MabutingBalita.net

Christmas brings hope.

Let this hope ring in your heart.

The New Year is what we make it. No prediction, statistics or negativity can stop the perseverance and passion of an individual. Let us celebrate. Let the birth of the Saviour remind us of hope, faith, peace and love.

A Blessed Christmas and a Joyful New Year

by Christina Alejandro from the Papemelroti Christmas Newsletter

Once the “ber” months roll in, we sometimes feel a rising panic at the thought of all the preparations, shopping, parties, traffic and crowds that come with the season.  It would be helpful to plan to have the most memorable Christmas ever without spending or stressing much!

1. This time is for family!  Get out your calendar and block out the days you want to spend with your family.  Stick to it strictly even if you get invited to last minute parties or get tempted to work overtime just to impress the boss.

2. When spending quality time with your loved ones, don’t just spend time watching a telenovela or movie but as much as possible, have an interactive activity such as playing cards or board games or better yet telling stories of the blessings of the past year!
3. Have a time for peace and quiet.  Amidst the hustle and bustle of the season, recharge by going by yourself to some place conducive to pleasant thoughts.  Thank God for another year of life and meditate on how He wants you to approach the new year.  Read Jeremiah 29:11 and pray for all your plans to be led by God’s Spirit!

4. Serve the most impoverished in your neighborhood.  Jesus, whose birth we celebrate said “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40).  How delighted He would be as we give this gift!  Aspire to give hope to those who have lost theirs by acts of selfless deeds of kindness.

5. Dress the house up in lights!  This year, instead of the old Christmas decor, make your own!  Cut out easy to do snowflakes or make paper doves and put Christmas lights on them to add sparkle to your home!

6. Celebrate the Advent Season with special traditions!  Make an advent wreath or make a Countdown Calendar!  The calendar can be filled with daily activities you can offer to God as your gifts for His coming!  Example of things you may offer to Him is to serve your parents one day and say an encouraging word to someone sad on another day.

7. Try a new recipe and cook it together with family and friends!  This is quality time you will remember for years to come and the best reward is the afterward tasting session!

8. Gather friends and family for a memorable video!  Write down interview questions for your oldest relatives to preserve these precious stories for generations to come.  Gather the children for their own presentation.  On Christmas eve, watching this video can be your reunion activity.

9. Sing Christmas carols around a bonfire until you run out of songs to sing!

10. Read the Christmas story to your children and if you would like their imagination and creativity to flourish, act it out in a play and let them participate.

11. Here’s an easy way to make a Christmas like no other.  Instead of putting the gifts under the tree, why not hide them and make a map for the recipients to find it.

12. Bless your whole family with a retreat.  (Make a thorough examination of conscience and go to confession. - Jun). Join church-based events or make your own.  You can also integrate a time to be spiritually recharged during your family reunion by having the family, including little children, write down blessings they’ve received and collecting this in a yearly scrapbook for all to cherish!

Tina Alejandro is from the Ligaya ng Panginoon community and the  the editor of the Papemelroti Newsletter. She is an active environmentalist and has been helping a Muslim community in Tawi-Tawi, aside from her other passions.

I remember when I was a young boy when we were still living in our first house in San Juan Malolos, my kuya and I would occasionally fetch water from the nearby barrio deep well manual pump. As if carrying two pails of water at a time was not difficult enough, we had to balance ourselves as we walk through a narrow and rough “pilapil” or fishpond banks which was the only way to reach our house then. One careless mis-step would lead us downward to the murky water.

At first, I was very nervous to carry those pails of water so much so that whenever I reached home the water level on each pail would nearly be reduced to half due to mindless spills. But as time went by, I noticed that not only have I taken this task with ease and with minimal spillovers, I also realized that I am no longer afraid to do it.

The weight of the two pails never changed but I have grown muscles to confidently carry them.

