Living Lent with a compassionate gaze

It has been said that the season of Lent is a period of repentace, sacrifice and mercy but the call to being merciful to the point of having a sentiment, heart and eyes like Jesus has never been so evident and concrete as much as this time. A professed christian is called now, more than before to live a coherent life.

The message of Benedict XVI for this Lent 2006 delineates a clear program in living authentically the spirit of Lent guided by the very words of the gospel: "Jesus, at the sight of the crowds, was moved with pity."

The Pope begins this message saying that "Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Him Who is the fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself accompanies us through the desert of poverty, sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter."

Benedict XVI continued his message quoting his predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II bringing into evidence their revolutionary teaching on the dignity of the human person affriming that the true content of "humanism" consists in the "fully- rounded development of the whole man and of all men and women." And we should fall -attest the Pope- into the temptation to reduce Christianity to a merely human wisdom, a pseudo-science of well-being. That this secularized world aim at striving for the good of man, but man who is truncated... however, continues the Pope, that Jesus came to bring integral salvation." It is this integral salvation that Lent puts before us, pointing towards the victory of Christ over every evil that oppresses us.

Pope Benedict concludes, "we entrust our lenten journey to Mary, the fount of hope, so that she may lead usto her Son. And the Pope commends to her in particular the multitudes who suffer poverty and cry out for help, support, and understanding and he imparts his special Apostolic Blessing.

May this Lenten message of Benedict XVI may truly be a program not only in our life today but for always. http://http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=83732

Bata, oy bata!

In a Trentine dialect a child is reffered to as "popo", a child - a bata. These few lines I wrote some days ago are refelctions of the world of a child "created" purposely for him.

How beautiful it is to be a child again!

"Bata, oy bata!
Turuan mo akong maging ikaw.
Bata, sige na bata,
tulungan mo sa aking mundo
ay lumisan.

Saya, galak, tuwa
ang nakaukit sa 'yong mga mata
sa puso ang ligaya ito'y damang dama.
Sa makulay mong mundo
Dalhin ang ninanais ng puso ko.

Sigla, tawa, laro
ito ang mundong iyong kinagigiliwan,
lungkot at luha dito ay walang puwang
sa munting mundong iyong ginagalawan
sana sa 'king buhay ito'y ilarawan.

Bata, oy bata!
Paano kita matutularan?
Dalhin mo ako sa iyong mundong
puspos ng kapayapaan
at kasiyahan na siyang iyong tanging buhay.

Ako rin... Magpakailanman!

Since I came back from my one year stay in Rome I have not had the chance to post a single article, I was taken by a lot of things plus the adjustment period and ... a lot of things that have truly eaten up my time.

Finally today! I thought of posting a poem that came spontaneously while I was taking a moment of rest and reflection. It's in Filipino, the language of my deep rooted sentiments!

The verses speak openly of a heart conversing with his crucified friend.

" Sa lahat ng iyong minahal,

bawat taong iyong hinirang,

Sa dulot mong saya at tuwa

bakit sugat sa iyong puso

ang ganti ng bawat isa?

Bakit luha sa iyong mga mata ang

natatanaw sa 'twi-tuwina?

Inalay mong liwanag,

gabay sa bawat lakbayin,

ang saradong puso at minimithi ay dilim.

Bakit nga ba sa puso ikaw'y walang puwang

Ang pag-ibig mo ay di namamasdan?

Sila ba o ako

ang may kagagawan

sa lahat ng sugat

na nababalot

sa iyong katawan?

Paano, o paano nga kaya

makiisa sa iyong pagdurusa

at sa iyo ipadama

aking pag-ibig sa bawat t'wina.

Ako rin sa lahat ng oras,

sa lahat ng panahon.

Ako rin katulad mo magpakailanman!"