Am Mijares

Mercy is better than sacrifice

Jesus, on Easter morning when she appeared to Mary Magdalene called her by name. Everything about her Jesus seemed to forget: her sins, her past. He, source of perfection and the perfect One called her personally by name who is the imperfect and miserable. Therefore, is this not so for each of us also this year?

For all that we considered negative 2011 could be transformed by the mercy and love of God into positive.

Even this year He is our Savior, the healer who calls us by name.

Who are we then to judge our brother/sister? Mercy is better even than sacrifice.

Brothers of a family

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Morning Views from a room :)

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An old but new church

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The drive to our final destination in Bex was about two hours with the beautiful swiss landscape. A stopover and sharing in car and a short rosary we then arrived.

Experience of church and love of those in center crowned our trip. Beautiful fraternal encounter which could only be explain not only by sacramental brotherhood but by the past years effort to be faithful by everybody. More has yet to come but I prefer not to write hem here but instead in my heart. I will be offering these following days to those of you who believe in Love.

Doha stopover, preparation for the unexpected

Now we are landing for Zurich. The pope in Spain ended the world youth day and announced it will be held for the nest time in Rio de Janiero Brazil. Two million evangelized evangelizers. Was happy to be updated while in Doha by radio vatican magnificent images from Rome reports.

A stopover in Doha was a place of preparing myself to be with Jesus aided by the events of WYD. A purification and a detachment of the graces received in this past spiritual hear to be able to welcome hopefully the graces reserved by God to His Church through this unworthy servant.

I could not but praise God and say the Magnificat in this day of the queenship of Mary. She has been always on the way. I hope that like her we were able to give Jesus, only Jesus to our seminarians, priests, and the local church. How could I thank more? With all participants in this meeting (150 I was told) I will contribute my part to make this presence more a reality as much as I could to make the church more beautiful. Amen.

Pics hastily taken from NAIA and Doha

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Jesus is our rest

The desk for the transient had a short line. It's four o'clock in the morning. Some minutes after entering the quite lounge someone stood up as if waiting for me to arrive. Another ushered her hand and there lying in a slightly hard coach the structure of which is not really for sleeping but for just sitting comfortably. All of us on the other hand would like to get some sleep. Even the mosque beside are occupied by men who lie down on the carpet which was supposed to be for prayer. Families singles and all kinds. But I am always struck by mothers taking care and giving preferences to their kids though sometimes they are quite mischievous. In that room to my wander and I do not know what sleeping position I did, sleep was granted. In waking up diabetis was high but I injected only the normal dosage. I do not want to have a hypo The meal ticked they gave me said "heavy" all beCy with carbo. So before boarding I figure out another dose of insulin. The airport in early morning is very peaceful. Morning prayers again is said through my faithful iPhone. So I decided to make a little walk. There were free duty shops and a kind of hotel inside. The one in the lobby is obviously a Filipino. Trying to make him feel at home I spoke also in Tagalog asking about the system of accommodation. Although a friend Carlo told me about this I bothered myself to ask how to avail of it. Answer it depends on your ticke and if you are a transient foe more that eight hours. I known ticket is the cheapest so I figure out there is no hotel. I did not need it anyway for I feel rested already. Rested with whom. "Come to me" Jesus said. More than anything else, from a person who does not even know where to lay his head would say "Come, and I will five you rest." How true it is!The desk for the transient had a short line. It's four o'clock in the morning. Some minutes after entering the quite lounge someone stood up as if waiting for me to arrive. Another ushered her hand and there lying in a slightly hard coach the structure of which is not really for sleeping but for just sitting comfortably. All of us on the other hand would like to get some sleep. Even the mosque beside are occupied by men who lie down on the carpet which was supposed to be for prayer. Families singles and all kinds. But I am always struck by mothers taking care and giving preferences to their kids though sometimes they are quite mischievous. In that room to my wander and I do not know what sleeping position I did, sleep was granted. In waking up diabetis was high but I injected only the normal dosage. I do not want to have a hypo The meal ticked they gave me said "heavy" all beCy with carbo. So before boarding I figure out another dose of insulin. The airport in early morning is very peaceful. Morning prayers again is said through my faithful iPhone. So I decided to make a little walk. There were free duty shops and a kind of hotel inside. The one in the lobby is obviously a Filipino. Trying to make him feel at home I spoke also in Tagalog asking about the system of accommodation. Although a friend Carlo told me about this I bothered myself to ask how to avail of it. Answer it depends on your ticke and if you are a transient foe more that eight hours. I known ticket is the cheapest so I figure out there is no hotel. I did not need it anyway for I feel rested already. Rested with whom. "Come to me" Jesus said. More than anything else, from a person who does not even know where to lay his head would say "Come, and I will five you rest." How true it is!

