VVR Story
Blessed Life of a Lay Sister
Sr. Veneranda Valdez Rotor, OSF
Dr Abe V Rotor
Part 1. Nature, Nature on the Wall, A Beautiful Life to Recall.
Part 2. Apo Resurreccion: “Gaze at life in Me the second time”
Part 3. Enigmatic Himbaba-o or Alukon
Part 4. Anatomy of a Dream
Part 5. Mother Teresa's Response on Receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace
Part 6. Backyard Garden as Ecological Sanctuary
Part 7. A Retreat Message: Touch the clouds with the hope to find HeavenPart 8. Lent and Easter: Tradition and Reformation
Part 9. San Vicente Ferrer church in changing colors through the years
(Archdiocese Shrine of Nueva Segovia)
Part 10. WWII Guardian Angel - Francisca Trinidad: "Manang Madre"Part 11. My Best Photographs on the Lighter Side of Human Nature
Part 12. Homecoming (I am waiting for you my child)
Part 13. Harvesting Rainwater: Arts and Practice
Part 14. Ancestral House - A Living Memory
Annex - Pictorials
We wish to ask in prayer the blessings of our Apo Resurreccion to all our visitors to the Living with Nature Center (San Vicente, Ilocos Sur), blog members, followers and viewers (avrotor.blogspot.com), radio listeners , and to all whose lives they touch in turn, and to the management of Google (Blog), and TATAKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University 87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, and former Paaralang Bayan sa H impapawid (People's School on Air) 735AM Radyo ng Bayan.
Apo Resureccion has been with us, Rotor Family, in our ancestral home for five generations now. Life size to a typical Filipino, the icon is enclosed in a three-side glass housing for better viewing of visitors and pilgrims.
Nothing has changed in the Apo except his linen and some signs of getting old, so to speak. The icon is made of one-piece wood carved faithfully from head to foot. No one can tell in my generation and that of my dad's who the model was. No explanation can be offered on how the holy icon transformed beyond the limits of any mortal model.
San Vicente is traditionally famous for furniture and icon saints. It is the Paete of the north, as often compared; it is a local seat of Renaissance art. The town takes pride with a distinction of producing professionals, leading farmers, artisans, and leaders, notwithstanding, in practically all fields of human endeavor. The ratio of professionals per one thousand population is one of the highest in the country, and in fact, in the world. ~Henry Knox Sherrill: “The joyful news that He is Risen does not change the contemporary world. Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice. But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline and make the sacrifice.”
“The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances.” - Robert Flatt.
Deciduous Himbaba-o or Alukon (Ilk), on-the-spot pastel drawing by the author, La Union Botanical Garden, SFLU. Author's sister Veny, gathers staminate flowers of alukon in San Vicente Botanical Garden. Alukon is scientifically known as Broussonetia luzonica (Blanco), Family Moraceae. It is also referred to as Birch Flower.
What comes to mind painting or drawing a culinary subject, such as the alukon tree standing in a thicket on a hillside away from town? Imagine being a Survivor searching for any available food in the wild. Or Henry David Thoreau living alone by the Walden Pond. (And writing a treatise of man and society of this title)
This is a true story.
I went to bed very tired. For the whole day before my birthday I put on extra effort to finalize the manuscript of my forthcoming book which I was going to submit the following Monday. The title is Light from the Old Arch, a compilation of essays I wrote through the years.
Dad and my sister Veny
It was just past 10 in the evening and Cecille, my wife, who had gone to bed ahead of me stirred. “I’ll just check what we will have for breakfast. I’ll be back,” she said as I stretched my aching back and tired brain and apparently fell asleep.
Soon I found myself in complete darkness. I could not trace my way to switch on the lights and after several attempts locating it on the wall and under curtain, an inexplicable fear crept, a fear I had never experienced before. I was in a strange domain yet it had the features of my home. There was total darkness, total silence.
Dad died in 1981 at the age of 78. He died here in our residence at Lagro after battling with the complications of diabetes. We buried him at Himlayang Pilipino. Our oldest son, Pao who died at three, soon joined him in the same grave two years after.
Dad was deeply affected by my Mama’s death during the Second World War. My sister Veny was four then, and my brother Eugene was three. Dad suffered much - emotionally and physically - even after the four years of Japanese occupation. The war left our family and the country in ruins.
We continued to live in San Vicente which is adjacent to Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur. Dad confessed when we were already big that he feared so much we would not make it through in life. I know how extremely difficult it was even if dad owned farmlands and a neo-colonial house which my grandparents built in 1900. The three of us children knew little of the joys of childhood. My only uncle, Uncle Leo left dad to raised his own family in Pangasinan. He seldom visited us and spent time in our big house where he, like my dad, and their four siblings were born. Uncle Leo was the eldest and dad was the youngest. The rest of their siblings died at a very early age of smallpox which killed many people in Ilocos.
Basang my auntie and yaya took care of me from the time my mother died. I was less than two years old then. She never left us even when I came to Manila for my studies. She died three years after dad had gone. Manang Veny called me to come home when Basang died. We buried her in the town cemetery close to our departed relatives. Just before she died she gave me an antique narra aparador which I now use in keeping my personal things. In our dialect, she said, “This is the only thing I can give you.”
“You have given me everything,” I said.
Going back to the incident of October 21, I called dad three times, then called Basang once. It was a call apparently in fear. I felt helpless and lost. I froze. I could not move. I could not shout. And when I knew no help would come, I struggled. I succeeded in moving my fingers, my toes, until I was free.
Cecille had returned to our bedroom. “Why, you are pale and perspiring? What happened?" she asked, perplexed. She fetched me a glass of water.
“Was I shouting?” I asked automatically. “No,” she said calmly.
“I was dreaming,” I said and told her the whole story.
Anatomy of a Dream
Dreams are visions of the unconscious part of our brain. That is why they occur in our sleep, when we are not aware of things the way we perceive them with our senses. Dreams are not fashioned by rational thoughts and actions, and therefore we have no power to decide and to act according to that decision. We are entirely under the control of our unconscious mind.
“Even when we are deeply asleep the psyche is still actively producing dreams,” says Carl Jung. “We may not always be aware of these activities, any more than we are aware of our physiological activities, but this does not mean they are not taking place.”
According to Jung we remember only a few of our dreams, yet recent evidences suggest that we dream continuously throughout the night. There in our unconscious mind our psyche is very much alive, performing psychological work such as perceiving, remembering, thinking, feeling, wishing, willing, attending and striving – just as breathing, digesting and perspiring are physiological activities.
But can we choose psychic values? According to Jung, when a high value is placed upon an idea or feeling it means that this idea or feeling exerts considerable force in influencing and directing one’s behavior. A person may place a high value on beauty. Another on power. Or knowledge. On the other hand, there are those who place a high value on wealth, even on sex and vices. These create the themes of our dreams.
This is the realm of our unconscious mind. This is where Carl Jung parted way from his friend Sigmund Freud’s as he blazed the trail of the psychology of the unconscious, which led to applied psychology - psychiatry. We are governed not only by our conscious mind. We are actually governed in a much deeper and wider sense than we ever think. As we feed the unconscious with conscious thoughts and experiences, so the unconscious feeds the conscious mind. And this cycle goes on throughout everyone’s life, starting in the womb.
Even when we were children, the mind did not lose the information it received. They were deposited. First in the conscious, then deposited in the unconscious part of our brain, which are saved like in the computer. Now, the information is ready at hand to be retrieved. Touch the key and the info comes out on the screen – the screen of our consciousness.
How will this affect our present mind now that we are older? Jung said that the previous information serves as archetype. To better understand how this archetype works in relation to what we think at present, here is an example.
Suppose here is a person who happened to be a witness of a murder with his own eyes when he was still a small child. When he sees a suspicious person, the image of the murderer he saw many years ago flashes. It is the archetype coming alive.
Or take another example. A kindly gentleman comes and asks for a favor. We size him up in relation to people who have the characteristics this man possesses. If our experiences are agreeable, it is likely that we going to entertain this person.
The images of people, places and events are fashioned in many ways by archetypes. Unlike the computer, the mind spontaneously brings out the archetype that the brain appropriately needs at that moment. This is the basis of many of our decisions – and prejudices.
Through dreams the loaded unconscious finds relief. Information flows out in the form of dreams. Dreams may be happy or sad, fearful or pleasant. Or at intervals of moods and settings and characters, as if information keeps on flowing out. Nature has given us a safety valve to maintain our rationality and to release us from the prison walls of memory. Thus the other safety valve is forgetfulness.
Psychiatry is based on this principle. Lying on a couch the patient unloads his burden, fears, and uncertainties. He releases the pressure. Through this process he reaches a state of catharsis. He is relieved. He can now sleep. He can now work again.
People who cannot attain catharsis may suffer of psychiatric problems and may resort to drugs. Do you often wonder why people resort to drugs? Why there are more and more people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol?
Why, many people try to “escape” reality?
October 21 is a memorable day for me. By reading this story one is led to think that something supernatural controlled the event and situation. I told Cecille, “Dad and Basang came.”
“Let’s pray for them,” she answered and made the sign of the cross.
I know they did not come; I went to them. It was a special day, my special day.
I realized my fault which lays not so much in not remembering them often, but I have ceased to see them as the models that shaped my life. That was too long ago. I no longer see the lessons I learned from them that are still relevant to my present life. I do not call them anymore in the midst of my problems. I have grown up. I do not seek their intercession and guidance anymore.
It is remiss and folly of not showing true feelings to those we love, living or dead, all because “I am always busy”, and because there will be someday to make up for it. There are always reasons or alibis for failing to offer them prayers, to visit their graves, or just to make those who too, are close to them happy. Oh, there are many, many ways.
Time has changed, and change has polarized our worlds. So with values of old and of the present world. The generation gap syndrome is creeping fast, more so with my own children who too, will have a world of their own in the near future.
There in the dark I called Dad and Basang, their names clear and loud, but my voice just faded without answer, not even its own echo. It was eerie and mysterious. The unconscious was swelling and it found an exit in the dark, psychic energy released in dream. And there as I called them, I realized I was the one who is lost – and found myself again.
This is a true story. x x x
Transcribed by Abe V Rotor with the assistance of Sister Veny Rotor, from the film, Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
Now and then we look for passages we wish to reflect on. I offer these words of wisdom and compassion coming from a living saint in her time, words that flowed out from an inexhaustible spring of love in her heart and soul. In that hall, Mother Teresa held the whole world to stand still.
