Mar 19, 2014

My Patron Saint: St. Joseph

 St. Joseph


In honor of my second Father in heaven. Happy Fiesta Sr. San Jose! Thank you for praying for me. I know you have always been there for me, in times of great need and emotional distress, its you i have talked to and asked for help aside from the Lord. Keep praying for me and protect our aim. Help me to be holy(this is too lofty i know). Let us transform lives through holiness.(too lofty again) but wink** wink***

Sorry that i almost forgot your fiest day. But thank you that i was able to go to mass today with my mom and we were able to celebrate your day. Sorry too that i bought nothing. I should have bought you flowers! I left what little money i have at home. :( Next year i hope it would be grand and i would be able to have a celebration in honor of your day with my family. Thank you for everything! Lab yo! <3



An Ancient Prayer to Saint Joseph


O ST. JOSEPH, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in thee all my interests and desires. O St. Joseph, assist me by thy powerful intercession and obtain for me all spiritual blessings through thy foster Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, so that, having engaged here below thy heavenly power, I may offer thee my thanksgiving and homage.
O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating thee and Jesus asleep in thine arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near thy heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath.
St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for me.

Mar 15, 2014

SFC Fellowship

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"


 “And as ridiculous as it may sound,
 sometimes all any of us needs in life is for someone to hold our hand and walk next to us.”  ― James Frey


 Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. 
Just walk beside me and be my friend. — Albert Camus


If you are having difficulty loving or relating to an individual, take him to God. Bother the Lord with this person. Don't you be bothered with him - leave him at the throne. -Charles Swindoll


“Plant seeds of happiness, hope, success, and love; it will all come back to you in abundance.
 This is the law of nature.”  -Steve Maraboli


  “Our love to God is measured by our everyday fellowship with others and the love it displays.”  ~ Andrew Murray




“Fellowship is a place of grace, where mistakes aren't rubbed in but rubbed out. Fellowship happens when mercy wins over justice.”
― Rick Warren


One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. - William Shakespeare.


 The best way to help the world is to start by loving each other, not blandly, blindly, but realistically, 
with understanding and forbearance and forgiveness.  -Madeleine L'Engle






 Rich is the person who has a praying friend. -Janice Hughes


 “If we surrendered to earth's intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees. ”
 “I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people.
 I thought, "This is what it is to be happy.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

 
 “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature." Anne Frank

 But listen to me, for one moment quit being sad.


 “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.”
― Alfred Tennyson

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, 
difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh


 “Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 
'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 
'That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

 “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, 
they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. – Marcel Proust

 May the Gratitude in my Heart kiss all the Universe-Hafiz 


I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.
—  Hafiz

 Come sit with me! Let us drink the holy wine of happiness. ~Rumi

 In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. ~Rumi

 I'm thankful for a pair of shoes that feel really good on my feet; I like my shoes. -Johnny Cash


To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.  ~Jane Austen


 Thou who hast given so much to me, give me one more thing... 
a grateful heart! -George Herbert
 “This sky where we live is no place to lose your wings so love, love, love.”
“I could tell you a priceless secret about your real worth dear pilgrim. 
But any unkindness to yourself, any confusion about others, will keep one from accepting the grace, the love! My challenge is to stand in the circle at every minute of the day: never fighting the present moment, honouring the beauty of where I am standing, and praising the miracles that brought me to this place, 
regardless of whether I have judged this place “good” or “bad.””  -Hafiz



***
Lord, I thank you for Hafiz, the only poet who made me cry. Thank you for leading me to him. I will not forget that moment i opened the book where i discovered his poem. What i carried in my heart that day, the release i felt - i have not danced so badly, trying to hold hands with the beautiful one. Thank you. 
I have been so emotional lately, crying at the most smallest things. Little gestures of love, thank you for letting me recognized you. Thank you for healing my dad. Thank you for your faithful love. "Though many times i run away from you in shame, I lift my hands and call upon Your name, for underneath the shadow of your wings, My melody is You"...My melody is you. I still seek you for i thirst. 
Thank you for my Singles For Christ brothers and sisters. I enjoyed very much our fellowship. I was laughing the whole time and i knew you were too. So thank you, thank you, thank you!


A Student Teacher’s Prayer




Dear God,
As I do my duties as a student teacher today
I ask you to bless me that I may be an instrument of your love.
When my students tries my patience,
help me to be kind.
When they do well, remind me to give a compliment.

Give me strength so that I may be able to do my lesson plans every day.
Lord, let me always come in the classroom prepared.

Enlighten me with the power of your Holy Spirit
that I may be able to discern what motivates each of my students.
Help me not to judge my students too harshly,
to be fair to all, and to just keep it cool.
 
Lord, bless my students and help them as they grow.
May I teach them the things they need to know.
From dullness keep us away,
Let joy and fun be in the room today.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.
 
 
 "Gets?" My expression always during class discussion.