Am Mijares

God's time is distinct

In somewhat fleeting time the plane is arriving in Doha. Having prayed maybe three rosaries and listened to the breviary three timesnot mentioning a quite balanced but heated supper and midnight dinner which also served as my breakfast or was it supper? We are now landing. It's good I did not forget my medications insulin included. With a full stomach and perhaps with a high glucose level which I could feel on my eyes the instruction for mt connecting flight announcedseems non understandable. It is another station of a penitential life with it's own joys which grows from loving the cross. This might be a good preparation for our meeting. I do not know if there would be a place to rest for even it is past nine pm my biological time is actually two am. Just keeping myself awake by writing this on the convenient and portable I phone. But now I have to be ready for real landing thanking God for at least all are safe.
Am Mijares

A long and lonely Trip?

On the day when i have to check in for a long and lonely trip, the pope had celebrated the mass with he seminarians in the Almudena cathedral in Madrid. I hope that our here seminarians, our selected delegates to the 26th world day which is being held in Spain could attend. I know there is a simultaneous congress for and of seminarians in the outskirts of Madrid but our delegates have organized already before their iterinary together with the other Filipino youth delegates. Just concluded was the via crucis in which the artistic and antique statues from all over Spain were showed in front of the world as the world is present in Spain. The pope invited the youth to consider and take a look at all sufferings encountered as part of Christ's. Interesting was that they requested youth who have undergone real sufferings in life http://bit.ly/pgKIZb And here I am traveling alone to a meeting-retreat in Bex, Switzerland. I wish I could a priest companion with me like years before but . . .

Well in the stations of the cross Jesus was practically alone. It qas for gum intensely very long In part what would be a reason to complain? Not all could travel with all the expenses and requirements for a visa. More so everything is providence. And even a seat was offered to me with leg space unexpectedly. God's live has been always present. And God is everything. Why complain? With any trips
In our lives is never long, love has no bounds and it never lonely, God is always in our company.

Am Mijares

Why is God closest to us in moments when He seems to Abandon us?

Abraham, going up to the mountain of sacrifice, together with Isaac knew that he has to offer his son. It is what is called human sacrifice, sometimes practiced in early primitive religion. There was a need to establish the truth about God, Yahweh, in is life and therefore God himself put him to the test, an absurd test.

With the promise that God will make his descendants as many as the stars and having only one legitimate son, Isaac, this same God, asked him to offer his son as a living sacrifice. Abraham, deep in his heart feels the pain of loosing a son for the sake of this self-proclaimed God whom he did not even knew totally. It is only by faith that he follows this calling.

Isaac however, has no idea of what is going on till a certain point that he was looking for he victim. With all the evidence around him, he finally understood that he will be the victim. Surprisingly he succumb to the idea and, if I am not mistaken, offered no resistance. But deep inside, we could enter into the helplessness of Isaac, and even doubt that Yahweh is the true God. How would a God believed by his father Abraham be such a cruel one?

He could have felt a certain abandonment, especially that of his own father. He is being sacrificed like a pawn. The love of his father is lesser that the love to a Being whom he does not even know. Anger, frustration, mixed with blind trust could have been inside his heart. Certainly, we could ask: Was he not abandoned by his father?

Here we enter into a paradox. In as much as Isaac feels this abandonment by his father Abraham, the very same father feels at the same time the suffering of offering his son. In as much as Isaac feels that his father is not in his side and leaves him alone to the point of death, Abraham at the same time, who loves his son dearly, suffers pain in an even more degree. In as much as Isaac is in darkness, Abraham his father, knows perfectly well what his son is undergoing and is closest to him.

We could understand a little the similar experience when Jesus the only son of God, nailed of the cross, dying, cried out: "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" The father in heaven, in a certain sense is closest to His only son, when precisely His only Son feels the abandonment.

God is our loving Father. When we have to grow, and make decisions as if on our own, and we feel abandoned by our heavenly Father, like in the case of Isaac and Jesus, since we are all sons in the Son, Jesus, our Father in heaven, in those times and occasions, is precisely closest to us.