“I accept this award for the glory of God, in the name of the hungry and the naked, of the homeless, of the crippled, of the lepers, the blind; in the name of those who are unwanted, who are uncared for and humiliated. In their name I accept this award because it will bring understanding and love between the rich and the poor - because all of us here are proclaiming to the poor we love them, that they had been created with the loving hands of God to love and to be loved. If we turn our back to the poor we turn our back to God. At the hour of our death we shall be judged by what we have done unto the poor. God bless you.”
Let's love the poor so that the whole world prospers.
Response of Mother Teresa of Calcutta on receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace
An orchard in Amadeo, Cavite, attracts tourists and researchers on the secret of multi-storey cropping system.
Our homelot nearly equivalent to a typical subdivision residential lot lies just across the watershed of La Mesa dam, the source of water for the population of Metro Manila.
The Importance of a Garden Pond
Giant African snail is a pest, but it can be picked and destroyed; moth visits yellow flower, a common ornamental liana and shrub.
Decorative bromeliad, relative of the pineapple; staghorn fern on Royal palm, beneath is a clinging philodendron.
When one goes to the mountain there is that definite feeling that he is closer to God. With the summit under his feet he touches the clouds. The clouds open and he hopes to find the gate of Heaven.
But the gate is not there. Beyond the clouds is nothingness.
Concept of the Tower of Babel by artists and historians (Wiki, Internet)
We come to think whatever happened to the Tower of Babel! And what happened to the twin towers of the World Trade Center bombing? Is history repeating itself? Will man ever learn?
By the time you will have time to read this message you shall have settled down at the retreat house on Mount St. Paul. You will not find, of course, the gate of Heaven, figuratively speaking.
But there on this solemn piece of Eden you will be surrounded by towering pine trees and honored by bouquets of flowers bathed with morning sun and dewdrops that heighten the ambiance of adoration and faith as words of praise and wisdom will fill the hall. Here you will be enveloped by security and peace.
The twin towers of the World Trade Center, before and after the attack on September 11, 2001
While the outside world grinds cruel and chaotic. It is the world you leave behind for the time being. By being detached you may find a better vantage point to see the difference of perfection and imperfection.
But it is not your purpose to be critics. For one who judges is too, judged. Rather, the whole idea is to see where you are going. And it is clear: it is towards the way to perfection even if perfection itself is impossible to attain. It is to what extent you reach for it that matters most. It is a struggle, and a long and painful one at that.
Some would say, all this is rhetorics. They may be right, for this world has had too much of this already. And this may be another one from a certain Bob Rowland. It goes like this.
"I was hungry, and you formed a human rights club to discuss the politics of my anger, thank you;
I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to your chapel in the cellar,
Dr Abe V Rotor
The Philippines is the only Roman Catholic country in Asia, a heritage from Renaissance Europe from the 15th century onward to postmodern times. Catholicism was deeply ingrained during the 400-year Spanish colonization. Today as a basic right and freedom, many Filipinos particularly among the young, find other religions and sects inviting and attractive - cults notwithstanding.
In 1795, it was the initiation of the seat of municipality and the church and Bo. Tuanong became San Vicente de Ferrer. Don Pedro de Leon was the first parish priest and he was believed as the initiator of the construction of the Church of San Vicente.
St Vincent Ferrer, patron saint of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
For many years the church assumed this color and color design
Ash gray color of facade - formal but gloomy. Photo on a clear day.
Photo below shows contrast: color turns dark gray with bluish hue.
He is renowned for “building” the Church through missionary efforts, prayer, and time spent preaching, teaching, advising, and taking confessions. St. Vincent Ferrer is mostly depicted with wings. The reason was because a number of people have seen him assume wings and fly off to a suffering person while preaching.
He preached often on the Final Judgment of Christ, earning him the nickname “Angel of the Apocalypse” and instilling a holy fear of God and a desire for repentance among his listeners. As Father Vincent traveled, hordes of people traveled with him, doing penance along the way. (Internet) ~
"We are not alone. We may be of different races, but God has placed us so that we journey on the same path." - Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans
This is Manang Madre to us. We knew how good and courageous she was even at a very early age. She would warn us of approaching Japanese soldiers, and lead us into an underground hideout, hushing us into complete silence. Like a sentinel she knew when it was safe to go out and resume our chores and play. We would have known more fear and uncertainty were it not for her assuring company.
There was this incident just after the war that Manang Madre risked her life in saving my sister and brother who were trapped in a live charcoal pit. This is the dugout stove chamber used in boiling sugarcane juice to become muscovado or red sugar. It was a miracle, Dad and the people who came to the rescue afterward, said.
Manang Madre remained our elder playmate and guardian of sort. Mother died at the onset of the war, so that having Manang Madre around filled a vacuum in us. Dad always reminded us to be good to her.
There was a time Manang Madre invited us to see her glass aquarium. There beside the window, the morning sun cast a prism on the green Hydrilla plants with numerous bubbles forming and clinging on their leaves. One by one the bubbles rose and popped daintily. A dozen colorful fish gleefully played in the sunbeam. This indeed made a lasting impression in me to become a biologist.
In college I devised an exercise for my students to make a natural home aquarium without artificial gadgets. It was patterned after Manang Madre's aquarium.
It was peacetime. Things were going back to normal. Wounds have become scars, so people said. Children went back to school.
Manang Madre soon entered the convent without our knowledge. But she wrote often, sent us cards, istampita and religious medals.
It was many years after when I saw Manang Madre in the former Vigil House at St. Paul University Quezon City campus. She had retired and was wearing an implanted heart pacer. I too, had retired from government service and was teaching part time in that school.
In spite of her conditions she helped me build the school museum with her collection of stamps. She was a a philatelist. She helped me in the eco-sanctuary, the botanical garden of the school. She was a gardener. So with the school's outreach program in Barangay Valencia. She taught for many years children and adults alike. Why don't we map our family tree? I asked. She had indeed a very good memory to the third generation and fourth consanguinity.
The last time I saw her was two years ago at the new Vigil House at Taytay, Rizal. I was attending the annual school retreat. It was a bright morning. We were walking among the flowers that lined a big fountain pond fronting the modern edifice.
Manang Madre and two other religious sisters formed a triumvirate in the family. They all belonged to St. Paul of Chartres congregation.
I remember the last part of The Last of the Mohicans. To quote:
"We are not alone. We may be of different races, but God has placed us so that we journey on the same path."
Sister Madre and her kind, assure us that we are not alone. They are the bridge of unity, ages and generations. They have placed us in that same journey, leading us all on the same path to God." ~
There was no electricity then, and therefore there were no motorized air pumps and filters, aquarium lights, oxygen generators, and the like, which we use in aquariums today. Yet the aquarium in those days was beautiful in its own natural way, and it was simple and easy to maintain.
Characteristics of a Natural Aquarium
Basic microscopy for kids. Bubbles of Oxygen, by-product of photosynthesis cling on the alga before they are dissolved in water for the use of fish, or released into the atmosphere for humans and animals.
Kids in the neighborhood observe how guppies devour mosquito wrigglers, a lesson in controlling diseases carried by mosquitoes without use of harmful and expensive chemicals. Common house mosquito, Culex, lays eggs on water which hatch into wrigglers.
Microscopic community nestles on the alga. It is made up of protists living in a complex interrelationship, and interaction of energy and matter, in dynamic balance.
Crucified Christ, St. Paul University QC Garden. Even without caption there are photographs such as this that are filled with emotion - feelings and moods often associated with personal experience. We often observe this scene during Holy Week. Real feelings however are extremely difficult to capture in photograph and in words. Great skill is needed to be able to succeed.
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I am a modern day Prodigal Son. I spent fifty long years searching and searching for a place I may call my own in the whole wide world. Yes, fifty long years of my youth and in old age – twice longer the fiction character Rip van Winkle did sleep – and now I am back to the portals of my hometown, to the waiting arms of my father.
Ancestral home of the author in San Vicente IS
Now I am home, my father, my hometown. I do only wish for comfort. Thank you for you have taught me and instilled in me the spirit of virtue and fortitude. Thank you for making me a Vincentian.~
St Vincent Ferrer - Confessor, Angel of the Last Judgment Confessor, Angel of the Last Judgment
Born 23 January 1350(1350-01-23)
Valencia, Kingdom of Valencia
Died 5 April 1419(1419-04-05) (aged 69)
Vannes, Brittany
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion
Canonized 3 June 1455, Rome by Pope Calixtus III
Major shrine Vannes Cathedral
Feast 5 April
Attributes pulpit; cardinal's hat; trumpet; captives; Bible
Patronage builders, construction workers, plumbers
Vincent was the second son of William Ferrer (an English immigrant to Spain) and his wife, Constantia Miguel. Legends surround his birth.
He would fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and he loved the Passion of Christ very much. He would help the poor and distribute many alms to them. Vincent decided to join the Dominicans when his father gave him a choice whether to enter into secular, ecclesiastical, or a religious state.
Ferrer entered the Dominican Order at the age of eighteen and studied philosophy and theology. He prayed and practiced penance. For a period of three years, he read solely Sacred Scripture, and eventually committed it to memory. He published a treatise on Dialectic Suppositions after his solemn profession. He eventually became a Master of Sacred Theology and was commissioned to deliver lectures on philosophy. He was then sent to Barcelona and eventually to the University of Lleida, where he earned his doctorate in theology.
Vincent later claimed that the Great Schism had such a depressing effect on his mind that it caused him to be seriously ill at the age of forty. He claimed that God healed him and instructed him to go out and convert many. For twenty-one years he was said to have traveled to Aragon, Castile, Switzerland, France, Italy, England, Ireland, and Scotland, preaching the Gospel and converting many. Many biographers believe that he was endowed with the gift of tongues, as he could speak only Catalan.
Vincent is said to be responsible for the conversion of many Jews to Catholicism. One of his converts, a former rabbi by the name of Solomon ha-Levi, went on to become Bishop of Cartagena and later Archbishop of Burgos. Vincent is noted to have contributed to anti-Semitism in Spain, as violence accompanied his visits to towns that had Jewish communities. One of Vincent's achievement was in converting a synagogue in Toledo, Spain into the church of Santa MarÃa la Blanca.
Vincent was very loyal to the Avignonese Pope Benedict XIII, better known as "Papa Luna" in Castile and Aragon, remained in steadfast loyalty to him, and believed that Benedict XIII was the true Pope. Vincent died on 5 April 1419 at Vannes in Brittany, and was buried in Vannes Cathedral. He was canonized by Pope Calixtus III on 3 June 1455. His feast day is celebrated on 5 April. The Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer, a Pontifical religious institute, is named after him.~ (Wikipedia)
1. "Nature, Nature on the Wall, A Beautiful Life to Recall.”
