My Prayer for My Anne

O Father of mercy and of love, in the deepest, darkest depths of despair, You have blessed me with a special friendship. The very first star in the firmament of the darkest night of my life. You gave me Annelies Marie Frank, O Lord, as a light against despair. The first glimmer of hope that leads to faith in things everlasting and unseen. Loving Father, thank you so much for blessing me with a friend as precious as Anne. Grant me, O Lord, I humbly pray, with the love to cherish her now and forever.

AMEN.

2008 Expectations

"A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit". - Psalm 51:12

2008 is a year of new beginnings for me. This is the time to renew and repair all my relationships:

1. With God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to Whom I owe all that I am and all that I have and to Jesus Christ in Whom I owe all that I can be.

2. With Mother Mary without whom I would be utterly lost, to whom I owe the debt of myself and my service in her struggle against the ancient serpent to save all souls for Christ.

3. With Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, the great Knight of the Immaculata, in my eyes the greatest of Marian knights, whose venerable name I took as my Confirmation name (for I was confirmed when I was very young and no one could remember what it originally was).

4. With Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the protomartyr of the Philippines, my own beloved countryman who personally bears his own valiant witness to me (to our country and to the world) that the demands of our faith can be met and that God exults those who persevere in Him to the end.

5. With Blessed Jacinta Marto, the Little Flower of Fatima, whose magnanimity, purity and spirit of self sacrifice has indelibly impressed upon my soul a great love and a great hope in her little heart. O Blessed Jacinta, may God grant me through the powerful intercession of our Lady of Fatima with the special grace to be a favorable instrument for your cannonization.

6. With Annelies Marie Frank and all the Holy Souls, my darlingest Anne to whom I owe and share the very beginnings of this wonderful journey and has always been patiently present with me in my heart and in my mind through good times and bad and to whom I owe every happiness in Heaven and in the new world to come and to all the Holy Souls whom my beloved Anne had so generously introduced to me in holy friendship.

7. With Archangel Michael to whom I owe the honor of my last name.

8. With Angel Caritas, my guardian angel, to whom I owe the honor of his ever faithful company.

9. With myself to whom I owe the unmerited and inestimable honor of being redeemed by the Precious Blood of my Savior Jesus Christ and the distinct potential being able to earn through the work of the Holy Spirit the promised place that my most loving Jesus had prepared for me in Heaven with Mama Mary and the blessed company of all the Holy Angels and Saints of God whom I love and who had loved me forever.

10. With Holy Mother Church in whose bosom I grew in learning and grace.

11. With all my family and friends who had loved me from the beginning and to whom I owe an eternal debt of love.

12. With my country that sustains the generations of my people, preserves our culture, heritage and history and provides shelter, sustenance and protection for me, my family, my friends and my people.

13. With the one family of humanity, a united community of hope drawn from among the global brotherhood of all the nations of the world.

So help me, God.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel

The Church Militant

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places". - Ephesians 6:12

Along with the Church Triumphant in Heaven, the Church Suffering in Purgatory, the Church Militant which is God's Pilgrim Church on earth form the entirety of our Holy Mother Chruch. We are the Church Militant precisely because we fight, we fight to set ourselves free from the slavery of sin and death, the world, the flesh and the Devil and all his agents. We fight to reform, conform and unite ourselves to the truth of the image of God in Jesus Christ within ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit. We fight for each ourselves as well as for each other in the Name of Jesus Christ on behalf of the entire human race to diffuse the grace of God here on earth and advance the cause of truth, justice, solidarity, goodwill and peace for all souls without distinction.

We are repentant sinners like myself, the weak and the infirm, exiled hearts and searching souls with faults as numerous as the hairs on our heads. Exile children of this captive earth, the lost and the forsaken, descended from the one family of humanity who from the dawn of time were cast into this vale of tears, born to labor and grieve upon this desperate and fallen world of suffering and death. Valorous souls who do battle with chaos to give law a chance to give birth to peace. The nameless multitude of silent innocents oppressed by the darkness of sin and uncertainty; subjugated by the proud Prince of this fallen world, a murderer and a tyrant, vain and full of lies, a wicked lord, defeated and empty of promise. All who respond to the universal call of Jesus Christ and cry out with one accord to the one, true God of our fathers as our one hope of life and liberation.

