I see my turning 40 in the following quotes:

Life begins at 40! (Walter Pitkins)

Life begins to be better in one's middle age.

I’m 18 with 22 years of experience!
This wine is forty years old. It certainly doesn't show its age (Cicero).
To think, when one is no longer young, when one is not yet old, that one is no longer young, that one is not yet old, that is perhaps something (Samuel Beckett).

The 40 Cities/Places I have been to:

USA

California

1.      San Francisco

2.      Elk Grove

3.      Sacramento

Nevada

4.      Reno

5.      Las Vegas

New Jersey

6.      South Plainfield

New York

7.      New York City

Washington DC

8.      Catholic University

US Territories

9.      Guam

Asia

10.  Philippines

11.  Vietnam

12.  Singapore

13.  Taiwan

14.  Hong Kong

15.  Macau

16.  China

17.  Israel

Africa

18.  Cairo

Europe

Portugal

19.  Lisbon

20.  Fatima

Spain

21.  Madrid

22.  Caleruega

23.  Salamanca

France

24.  Lourdes

Italy

25.  Milan

26.  Como

27.  Bologna

28.  Florence

29.  Assisi

30.  Siena

31.  Montepulciano

32.  Rome

33.  Napoli

34.  Pompeii

35.  Amalfi

Switzerland

36.  Lugano

Czech Republic

37.  Prague

Poland

38.  Krakow

Germany

39.  Mainz

40.  Frankfurt

I am known by family and close friends to be picky on food. The list contains 40 dishes/beverages my palate prefers.

1.      Rice (plain, garlic, fried, arroz caldo, risotto, valenciana, champorado)

2.      Talong (torta, fried, alla parmigiana)

3.      Noodles (beef, sotanghon, pancit, palabok, sphagetti)

4.      Chicken

5.      Shrimp

6.      Alimasag

7.      Sausage (longaniza, hotdog)

8.      Pinakbet

9.      Tuna in can

10.  Tofu

11.  Italian Pasta

12.  Ice cream (sorbetes, gelato)

13.  Coffee (Columbian, cappuccino, dunkin donut’s)

14.  Creamer (coffee mate)

15.  Wine (red and white)

16.  Tea (green, Japanese)

17.  Chocolate (dark, salted caramel)

18.  Peanut butter

19.  Fish (fried tilapia, tinapa, ball)

20.  Spam

21.  Pork (dinuguan, adobo, barbeque, sinigang, chop, tocino, batchoy, humba, menudo)

22.  Kare-kare

23.  Junk food (chips)

24.  Meryenda (lumpia, turon, kamote-que, taho, kinulti, ginataan, buko pie)

25.  Desert (leche plan, biko, tiramisu, halo-halo)

26.  Chicken egg (hard boiled, fried, poached, omelet)

27.  Pizza

28.  Bruschetta

29.  Liquor (whisky)

30.  Fruits (apple, orange, guava, strawberry, prunes)

31.  Burger (ham, bacon cheese, chicken)

32.  Pancake

33.  Beer (San Mig Light, Taiwan, Japanese)

34.  Nuts (corn, wall, chest, pistachio)

35.  Salad (vegetable, fruit, macaroni, buko, potato)

36.  French fries

37.  Pandesal

38.  Juice (calamansi, orange, lemon, cranberry, papaya milk)

39.  Condiments (salt and pepper, garlic, chili, ginger, fish sauce, ketchup, vinegar, butter, mango tomato salsa, bagoong, rosemary)

40.  Green and leafy vegetables

Laughter is the best medicine. My 40 favorite source of laughter are:

1.      Ellen De Generes

2.      Jimmy Fallon

3.      Steve Martin

4.      Will Ferrel

5.      Senator Miriam Santiago

6.      Perci Perez

7.      Jeff Dunham

8.      Gabriel Iglesias

9.      Ramil and Nel

10.  Kelly Pickler

11.  Steve Harvey

12.  Stephen K Amos

13.  TVJ

14.  Bubble Gang

15.  Novak Djokovic

16.  Robin Williams

17.  Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean)