In loving memory of the late Veneranda V Rotor, ofs
“Humans love the art of make-believe,Scenic Nature painted on the wall,Once empty and forgotten now alive,Bringing in friends to the call.” - avr
Sor Veny V Rotor and Ms Helen I Nolasco (in red) pose before a mural
painted by the author. Sor Veny was the author's sister, the eldest of
three siblings of the late Matias Rotor and Enriqueta Valdez..
“Sitting on the rock, reaching for the sky,All day if you wish with no one asking why.”
“Grace is something in the spirit to share,That grows the more we love and care.”
Sor Veny left, led house guest on a short walk at the botanical garden.
What makes a house green
other than the color green;but a verdant garden scenehappy and healthy to live in.
Sor Veny (foreground) led a short prayer before the
Resurrection at her family's residence,
Apo ResureccionHow many times do we die and live again?When we fall down and rise,we fail and succeed,when we are blind and see,deaf and hear,sin and atone,hate and love,love and care,ad infinitum;the message of the Resurrection.
“Oh, heart on the wall,Do you still feel?Do you still throb,The throb of love?Ivy, ivy on the wall,Don’t hide a living heart.”
House guest Ms Helen Nolasco poses before
a painting of the author inspired by Grieg's Morning.
“Heavenly rays above your head, an experience full,Enlightening to the heart and soul;Listen to a voice once on Damascus Road to Saul,Shh… just listen, listen to His call.” - avr
Stairway connects art gallery and library.
Stairway connectsthe past and the present,man and his Creator,events current and future,known and unknownnow and hereafter.
Sor Veny Rotor (right) explained to house guest some modern
paintings at the gallery, among them are her works.
Modern artImpressionism to surrealism,Dali, Matisse, Picasso to blame;Avant-garde and graffiti, the same;Please roll back to realism.
Sor Veny V Rotor and Ms Helen I Nolasco (in red), house guest 2020Living with Nature Center Rotor ResidenceSan Vicente Ilocos Sur ~
2. Easter Blessing from "Apo Resurreccion"
Dr Abe V Rotor
We wish to ask in prayer the blessings of our Apo Resurreccion to all our visitors to the Living with Nature Center (San Vicente, Ilocos Sur), blog members, followers and viewers (avrotor.blogspot.com), radio listeners , and to all whose lives they touch in turn, and to the management of Google (Blog), and TATAKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University 87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, and former Paaralang Bayan sa H impapawid (People's School on Air) 735AM Radyo ng Bayan.
Nothing has changed in the Apo except his linen and some signs of getting old, so to speak. The icon is made of one-piece wood carved faithfully from head to foot. No one can tell in my generation and that of my dad's who the model was. No explanation can be offered on how the holy icon transformed beyond the limits of any mortal model.
San Vicente is traditionally famous for furniture and icon saints. It is the Paete of the north, as often compared; it is a local seat of Renaissance art. The town takes pride with a distinction of producing professionals, leading farmers, artisans, and leaders, notwithstanding, in practically all fields of human endeavor. The ratio of professionals per one thousand population is one of the highest in the country, and in fact, in the world. ~
2. Apo Resurreccion: “Gaze at life in Me the second time”
Prayer is a universal element of Human Nature. It comes in many ways irrespective of creed and culture. It is ingrained in the rationality of the human being, emanating from a deep source which we cannot fully grasp. It is by believing in something beyond our comprehension that undermines our ignorance, arguably but true, as a unifying factor of humanity.
"Gaze at life in Me the second time,whatever the past had been;a new beginning is what matters now,most beautiful you’ve never seen."- avr
"Touch Me now that I am risen,with your mind, heart and soul,for you have chosen the pathof life with Heaven its goal."- avr
"Redeemer of our postmodern world,we come to You, our Recourseto find peace and accordon life’s rugged course."- avr
“Few people seem to realize that the resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone to a worldview that provides the perspective to all of life.” - Josh McDowell
Arthur Schopenhauer: “Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every coming together again a foretaste of the resurrection.”
Basil C. Hume:
“The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake.”
“The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake.”
Author's Note: Apo Resurreccion (Ilk) is a wooden icon of the resurrected Christ which has withstood the ravages of typhoons, earthquakes and the atrocities of the Second World War at the author's family residence. Prayers are offered by quests who visit the place, which is gradually being developed into a Living with Nature Center cum Botanical Garden, in San Vicente Ilocos Sur. Articles linked with the features of the Center can be sourced out in this Blog avrotor.blogspot.com
3. Enigmatic Himbaba-o or Alukon
What comes to mind painting or drawing a culinary subject, such as the alukon tree standing in a thicket on a hillside away from town? Imagine being a Survivor searching for any available food in the wild. Or Henry David Thoreau living alone by the Walden Pond. (And writing a treatise of man and society of this title)
It's a delicacy of the Ilocanos - alukonto the Tagalogs in Quezon - himbaba-oIt comes in other names in other places;its flowers cooked into diningding or stew,with kamote to thicken its soup - buridibud,and topped with broiled tilapia or hito. ~
4. Anatomy of a Dream
It is remiss and folly of not showing true feelings to those we love, living or dead, all because “I am always busy”, and because there will be someday to make up for it. There are always reasons or alibis for failing to offer them prayers, to visit their graves, or just to make those who too, are close to them happy. Oh, there are many, many ways.
This is a true story.
I went to bed very tired. For the whole day before my birthday I put on extra effort to finalize the manuscript of my forthcoming book which I was going to submit the following Monday. The title is Light from the Old Arch, a compilation of essays I wrote through the years.
Dad and my sister Veny
It was just past 10 in the evening and Cecille, my wife, who had gone to bed ahead of me stirred. “I’ll just check what we will have for breakfast. I’ll be back,” she said as I stretched my aching back and tired brain and apparently fell asleep.
Soon I found myself in complete darkness. I could not trace my way to switch on the lights and after several attempts locating it on the wall and under curtain, an inexplicable fear crept, a fear I had never experienced before. I was in a strange domain yet it had the features of my home. There was total darkness, total silence.
Dad died in 1981 at the age of 78. He died here in our residence at Lagro after battling with the complications of diabetes. We buried him at Himlayang Pilipino. Our oldest son, Pao who died at three, soon joined him in the same grave two years after.
Dad was deeply affected by my Mama’s death during the Second World War. My sister Veny was four then, and my brother Eugene was three. Dad suffered much - emotionally and physically - even after the four years of Japanese occupation. The war left our family and the country in ruins.
We continued to live in San Vicente which is adjacent to Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur. Dad confessed when we were already big that he feared so much we would not make it through in life. I know how extremely difficult it was even if dad owned farmlands and a neo-colonial house which my grandparents built in 1900. The three of us children knew little of the joys of childhood. My only uncle, Uncle Leo left dad to raised his own family in Pangasinan. He seldom visited us and spent time in our big house where he, like my dad, and their four siblings were born. Uncle Leo was the eldest and dad was the youngest. The rest of their siblings died at a very early age of smallpox which killed many people in Ilocos.
Basang my auntie and yaya took care of me from the time my mother died. I was less than two years old then. She never left us even when I came to Manila for my studies. She died three years after dad had gone. Manang Veny called me to come home when Basang died. We buried her in the town cemetery close to our departed relatives. Just before she died she gave me an antique narra aparador which I now use in keeping my personal things. In our dialect, she said, “This is the only thing I can give you.”
“You have given me everything,” I said.
Going back to the incident of October 21, I called dad three times, then called Basang once. It was a call apparently in fear. I felt helpless and lost. I froze. I could not move. I could not shout. And when I knew no help would come, I struggled. I succeeded in moving my fingers, my toes, until I was free.
Cecille had returned to our bedroom. “Why, you are pale and perspiring? What happened?" she asked, perplexed. She fetched me a glass of water.
“Was I shouting?” I asked automatically. “No,” she said calmly.
“I was dreaming,” I said and told her the whole story.
Anatomy of a Dream
Dreams are visions of the unconscious part of our brain. That is why they occur in our sleep, when we are not aware of things the way we perceive them with our senses. Dreams are not fashioned by rational thoughts and actions, and therefore we have no power to decide and to act according to that decision. We are entirely under the control of our unconscious mind.
“Even when we are deeply asleep the psyche is still actively producing dreams,” says Carl Jung. “We may not always be aware of these activities, any more than we are aware of our physiological activities, but this does not mean they are not taking place.”
According to Jung we remember only a few of our dreams, yet recent evidences suggest that we dream continuously throughout the night. There in our unconscious mind our psyche is very much alive, performing psychological work such as perceiving, remembering, thinking, feeling, wishing, willing, attending and striving – just as breathing, digesting and perspiring are physiological activities.
But can we choose psychic values? According to Jung, when a high value is placed upon an idea or feeling it means that this idea or feeling exerts considerable force in influencing and directing one’s behavior. A person may place a high value on beauty. Another on power. Or knowledge. On the other hand, there are those who place a high value on wealth, even on sex and vices. These create the themes of our dreams.
This is the realm of our unconscious mind. This is where Carl Jung parted way from his friend Sigmund Freud’s as he blazed the trail of the psychology of the unconscious, which led to applied psychology - psychiatry. We are governed not only by our conscious mind. We are actually governed in a much deeper and wider sense than we ever think. As we feed the unconscious with conscious thoughts and experiences, so the unconscious feeds the conscious mind. And this cycle goes on throughout everyone’s life, starting in the womb.
Even when we were children, the mind did not lose the information it received. They were deposited. First in the conscious, then deposited in the unconscious part of our brain, which are saved like in the computer. Now, the information is ready at hand to be retrieved. Touch the key and the info comes out on the screen – the screen of our consciousness.
How will this affect our present mind now that we are older? Jung said that the previous information serves as archetype. To better understand how this archetype works in relation to what we think at present, here is an example.
Suppose here is a person who happened to be a witness of a murder with his own eyes when he was still a small child. When he sees a suspicious person, the image of the murderer he saw many years ago flashes. It is the archetype coming alive.
Or take another example. A kindly gentleman comes and asks for a favor. We size him up in relation to people who have the characteristics this man possesses. If our experiences are agreeable, it is likely that we going to entertain this person.
The images of people, places and events are fashioned in many ways by archetypes. Unlike the computer, the mind spontaneously brings out the archetype that the brain appropriately needs at that moment. This is the basis of many of our decisions – and prejudices.
Through dreams the loaded unconscious finds relief. Information flows out in the form of dreams. Dreams may be happy or sad, fearful or pleasant. Or at intervals of moods and settings and characters, as if information keeps on flowing out. Nature has given us a safety valve to maintain our rationality and to release us from the prison walls of memory. Thus the other safety valve is forgetfulness.
Psychiatry is based on this principle. Lying on a couch the patient unloads his burden, fears, and uncertainties. He releases the pressure. Through this process he reaches a state of catharsis. He is relieved. He can now sleep. He can now work again.