- EJ San Miguel

Walker of Worlds

"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life". - Proverbs 4:23

Happiness depends not so much on what is happening outside of a man. For the world outside of ourselves is but an empty dream. Happiness depends very much on what is happening inside of a man. For within each of us is the timeless realm we create in our hearts. Within each of us is contained a fragile world much more wondrous and sublime than all the universe outside of us. It is here, in the unseem realm of the spirit which is the domain of our soul that the source of our happiness may truly be found. It is here, in our hearts, that the Kingdom of God is to be firmly established. It is here that our blessed Lord Jesus Christ wishes to dwell with us with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. For what rules our hearts determines our realities.

What contains these infinite worlds within each individual man is love. Love is also the key that open the door to our heart, to let the beloved through. We must be careful then what we love. For indeed, we become like to what we love. For we open up these worlds to each other in the love of friendship whereby in time old friends become familiar with the landscapes of each other's souls so much so that their souls become as one. It is the object of our love that is the source of each man's happiness.

From out of the depths of our hearts we are caught in the ebb and flow tide of either darkness or light. For the interior worlds hidden within ourselves silently contain an epic struggle. There are powers in unseen places, both malicious and good, that are constantly at work all about us. Both the light and the darkness vie with great violence for that singular throne of love enshrined at the very summit of the very heart of each our worlds within. The darkness seeks to extinguish the light by corrupting the truth with lies, it is a limiting, binding, evil force that seek to destroy all that is real in ourselves. The light seeks to dispel the darkness by revealing the truth that undoes the lie, it is a magnificent, expansive, beneficent force that seek to reform, conform and unite us into the ultimate reality of Itself. Darkness exists not because of the absence of light but because of it for the darkness comprehends not the light yet even the smallest light shines forth in the darkness.

It is the nature of man to be free. But true human freedom consists not in the ability to choose between darkness and light for to choose the darkness is to lose freedom itself. True human freedom is preserved only by freely choosing the light for it is through the light that is preserved the very life of the human race.

Therefore, we must be careful where we may tread when allowed to walk within the unseen worlds of other people's hearts. Let us be easily inspired by our witness of even the smallest of lights within knowing that without it, our faith is unable to see, our hope is unable to walk and our love is unable to contain these infinite worlds within ourselves. We must also be careful not to let ourselves be taken or surprised by the darkness that we may find nor must we judge the darkness for only the Light may preside over the darkness. And we are not the Light.

- EJ San Miguel

2007 Reflections

"I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another". - John 13:34-35

2007 is a year of endings.

2007 is the year of my return to my native Philippines after 13 years of being away. I spent 5 years living in Australia and 8 years in the United States and today, I'm glad to be home at last. There really is no place like home! All those years spent abroad were certainly the most uncertain years of my life. I experienced a lot of things while I was away and I made a lot of mistakes. The Lord did much to prune me. I left home with a vastly different world view than what I have now.

The love of God has found a place in my heart and though I am still the same sinner, I am now conscious of the universal call of Jesus Christ - directed towards myself. "Why me of all people?", I used to think to myself but that is all vanity. Humility is to know to be thankful simply because I do have a need and only God can fill that need and so I must obey the call of Christ.

The presence of the Lord has become very real to me. For out of the wellspring of His love I have tasted of that certainty of things unseen and the everlasting vision of God. I saw through the eye of faith that God and His love is one and indivisible. God is where His love works. One can not speak of love without God and one can not speak of God without love. To try and separate God from God's love is impossible. For indeed, as Sacred Scripture testifies, God is love. The measure of this love is to love without measure because God is infinite and without measure. And as God is one, love is one. Now, I know that God is love for God loves me and I know that God loves me because God's love is in me. For the Holy Spirit is in me and He bids me to repent and persevere in the way of my Savior Jesus Christ.

Today, I am trying to discern my vocation within Holy Mother Chrurch because I want to tell the world of this incredible love of God in Jesus Christ.

O Lord, let me be a witness of Thy love.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel

The Crossroads Cafe

"There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens". - Ecclesiastes 3:1

It is now dusk, the setting of another year is upon us and the way ahead is getting dark: Welcome to the Crossroads Cafe, O weary traveler! Our last stop before the void of the third Christian millennium.