18.  Billy Crystal

19.  Ai ai delas Alas

20.  Scary Movies

21.  Whose Line Is It Anyway?

22.  Fr Romy, CS

23.  Finding Nemo

24.  Jimmy Kimmel Live

25.  Sofia Vergara

26.  SNL

27.  Shrek

28.  Forrest Gump

29.  Nora Ephron

30.  Tracey Ullman

31.  David Walliams

32.  Sister Act

33.  Just for Laughs

34.  TV News Bloopers

35.  Tom and Jerry

36.  Sandra Bullock

37.  Nova Villa

38.  Tina Fey and Amy Poehler

39.  Comedy Central

40.  Ratatouille

The 40 Saints I usually invoke for spiritual help.

1.      The Blessed Virgin Mary

2.      St Joseph

3.      St Dominic de Guzman

4.      St Catherine of Siena

5.      St Francis Assisi

6.      St Claire Assisi

7.      St Thomas Aquinas

8.      St Albert the Great

9.      St Therese of Liseux

10.  St John of the Cross

11.  St Teresa Avila

12.  St Martin de Porres

13.  St John Macias

14.  St Rose of Lima

15.  St Padre Pio

16.  St Lorenzo Ruiz

17.  St Pedro Calungsod

18.  St John Bosco

19.  Sts Peter and Paul

20.  Sts Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

21.  Sts Michael, Rafael, Gabriel, the Archangels

22.  St Augustine of Hippo

23.  St Monica

24.  Bl. Pope John XXIII

25.  Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

26.  Bl. Pope John Paul II

27.  Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman

28.  St Jude Thaddeus

29.  St Ignatius of Loyola

30.  St Agnes of Montepulciano

31.  St Bernadette Soubirous

32.  St Narcissus

33.  St Maximilian Kolbe

34.  St John Mary Vianney

35.  St Martha

36.  St Mary Magdalene

37.  St Jerome

38.  St Faustina Kowalska

39.  Sts Anne and Joachim

40.  St Anthony de Padua

Pope Francis' Message to the PCNE participants in Manila

His Holiness Pope Francis delivered his message in English to all the participants of the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE) which was held at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. The Pope highlighted his high hopes for the Catholic Church in Asia.

The conference is said to be an avenue to rejuvenate the ideals of Catholicism in the midst of secularist and modernist influences buffering its state. Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said that PCNE, dubbed as the Asian gathering of faith, the event serves as a “response to the call for new evangelization—a new way of being Church that responds to the emergent powerful culture affected by developments in information technologies, new media, and social networking that influence the people’s way of thinking.”

***n.b.
“Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Asia! Pagpalain kayo ng Diyos!" (Long live the Philippines! Long live Asia! May God bless you!),” the Pope said. These words were omitted in this video probably because of the strict caption that says the first message 'in english' by the Pontiff... *smh*

Petition approved, now what?

photo c/o www.123rf.com

Gospel Reading: Lk 18.1-8

       1.      The necessity of prayer

Some people don’t see the necessity of prayer simply because they don’t need God in their lives. Others consider God to exist only when misfortune or difficulty comes; busy when it’s peak season but complacent when it’s off season. Still for some prayer is like an attendance in school, you must be present but you can be absent at times.

For a person who truly understands what prayer means, it is a way of life. He or she who sees the necessity of prayer knows that what he/she actually receives is not just the grace he/she asked for but the Source himself. The true encounter with God happens in prayer because it is through prayer that we learn the language of God and able to communicate with Him.

Talking about man-made calamities – killings, abuse, and ecosystem imbalance among others? They have the ‘no communication’ and ‘miscommunication’ as culprits. When we disregard the necessity to learn the language of God we will always end up clueless, accusing and uncaring human beings. Prayer helps us align our intention to that of God’s. I believe that this is the first lesson Jesus is teaching us in the parable: highlighting the vital role of prayer in one’s life.