As our family remembers tomorrow the fortieth day of Maia’s untimely passing away, my wife and I realize as well that the pain and depth of loss is not diminishing each passing day. She still wakes up in the early morning often with the melancholic feeling of losing our daughter at her very young age and I, at times, still catch myself staring into nothingness as I start to remember Maia in all her fondest moments and all my washed-away dreams for her. We still fight back tears whenever we talk about her and every time we see a girl toddler with a striking semblance to Maia’s physical features.

But the journey to our healing is on-going as well and we are developing spiritual and emotional “muscles” to help us move on and carry our heavy burden. We thank God for these “muscles-formers” like parents and well-meaning friends who keep us company with their presence, messages and prayers.

Everything is becoming clearer (and more personal) now about what Jesus said to those who wish to follow Him.

Mark 8:34 – “….Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

With our faith being furnace-tested, my wife and I are looking forward to that day when we can confidently say, “Where to now, our Lord? Here we are with our cross.”

Because by that time, we can never be afraid of anything else.

Nothing but love will stand between us and Him.

Thanks to my cousin, Ate Ela, for the inspiration to write this article.

Take and Receive: The First Festival of Ateneo Music

Ateneo choirs to stage free thanksgiving concert for the community

Deepening Spirituality

the Ateneo community is warmly invited to

TAKE AND RECEIVE: THE FIRST FESTIVAL OF ATENEO MUSIC

Sunday, 7 December 2008, 6:30PM
Church of the Gesù

FEATURING:

Ateneo Boys Choir (Daisy Marasigan, Conductor)
Ateneo Chamber Singers (Jonathan Velasco, Conductor)
Ateneo College Glee Club (Ma. Lourdes Hermo, Conductor)
Ateneo High School Glee Club (Jose Emmanuel Aquino, Conductor)
Dulaang Sibol (Dr. Onofre Pagsanghan, Managing Director)
Jesuit Music Ministry (Fr. JBoy Gonzales, SJ, Director): Blue Symphony,Bukas Palad, Himig Heswita & Musica Chiesa

AND

the premiere “Take and Receive” medley arrangement of  RYAN CAYABYAB

**

by Menchu Lacsamana

Every encounter that I have with people, young and old, I see the different faces of God. As I grow older and wiser, I can’t help but be amazed how wonderful God is. Wonderful in the sense that  through the different stages of my life, with the  daily encounter with friends, loved ones and strangers, His face changes.

I first saw the face of God through my parents. Their unwavering love, care, support that withstand the test of time. Through them, I have experienced and learned how compassionate our God is. My mother’s unwavering faith strengthens our family in the midst of life’s storm.

As a precocious child, I always wanted to explore and to get away once in a while in the clutches of my overprotective parents. Then one day I got lost in the mall when I had my tantrums. A kind stranger led me home. I saw the face of God on this stranger when she smiled and told me that everything would be alright. I felt that the world is not that cruel and bad at all.  My mother hugged me and told me that an angel is sometimes disguised as a stranger.  This experience led me to be trusting and to be friendly.

In my formative years, I saw the face of God through my classmates, friends and teachers. A smiling Jesus is the face that is imprinted in my soul. I saw in them God’s immense love and gentleness.

As I go along on my journey as a bubbly and carefree teenager, it was  the sad face of God that I experienced. The sad  face of  God that can  be seen and felt in the plight of  the street children, the abandoned, the exploited, the poor and the homeless people. It made me to ponder the existence and purpose of life. God used this encounter for me to act and translate our university motto: “useful womanhood”  in action. God sent people in my life to help me to lead  the education students to  form the catechists group. From the sad face of God, the happy face of Jesus emerged when we began to hear the laughter of the street children under our care. What was unique in our group is that we came from different faiths and beliefs. But it didn’t  hinder us to be the hands and  feet of God. The happy face of God I felt and seen in terms of solidarity and oneness of life’s purpose to love and to serve others regardless of faith. I saw God’s face in the many creeds and beliefs. In this, I fathom  that there is only one universal faith and that is love. In this stage of my life, I saw God’s serene face exuding love when we understood each other  as we shared our similarities and celebrated our differences.

