remembering the martyrdom of St.Lorenzo Ruiz- First Filipino Saint

Lorenzo Ruiz was Filipino, Although his father was Chinese and his mother, Filipina. He was born in Binondo, Manila between 1600 and 1610.

According to the documents cited to proclaim him "Blessed", his parents were devout Catholics. He was christened "Lorenzo" after a martyr during the 3rd century persecution of Christians. his surname "Ruiz" was taken from the last name of his godfather.

In his younger years, Lorenzo served at the convent of Binondo Church, Manila Philippines, as Sacristan.

After several years, Lorenzo Ruiz earned the title of "escribano" or notary. He became an active member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, an organization devoted to the Blessed Virgin. This group was organized in the Philippines in 1587.

Lorenzo got married but the name of his wife was not mentioned in the documents. He confessed before he was convicted that he was a family man - having a wife with three kids, two boys and a girl.

In 1636, a grave crime was committed in Manila. Authorities conducted a manhunt for Lorenzo because they believed he knew something about it or was himself involved in it. When Lorenzo learned of some missionary priests leaving for Japan, he asked if he could be allowed to join them. And he was allowed aboard the ship bound for Japan, along with the Dominicans, safe from fear of being implicated in a crime.

At that time, there was a wide scale persecution of Christians in Japan. All those who professed faith in God and served as missionaries were jailed and even up to death. Their lives were to be spared if they would renounce their Christian faith. But thousands of Christians chose death rather than renounce their belief in God. And Lorenzo Ruiz was among those who underwent such excruciating forms of persecution.

One of the forms of punishments imposed on Christians was "hanging in the pit" on the hills of Nagasaki. The victims' feet were tied to a beam, the body hanged upside down and the head occupied the amount of the pit. Lorenzo Ruiz went through this agonizing punishment when he refused to renounce his faith.

During the investigation, he answered: "I'm a Christian and I will remain a Christian even to the point of death. Only to God will I offer my life. Even if I had a thousand lives, I would still offer them to him. This is the reason why I came here in Japan, to leave my native land as a Christian, offering my life to God alone."

He was told that he would be put to death if he did not renounce his faith. He said he will never disown his identity as a Christian. It was on September 23, 1637 that he begun to undergo "hanging in the pit".

Lorenzo Ruiz was proclaimed " Blessed" in February 1981 at Luneta, together with 16 other companions, in connection with Pope John Paul II's Papal visit to the Philippines. Thus, of the 17 beatified, 10 were Japanese, 2 Spaniards, 1 Italian, 1 Frenchman. Ten were Dominican Priests, two Dominican brothers, two Dominican nuns, and four lay persons. Only Lorenzo Ruiz was married and head of a family.

He was canonized and declared a "Saint' on October 18, 1987 in Rome. As such, he is now worthy of being venerated and honoured in the Church Altar. His feast day falls on September 28.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

coping up with the longest journey...

In my community, monks are allowed to go on a home visit under ordinary circumstances once a year for only twenty five days inclusive of a round trip travel time.



In circumstances that don't fall under the ordinary like death of a sibling, or a serious illness of parents, a monk is allowed to go home for a maximum of three weeks inclusive of a round trip travel time. such is stipulated in our Customary Practice.



whenever a monk is sent home for these reasons other than the ordinary, travelling by land or by air seems like a lifetime... Heightened emotions like restlessness, uneasiness, nostalgic moments, and boredom usually take over and capture him all throughout his trip or flight. It seems like getting back home entails eternity.





Now, my reflections to tell: These Ten Realities at random are what a monk (or even an ordinary one like you) thinks, feels believes in and experiences whenever circumstances beyond the ordinary occurs in his life.



1. Losing a loved one is like having the rug swept from under him.



2. The tragedy never goes away. He just learn how to cope with it and keep moving on.



3. He really never gets over the loss of a loved one. He just tries very hard to get on with his life.



4. when he is grieving, pity is one of the emotions that surfaces and the shock will create irrational thoughts especially when he has gone through so much.



5. It appears unbelievable and he really would not have imagined that he would still be sane today, but he is.



6. Time is a good healer, but family is the greatest support that he can ever have.



7. He realizes that his experience would allow him to reach out to others and make a difference in the life of others who may still be grieving or have just lost a loved one. He Doesn't give up hope ever.



8.There is no way he could have done all he did without being in the denial stage of grief. He goes through the motions, but does not believe any of it. He kept his feelings in check because he doesn't want to upset his mother any longer. He also goes through the guilt state of wishing that he were the one who died instead of his sister.



9. He Keeps on living and he will be healed of his grief one day, but he must remember to stay close to his family in the process.



10. He also goes through the guilt state of wishing that he was the one who died instead of his sibling. He feels guilty for being the one who is still alive. He wasn’t able to deal with his feelings right away because he was thinking more about how to comfort his mother.