2.      The unceasing prayer

When prayer becomes a way of life it becomes a second nature. It becomes a breath which vivifies man or as St Chrysostom puts it, ‘As the body without the soul cannot live, so the soul without prayer is dead and emits an offensive odor.’ Prayer then becomes an obligation in the positive sense. It is more like a goal to accomplish, an ambition to fulfill, a deadline to meet or a work to keep only that you are happy about doing it. But like any other obligation, prayer needs desire, discipline and determination. We often falter in such requirements especially when things don’t materialize the way we imagine them to happen. We frown at the result, unhappy we quit, and dissatisfied we resort to short-cut plans. Unfortunately in the long run we give up.

Why continue to pray when one does not receive what he/she asked for? It seems reasonable to say that since a request is not granted that there’s no longer point in praying.  God knows what we need anyway. But St Thomas has this to say, ‘not that prayer is necessary in order that God may know our necessities, but in order that we may know the necessity of having recourse to God to obtain the help necessary for our salvation, and may thus acknowledge him to be the author of all our good. ’

God understands. He knows what we ask of Him but He also knows what is good for us. Sometimes God’s answer is a test of faith, not to disappoint us but to purify our intentions. He actually is always ready to give His grace but oftentimes it is us who aren’t. Unceasing prayer is the process we need to undergo through; the first grace that we should be asking God for in the first place.

3.      The indefatigable prayer

Some people don’t see the necessity of prayer, some people pray but cease when dejected but we are encouraged as St Paul says in the 2^nd reading, ‘I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,…be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient, convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.’ (2Tm 3.14-4.2) We can win the battles of life if we pray like that. In the first reading, Moses and Joshua led the Israelites into victory against Amalek but Aaron and Hur helped them win the battle by their divinely inspired common sense, remaining steady till sunset (Ex 17.8-13). The widow in the Gospel’s parable obtained justice from an ungodly judge because her persistence weighed him down.

It doesn’t take a genius to know how to pray. The saintly Little Flower wrote, “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” Prayer requires willing submission and admission – that prayer is a grace to be received and that without the assistance of this grace we can do any good thing or as St. Leo the Great expresses it, ‘Man does no good thing, except that which God, by his grace, enables him to do.’

Finally, just as the last words of our Lord in the Gospel today, will He find faith on earth?

Amen.

“Increase our faith!”

This is a simple request yet embodies a deeper longing, a humble admission and a willing adherence.

1.      To ask the Lord to increase our faith is to express our desire to understand the things we experience which are beyond our comprehension. We are delighted to have experienced miracles or to encounter extraordinary things yet our intellect is bogged down by the fact that those are beyond words to explain, that they’re just ‘too good to be true.’

2.      To ask the Lord to increase our faith is to acknowledge our ‘littleness’ and limitations. Just because things are beyond our scope that we could not accept or could reject things easily. Our humble admission that without God’s grace we can do nothing is tantamount to the same request the apostles asked, ‘Lord, increase our faith!’

3.      To ask the Lord to increase our faith is to obey, not in the context of ‘no matter what’ but in the context of ‘because the Lord said so.’ Our obedience must not be ‘blind’ but should be rooted in trust and love.

4.      St Thomas Aquinas has this beautiful prayer which expresses the same petition as the Lord’s disciples’ only in an expounded form: "Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen."

“Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to the mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.”

The reply of the Lord seems problematic. True obedience requires reasoning. How can an irrational thing of vegetative soul obey? Or given that it obeys, would it not be contrary to its nature? A sycamore (mulberry) tree does not like to stand in water. It is impossible to plant one in the sea and make it live and grow to bear fruit. But that is exactly the point of the Lord. The exaggeration of his reply pointed to the truth on faith i.e. how powerful faith can be!

In the first place, the Lord:

1.      Desires us to grow in knowledge of Him

2.      Wishes us to grow in love of Him

3.      He is our true friend, one who can be trusted, one who listens, one who keeps his promise to give life, and have it abundantly.

To have a bit of faith (like that of a mustard seed) is a beginning. That is why the Church exhorts us especially in this year of Faith to:

1.      Learn about Jesus Christ

2.      Grow in knowledge of Him and his life

3.      Study, read, preach, share, pray and become obsess because the more we know, the more we grow in love.

Until the time that we embody the words and commands of God that we will be thinking the way He thinks, we will be extending help to others the way He helps, we will love the way He loves. Our help comes from the Lord, and the Lord will supply our needs in order to do the things which are beyond our control.