The void ahead is the future yet undiscovered and unmapped.

We are children of the promise, walker of worlds, they call us, pilgrims to this strange, forbidden land, looking for our way back to God, our last end. Our way is hard and narrow, an uncertain passage through time and mortality; lonely if it were not for faith, hopeless if it were not for Christ, and futile if it were not for love.

It is twilight and the setting of another year is upon us. Let us pause at the coming of night and take certain comfort in the warmth of our native baptismal communion. Let our hearts draw near to each other as we rest for a moment in the silence, look back at the road behind us, reflect on our lessons learned and take counsel in God within ourselves how to prudently proceed at daybreak in the way of virtue, goodwill and peace.

- EJ San Miguel

The Spirit of Christmas

Let us not forget the spirit of the Christmas season is love.

"God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him". 1 John 4:16

God is love and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a love that spent itself for us, a love that became vulnerable for us, a love that gave everything up for our sake;

to live in the spirit of the love of Christ is to give with joy knowing from the example of our Blessed Savior Himself that the love that we keep in life is the love that we give away.

May God bless us and keep us all in peace and goodwill with one another and advance the cause of Christian unity.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel

The Philippine National Flag

The modern design of the Philippine National Flag was conceptualized by Emilio Aguinaldo during his exile in Hong Kong in 1897. The first flag was sewn by Doña Marcela Marino de Agoncillo with the help of her daughter Lorenza and Doña Delfina Herbosa de Natividad (a niece of reformist leader José Rizal). It was displayed in battle on May 28, 1898.

The flag was formally unfurled during the Proclamation of Independence on June 12, 1898 in Kawit, Cavite. Its original symbolism was enumerated in the text of the proclamation, which makes reference to an attached drawing, though no record of the drawing has surfaced. The original design of the flag adopted a mythical sun with a face, a symbol common to several former Spanish colonies. The particular shade of blue of the original flag has been a source of controversy. Based on anecdotal evidence and the few surviving flags from the era, historians argue that the colors of the original flag were the same blue and red as found on the flag of Cuba.

The flag of Cuba influenced the design of the flag of the Philippines as Cuba's revolution against Spain inspired, to some degree, the Philippine Revolution.

According to official sources, the white triangle stands for equality and fraternity; the blue field for peace, truth and justice; and the red field for patriotism and valor. The sun represents the dawning of a new era of self determination that was desired in 1897 when the flag was first designed. The eight primary rays of the sun represent the first eight provinces (Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Tarlac) that sought independence from Spain and were placed under martial law by the Spaniards at the start of the Philippine Revolution in 1896. The three stars represent the three major geographical divisions of the country: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. The flag is displayed with the blue field on top in time of peace, and with the red field on top in time of war.

It is prohibited to deface or ridicule the flag, to dip the flag as a compliment or salute, or to add additional marks of any nature on the flag. It may not be used as a drapery, festoon, tablecloth, as a covering for objects, or as part as a costume or uniform.

Several commercial uses of the flag are prohibited, including using the flag as a trademark or for commercial labels or designs. It is forbidden to use the image of the flag on merchandise, or in any advertisement. It also may not be used as a pennant in the hood, side, back and top of motor vehicles;

The flag may not be displayed horizontally face-up, or under any painting, picture or platform. It may not be displayed in "places of frivolity", defined in the Flag Code as marked by "boisterous merriment or recreation".

The Philippine National Coat of Arms

The Coat of Arms of the Philippines features the eight-rayed sun of the Philippines with each ray representing the eight provinces (Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Manila, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac) which were placed under martial law by Governor-General Ramón Blanco during the Philippine Revolution, and the three five-pointed stars representing the three primary geographic regions of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. In the blue field on the left side is the Eagle of the United States, and in the red field on the right is the Lion-Rampant of Spain, both representing colonial history. The design is very similar to the design briefly adopted by the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1940.

The heraldic description from Republic Act No. 8491 of 1998 is as follows: Paleways of two (2) pieces, azure and gules; a chief argent studded with three (3) mullets equidistant from each other; and, in point of honor, ovoid argent over all the sun rayonnant with eight minor and lesser rays. Beneath shall be the scroll with the words "REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINAS," inscribed thereon.

