite weakens superman and sunlight makes superman strong.

Even though the movie was not that good, I can still make a reflection out of it. My friends, we all have weaknesses. No matter how strong we appear to other people, we must keep in mind that we all have our own weaknesses. And these weaknesses can make us lose our faith. Sometimes when burdens gets heavier, we tend to lose faith, we lose our sense of connection with God and we start to rebel against Him but in the end, it is He we come to!

My friends, we are all like superman, weakened by Kryptonite and strengthen by sunlight. When problems come, we are weakened, but when we go to God, we are strengthened.

God is like the sunlight, always there, all we have to do is show ourselves in His presence to be strong.

Living the dead... (reflection for July 2, 2006)

In today's Gospel, Jesus performed a miracle. He brought back life to a girl who has been dead for 3 days. Jesus said that the girl was only sleeping and just have faith. So Jesus said to the dead girl, "Talitha koum" (Little girl, arise!) The girl woke up and started to walk around.

When we give up on something,
When we lose our faith,
When failures come,
When we give in to temptation,
When we do sin...

Similar to the Gospel, we sometimes die; and this emotional death is what keeps our faith down. We tend to lose our faith when we encounter problems and when our cross gets bigger and heavier. Jesus is just around there if you need him, when we are having this death, just call out his name and He'll come just like He did in today's Gospel and brings us back to life to what makes us fall to sin and darkness.

Jesus tells us, "be not afraid, have faith". When we have Jesus, what is there for us to fear?

Sinners yet saints (a liar and a killer)

Few days ago we celebrated the solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul. St Peter being known for denying Jesus 3 times and St. Paul being known for being a Pharisee that persecutes Christians.

Sinners yet saints...

In the Gospel during the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Jesus gave Peter the gates to heaven. Jesus, knowing that Peter will deny him, still gave Peter a responsibility (a very big one). That's how good our Lord is, we have His trust but does He have ours?

Next is St. Paul the persecutor. St. Paul persecutes Christians. He kills them for believing in Christ or anyone who os against the law. Now Paul converting to an apostle of Christ finds delights in what he is doing. He realized that in having Jesus, you have everything.

2 sinners yet 2 of the greatest saints. Paul being the inspired writer of letters, and Peter being the key holder to the gates of heaven. It only shows that God really has plans for all of us and that we must not be afraid. My friends...

We are all sinners, but we can also be saints.

Special gifts

In the movie X-Men the last stand, humans found a cure to mutation. This cure was negatively accepted by Magneto and his mutand comrades. So Magneto being the leader, organized a mutant group that will rebell against the humans who created the cure. The humans who created the cure only has the intention of helping them, and that is not probably understood by magneto. Now, the X-Men (Wolverine, storm, beast, iceman, etc.) will stop magneto and his recruited mutants to their plan to kill the creator of the cure (anglewing's dad).

Let us not focus on the movie and its story itself, but let us focus on the mutants and their unique gift and on how they used their gift. My friends, we are like the mutants in the movies of X-Men, each one of us has a special talent or gift. For some people, they have not yet discovered their God-given gifts, but I'm sure they will. We all have this unique gift, and now it is up to us to use it properly. May it be for the good or for the evil.

Our gift may be used to uplift our neighbor, or to pull them down and destroy them. My friends, we all have a choice. A choice that can affect ourselves and the people around us.

Are we using these gifts for the good of our neighbor and saviour? or are we using it for own selfish and sinful ways?