People who cannot attain catharsis may suffer of psychiatric problems and may resort to drugs. Do you often wonder why people resort to drugs? Why there are more and more people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol?
Why, many people try to “escape” reality?
October 21 is a memorable day for me. By reading this story one is led to think that something supernatural controlled the event and situation. I told Cecille, “Dad and Basang came.”
“Let’s pray for them,” she answered and made the sign of the cross.
I know they did not come; I went to them. It was a special day, my special day.
I realized my fault which lays not so much in not remembering them often, but I have ceased to see them as the models that shaped my life. That was too long ago. I no longer see the lessons I learned from them that are still relevant to my present life. I do not call them anymore in the midst of my problems. I have grown up. I do not seek their intercession and guidance anymore.
It is remiss and folly of not showing true feelings to those we love, living or dead, all because “I am always busy”, and because there will be someday to make up for it. There are always reasons or alibis for failing to offer them prayers, to visit their graves, or just to make those who too, are close to them happy. Oh, there are many, many ways.
Time has changed, and change has polarized our worlds. So with values of old and of the present world. The generation gap syndrome is creeping fast, more so with my own children who too, will have a world of their own in the near future.
There in the dark I called Dad and Basang, their names clear and loud, but my voice just faded without answer, not even its own echo. It was eerie and mysterious. The unconscious was swelling and it found an exit in the dark, psychic energy released in dream. And there as I called them, I realized I was the one who is lost – and found myself again.
This is a true story. x x x
5. Mother Teresa's Response on Receiving the Nobel Prize
for Peace
Transcribed by Abe V Rotor with the assistance of Sister Veny Rotor, from the film, Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
Now and then we look for passages we wish to reflect on. I offer these words of wisdom and compassion coming from a living saint in her time, words that flowed out from an inexhaustible spring of love in her heart and soul. In that hall, Mother Teresa held the whole world to stand still.
“I accept this award for the glory of God, in the name of the hungry and the naked, of the homeless, of the crippled, of the lepers, the blind; in the name of those who are unwanted, who are uncared for and humiliated. In their name I accept this award because it will bring understanding and love between the rich and the poor - because all of us here are proclaiming to the poor we love them, that they had been created with the loving hands of God to love and to be loved. If we turn our back to the poor we turn our back to God. At the hour of our death we shall be judged by what we have done unto the poor. God bless you.”
Let's love the poor so that the whole world prospers.
Response of Mother Teresa of Calcutta on receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace
Part 6 - Backyard Garden as Ecological Sanctuary
Rambutan grows on a backyard at Quezon City
Honey bee frequently visit flowering plants; spiders are residents and trap insects for food.
Everyday birds from the watershed come to our garden. They perch on the trees singing melodious songs for hours. They are a gentle alarm clock and at sunset draw out the tension of the day. For some 25 years now with the children spending their childhood and adolescence, memories come spontaneously alive at nature’s presence. We look for nature, and nature comes to you, too. We can make the backyard a sanctuary of living things. It becomes a corner of Eden so to speak, in the inner eyes of the English poet John Milton, in the soul searching music of Beethoven, and in the quasi-spiritual reverence for life of John Muir and Aldo Leopold.
What makes an ecological garden? Here are some guidelines.
Let nature do the arranging of the plants – their kinds, growing habits, seasonal occurrence, and niches. This principle must prevail over our plan to make the garden Italian or Japanese in which case it is man who dictates the plan of the garden.
The garden serves three important functions.
• Cooling effect. A 10-year old acacia tree for example, has the capacity to provide the cooling power of ten 10Hp air conditioning units. Trees make a huge umbrella that protects us from heat stroke.
• Windbreak. Trees, especially if planted in group or rows, and in combination of other plants, can withstand the strength of strong wind.
• Sound barrier. Foliage serves as acoustic, absorbing echoes, and filtering unwanted sound waves, and resonating the good ones like in an amphitheater.
• Dust filter. Plants eliminate particles in the air with their leaves trapping and moistening them with transpired water, thus sending them back to the soil.
• Radiation filter. Plants serve as buffer against ultraviolet rays as well as cosmic rays. So with other forms of radiation, visible and invisible, that are harmful to health and environment.
• Color filter. Plants act like a giant prism, but unlike the lens, colors are pooled into a common color - green – the coolest of all colors, neutral and soothing to the eyes and other senses.
A garden is not a garden if it does not smell like one. Ilang-ilang exudes sweet scent throughout the year. It is sweetest in early morning and evening, and a soft breeze spreads the scent in the neighborhood. The best scents in the garden come from Eucalyptus, binunga (samat), pandan mabango, sweet basil, roses, rosal, dama de noche, and of course, sampaguita.
One day I found leisure watching a spider span a huge web. It is a giant spider called Haring Gagamba working of a tapestry. I remember the story of the Irish hero, Robert The Bruce, watch a spider making a web. The spider failed in several attempts to construct the primary frame. It gave the downhearted hero the heart to win back the crown.
In the garden, there are unceasing battles between and among living things. . Birds eat on caterpillar, frogs have their fill on flies, dragonflies hover and devour flying gnats, spiders entrap grasshoppers, preying mantis prey on unwary insects. I have observed hantik or green tree ants (Oecepalla smaragdina) build nest in the upper branches of talisay. Their colony is closely knit and their nest is an architectural wonder. The green leaves are sewed together by the workers stroking the larvae to secrete a sticky substance that dries like paper. The larva is actually carried by an adult like a tube of epoxy as other workers hold the leaves to be sewed together. These ants attack as an army that even a caterpillar is subdued in an instant and sooner or later cut into pieces which the ants carry to their nest to feed the colony.
Yet in the same spot ants and termites live together. It is a demonstration on how two different niches work, bounded by biological rules. The ant colony stays above ground to up the foliage, while the termites in an anthill called punso. Yes, the termites – they are an engineering genius. They build their mound at the foot of the big talisay tree – then, when dug out, move to another place overnight, and when we think they are no longer there, it is likely that they are virtually sleeping with us inside the house. And true, we discovered a colony of termite in an apparador, and another in a roof beam. It is here that man turn against a destructive organism.
Plants kill other plants to maintain their boundaries. They abort germinating seeds even of their kind that become threat to their existence. Allelopathy is a phenomenon plants harm one another, in order to enhance success in competition for sunlight, nutrients, water and space. Plants secrete chemicals in their roots, stems, and leaves. To illustrate, we have a ten-year old malunggay that is slowly being choked by coconut and binuga tree (Macaranga tenarius). All the cultivars of mayana I planted were lost, due to inter competition, and then they were overrun by carabao grass. Ube (Dioscorea alata) takes advantage with its viny habit virtually leaping out into space, its leaves covering much of the trees and wall, then after rainy season it all disappears leaving but a five-kilo tuber ensconced in the soft earth and mulch.
But wonder what those plants are clinging on the trunk of trees. These are epiphytes, a relationship called commensalism. The epiphytes benefit from their tree host. They gain foothold and elevation to reach sunlight without harming their host. We have a talisay tree that carries on its trunk a cluster of native orchid that blooms with a dangling inflorescence appearing like giant leis.
Lest a garden is misunderstood as purely aesthetic and ecological, one coconut tree can provide an ample supply of walis tingting, sweets, coconut milk (gata), husk for the orchids, firewood, and buko, but we love this tree of life most whenever birds build their nest on top and unfold a primitive sense of family love and care.
At night bats come and gather the ripe fleshy fruits of talisay (Terminalia catappa), and would accidentally drop a fruit or two hitting the roof of our house, and if we are not aware of the cause, we would attribute it to a prankster – or a spirit who wants to disturb our sleep.
Do you believe in spontaneoius generation? Saluyot, amaranth, kamkamote, Portulaca – these and other wild growing vegetables pop out of the ground following the first heavy rains in May, and believe me, after two weeks they are ready for the kitchen. Their succulent leaves and stems are rich in vitamins and minerals. But we do not gather the plants entirely; we simply trim down the leaves leaving the plant to reach maturity. How these wild species survive the dry months is a proof of their sturdiness which guided their successful evolution.
How high can a tree reach? Well, our ilang-ilang grew and grew and grew, and then one day a strong wind decapitated it. Then the upper branches dried up one by one until the tree has but a bunch of low branches. We know that there is always limit to growth, and the very same factors that favored it also created its liabilities. I am reminded of the syndrome of bigness whether it be an animal or tree or business. We call this Dinosaur Syndrome.
The Importance of a Garden Pond
Garden pond provides water and natural fertilizer, and adds coolness
to the surrounding. Catfish or hito, tilapia, pako, and aquarium fish are raised here.
Are you aware that having a pond to complement your garden is beneficial for you and members of your family? This is so because a pond represents an ecosystem. As such it has the basic features of a functioning ecological unit.
The pond is a field laboratory for microbiology. Plankton organisms are revealed under the microscope. In their diversity, a whole new world unfolds- a world man did not know before Anton van Leewenhoek introduced the science of microscopy sometime in the 17th century.
There are monerans and protists, the world’s oldest - yet simplest - organisms. It is a wonder why these organisms did not evolve and develop into complex organisms like the plants and animals we know - and why they are ensconced in a confined environment such as a pond.
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The microcosm of the ocean is the pond; it is like “seeing the world in a grain of sand.” And for the eons of time and generations these organisms have passed through, it is like “holding eternity in the palm of the hand.” Thus the pond is the representation of our biological world, manifesting how little we know of God’s immense wisdom contained in a drop of water that teems with myriads of micro-organisms.
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Anyone who takes time to sit by the pond could lose his thoughts in the larger realm of nature and the countryside. Cattail and umbrella plants rise among the floating water lilies, whose pink to purple flowers break the monotony of the pondscape. But the centerpiece of the pond is a community of white-flowered lotus or purple flowered Nymphaea..
From the deep green water, one may be surprised to see a school of colorful carp and tilapia, stirring at the slightest hint of company and food. Their graceful movement creates gentle waves and soft lapping sounds against the shore line. To an observant eye, small fish like Poecilia and rainbow fish form small schools that inhabit the edges of the pond and its tiny islets and coves formed by aquatic plants and stone. These tiny fish are always mindful about staying out of the path of their large counterpart. Other than small insects that fall into the water, they subsist on the latter’s morsels.
At the bottom of the pond lies the harmless, independent janitor fish known for their role of eating crust of algae and scum. That is why they are important in keeping aquariums and ponds clean. In the process, they convert organic matter into detritus, the pond’s natural fertilizer, and are the source of sediments that accumulate and become a foothold of aquatic plants. Seldom to these helpful creatures rise to the surface, but if you want to see these shy, docile fish, peer into the water on a clear day when the sun is directly above, and you will find them lying prostrate at the bottom, like sunken ship on a sea floor.