Need i say more?







this one was an image taken by Rebecca , a very dear one, who took her precious time just be able to meet me for an eyeball (for the first time) at Tom Bradley Int'l Airport terminal Los Angeles, while waiting for my 11:45Pm flight to Hongkong.





some random images i took minutes before my plane took off.









while in the Philippines, some blog friends took their time despite their busy and hectic schedules to meet me for an eyeball (first time , too) that turned out to be very fulfilling and remarkably memorable one.



There are, indeed, a million things that friends can do, like drying one's teardrops in his eyes and lending a shoulder to lean on in times of great anxiety and distress.



jeprocks and iRonnie at Saisaki restaurant Ayala Center with me.





Sasha with me in a restaurant at SM North EDSA, in which it's name slipped my memory.





BrVince with me in his receiving room.





Wendy and Karen with me at Shakey's QC.



To you, my dear friends, i thank you so sincerely.

Luke 16: 1 - 13...You cannot give yourself both to God and to Money

photo owned by storm crypt of Flickr

Text
1 Jesus told his disciples, "There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.
2 And he called him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'
3 And the steward said to himself, `What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
4 I have decided what to do, so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship.'
5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, `How much do you owe my master?'
6 He said, `A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, `Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'
7 Then he said to another, `And how much do you owe?' He said, `A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, `Take your bill, and write eighty.'
8 The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.
10 "He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches?
12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot give yourself both to God and to 'mammon' (personification of wealth and avarice as an evil spirit)".

my reflections:
Today's Gospel gives us an astounding impact on how we should conduct ourselves in dealing with God and to one another in the pursuit of wealth and money.

We are reminded once again that material goods and wealth are necessary and good, because they come from God's hands. Consequently, we have to prize them.

But we cannot “worship” them as if they were God and the ultimate meaning or purpose to our existence.

Let us give ourselves a clear understanding that riches are meant for us only to better serve God and men, our brothers; but not to expel God from our heart and our deeds: as what in (Lk 16:13) says, "You cannot give yourself both to God and to Money".

Do not let greed drag us along; we have to practice liberality, which is a virtue we should all have, whether rich or poor, each one depending upon his circumstances.

We have to give others; share them what we have!... What if I have enough for my own expenses? Yes, but you must also try to increase your wealth to be able to give more (parish, diocese, Caritas, apostolate, monasteries).

Remember St. Ambrose's words: "It is not part of your worldly goods what you give to the poor; what you are giving them is already theirs. Because you have appropriated what has been given for the fulfillment of all. Land belongs to all, not only to the rich".

Luke 8: 4 - 15... Seeds not fruits

text:
4 And when a great crowd came together and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable:
5 "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
6 And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
8 And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold." As he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
10 he said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, that they may not believe and be saved.
13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy; but these have no root, they believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
15 And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.

my reflections:
One time, i went to 'Whole Foods' in Sta Fe to buy fruits for my community's week-long consumption.

Monks love to eat varieties of fruits so i made it right to drop by the grocery store to pick some for them as i would not want them to get disheartened and disappointed in case they find nothing in the pantry the next day.

To my great surprise, i saw nothing in the fruit stand and so i asked for assistance from one of the guys connected with the grocecy store and said to him: "hey, i did not know you don't sell fruits anymore!." i exclaimed. The guy replied: "i'm sorry brother, but we don't sell fruits anymore", he apologized. "why is that so? hhhmmm, it's a bit strange that you don't carry fruits anymore huh?," i quickly told the man with a bit of sarcasm. "But wait a minute brother, we sell seeds, you may want to buy a few of them", the man explained in a little bit of excitement. I was taken aback. I thought to myself, what can seeds do to the monk's appetite and enthusiasm for fruits?...

Well, just like in today's Gospel, Jesus Christ sells seeds. he sells seeds of peace, joy, and unity to us.

The seed for joy is called forgiveness. If we learn to forgive, to love our enemies, to forget our grudges, then the seeds of peace and joy will grow and we will reap the fruits we are asking from the Lord.

Let us look therefore, into our hearts and see if we are ready to sow those seeds.

Sometimes we are just too preoccupied, too excited with such compulsive concern on harvesting and enjoying the fruits, that we are not ready to work and labor.

We can ask the Lord for peace, joy and unity, but first let us be ready to take from Him the seeds that grow in order to enjoy the fruits we aim and long for.

God bless us all....

What do we as Catholics believe about the afterlife and judgment?

Catholics believe that each person possesses an eternal soul, which is separated from the body at death and goes on to eternal existence.

We believe in a judgment after death, where each person’s eternal destiny is determined by an examination of his or her life and whether the person has truly repented and followed Jesus as Lord of his or her life and Savior, by God’s grace.