When I entered adulthood, the face of God became blurred. His face is distorted like the way you view an image in shattered glass. I entered a dark night of the soul, hurting and disillusioned. Through hurt, betrayal, disillusionment I imagined His face in Gethsemane. God in  His goodness, grace and mercy, sent human angels to guide me and to walk  again in the spiritual realm. I rediscovered my faith. This time,  God’s  face revealed to me in the stained glass that we always see in the windows of the church. You can only see  and appreciate it’s beauty when you view it inside.

As a professional, I can see clearly His magnificent face so radiant in the faces of my students. The laughing face of Jesus is revealed to me every day as I witness how they grow, learn and love one another.

At present, I am still completing my spiritual sojourn. Call it an epiphany, there is a paradigm shift that is happening to my interior self.  Metanoia in spiritual parlance if one  wants to call it. There is something inside of me that is bursting and ready to explode. It’s like a tempest in the sea that need to be redirected . I know it will be calmed if I will have an  intimate and intense devotion to live my faith.

As I progress , may I  not miss to recognize the face of God every day. He always give me a chance to  recognize Him not by my  eyes but by my heart and soul. Meeting  people whether it is brief and fleeting serves us a chance for me to gaze and recognize His face.

________

I wrote this while passing the time as I was proctoring a two hour test. There was an inspiration that urging me to take a test too on my relationship with God.

Please join us in praying for the eternal repose of Maia Santos, the one-year old baby girl of Rowin and Menchie Santos, sister to Zek who passed away recently.

Rowin is the writer of many inspirational reflections that we send weekly. You might remember Maia from his writings for some of the emails we’ve sent.

Rowin, Menchie and Zek, we, your family in the MabutingBalita.net, are one with you during these trying times.  We pray that Maia is already singing her praises to God and that she has grown her wings and playing her harp.

——–

Job 1:21

by Rowin Santos

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

Her shrieking giggles that I hear every time I come home from work are gone forever.

Her heart-melting grins and smiles from out-of-the-blue will be sorely missed.

Her stress-busting music-triggered dances have reached the final performance.

Her spirit-nourishing embraces and kisses are what I will hopelessly long for to feel again.

The Lord has called back our angel into heaven in an abrupt and totally unexpected moment. A high-fever on the eve of October 29 became the prelude of her unforeseen return to her Maker in the following daybreak.

The hurt that this painful reality has brought to my wife and I is beyond words and will surely linger until the grace of God finally succeeds in infusing His peace and joy back into our hearts. The time for us now is to grieve but with our fervent hope of being comforted especially during times when the agonizing longing to be with our Maia is strongest. The odds are stacked against us and the doors to doubt or bitterness are wide-open, yet all we can do is to pray that we are able to embrace with a loving trust whatever the Lord’s ordained purpose is for this trial in our family. We do not pray for complete understanding but for a peaceful and heartfelt assurance that we will be fine, because we are not at the moment.

The Lord, however and in His infinite wisdom, has yet another surprise under His sleeve because as I read through the end topics of Max Lucado’s book entitled “Experiencing the Heart of Jesus”, the Lord has spoken His word through his writings and I can hear Him paraphrase them to me.

“Rowin, am I less of a good God for having called your beloved daughter?”

“Is my goodness lessened by the fact that your strongest plea, begging and bargaining as time expires on her received a “no” response from me?”

“My son, am I still deserving of your love and faithfulness for not letting you keep her so you can work to build all your dreams and aspirations for her?”

In all honesty, I would never know how to reply had He asked me those questions at the time I was tightly embracing the lifeless body of our daughter as I rush her to the nearest hospital only to find out eventually that she is indeed gone. I was moaning and crying in anguish and pain so I am not sure I would have even heard His voice. I was nearly oblivious of His presence while my wife transfers the remains of our daughter and I was scampering to have our eldest undergo a battery of diagnostics because he also have the same fever which actually manifested earlier than our daughter. Our anxieties are untold.