The words on the scroll have undergone many changes since Philippine independence. From independence in 1946 until 1972, when President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, the scroll contained the words "REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES." From 1979 until the overthrow of Marcos in 1986, the scroll had the words "ISANG BANSA ISANG DIWA" ("One Nation, One Spirit") inscribed. After the overthrow of Marcos, the scroll changed to the current "REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINAS".

In 1998, with the approval of Republic Act No. 8491, the eagle and lion on the lower half of the shield have been removed. However, the modified arms are not in wide use, pending the ratification of the law by a national referendum called for that purpose, as mandated by the Philippine Constitution.

The Philippine National Anthem

Lupang Hinirang
(Present Day Version)

Bayang Magiliw
Perlas ng Silanganan,
Alab ng puso
Sa dibdib mo’y buhay.

Lupang hinirang,
Duyan ka ng magiting,
Sa manlulupig,
‘Di ka pasisiil.

Sa dagat at bundok,
Sa simoy at sa langit mong bughaw,
May dilag ang tula at awit
Sa paglayang minamahal.

Ang kislap ng watawat mo’y
Tagumpay na nagniningning,
Ang bituin at araw niya
Kailan pa ma’y ‘di magdidilim.

Lupa ng araw,
ng luwalhati’t pagsinta,
Buhay ay langit sa piling mo;
Aming ligaya, na ‘pag may mang-aapi
Ang mamatay nang dahil sa ‘yo.

- Surian ng Wikang Pambansa (Institute of National Language)
Official Anthem of the one Republic of the Philippines that is sung today and propagated through radio, television and cinema under Presidential Proclamation No. 60, effected in December 19, 1963 and based on the original Spanish lyrics by Jose Palma and the "Marcha Nacional Filipina" (formerly the "Marcha Filipino Magdalo" after Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo's nom de guerre and his faction in the Katipunan) by Julian Felipe, a Cavite pianist and composer, commissioned on On June 5, 1898 by Gen. Aguinaldo to work on a march for the Philippine Revolution.

Filipinas,
Letra Para La Marcha Nacional
(Original Spanish Version)

Tierra adorada,
Hija del Sol de Oriente,
Su fuego ardiente
En ti latiendo esta.
Patria de Amores,
Del heroismo cuna,
Los invasores
No te hollaran jamas,
En tu azul cielo,
en tus auras,
En tus montes y en tu mar
Esplende y late el poema
De tu amada libertad.
To pabelion, que en las lides
La Victoria ilumino,
No vera nunca apagagos
Sus estrellas y su sol.
Tierra de dichas, de sol y amores,
En tu regazo dulce es vivir;,
Es una gloria para tus hijos.
Cuando te ofenden, por ti morir.

- Jose Palma
Published on September 3, 1899 in La Independencia, the organ of the Philippine Revolution edited by Juan Luna.

Diwang Bayan
(Original Version)

O sintang lupa,
Perlas ng Silanganan;
Diwang apoy kang
Sa araw nagmula.

Lupang magiliw
Pugad ng kagitingan,
Sa manlulupig
Di ka papaslang.

Sa iyong langit, simoy, parang
Dagat at kabundukan,
Laganap ang tibok ng puso
Sa paglayang walang hanggang.

Sagisag ng watawat mong mahal.
Ningning at tagumpay;
Araw't bituin niyang maalab
Ang s'yang lagi naming tanglaw.

Sa iyo Lupa ng ligaya't pagsinta,
Tamis mabuhay na yakap mo,
Datapwa't langit ding kung ikaw ay apihin
Ay mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.

- Jose Palma
Tagalog translation of the original Spanish lyrics.

Land of the Morning
(English Version)

Land of the Morning,
Child of the sun returning,
With fervor burning
Thee do our souls adore.

Land dear and holy,
cradle of noble heroes
Ne'er shall invaders,
Trample thy scared shore.

Even within the skies
And Through the clouds
And o'er thy hills and sea.
Do we behold the radiance,
Feel the throb of glorious liberty.

Thy banner, dear to all our hearts
Its sun and stars alight,
O never shall its shining field
Be dimmed by tyrant's might!