The end of the age will occur when Jesus returns in power and glory, to judge the world, in His Second Coming. The righteous will receive a glorified, resurrected body.

Catholics believe that one should be prepared for the hour of death at all times.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: …When He comes at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, the glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace.
…after death the righteous will live for ever with the Risen Christ and He will raise them up on the last day. Our resurrection, like His own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity (Triune God).

desktop view

Prologue:

quoting iRonnie , he says:

... "Most people spend a considerable amount of time in customizing or in finding a desktop wallpaper that suits their taste. Sadly, our computers often remains… personal. Why don’t we brag to the world our good-find wallpapers and let them have a peek to our personality via our desktops?

On the other hand, aren’t you curious on how does your favorite bloggers’ desktop look like? Don’t you want to find out how organized, or disorganized :D, they are?

With that, I am inviting you to participate in this tag and give the cyber world a Free View of your desktop."...unquote.



So, with his intro, i present to you my desktop. You have to bear with the image as it's captured by a digicam and not thru a screen capture.



-silhouette that is…. most of the icons in my desktop. Why? Hhhmmmm, its hard to explain but I prefer them to be in their silhouettes…LOL. (No further explanations).



About the icons, there are a lot of them, lots yeah. You know, my laptop is my best buddy in the monastery…. Hhhmmm, in the vernacular language, I should say, gusto kong lahat sila na kinakailangan ko na nagbibigay ng ibat’t ibang impormasyon sa akin ay dapat nasa desktop ko para anytime na gusto kong mag refer sa kahit na anong impormasyon from the internet ay madali ko nang mahahanap at matatagpuan agad ang mga ito…they’re just a click away , ika nga. i don't own my time in the monastery. i don't have the luxury of time to find sites and programs in my kept files.



First and foremost, you will find in my desktop the icons of Gospel Readings for the day, Meditations and reflections of Bible readings, and Homilies of Cardinals and Bishops. They help me a lot in my daily ‘Lectio Divina’ ( Sacred Scripture Readings inside our cells from 4pm to 5pm everyday- Perpetually Professed monks conduct their Lectio in their private cells while the Temporarily Professed monks (Juniors), the Novices and Postulants conduct their Lectio in common, that is, inside the Reading Room of the monastery)



The icons of sites that bring me to a variety of dictionaries and thesaurus help me greatly in writing my own reflections of the day's Readings. With them on my desktop, I won’t need any printed dictionary anymore for me to be able to get to a word that will answer my inquiries.



Another icon that gives me so much help is the site of our ‘internet cash register’ for Visa and Mastercard credit card validations. With it in my desktop, I don’t need to encode its URL over and over again to be able to enter the amounts paid in credit by the customers of the monastery’s gifsthoppe.



I also have an icon of language translations from english to Korean, Latin, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Bombay, and Filipino. This helps me get to understand the languages spoken by my monk brothers in the monastery. Without this icon, communications with the brothers in the monastery who speak different languages will be a sure terrifying experience for me.



I have icons of video players in my desktop that help me a lot in playing videos of different regions. I am sure that even if one dvd is formatted in Region I, Region II or even in Region III, still with the use of my GOM player, DivX player, Magix media player, Nero media player, InterVideo WIN video player or VLC player or even my Cyberlink Power Dvd player, I will be able to play all of these dvds formatted in these three regions. With them all in my desktop, I can easily click and or exit them as I try to view one particular video file.



Cd and Dvd burners are also of utmost importance for me in burning video clips and files of related shows and movies as well. So I needed to have their icons ready at hand in my desktop.



Communications play a very important role in making our lives at the monastery stable, settled and sane. Icons of my Yahoo Messanger with Voice and Chikka Text Messenger are of equal value to me as they help the community save its dollars for overseas calls to my family and friends here and abroad. Hence, their icons are a must in my desktop.



I have icons of folders of History, Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, My recent Documents, Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup. With these icons in my desktop, I don’t have to spend time finding them in the midst of my laptop's files. They help unnecessary files and garbage files get cleaned up so easily, and with them ready at hand, I easily could perform the cleanup and thus helps my laptop speed up the browsing or uploading and downloading of internet sites that I am opening up in everyday of my life in the monastery.



Lastly , I have an icon of HJ-split program in my desktop.. With this icon, I am able to avail of its service in joining and splitting large video files that I upload in my YouTube site….

So, these are what you can find and view in my desktop.



The persons I want to have a Free View of their desktops are the following:

Vera , Sasha , brVince , bluepanjeet , chuva



[TAG STARTS HERE]

My Desktop Free View Instruction:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun.

You can do a screen capture by: [1] Going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12 key). [2] Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V). [3] If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.

B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of icons. Things like that.

C. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.

D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.



List of those who participated in the tag:

iRonnie

skippyheart

thesserie

domlawrenceosb

your link post here



[TAG ENDS HERE]