Lord, I am sorry for having doubted your grace during the critical span when you needed my firm conviction and decision to accept your plan for us no matter how painful it is.

Lord, I am sorry because for that particular moment, I almost forgot that you have suffered first for us before you invited us to share in your sufferings.

Lord, I am sorry if I did not make the choice to accept your grace which is sufficient for my family at that moment.

At this time, my wife’s spirit and mine are being replenished with the caring support of our families, relatives and friends whose promises of prayers are over-whelming.

At this moment, I can answer the Lord’s questions with a better perspective at the circumstances surrounding our situation.

No Lord, you are not less of a good God even after you called our daughter back and a brief 22-month life here on earth.

No Lord, your goodness is not lessened despite your firm “no” answer to my desperate prayers. Comprehending your purpose is not what I seek but contentment in your promise I must present to you.

And Yes Lord, you are still deserving of my love and faithfulness even if our dreams for our daughter vanished into nothingness.

Your grace is enough.

Blessed is Your name forever.

“But be happy that you are sharing in Christ’s sufferings so that you will be happy and full of joy when Christ comes again in glory.” – 1 Peter 4:13

by Rene Perez

Financial experts will tell us “Crisis is far from over”, financial guru’s have said “expect for the worst”, media will try to convince us that our country will experience more difficulties because of the “Global Crisis”. Wala na akong halos mabasa na maganda sa mga diyaryo ngayon. Wala na akong halos madinig na magandang balita ngayon. Nadidinig ko ay halos panay okatokat! (nakakatakot)

Eto lang ang gusto ko pong tiyakin sa lahat ng gusto ng pag -asa sa buhay: In my 22 years as an Insurance agent na wala po akong suweldo monthly ay napatunayan ko na po ang faithfulness ng ating buhay na buhay na Panginoon.  Hindi lang isa, dalawang beses o isang libong beses ko napatunayan na kapag kumapit ako sa kanya tiyak yan na hindi ka niya ako pababayaan. Hindi po ako puwedeng makumbinsi ng mga Economista na maghihirap tayong mga Pinoy dahil araw – araw sa buhay ko ay panannampalataya sa Diyos ang aking baon. Sa paglabas pa lang sa bahay ay bitbit ko na si Kristo sapagkat wala akong katiyakan kung ako ay kikita ng pera o hindi para sa pamilya ko. Sa pag tulog ko ay siya pa din ang bitbit ko. Naranasan ko na ang mga matitinding pagsubok sa ating bansa tulad ng  Aquino Assasination, Brown- out halos araw - araw nung kapanahunan ni Pres Cory, Asian Crisis, at madami pang iba. Nang mga kapanahunan niyan at hindi din biro ang napag daanan ko at ng pamilya ko. Pero ano naman ang naging kapalit? Binigyan kami ni Kristo ng mga napaka babait na mga anak, binigyan niya kami ng sariling bahay, mga sasakyan at konting mga paupahan na apartment. Alam ko na kapag inuna ko si Kristo sa buhay ko ay tiyak na hindi Niya ako papabayaan. He wants to stretch my faith, He wants to challenge me to go beyond my understanding. Dasal po ang katapat nito at matinding paniniwala na hindi ako papabayaan. God takes pleasure in prospering us. Sabi po sa Biblia Matthew 9:29 “according to your faith it will be done unto you”. I know I need to keep the right perspective and I need to magnify the Lord always in my life. I don’t need to magnify my problems. I need to follow what Psalm 34:3 said “Magnify the Lord with me”  I know mga kapatid that we need get our joy back! We have to always push ourselves and expect that God will truly bless us. I know God created all of us to make a difference. He loves to bless us so that we can also be a blessing to others.