Beautiful land of love,
O land of light,
In thine embrace 'tis rapture to lie
But it is glory ever,
When thou art wronged,
For us, thy sons, to suffer and die.

- Camilo Osias
English translation from Jose Palma's original Spanish lyrics.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest! If you must; but don't you quit.

Life is queer with it's twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow;
You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit;
It's when things seem worst that you musn't quit.

- Anonymous

On Love

"The only love we keep is the love we give away."

- Anonymous

Lorenzo Ruiz, Una Naming Martir

Lorenzo Ruiz,
una naming martir
Totoong kay rami ng pagtutunggali
Sa buong buhay mo
Halos di mawari,
makailang ulit muntik na magapi
Ngunit nakaraos ng maluwalhati.
Pananampalataya di mo itinatwa
Nanindigan kang Kristyano sa diwa
At napatunayang kahit sa gawa
Mga naghihirap sa'yo ay namangha.
Ng ika' pinilit na iyong talikdan
Pananampalatayang iyong kinagisnan
Buong tatag man din na 'yong tinuran
Ako ay Kristyano at handang mamatay
Libu-libong buhay kung may'ron man ako
Sa Panginoong Diyos ay ihahandog ko.

Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

Who is a Filipino?

It is my deepest desire to see our nation advance and I know that I share this desire with many. Therefore, to all my fellow citizens of our one Republic of the Philippines I ask this question:

Who is a Filipino and what sets us apart as a Filipino nation distinct from all the nations of the world?

To some, the answer might come easily. To some, the answer might come hard. But for all, the answer must be found. For the answer to this question, adequately expressed, shall serve to define for us the bedrock foundation of that certain unity that binds our one people together; that same, purposeful unity that shall lead us deeper into an awareness of that characteristic Democratic will that drives our one Republic forward, under the eternal vigilance of God, in the annals of human history.

What makes us one and unique, one people and one nation, from among the one family of mankind? I believe the answer to this question shall not be adequately expressed in the common experience of just one generation but shall evolve into completeness across many generations.

What is important, in my mind, is that the question be asked.

For we have emerged from the remembrance of our Almighty God into the light of the present as a people who have fought bravely, long and hard, to win for ourselves, through war and shedding of sacred blood, this one Republic: Our one hope of true freedom and independence from fear and oppression for all our generations.

But the living memory of our martyred past along with the blood of all our heroes, known and unknown, continue to cry out to us today: How much longer, O nation, how much longer must we struggle in tears before we can begin to struggle in hope?

Let us walk in peace and goodwill with one another, serving all souls without distinction, as we begin today to write together the history of our generation for all the generations to come here at the very threshold of the third Christian millennium.

Let us be thankful to Almighty God for our native motherland!

May Almighty God bless us and keep us alive in His memory and alert to His grace until that great and everlasting Day of our joyful reunion in the land of our true and heavenly country from where we shall remain at peace forever contemplating the face of our one, true God Who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel

Be Strong

Be strong in love, O heart of mine!
Live not for self alone,
But find, in blessing other lives,
Completeness for thine own.
Seek every hungering heart to feed,
Each saddened heart to cheer;
And when stern justice stand aloof,
In pity though draw near.
Kind, loving words and helping hands
Have won more souls for heaven
Than all the dogmas and creeds
By priests and sages given.

Be strong to hope, O heart of mine!
Look not on life's dark side;
For just beyond these gloomy hours
Rich, radiant days abide.
Let hope, like summer's rainbow bright,
scatter thy falling tears;
And let God's special promises
Dispel all anxious fears.
To every grief a Lethe comes,
For every toil, a rest;
So hope, so love, so patient bear -
God doeth all things best.

Renew 2000 Prayer

Gracious God and Father,
We are your people embraced by your love.
We thank you for your presence with us
throughout all time.

As we celebrate the 2000 years since the birth
of Jesus, your Son: Create us anew.
Liberate us from all that keeps us from you.
Send your Holy Spirit, enabling us
to recreate our world and restore justice.

