Ahuv Sheli

part 1 Have you ever 'done' theology? I was amazed by a subject offered in our Religious Science course on "studying and doing theology"...our professors engaged us to live among the poor in the squatters area. It reminded me of the first time I stepped into our mission house...okay, okay...I didn't have to walk barefoot nor sleep on the floor, nor dig out food from the garbage... the thing is, it's so easy to romanticize poverty.  I could do away with less clothes, a non airconditioned room and a tv/radioless area... but when a friend asks me for my webster or my favorite book, or to spare time to listen to a patient after duty hours or to spend less time with my virtual world... it is difficult to let go!  These are my riches...inordinate attachments...   soft addictions  . It's a lot easier living among the poor... but becoming one myself in its real sense is a challenge ... Didn't God Himself, the Word, assume our huma...

There was a moment in my life, when everything could be resolved by eating an ice cream... Me at UP Diliman April 2010 It lifted me up especially during those dry moments... it shifted my focus from what was real... As I grew up, some pains became unbearable. I remember crying too much from broken relationships. My mom said my eyes would pop out... I found solace in the Psalms and spiritual readings. But at the same time, my mom taught me to take a retreat and find God in prayer... At Anilao May 20 Some of God's  revelations come from conversations with friends or from the books I read... but most of them came from listening and  through dreams. My Italian friend once said that I was a fish inside a bowl where everything was provided for: food, shelter, love, family, security...ice cream... But as I grew up, God fished me out of the bowl into a better place where I could extend my arms and swim the ocean of life. Along the way, I met o...

I have not encountered the word until I met Him…to whom I gave ten years of my life. To his friends, it was a fairytale sans happily ever after. To my parents, it was fiction, something that was only brought in by the height of my desires. To people, it was madness… I gave up a promising career, my family and a comfortable life… I attribute the word to love. It compels one to do all those “crazy stuffs”. All art forms putting aside its twin pole, pain, have contributed much to our society. Poems, songs, novel, monuments… and the best are newborn creatures called babies… Many have attempted to define what love is all about…. The greatest of which is the very Word became flesh and lived among us. What madness has He brought confounding all our ideas and fantasies of power and dominion?… teaching us that the way is through the cross. Scourged, crowned, cursed, spitted upon and crucified -not a single word came forth from His mouth. He forgave His transgressors. Whe...