The pond relieves tension. When you need to relax, observe the turtles basking in the morning sun, stretching their neck and appendages. Or watch those cooling off on a hot day, their nostrils and carapace protruding out of the water. Nearby, a toad might patiently sit on a leaf pad, sheepishly eyeing an unwary insect for its next meal, its long tongue coiled like spring, ready to strike like lasso. And zap - poor fly has become a meal - and again, zap, zap.
Bees buzz from flowers to flower, while dragonflies - red, green and brown - hover prettily above the water as they search for a suitable place to lay eggs that will hatch into aquatic nymphs that feed on mosquito wrigglers and Daphnia.
Strung on leaves and stalks are spider webs glistening with dewdrops. These resemble strings of diamonds that will soon turn into nearly invisible death traps for the hoppers, mosquitoes and flies that stray into them. Frogs are permanent residents in a small pond, singing at the onset of rain and exchange love calls throughout the breeding season. They remain quiet in summer as they aestivate and wait for the rains to come again.
Strung on leaves and stalks are spider webs glistening with dewdrops. These resemble strings of diamonds that will soon turn into nearly invisible death traps for the hoppers, mosquitoes and flies that stray into them. Frogs are permanent residents in a small pond, singing at the onset of rain and exchange love calls throughout the breeding season. They remain quiet in summer as they aestivate and wait for the rains to come again.
Kataba or canal fish (Poecillia) thrives without any care, as long as there is water, living on plankton and insects that fall into the pond or attracted by a nearby vigil light. Whenever there is stagnant pools around, I put a pair of these mosquito-eating fish and that solves the possibility of malaria or dengue to occur in our the place. Our pond serves as kataba nursery of sort; we give relatives, friends and students who wish to grow kataba in their own aquarium or pond.
The green water in the pond is a good hunting ground for microscopic flora and fauna. With a microscope on hand I have discovered a lot of planktons, many of which are unfamiliar. The green color is made up of millions of one-celled green algae which constitute the pasture of zooplankton organisms. They are the autotrophs, the base of the food pyramid in a pond ecosystem.
Would a backyard fill in the vacuum created by our wanton destruction of natural resources, the rape of our forests, the draining of swamps, the conversion of mangrove to fisheries? Or the gross negligence in keeping our lakes and rivers full and clean – or at least for having nature to take care of them? I doubt. But the little Eden each one of us make in our backyards would collectively recreate little by little that bigger Paradise we lost, when and to what extent, we can only surmise and struggle with will and resolve. It is our little contribution in regaining the Lost Paradise. xxx
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| Author conducts field lecture with his class in biology at the UST Graduate School. |
Grotto is a common feature of a Filipino garden.
Trivia: Do you believe in the Doctrine of Signatures? By examining the physical characteristics of plants we can read how nature intended them to be used. This is not true.
This is a belief called Doctrine of Signatures, which was popular during the Middle Ages. Liverworts (Riccia and Marchantia) which resemble the shape of liver are effective for liver diseases. The shapes of eggplant and avocado suggest fertility and aphrodisiac value. Apple and mango resemble the heart and are therefore good when it comes to matters of love. Kidney beans are good for the kidney, but the truth is that it has high uric acid content. The garlic plant has a hollow stem so that it would be of benefit in afflictions of the windpipe, hence used in all types of respiratory disorders such as cough, colds, catarrh, asthma and bronchial problems. Physical appearance has nothing to do with the curative powers of plants, or animals for that matter. It is true that garlic is an effective respiratory cure, but it is its active ingredients that are responsible for it. ~
Part 7. A Retreat Message:
Touch the clouds with the hope to find Heaven
But the gate is not there. Beyond the clouds is nothingness.
Concept of the Tower of Babel by artists and historians (Wiki, Internet)
We come to think whatever happened to the Tower of Babel! And what happened to the twin towers of the World Trade Center bombing? Is history repeating itself? Will man ever learn?
By the time you will have time to read this message you shall have settled down at the retreat house on Mount St. Paul. You will not find, of course, the gate of Heaven, figuratively speaking.
But there on this solemn piece of Eden you will be surrounded by towering pine trees and honored by bouquets of flowers bathed with morning sun and dewdrops that heighten the ambiance of adoration and faith as words of praise and wisdom will fill the hall. Here you will be enveloped by security and peace.
The twin towers of the World Trade Center, before and after the attack on September 11, 2001
While the outside world grinds cruel and chaotic. It is the world you leave behind for the time being. By being detached you may find a better vantage point to see the difference of perfection and imperfection.
But it is not your purpose to be critics. For one who judges is too, judged. Rather, the whole idea is to see where you are going. And it is clear: it is towards the way to perfection even if perfection itself is impossible to attain. It is to what extent you reach for it that matters most. It is a struggle, and a long and painful one at that.
Some would say, all this is rhetorics. They may be right, for this world has had too much of this already. And this may be another one from a certain Bob Rowland. It goes like this.
"I was hungry, and you formed a human rights club to discuss the politics of my anger, thank you;
I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to your chapel in the cellar,
and prayed for my release;
I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my nakedness;
I was homeless, and you preached to me about my home in heaven;
I was lonely, and you left me alone to attend to your Sunday obligation;
You seem so holy, so close to God, but I am still very hungry, lonely
I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my nakedness;
I was homeless, and you preached to me about my home in heaven;
I was lonely, and you left me alone to attend to your Sunday obligation;
You seem so holy, so close to God, but I am still very hungry, lonely
and homeless."
The Tower of Babel fell. Do did the Twin Towers.
It is my intention to stimulate you to think deeply. Maybe it is best to start by asking. "How good is good enough?" before you embark on separating the grains from the chaff, so to speak, You know that well-filled grains don't go easily with the chaff but in reality they do.
When you have reached this point, I wish you have time to ponder on these verses.
Rich in the pocket, least in his heart
his life did make, is a vulture's art.
Fewer are the grains in number
when the tillers fell into slumber.
The weak makes up for its frailty
in number and simplicity.
Cream on top, whatever's inside,
make way for the hero and his bride.
Sinner or saint, saint or sinner;
never, never a cycle over;
no matter what and where
that the past is redeemed - or never.
If there is a fourth king
other than the first three;
make me a fifth being
that I'll suffer for Thee.
God is everywhere yet discreet
in many ways beyond our pain,
in our sleep or with busy feet
in far away places on the plain.
"Come, come to me in silence or in song, that I may hear you better among the throng."
Good luck to you all and may you be blessed with God's grace in your contemplative moment.
NOTE: The author is eager to hear any feedback from the retreatants to whom this message was dedicated some 14 years ago.
The Tower of Babel fell. Do did the Twin Towers.
It is my intention to stimulate you to think deeply. Maybe it is best to start by asking. "How good is good enough?" before you embark on separating the grains from the chaff, so to speak, You know that well-filled grains don't go easily with the chaff but in reality they do.
When you have reached this point, I wish you have time to ponder on these verses.
Rich in the pocket, least in his heart
his life did make, is a vulture's art.
Fewer are the grains in number
when the tillers fell into slumber.
The weak makes up for its frailty
in number and simplicity.
Cream on top, whatever's inside,
make way for the hero and his bride.
Sinner or saint, saint or sinner;
never, never a cycle over;
no matter what and where
that the past is redeemed - or never.
If there is a fourth king
other than the first three;
make me a fifth being
that I'll suffer for Thee.
God is everywhere yet discreet
in many ways beyond our pain,
in our sleep or with busy feet
in far away places on the plain.
"Come, come to me in silence or in song, that I may hear you better among the throng."
Good luck to you all and may you be blessed with God's grace in your contemplative moment.
NOTE: The author is eager to hear any feedback from the retreatants to whom this message was dedicated some 14 years ago.
Part 8 . Lent and Easter: Tradition and Reformation
Pope Francis' Lenten Message:
Laudato si' (Praise Be to You) has the subtitle "on care for our common home." In it, the pope critiques consumerism and irresponsible development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all people of the world to take "swift and unified global action."
The Philippines is the only Roman Catholic country in Asia, a heritage from Renaissance Europe from the 15th century onward to postmodern times. Catholicism was deeply ingrained during the 400-year Spanish colonization. Today as a basic right and freedom, many Filipinos particularly among the young, find other religions and sects inviting and attractive - cults notwithstanding.
On the other hand, there has been a noted growing passivity among the faithful, so too, within the church organization itself, arguably on the relevance of the church towards current and forthcoming issues, among them the wanton destruction of nature and the environment. Degradation of the environment has become a global issue, and in response on the part of the church the Holy Father launched a second encyclical, Laudato Si'
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The Message of Pope Francis for Lent 2023 Excerpt: "Lent is a time of truth, a time to drop the masks we put on each day to appear perfect in the eyes of the world," he said, and to "reject lies and hypocrisy. Not the lies and hypocrisies of others, but our own."
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A Prayer before Christ on the Cross Dr Abe V Rotor
We ask Your Blessing and Guidance,
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Keeping with age-old tradition - a procession of holy icons in observance of Holy Week in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.
A Prayer before Christ on the CrossWe ask Your Blessing and Guidance,
this Lenten Season -
- Make us involved and determined to carry out reforms to protect us and our world from force majeure and man-induced calamities.
Selected Quotes for Reflection
"As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus' thirst...'Repent and believe' Jesus tells us. What are we to repent? Our indifference, our hardness of heart. What are we to believe? Jesus thirsts even now, in your heart and in the poor -- He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you." – St Teresa of Calcutta
"Prayer does not change the purpose of God. But prayer does change the action of God." -- Chuck Smith
“God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces of against evil …” -- E.M. Bounds
"It is difficult to travel with heavy bags and baggages. Like Jesus, let us travel light."
- Cardinal Tagle
- Make us elements of peace and unity that we may live as brothers and sisters in harmony with the environment and Nature;
- Make us catalysts of change, and an anchor against chartless and undefined destiny;
- Make us conveyors of knowledge, skill and values rolled into a holistic well-being;
- Make us healers by bringing solutions and enlightenment to human misery of all kinds;
- Make us agents of rational thoughts and decisions towards our fellowmen, and humanity as a whole;
- Make us good housekeepers of Mother Earth in accordance with her laws and order.
- Make us sentries to our family, community, starting with ourselves,to fend off wasteful, ostentatious living;
- Make us strong and determined to protect the pillars of our institutions that make an ideal society;
- Make us custodians of the environment through responsive and relevant ways compatible with traditional and contemporary means;
- Make us guardians in the way of the Parable of the Sower, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan,
- Make us realize the primordial importance of sound ecological principles and apply them to our lives and everyday living.