Heal us from every form of sin and violence.
Transform us to live your Word more profoundly.
Reconcile us so enemies, become friends.
Awaken us to the sacred;
Nurture our relationships;

Enliven our parishes; reunite our families.
Fill us with joy to celebrate the fullness of life.
Empower us to be a community of love
growing in your likeness by the
grace of Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Mankind

The Angels blind us by their splendor. Everything about them seems so superb as to test our capacity for absorbing truth. It is so easy to be incredulous because it is all nearly too good to be true. Men blind us by their very ordinariness. We ourselves are men, and surrounded by our kind; human things, under our eyes all the time, are easily dismissed as prosaic. We miss the splendor of men through that same blindness to the obvious that allows us to take grass and trees, sun and rain, even love and life, for granted, while we stand in open-mouthed wonder before a machine that coughs out cigarettes.

Our human splendor is a living splendor. By that fact, we are set apart from stones and dirt, clouds and mountains. By it we join ranks with all the living, from the least plant through the highest angel, to Life unlimited from Whom is all life. A dead plant, a dead animal, a dead man are all things whose inner spark of life has been extinguished, the splendor is gone, and only memory gives some dignity to the burnt out ashes of death.

We know this can happen, for we have seen it; the vital principles by which things live are lost and death takes over the kingdom that once belonged to life. Each living creature has a vital principle, it's soul, by which it is alive; a thing not to be weighed or measured, yet not to be doubted in the face of the graphic facts of life. Here we touch on a mystery, a profound mystery for a world that sees only bodies as non-mysterious; these souls are not composite things to be taken apart; they are not bodies but the principles by which bodies come alive.

Souls are not peculiar to us, but the common characteristic of all living creatures; the living possess a vital principle by which they live. We begin to enter the realm of distinctively human splendor when we notice that we can know all bodies; a feat as impossible to a soul with anything of the corporeal in it as it would be for a man with a bitter taste in his mouth to detect sweetness or a colored eyeglass to show us the variety of the rainbow. There is an independence here that marks out the beginnings of a startling truth: that our souls are not only not bodies, they are fundamentally independent of the corporeal world which they dominate.

We begin to appreciate this when we notice that the souls of the animals are so tied up with the corporal that they cannot work without it; they produce no vital actions without a decided, sometimes a disastrous, physical change to the body. Notice the contrast, for example, between too much of light for the eye or too much of sound for the ear as against a truth too great for the mind or a goodness too great for the heart. Too great a perfection of light blinds the eye, too loud a sound deafens the ear; the very things that make possible sight and hearing, if they be too perfect, destroy vision and hearing. On the other hand, the greater the truth, the greater the perfection of the intellect contacting it; the greater the goodness, the more ennobled the heart that reaches out to embrace it. The faculties of our souls are not destroyed by the perfection of their goals but rather challenged and improved. These things, truth and goodness, do not demand a physical bodily change, they carry no threats of destruction to the seeing mind and the loving heart.

Of course we do get tired. Yet it is not our mind, but the ministering body that is the subject of fatigue. Our eyes and ears, our memory and imagination must haul the rough material of our knowing; and they are physical things that can and do need rest and refreshment from the burden of labor. As far as our soul is concerned, such fatigue is as accidental as the termination of a painter's inspiration by fading light or the architect's failure to finish a building because of lack of material. The fact is that we do things beyond the physical: we bypass time to plan for the future and to recall the past, we bind men together by bonds that are purely political, we discover the living beauty of divinity in the dead things of the world and imprison it in poetry, we trace relationships that leave no physical trails, and uncover universal truths in a world of singular things.

It is this note of independence that is the startling wonder of man's soul. The souls of plants and of animals are not made up of parts, not to be located in the roots or leaves, head or tail; for by the soul the whole creature lives, roots as well as leaves, head as well as tail. The principle of that living is the soul. That is wonder enough and mystery enough for our time. The added wonder in man is that not only has his soul no parts, vitalizing as it does the whole man, but neither is there any substantial dependence in it. An animal can not be killed by taking it's soul apart as a fresco is destroyed by scraping it off a wall inch by inch; but just as the fresco can effectively be destroyed by demolishing the wall on which it is painted, the soul of the animal can be eliminated by destroying the body on which it depends.