If we have a faith as small as a sycamore seed, and if today we hear his voice, we must not harden our hearts. Amen.

Agosto, Ah, gusto; Ah, giusto!

Sa buwan na ito sa Roma ay napakainit dahil nga summer, subalit sa Pilipinas naman ay basang-basa sa ulan ang kwento ng buhay. Sa buwan ding ito sa Roma, bakasyon sa eskwela ang mga mag-aaral pero sa Pilipinas nasa kalagitnaan na ng semestre ang mga estudyante. Pagdating sa oras, may pagkakaiba din. Nauuna ng anim na oras ang Pilipinas sa Roma (o Italya). Hindi ko na babanggitin ang iba pang bagay na pagkakaiba ng Pilipinas sa Roma pero ang gusto kong tumbukin ay kung paano, ang isang katulad ko na naninirahan na sa Roma ng halos dalawang taon at umuwi sa Pilipinas upang magbakasyon, ay nanibago at nahirapan sa ilang pagkakaiba na nabanggit ko na. Hindi usapin ang bilang ng taon kundi ang katotohanan na mahirap baguhin ang mga bagay na atin ng nakasanayan lalo na’t wala tayong kakayahan na hindi sumangayon sa mga ito, kapag tayo’y umuwi sa ating sariling bansa.

Personal akong nahirapan sa oras ng pagtulog gayun din sa oras ng paggamit ng banyo. Naging suliranin ko rin ang bilang at dami ng aking kinakain, hindi dahil sa hindi ko gusto ang pagkain kundi hindi maayos ang pakiramdam ng aking tiyan pagkatapos kumain. Ang kapaligiran ko, mga taong nakakasalamuha ko, pati na ang pagmamaneho  at pagbibiyahe ko sa ibang lugar ay bahagyang naka-apekto sa akin upang manibago. Kadalasan kapag ako’y umuuwi ay panay na lamang ako reklamo, napakadaling uminit ng aking ulo at halos wala akong tigil sa pamumuna ng mga negatibong bagay o pangyayari na nakikita ko. Tuloy hindi ko namamalayan na hindi nagiging masaya at payapa ang aking pagbabakasyon. Pero iba sa pagkakataong ito dahil nakatulong sa akin ang pangaral ng isang malapit na kaibigan bago ako umuwi ng Pilipinas. Ang sabi niya sa akin ay kailangan kong ‘magbaon’ ng patience and understanding. Pinanghawakan ko ito at tinandaang mabuti kaya nga sa unang mga sandali pa lamang matapos lumapag ang eroplano na aming sinakyan sa NAIA, nasubukan na kaagad ang aking pasensya at pangunawa. Nasundan pa ito ng marami pang pagkakataon hanggang sa oras na isinusulat ko ang kwentong ito.

Marami akong bagay na dapat ikainis at ikagalit habang ako’y nagbabakasyon subalit naging mabisa para sa akin ang isabuhay ang payo ng aking kaibigan. Dahil dito mas nakita ko ang kabutihan, kagandahan at mga positibong bagay sa mga hindi kagandahan at hindi maayos na pangyayari sa loob o labas man ng aking tahanan. Naisip ko na kung hindi natin mabago ang paligid natin dapat siguro na tayo ang magbago; kung hindi natin mapasunod ang mga pangyayari sa gusto natin dapat na tayo ang sumunod. Kapag ginawa natin ito malalaman natin na hindi naman pala ganuong kahirap sa atin; hindi naman pala puro pangit at higit sa lahat hindi naman pala sila pabigat sa atin. Nasa pagsasaayos ng ating sarili at pagkakaroon ng tamang disposisyon (katulad ng pasensya at pangunawa) ang sagot at susi upang kahit maraming pagbabago sa ating pagbabakasyon, masabi natin sa pagbalik ng Roma (o Italya) na, ang sarap talaga sa atin!