Strengthen our resolve and commitment as good Christians.
- to reach out for one another;
- to listen;
- to care;
- to comfort;
- to encourage one another when we fail;
- to pray for one another when we falter;
- to be strong together as one community.
- to be one in unity and harmony with Nature.
Amen
Selected Quotes for Reflection
"As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus' thirst...'Repent and believe' Jesus tells us. What are we to repent? Our indifference, our hardness of heart. What are we to believe? Jesus thirsts even now, in your heart and in the poor -- He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you." – St Teresa of Calcutta
"Prayer does not change the purpose of God. But prayer does change the action of God." -- Chuck Smith
“God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces of against evil …” -- E.M. Bounds
"It is difficult to travel with heavy bags and baggages. Like Jesus, let us travel light."
- Cardinal Tagle
Site of one of the 13 Stations of the Cross – Dr Peroma L Pacis’ Residence, San Vicente Ilocos Sur, 2019
- The Lord measures out perfection neither by the multitude nor the magnitude of our deeds, but by the manner in which we perform them.” – St. John of the Cross
- “God is not interested in your art, but your heart.” ― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
- “No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.” ― John Chrysostom
- Lent is a time to renew wherever we are in that process that I call the divine therapy. It's a time to look what our instinctual needs are, look at what the dynamics of our unconscious are. - Thomas Keating
“During these 40 days, let me put away all my pride. Let me change my heart and give up all that is not good within me. Let me love God with all that I am and all that I have.” – Genesis Grain
"Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism." -- Pope Benedict XVI
“If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish what you desire. - St Vincent Ferrer ~
- The Lord measures out perfection neither by the multitude nor the magnitude of our deeds, but by the manner in which we perform them.” – St. John of the Cross
- “God is not interested in your art, but your heart.” ― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
- “No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.” ― John Chrysostom
- Lent is a time to renew wherever we are in that process that I call the divine therapy. It's a time to look what our instinctual needs are, look at what the dynamics of our unconscious are. - Thomas Keating
“During these 40 days, let me put away all my pride. Let me change my heart and give up all that is not good within me. Let me love God with all that I am and all that I have.” – Genesis Grain
"Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism." -- Pope Benedict XVI
“If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish what you desire. - St Vincent Ferrer ~
Part 9. San Vicente Ferrer church in changing colors
through the years
Archdiocese Shrine of Nueva SegoviaDr Abe V Rotor
NOTE: April 5 is the Feast Day of San Vicente Ferrer, patron saint of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. Town fiesta celebration in held on the last Tuesday of the month - April 30, 2024. In 1795, it was the installation of the seat of municipality and the church , and Bo. Tuanong became San Vicente de Ferrer . Don Pedro de Leon was the first parish priest and he was believed as the initiator of the construction of the church of San Vicente.
Old photo of the 17th century church. This is how the façade looked like when I was in the elementary, just after the war . WWII spared the church from serious damage.
The church and municipality were named after Saint Vincent Ferrer, whose winged statue was found inside a box entangled in fishing nets. The fishermen consulted this matter to the friars in Villa Fernandina (now Vigan), who identified the person depicted by the statue. The statue was carried to the town's center, where a church was built. From then on, the town formerly known as Tuanong (sometimes called Taonan) became San Vicente.
In 1795, it was the initiation of the seat of municipality and the church and Bo. Tuanong became San Vicente de Ferrer. Don Pedro de Leon was the first parish priest and he was believed as the initiator of the construction of the Church of San Vicente.
St Vincent Ferrer, patron saint of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
I've been away for almost a lifetime:from childhood, the golden years down,to the diamond years - and now I'm backto my birthplace, to my home town.
The old church, landmark of time past,of events local, and far, far beyond;I've taken part in both - and in between,my church in changing colors I found.
Changing colors still like the rainbow,Sad and happy, lonely yet solemn,the essence of faith true and abiding,way beyond the tomb without end. ~
Photo below shows contrast: color turns dark gray with bluish hue.
Yellow to orange towards sunset. Photos below, aerial view showing spacious environs; view through the arch built across the facade obstructing panoramic view of the facade. Tunnel effect of vision through the arch is inevitable.
The church had a close similarity with the present color (below)
The present color of the façade, salmon pink and white. Trees along the church's periphery make a natural curtain, they offer shade to churchgoers and pilgrims, and moderate an otherwise barren surrounding. What could be the next color?
Biographical Sketch of San Vicente Ferrer
- Vincent Ferrer, OP was a Valencian Dominican friar and preacher, who gained acclaim as a missionary and a logician. He is honored as a saint of the Catholic Church and other churches of Catholic traditions. Wikipedia
- Born: January 23, 1350, Valencia, Spain
- Died: April 5, 1419 (age 69 years), Vannes, France
- Place of burial: BasÃlica Catedral de San Pedro, Vannes, France
- Parents: Constance Miguel, Guillem Ferrer
- Attributes: Dominican habit; Tongue of flame; Pulpit; Trumpet; Wings; Bible
- Canonized: 3 June 1455, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Papal States by Pope Callixtus III
- Feast: 5 April
He preached often on the Final Judgment of Christ, earning him the nickname “Angel of the Apocalypse” and instilling a holy fear of God and a desire for repentance among his listeners. As Father Vincent traveled, hordes of people traveled with him, doing penance along the way. (Internet) ~
Part 10. WWII Guardian Angel
- Francisca Trinidad: "Manang Madre"
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San Vicente is a small town, three kilometers west of Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur. The town takes pride in honoring its outstanding sons and daughters, among them, a diminutive, frail looking religious sister, who devoted her whole long life to the development of children through education and devotion. Author's Note: Search in this Blog, the life of Sister Mamerta Rocero, SPC, also a native of San Vicente.
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There is always the last of a distinct breed, reminiscent of The Last of the Mohicans, a novel written by James Fenimore Cooper. After that a new breed emerges.
Manang Madre is among the last of a fine breed of religious sisters.
She lived a full missionary life with the zeal and dedication of a Mother Teresa. She was simple and humble, and remained a trusted friend, mentor and spiritual adviser.
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There is always the last of a distinct breed, reminiscent of The Last of the Mohicans, a novel written by James Fenimore Cooper. After that a new breed emerges.
Manang Madre is among the last of a fine breed of religious sisters.
She lived a full missionary life with the zeal and dedication of a Mother Teresa. She was simple and humble, and remained a trusted friend, mentor and spiritual adviser.
All from San Vicente, Ilocos Sur: Manang Madre with Rotor clan: Fe (former UP professor), Cely (retired teacher), Veny (Franciscan sister)
This is Manang Madre to us. We knew how good and courageous she was even at a very early age. She would warn us of approaching Japanese soldiers, and lead us into an underground hideout, hushing us into complete silence. Like a sentinel she knew when it was safe to go out and resume our chores and play. We would have known more fear and uncertainty were it not for her assuring company.
There was this incident just after the war that Manang Madre risked her life in saving my sister and brother who were trapped in a live charcoal pit. This is the dugout stove chamber used in boiling sugarcane juice to become muscovado or red sugar. It was a miracle, Dad and the people who came to the rescue afterward, said.
Manang Madre remained our elder playmate and guardian of sort. Mother died at the onset of the war, so that having Manang Madre around filled a vacuum in us. Dad always reminded us to be good to her.
There was a time Manang Madre invited us to see her glass aquarium. There beside the window, the morning sun cast a prism on the green Hydrilla plants with numerous bubbles forming and clinging on their leaves. One by one the bubbles rose and popped daintily. A dozen colorful fish gleefully played in the sunbeam. This indeed made a lasting impression in me to become a biologist.
In college I devised an exercise for my students to make a natural home aquarium without artificial gadgets. It was patterned after Manang Madre's aquarium.
It was peacetime. Things were going back to normal. Wounds have become scars, so people said. Children went back to school.
Manang Madre soon entered the convent without our knowledge. But she wrote often, sent us cards, istampita and religious medals.
It was many years after when I saw Manang Madre in the former Vigil House at St. Paul University Quezon City campus. She had retired and was wearing an implanted heart pacer. I too, had retired from government service and was teaching part time in that school.
In spite of her conditions she helped me build the school museum with her collection of stamps. She was a a philatelist. She helped me in the eco-sanctuary, the botanical garden of the school. She was a gardener. So with the school's outreach program in Barangay Valencia. She taught for many years children and adults alike. Why don't we map our family tree? I asked. She had indeed a very good memory to the third generation and fourth consanguinity.
The last time I saw her was two years ago at the new Vigil House at Taytay, Rizal. I was attending the annual school retreat. It was a bright morning. We were walking among the flowers that lined a big fountain pond fronting the modern edifice.
Manang Madre and two other religious sisters formed a triumvirate in the family. They all belonged to St. Paul of Chartres congregation.
- Sister Nathaniel Rocero, SPC, the intellectual, sometimes branded activist for her concern for the poor, a Ph.D. holder in English and Literature, proponent of traditional and classical philosophy.
- Sister Mamerta Rocero, SPC, the scientist, biologist, researcher, she revived the ethnic values of plants, humanist, also a Ph.D. holder (meritissimus). Her dissertation: "Ethnobotany among The Itawes," was published by the National Museum.
- Sister Francisca Trinidad, SPC, educator, school administrator, extension specialist, teacher to countless children as if they were her own, as if they were like us who once grew under the her protection.
I remember the last part of The Last of the Mohicans. To quote:
"We are not alone. We may be of different races, but God has placed us so that we journey on the same path."
Sister Madre and her kind, assure us that we are not alone. They are the bridge of unity, ages and generations. They have placed us in that same journey, leading us all on the same path to God." ~
Manang Madre's Natural Aquarium
- Keyhole View to Magnificent Creation
There was no electricity then, and therefore there were no motorized air pumps and filters, aquarium lights, oxygen generators, and the like, which we use in aquariums today. Yet the aquarium in those days was beautiful in its own natural way, and it was simple and easy to maintain. Glass aquarium at home
When I was a kid I used to visit my cousin who later joined a religious order (Sister Francisca Rotor, SPC) just to watch and ponder on her glass aquarium sitting on a window facing the northeast. The sun shone through the glass, its rays splitting into the prism of the rainbow spreading on the aquatic plants, and the playful goldfish. Bubbles hanged on the glistening Elodea and Hydrilla plants, then rose slowly to the top faintly hissing and popping. I now understand that these bubbles are pure oxygen, the by-products of photosynthesis.