No such thing is possible in man. His soul can not be taken apart, for it has no parts, but neither can it be destroyed by destroying the body of a man. The death of the body is not the end of the soul, for the soul has it's own independence, it's own actions transcending the physical and corporal, it has it's own life which it gives to the body but which is not surrendered with the death of the body. The soul of a man can be separated from the body, (and we call this separation death) but not destroyed.

The soul of man, in other words, stands alone in the physical universe, for it is spiritual, bodiless, independent, living by it's own life. Once brought into existence, that soul is as immortal as the angels; it can not be destroyed by disintegration nor by any attacks on the body which it vitalizes. The soul of every man who has been born into the world lives forever; there is no end to a man's knowledge, no wall that marks the end of his life, no escape from a responsibility that stretches the length of eternity.

- My Way of Life
Confraternity of the Precious Blood

Trees

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree;

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet-flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain'
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by folls like me,
But only God can make a tree.

- Joyce Kilmer

The Battle of Prayer

2725 Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and he himself, all teach us this: prayer is a battle. Against whom? Against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter who does all he can to turn man away from prayer, away from union with God. We pray as we live, because we live as we pray. If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name. The "spiritual battle" of the Christian's new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer.

- Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Part Four, Section One, Chapter Three, Article 2

O Immaculata!

O Immaculata!
My Mother and Queen of my Heart,
I love thee but do not deserve thee.
For it is the boundless mercy of God,
O Blessed Virgin Mary,
that made thee my Mother
and I thy unworthy son.

O Refuge of Sinners,
without whom I would perish,
I am thankful to God for thee!
O dearest Lady,
may my love and appreciation for thee grow,
by special grace of God,
with each day I walk this life with thee
in the path that our Savior has chosen for me.

O great Mother of God!
I humbly beseech thee,
give me strength against thy enemies
and allow me to praise and honor thee.
O glorious Leader!
Help of Christians, lead us to victory -
toward a new age of peace and renewal for our world
through the Eucharistic reign of Christ
in the hearts of all Christians
in the Name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.

AMEN.

Pro Deo et Patria

"Pro Deo et Patria" - "For God and Country"

Through elementary to high school, I studied at St. Andrew's School in Paranaque, Metro Manila. The St. Andrew's of my time was an all-boys Catholic high school. It is the same school that my father, most of my uncles, cousins and many of my best friends had also attended. Our school motto is "Pro Deo et Patria".

I really didn't think much about this motto while I was in St. Andrew's. It is only now close to two decades later that I have come to understand the meaning and relevance of this motto in my life.

I wasn't really patriotic early in my life. And when sentiments of country did rouse from deep inside of me, it was not for the right homeland. God had to take me away from my own people and into foreign lands to stir beliefs inside of my heart greater than myself. I had had to fall in love with the homelands of other peoples first and have had to have my heart broken twice in order for me to realize that I could love no other place but home.

Now, I can truly say that my sense of patriotism has finally found a love worth loving in a land and a people that had loved me back from the moment my parents have conceived me in body and God had given me soul.

I love my country, the Philippines! And as Almighty God would have me love all things well, I shall, for God and Country, love her the way a son should love a mother. For I know that home is where my heart is and my native homeland shall and will always be the Pearl of the Orient Seas, the one and only Republic of the Philippines, and my people, the one and only Filipino nation.

So help me, God.

- EJ San Miguel

An Ode to the Beloved

to you who inhabit my heart and mind --

Like a flower deep in the forest
that no one was meant to see
God made you beautiful as you are
to uplift and inspire the heart
of a lonely traveler such as me

Your presence caught me
between two worlds, you held me
your spirit lifted my soul to the sky
as here on earth you caught my eye
even as time stood still by and by

You are a reflection of Divine beauty
that quicken my heart to it's destiny
you are a light amidst the darkness
shining with joy inside my memory
that rouses my mind to such clarity

You are strength for the wanderer
a beacon to light my way back home
beautiful amidst the desolation of life
a giver of peace to this pilgrim soul
you are the end to my every strife

Beloved, indeed, you are precious
like a treasure, secret and hidden
you give reason to hope above hope
beyond every limit, you beckon me
to burn for love of you for all eternity

Life is a journey we all make --
an uncertain passage through time
but I will walk with you, my beloved
world upon world, never to leave thee
for I will be what you became to me

- EJ San Miguel