Ngayon po ay ibinabalik ko naman sa kanya ang mga biyaya at pagmamahal na lagi niyang ibinibigay sa akin. I am initiating the prayer meeting in our office in Philam Life Makati, I am actively serving in Pathways and being the Unit Manager of my team in Philam, I try my best to inspire my team to be their best to give glory to God.  Inspite of what is happening in our country, we still experience favor from the Lord in terms of increase in sales.

Sabi ni Joel Osteen,

3 things we need to remember when we are in trouble:

It will only be light
It will only be temporary
This will bring you to a new level

Lastly, remember the Promise of God  in Jeremiah 29:11” For I know what plans for you, plans to save you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and to give you hope.” Ang matindi po din dito ay sa verse 12 it says “when you call on me, I will listen.”

I believe I am in the hands of God.He will not abandon me nor anyone of you.

SULONG PARA KAY KRISTO!

Rene Perez is a member of Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon, a Catholic renewal community. Spend a few minutes with him and you will get infected with with his faithe in God and his positive outlook on life.

This morning, 5 good things happened. And guess what. My day turned out great. Though I goofed on one occasion, the greater part of the day was awesome. I was able to work more, be more perky and had more energy.

Traffic was bad. Cars were cutting in and out, buses were honking and piling. I was still on the road when I should have been sitting in the office checking emails. Nevertheless, even I was in a hurry, I made commitment not to lose my cool, be courteous and drive defensively.

I reached the parking lot and headed off to the elevators. I chanced upon a man gently, tenderly assisting his wife alight the jeepney. A smile formed on my lips and praised God for that gift. He was just starting.

Rushing to catch a closing elevator, but didn’t reach it. Out of the corner of my eye, a hearty “Good morning Sir!” boomed as i turned to see a smiling face. It was the  lobby guard. That was very special for me since that guard never smiled at me before. I made it a point to smile and greet him everyday but all I got were blank stares. I think there were a few times hat the glared.   I replied with a happy tone, as he pointed to another elevator opening for me to ride on. (Thank you Lord for #2!)

The floors passed and stopped at the 14th floor. Hurriedly, I clocked in and had 9 minutes to spare. And I thought I was going to get my first tardy record for quite some time. The Lord has never let me down when it came to his faithfulness. That’s Good Thing Number 3.

I placed my thing in my cubicle, getting ready for the day, opening my bible diary. An officemate comes bearing food tidings. Breakfast for me! She was thanking me for helping her and her mother to the hospital.  I told her she didn’t have to but she insisted and was adamant that I accept. Not one to let a kindness done to me pass, I accepted graciously.  Hurray for Number 4!

Then I remembered that a brother in our community who is helping us with the house repairs was following up and checking. Though he had other paying work and surely plenty of meetings to go to, he checked on how the work was going, and how the workers were doing and if what materials we still needed.  This is number 5 but should have been number 1. But we are not really into ranking of kindnesses, are we?

Now as I write this, it occurred to me that God had given me good things as soon as I woke up. A good dream about looking at magnificent shooting stars and comets with Gina my wife, the hugs and kisses of my girls, a roof under my head, a job that sustains us, a car to use, running water, Rosary on MP3, food, clothes on my back, health, some savings, etc. I could go on, both small and big.

I started my day with a prayer of offering to God and sought to find the good He has planned for me. And good things, I had aplenty

“Recalling all that the Lord had done, he prayed to him and said: “O Lord God, almighty King, all things are in your power, and there is no one to oppose you in your will to save Israel. You made heaven and earth and every wonderful thing under the heavens.” Esther C: 1 - 3

And now, I end the day having these good things in my heart.

October is the month of the Most Holy Rosary. With renewed fervor and zeal, let us pray the rosary for the for our own intention, our loved ones, our country and the Church.

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary

May Mary lead us closer to Jesus.

Image credit: http://rosaryaday.com