At the bottom and side of the aquarium were small snails which did the job of the janitor fish as gleaners and cleaners. Snails scrape off algal crust and being saprophytes too, convert organic matter into detritus which is equivalent to compost - in turn provides nutrition to the aquatic plants. Carbon dioxide emitted by the fish and snail is used by the plants for photosynthesis, and in the process produce sugar, and oxygen as by-product. Sugar is subsequently converted into other organic compounds which are necessary for the plants to grow and gain biomass. Being herbivores fish and snail depend upon the plant.
The secret of a stable aquarium is balanced gas exchange and organic-inorganic cycle. Once this is attained we can say the aquarium is a "balanced ecosystem," a microcosm of a pond or lake.
Manang Madre aquarium soon led me to search for great minds and their works, among them, Aristotle's Natural History, Darwin's Theory of Evolution, Oparin's Beginning of Life, Cousteau's Oceanography, EO Wilson's Sociobiology, Leeuwenhoek's
Microscopy, and Henry David Thoreau's Treatise of Nature and Man.
On the other hand I taught my students to build aquariums without any electrical gadget, telling them, "In any experiment, understand and apply the laws of nature."
Why don't you put up a project in your home or school, and replicate Manang Madre's natural aquarium? It is peeping through the keyhole of magnificent creation. ~
- A natural aquarium is a miniature pond, lake, or sea.
- The basic principle is conversion of the sun's energy into food and oxygen by algae and plants (photosynthesizers).
- Food and oxygen are important to fish and other animals.
- In return, the animals give off "waste" as nutrients and carbon dioxide important to plants.
- A natural aquarium therefore is a simple ecosystem, balanced environment.
- Like any ecosystem, its balance depends on healthy interrelationship of the living and non-living world.
- The organisms are classified into producers (plants, algae), and consumers (fish, snails), and decomposers (bacteria)
- Balance is dynamic, it changes, but nature guides it to attain stability or homeostasis.
- Energy flow goes through the food chain, food web, food pyramid.
- Humans are part of this system, and has assumed dominance over other organisms.
- Nature takes care of itself even without man. Thus, forests, coral reefs, and the like, are best maintained without man's intervention.
- On the other hand it is man that may destroy this natural balance through pollution, over fishing chemical farming, deforestation - and global warming, which is a consequence of man's increasing number and affluence. ~
I loved watching the guppies in an old fashioned aquariumsans any gadget for lighting, filter, and fancy screen;the sun, the provider of food and oxygen through the algaeclinging on rock, and snails living off the glass clean.I was a kid then eager to discover the mysteries of nature;a little of Darwin, Linnaeus, and Arthur Doyle I sought,of Fleming's serendipity and Leeuwenhoek's microscopy,seeing their images in an aquarium my cousin taught.It was schooling, experimenting, and above all, dreaming,it took me to a little Smithsonian, to a niche in biology,archive of living history, the microcosm of the living world,to the ends of the world, far from man's technology.
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To me, Manang Madre's aquarium was a laboratory, the curious kid that I was. It introduced me into a realm I would be devoting much of my time as biologist. It left an indelible mark of nature's self-contained system - the dynamic balance that keeps order and harmony in nature which scientists call homeostasis. ~
Part 11. My Best Photographs
on the Lighter Side of Human Nature
"We are making photographs to understand what our
lives mean to us." - Ralph Hattersley
Be like the windmill and be free of worries and cares in life, even only
for a moment. Bangui, Ilocos Norte
Manang Venie's last birthday at the age of 83 is celebrated
with love and thanksgiving with the family.
Crucified Christ, St. Paul University QC Garden. Even without caption there are photographs such as this that are filled with emotion - feelings and moods often associated with personal experience. We often observe this scene during Holy Week. Real feelings however are extremely difficult to capture in photograph and in words. Great skill is needed to be able to succeed.Rambutan grows on the backyard of the author's residence
in Don Antonio Heights 2, Quezon City. Sr Venie and cousin
Julie Rotor exchange pleasantries on gardening.
Author and children pose at the edge of the mudspring,
fumarole of a sleeping volcano. Mt Makiling, in Laguna
Towering kapok (Ceiba pentandra) with massive buttress
roots dwarfs a curious visitor at UP Diliman, QC
Author in a make-believe staghorn deer on a river bank
of Banaoang, a not-so-pleasant scenario to think of
the endangered wildlife species. Caoayan, Ilocos Sur
These boys take a break from their ball game to visit the Living
with Nature botanical garden in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
Visiting student researchers in a symbolic kanpai, meaning
“empty the glass you're drinking” at the Living with Nature
art gallery. San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
Markus 6, author's grandson plays a young taho'
ambulant vendor in a school presentation in
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
A ghostly Genie watches over commuters and
pedestrians in downtown Bangkok, Thailand.
Top, author's wife and daughter are dwarfed
by the huge statue.
Dried flowers forever preserved by nature.
UP Los Baños, Laguna.
Anthers for real, all right, in lieu of the real owner.
Living with Nature Home, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
Cryptobiology
House guest at author's residence holds a driftwood
in the shape a fish in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.
Part 12 . Homecoming - "I am waiting for you, my child"
St Vncent Ferrer, Patron saint
The proverbial Lamp I still hold flickers, but it is but a beacon in embers now, for it had spent its luminance in the darkness of human weakness and failures, it beamed across the ocean of ignorance and lost hope, it trailed the path of many adventures and discoveries, and it kept vigil in the night while I slept.
And what would my father say? He meets me, embraces me, and calls everyone. “Kill the fattest calf! Let us rejoice.”
San Vicente is my home. It is the bastion of my hopes and ideals. At the far end on entering the old church is written on the altar, faded by the elements of time and rough hands of devotees, Ur-urayenka Anakko – I am waiting for you my child. When the world is being ripped by conflicts or pampered with material progress, when mankind shudders at the splitting of the atom or the breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed with high rise edifices or clouded by greenhouse gases – my town becomes more than ever relevant to the cause for which it has stood through the centuries - the sanctuary of idealism in a troubled world, home of hundreds of professionals in many fields of human endeavor.
“Kill the fattest calf,” I hear my father shout with joy. It is celebration. It is a symbol of achievement more than I deserve. But my feeling is that I am standing on behalf of my colleagues for I am but an emissary. Out there in peace and trials, in villages and metropolises, in all endeavors and walks of life, many “Vincentians” made their marks, either recognized on the stage or remembered on stone on which their names are carved. I must say, it is an honor and privilege that I am here in humility to represent them that I may convey their unending faith and trust to our beloved hometown.
The world has changed tremendously, vastly, since I passed under the town arch to meet the world some fifty years ago. I have met wise men who asked the famous question “Quo vadis?” -where are you going? I can only give a glimpse from the eye of a teacher, far for the probing mind of Alvin Toffler in “Future Shock,” or those of Naisbitt and Aburdane, renowned modern prophets. Teachers as I know, and having been trained as one, see the world as it is lived; they make careful inferences, and take a bird’s eye view cautiously. They are conveyors of knowledge, and even with modern teaching tools and communication technology, cannot even qualify as chroniclers, nay less of forecasters. I have always strived to master the art of foretelling the future, but frankly I can only see it from atop a misty mountain. How I wish too, that I can fully witness the fruits of the seed of knowledge a teacher has sown in the mind of the young.
Limited my experience may be, allow me to speak my mind about progress and developments in the fifty years I was away from home, but on the other side of midnight, so to speak.
1. The monster that Frankenstein made lurks in nuclear stockpiles, chides with scientists tinkering with life, begging to give him a name and a home.
2. Our blue planet has an ugly shade of murk and crimson – fire consuming the forests, erosion eating out the land, polar ice shrinking, flooding the shorelines.
3. One race one nation equals globalization. How we have taken over evolution in our hands. We are playing God, is Paradise Lost II in the offing?
4. The world is wired, it travels fast on two feet – communication and transportation. The world has shrunk into but a village. Homogenization is the death sentence amid a bed of roses for mankind.
5. Man-induced phenomena are too difficult to separate from those of nature. We take the latter as an excuse of our follies, a rationalization that runs counter to be rational. Only the human species has both the capability to build or destroy – and yet we love to destroy what we build.
6. The dangerous game of numbers is a favorite game, and our spaceship is getting overloaded. Man’s needs, more so man’s want, become burgeoning load of Mother Earth, now sick and aging. Will Pied Piper ever come back and take our beloved young ones away from us, as it did in Hamlyn many years ago?
7. Conscience, conscience, where is spirituality that nourishes it. Where have all the religious teachings gone? Governance – where is the family, the home? Peace and order – Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan – another Korea, another Vietnam, only in another place, in another time.
8. Janus is progress, and progress is Janus. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is The Prince and the Pauper. Capitalism has happy and sad faces – the latter painted in pain and sadness on millions all over the world. It is inequity that makes the world poor; we have more than enough food, clothing, shelter, and energy for everybody. What ideology can save the world? Capitalism or socialism? – No, not Terrorism.
As I grew older I did not only learn to adjust with the realities of life as I encountered it but to grasp its meaning from the points of view of famous philosophers and writers. I studied it with the famous lines from William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence.
To wit.
And what would my father say? He meets me, embraces me, and calls everyone. “Kill the fattest calf! Let us rejoice.”
San Vicente is my home. It is the bastion of my hopes and ideals. At the far end on entering the old church is written on the altar, faded by the elements of time and rough hands of devotees, Ur-urayenka Anakko – I am waiting for you my child. When the world is being ripped by conflicts or pampered with material progress, when mankind shudders at the splitting of the atom or the breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed with high rise edifices or clouded by greenhouse gases – my town becomes more than ever relevant to the cause for which it has stood through the centuries - the sanctuary of idealism in a troubled world, home of hundreds of professionals in many fields of human endeavor.
“Kill the fattest calf,” I hear my father shout with joy. It is celebration. It is a symbol of achievement more than I deserve. But my feeling is that I am standing on behalf of my colleagues for I am but an emissary. Out there in peace and trials, in villages and metropolises, in all endeavors and walks of life, many “Vincentians” made their marks, either recognized on the stage or remembered on stone on which their names are carved. I must say, it is an honor and privilege that I am here in humility to represent them that I may convey their unending faith and trust to our beloved hometown.
The world has changed tremendously, vastly, since I passed under the town arch to meet the world some fifty years ago. I have met wise men who asked the famous question “Quo vadis?” -where are you going? I can only give a glimpse from the eye of a teacher, far for the probing mind of Alvin Toffler in “Future Shock,” or those of Naisbitt and Aburdane, renowned modern prophets. Teachers as I know, and having been trained as one, see the world as it is lived; they make careful inferences, and take a bird’s eye view cautiously. They are conveyors of knowledge, and even with modern teaching tools and communication technology, cannot even qualify as chroniclers, nay less of forecasters. I have always strived to master the art of foretelling the future, but frankly I can only see it from atop a misty mountain. How I wish too, that I can fully witness the fruits of the seed of knowledge a teacher has sown in the mind of the young.