Feb 8, 2014

On Radical Gratitude and Education

Me on uniform

The idea of being responsible for somebody's education terrifies me. I feel like it is too much of a burden. I have worked before and my work does not involve a lot of people. I was just responsible for myself.What a shift of perspective becoming a teacher was. 

Being a student teacher(take note i am still just a student teacher) teaching 80 or so High School students a day and looking at them...And thinking how will I be good enough for them? When i feel like i have really nothing valuable to give. But sometimes light shines through and you get a chance to laugh with your students, they look at you, they get involve and you all of you in the room are one. The vastness of the burden i feel inside becomes bearable. Hey, let's just have fun okay? And not take all of this so seriously. So what if what you can give may not be that valuable enough? Give it anyway. And so what if my feet hurts from running all day(I really need new shoes. Why do i love wearing heels?). And so what if i wake up at 4:30 everyday just to be on time for my early class at 6:30 am. Crazy school schedule! Sometimes i really wish to be the principal of this school where i am deployed. I will change a lot of things! Why are some of these students not in uniform and why are they allowed to get out during class hours? Can somebody please tell me?
And so what if i am still learning how to be responsible. It is not easy to create a Lesson plan every single day.

These students they treat you like equal. I have no problem with that. But sometimes it gets too much and you get to scare them with a minus point. It's crazy how they get so easily scared with a minus point. 

And now because i am tired thinking of all the things i needed to do for Monday. I get to surf the net and then i watch this: Youtube Link << click that for the youtube link. I cannot upload the video. I do not know why.


Education is not an end in itself. It leads out or calls out or revolts the truth of who each person is as a creature of God. Education is essential so that we can go on and become truly who God wants us to be. We don't want to make the mistake of thinking that education makes us good. It doesn't. Some of the most educated people in the world have figured out ways to do some of the most destructive things in the world. Whatever we achieve in education becomes a means for us to transmit the goodness that God has given us. The awareness of being recipient of gift shapes our response. And that response is radical gratitude. 
How are we to live this radical gratitude? By giving ourselves away. Radical gratitude is this emptying out of ourselves for the good of a village, of a people, of a nation, of our own family. The key to existence is self gift. When we give ourselves away, we truly exist. And that is what education at its best! Helps us do well. Namely to live, to truly exist by giving ourselves away. And when we do not give ourselves away, we edge closer and closer to non-being. 
Education is a vehicle to which we reach a deeper understanding of life. And the deepest understanding of life is unity. Awakening from sense of separateness is what all of us are called to do. And with our vehicles of degrees and diplomas we have the means to grow in the sense of unity and to strengthen the oneness with other human beings in the universe. And so what are we to do? How are we going to live? James Moore sums it up in his lovely gospel. 
Touch somebody's heart with your life.
Touch somebody's heart with yours.
Share the gift or your love with everyone you meet
Touch somebody's heart with yours
Touch somebody's life with your life.
Touch somebody's heart with yours.
Share the gift of your love with everyone you meet.
Touch somebody's life with yours.

My dear friends, that's radical gratitude. 
-Sister Teresita Weind, SND 

transcript by me :)

Jan 26, 2014

You Meet Me

Pic no connection with the poem.
I just want to see how Paris looks like in the morning.


You meet me.

There is such comfort in these three words.
For I could never comprehend you.

But you meet me.

You meet me in the morning fresh as dew.
In the evening you are poetry all night long.
And in the dawn, in dawn, you are the stars lighting up my secret reveries.

Jan 10, 2014

Persuasion by Jane Austen



You must forgive me dear reader for spoiling the book for you, but I cannot bear not to put Captain Wentworth's letter to Anne here in my blog. For my heart took wings, smiling like a fool upon reading the letter.


I must advice you to stop and read no more if you want to thoroughly enjoy the book for the said letter near the end is the summit of all pleasures(this story builds and builds and then explodes).


Miss A.E --
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I have not waited even this ten days, could I have read your feelings, as i think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but i can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating in  
                                                                                                                  F.W.
I must go, uncertain of my fate; but i shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A ward, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.


There! Such satisfaction to finally read Captain Wentworth's feelings for Anne; my heart and soul revel in Anne's happiness. haha!

I was smiling throughout the book, very much amused of the tug and pull of emotion it has put me through. Jane Austen is a master of telling mundane everyday life, and situations that can happen most likely to people. She tells it as it is, as it should, yet amazingly well.

My only regret is that I wish i could have read it along with Adriana of Classicalquest. My happiness would have been doubled.  But, yeah, this book leaves one satisfied and I am very glad I read it.


Jan 6, 2014

Out Beyond Wants

Siblings Inc.


Go deeper, higher, and higher;
Be curious of what you'll find.

Out beyond wants, there is peace divine.

Who knows why we're here.
There is no secret path.
Be in awe, that is ALL.
 
Images by Freepik