Limited my experience may be, allow me to speak my mind about progress and developments in the fifty years I was away from home, but on the other side of midnight, so to speak.
1. The monster that Frankenstein made lurks in nuclear stockpiles, chides with scientists tinkering with life, begging to give him a name and a home.
2. Our blue planet has an ugly shade of murk and crimson – fire consuming the forests, erosion eating out the land, polar ice shrinking, flooding the shorelines.
3. One race one nation equals globalization. How we have taken over evolution in our hands. We are playing God, is Paradise Lost II in the offing?
4. The world is wired, it travels fast on two feet – communication and transportation. The world has shrunk into but a village. Homogenization is the death sentence amid a bed of roses for mankind.
5. Man-induced phenomena are too difficult to separate from those of nature. We take the latter as an excuse of our follies, a rationalization that runs counter to be rational. Only the human species has both the capability to build or destroy – and yet we love to destroy what we build.
6. The dangerous game of numbers is a favorite game, and our spaceship is getting overloaded. Man’s needs, more so man’s want, become burgeoning load of Mother Earth, now sick and aging. Will Pied Piper ever come back and take our beloved young ones away from us, as it did in Hamlyn many years ago?
7. Conscience, conscience, where is spirituality that nourishes it. Where have all the religious teachings gone? Governance – where is the family, the home? Peace and order – Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan – another Korea, another Vietnam, only in another place, in another time.
8. Janus is progress, and progress is Janus. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is The Prince and the Pauper. Capitalism has happy and sad faces – the latter painted in pain and sadness on millions all over the world. It is inequity that makes the world poor; we have more than enough food, clothing, shelter, and energy for everybody. What ideology can save the world? Capitalism or socialism? – No, not Terrorism.
As I grew older I did not only learn to adjust with the realities of life as I encountered it but to grasp its meaning from the points of view of famous philosophers and writers. I studied it with the famous lines from William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence.
To wit.
“To see the world in a grain of sand;
And a Heaven a wild flower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”
And a Heaven a wild flower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
If ever I have ventured into becoming a “redeemer” armed with a pen, I too, have learned from Blake’s verse of the way man should view the world in all its magnanimity yet in simplicity. If ever I have set foot to reach the corners of the Earth, and failed, I am consoled by the humble representation of “a grain of sand” that speaks of universal truth and values.
And beauty? If I have not found it in a garden of roses, I dare not step on a flowering weed. And posterity and eternity? They are all ensconced in periodicity, a divine accident of existence – to say that each and every one of us is here in this world by chance – an unimaginable chance – at “a certain time and place” which I believe has a purpose in whatever and however one lives his life. But I would say that a lifetime is all it takes “to see the world” and be part of it. It is a lifetime that we realize the true meaning of beauty, experience “infinity and eternity”. Lifetime is a daily calendar of victories and defeats.
While the world goes round and around . . .
The world like in Aristotle’s time continue to struggle with the preservation of values; the species will continue to evolve as postulated by Darwin; culture will express itself more fully since the first painting of early man dwelling in the caves of Lasceaux in France.
If ever I have ventured into becoming a “redeemer” armed with a pen, I too, have learned from Blake’s verse of the way man should view the world in all its magnanimity yet in simplicity. If ever I have set foot to reach the corners of the Earth, and failed, I am consoled by the humble representation of “a grain of sand” that speaks of universal truth and values.
And beauty? If I have not found it in a garden of roses, I dare not step on a flowering weed. And posterity and eternity? They are all ensconced in periodicity, a divine accident of existence – to say that each and every one of us is here in this world by chance – an unimaginable chance – at “a certain time and place” which I believe has a purpose in whatever and however one lives his life. But I would say that a lifetime is all it takes “to see the world” and be part of it. It is a lifetime that we realize the true meaning of beauty, experience “infinity and eternity”. Lifetime is a daily calendar of victories and defeats.
While the world goes round and around . . .
The world like in Aristotle’s time continue to struggle with the preservation of values; the species will continue to evolve as postulated by Darwin; culture will express itself more fully since the first painting of early man dwelling in the caves of Lasceaux in France.
Ancestral home of the author in San Vicente IS
Trade and commerce will continue to progress, reaches a plateau and declines - a normal curve that goes with the rise and fall of civilizations. Yet leaders do not see it that way. Not even the Utopia of conquerors like Alexander the Great whose global economic vision two thousand five hundred years ago is fundamental to the great powers of today – the United States, European Union.
The great religions will continue to bring man to his knees and look into heaven amidst knowledge revolution and growing complexity of living, Man’s infinitesimal mind continues to probe the universe. Never has man been so busy, so bothered, so confused, yet so determined than ever before, and trying to fill up God’s seventh day.
As I go on reflecting I came across the book of Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1994. He warns us succinctly.
The great religions will continue to bring man to his knees and look into heaven amidst knowledge revolution and growing complexity of living, Man’s infinitesimal mind continues to probe the universe. Never has man been so busy, so bothered, so confused, yet so determined than ever before, and trying to fill up God’s seventh day.
As I go on reflecting I came across the book of Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1994. He warns us succinctly.
“This world, which appears to be a great workshop in which knowledge is developed by man – which appears as progress and civilization, as a modern system of communication, as a structure of democratic freedom without any limitations – this world is not capable of making man happy.
- Pope John Paul II, On the Threshold of Hope
Now I am home, my father, my hometown. I do only wish for comfort. Thank you for you have taught me and instilled in me the spirit of virtue and fortitude. Thank you for making me a Vincentian.~
St Vincent Ferrer - Confessor, Angel of the Last Judgment Confessor, Angel of the Last Judgment
Born 23 January 1350(1350-01-23)
Valencia, Kingdom of ValenciaDied 5 April 1419(1419-04-05) (aged 69)
Vannes, Brittany
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion
Canonized 3 June 1455, Rome by Pope Calixtus III
Major shrine Vannes Cathedral
Feast 5 April
Attributes pulpit; cardinal's hat; trumpet; captives; Bible
Patronage builders, construction workers, plumbers
Vincent was the second son of William Ferrer (an English immigrant to Spain) and his wife, Constantia Miguel. Legends surround his birth.
He would fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and he loved the Passion of Christ very much. He would help the poor and distribute many alms to them. Vincent decided to join the Dominicans when his father gave him a choice whether to enter into secular, ecclesiastical, or a religious state.
University of Santo Tomas Chapel
Ferrer entered the Dominican Order at the age of eighteen and studied philosophy and theology. He prayed and practiced penance. For a period of three years, he read solely Sacred Scripture, and eventually committed it to memory. He published a treatise on Dialectic Suppositions after his solemn profession. He eventually became a Master of Sacred Theology and was commissioned to deliver lectures on philosophy. He was then sent to Barcelona and eventually to the University of Lleida, where he earned his doctorate in theology.
Vincent later claimed that the Great Schism had such a depressing effect on his mind that it caused him to be seriously ill at the age of forty. He claimed that God healed him and instructed him to go out and convert many. For twenty-one years he was said to have traveled to Aragon, Castile, Switzerland, France, Italy, England, Ireland, and Scotland, preaching the Gospel and converting many. Many biographers believe that he was endowed with the gift of tongues, as he could speak only Catalan.
Vincent is said to be responsible for the conversion of many Jews to Catholicism. One of his converts, a former rabbi by the name of Solomon ha-Levi, went on to become Bishop of Cartagena and later Archbishop of Burgos. Vincent is noted to have contributed to anti-Semitism in Spain, as violence accompanied his visits to towns that had Jewish communities. One of Vincent's achievement was in converting a synagogue in Toledo, Spain into the church of Santa MarÃa la Blanca.
Vincent was very loyal to the Avignonese Pope Benedict XIII, better known as "Papa Luna" in Castile and Aragon, remained in steadfast loyalty to him, and believed that Benedict XIII was the true Pope. Vincent died on 5 April 1419 at Vannes in Brittany, and was buried in Vannes Cathedral. He was canonized by Pope Calixtus III on 3 June 1455. His feast day is celebrated on 5 April. The Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer, a Pontifical religious institute, is named after him.~ (Wikipedia)
Part 13. Harvesting Rainwater: The Art and Practice
Water rationing has started in Metro Manila. Angat Dam which supplies more than 80 percent of Metro Manila is appropriating its supply to last through summer next year. Limited supply is exacerbated by the ongoing El Nino phenomenon. Let us save rainwater, it's a valuable resource which should not go to waste.
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
A bountiful harvest of rainwater cuts down water bill; it is environment-friendly and
a source of enjoyment. At home, Lagro QC.
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
A bountiful harvest of rainwater cuts down water bill; it is environment-friendly and
a source of enjoyment. At home, Lagro QC.
- Join downspouts together to maximize harvest of rainwater in one place.
- Keep roof, gutter and downspout regularly cleaned and declogged of any debris.
- Avoid using red lead paint, use epoxy paint instead, to avoid lead contaminant.
- Filter rainwater with fine screen or cloth before transferring to container.
- Plastic containers are convenient but they serve only as temporary storage.
- Wide mouth containers may cause accident. They are not designed as bath tubs.
- Use water within five days, otherwise it breeds mosquitoes and other vermin.
- Clean and expose containers under the sun for an hour or two to disinfect.
- Invert and be ready for the next rain to come. Store only clean rainwater.
- Final storage is ideally a garden pond. It is multipurpose: fish culture, water for cleaning, watering and for use in case of fire.
Catfish and pako fish raised in a garden pond.
*Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday
Part 14. Ancestral House - A Living Memory
Stands old and worn, yet proud and brave, to welcome new faces but familiar to the old, to bridge the gap of time, gap of change, love and loyalty and faith; a thousand-fold where through time and sweet memories, a wonderful story of a house ever told.
Author's ancestral house of four generations in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
Ancestral House - A Living Memory
Rotor Family House
Three generations and a home of their ownstands in sun and rain, season in and out,in years lean and plenty, in war and peace,in trials winning than losing in every bouton life's path or on the fast lane of change,stopping at crossroads and looking about,where the home stands, its window bright,like a lighthouse when the sea is rough,and the children no more, now grown upssearching for a place from north to southwhere career is right and the future bright,and the world in life cycle in roundabout.Stands old and worn, yet proud and brave,to welcome new faces but familiar of oldto bridge the gap of time, gap of change,love and loyalty and faith, a thousand foldwhere through time and sweet memories,a wonderful story of a house ever told. ~
Annex - Pictorials
1 comment:
Ka Ave is indeed a Philosopher of Life. Tnx. BLESS. Shalom! G3
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