Open Space...

i hope this coming year would be fruitful to me. i hope i can do better this year. im happy being with my family, except maybe in the affairs of the hearts, lol... by jan 1 i'll be heading to bicol to spend time with my relatives there. be back in manila by Jan 6...see you guys... wish you all a prosperous new year ahead...be good always.. God Bless to All!!! -melskiens-

just recently i heard a news about this dear friend of mine who are going to settle down, she is going to marry by next year. what else could i wish for her? i just wish her to be strong amidst difficulties in life, prosperity and a healthy family. i wish her to live life full of love.. i wish to see them together getting old, guiding thier children to be a good individuals ...to be faithful to their vows and that only death could do them apart...these i long for them.--- in all of these, i want her to be HAPPY! that's all i long for her......

yuppy...i'll be home this Christmas.. this maybe the longing of almost all people who happens to be far away from their homes, to be with their families especially this Christmas. Wherever we are, always remember that Jesus, the Immanuel will always be with us in spite of the reality that some of us can't make it this Christmas. we may not be able to share the laughter, the joy among our families, friends and relatives but thinking of their love for us and the love of God will supplement anything that we for ourselves are longing for. my 2007 was very exciting and full of surprices, there were laughters, joys, but there were also times when i sometimes question my vocation, cried a lot, hurt,....this is also the year when i learn to find myself and able to go look where i am. i learn a lot...i grow...with this, my prayers to all my family who always been supportive in everything i do; to my friends who are always there and cheer me up in times most downfall. to my brothers in t...

the whole night i was awake...with that, i missed the "simbang gabi."..the following hours and the rest of the day would be a disaster to me..that if i will choose not to sleep,lol...but, do i have a choice? surely i'll be high...possibly like walking in heaven,lol,.. "Wow pare! heaven pare,hik hik!!!!".. :-)

i was thinking if my stay in Saysain was really an immersion or a vacation, lol...I enjoy my stay there. It was not that busy compare to my previous stay. i was able to spend more time with my host family. i arrived back here last Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. the night before it, we had a vigil and incorporated film viewing which features family values. they loved it and enjoyed a lot. that was also an opportunity for us to say goodbye to the poeple there. anyways i will still visit them, i can go back there if time permits me...and so leaving them was not that heavy, though i already miss them. when i arrived here, i feel like im back to the real world. schedules of activities are piling up, so maybe you notice that it was only this time that i wrote something here on my blog. Dec. 10, monday, we already had a class, straight untill friday. i still have to conditioned my mind again that i'm now back to the reality that i am a student. not only that, we...

my semestral break was a tiring one, i travelled a lot, i got sick (cough and runny nose), almost got fever, with all those classes we had... but somehow it was fulfilling. i was able to visit my home place and see my family, relatives and friends whom i miss so much. that was the consolation... now it's time for the real world, by tomorrow i'll be heading to Bataan for my immersion program, i'll be staying there for another month, aside from the one month immersion i had in the same place last july. i'm excited but there are reservations on my part regarding what had happened during my previous visit there. i'm caught between two situations. there is this friend of mine in the area who was a rape victim. what i did was to console here and tried to show here that i'm there to support her and give her courage to go on...the thing was, people was so suspicious about the two of us. there were rumors that im having an affair with her...i can't just simply get ma...

Exhausting i should say! Oct. 15 when we arrived in cebu, it was a bad flight. It must have been the pilots' first flight,..Anyway, we manage to went there safe. Tired though, my excitment prevails...Changes,changes,changes! Big structures sprouting like mushrooms, development must have been so dear in cebu. I would say, cebu is booming! Well, the retreat?...of the many learnings i got, there are few things that i easily remember, like the "finger," and the song "you raised me up" by josh groban...the finger is the anology given by our speaker Fr. Paco, a former benedictine monk and now a diocesan priest, who said that in pointing something, we should not stick to the finger, instead, we should look on what it points. we transcend, he said...more or less that was the tone of the talk...the funny thing was.. while fr paco was so serious on this, some of my companion (many are priests) started to go beyond transcendence..they even went up to heaven, by imagining w...

My goodness, my pants are still wet and i only have 13 hrs left from the time our departure going to Cebu, tsk,tsk,...i got lazy yesterday, i did my laundry just this morning and i thought my pants would be dry by this time, just a thought,hehehe...hmmmm, what else? yeah, about the retreat...its a goodthing...i'll be having time for myself. Moreover, the uniqueness of this retreat is that all of us student friars, including the solemn proffesed friars are together. This is in preparation of our 50th year presence in the Phils - 50 years guys!...50 years!....We even have plans of going to mission to Papua New Guinea----who knows, i'll be sent there and be the first missionary O.Carm. in the Phils who would go there! why not! i love it,hehehe....'till here...i still have to check all the things in the big travelling bag i have.,hehe... i received a comment from mariar, i wonder who she is, she even knows bebang,hahaha..you can join..and let's celebrate the octoberfest,hhh...

At last! The first semester is over. i fee like being taken out of a hot pot. Gone are those heavy schedules and paper works (atleast for now). and i'm happy now 'coz i'll be spending my semestral break in Cebu, my beloved Cebu. We'll be having a retreat there for one week and another week for Carmelite studies (not to mention our outing in Bohol,hehe, fun!fun!fun!). This will be a day of rest for me and for the rest of the brothers. I'm now preparing some of the things i will bring back to Cebu. Of course some of my former classmates are preparing something when i get there - the usual cases of beer,lol!!! This is for the observance of the Octoberfest,hahaha...i'm excited now. I miss many of things in Cebu. Well i guess i have to reserve some of my excitement and burst it out when i get there. OK. i still have to wash my clothes, for i might wear nothing in Cebu..hehehe... -melskeins-

Remember my previous post about the exam? It was postponed. And now i have another day to prepare myself for the exam,lol..Today i slept the whole afternoon, that's how i prepare my self, hehe..nah, it's already 6;30 pm here and i will spend my whole night reviewing, hopefully i can concentrate on my studies. For the time being, i still have to watch the news on TV. Godbless... -melskiens-

I'm so busy lately(of what?). We're going to have an exam on canon law. The problem here is that until now (even up to this point while writing this) i still haven't read any thing from my notes or the book. I'm so lazy in studying. I rather play online games, lol!!! Nah, i really have to study, and so i will end this writting for me to study..and hopefully won't be tempt in playing online games....

One can’t deny that every time exposures are said to be conducted, different feelings are coming out. Minds are focusing on how the exposure or the immersion will come out as what it is expected. Perhaps this would be the reason why some students in ICTC would claim that immersion is a challenging experience. No doubt, it’s true. The clashing of feelings is undeniable. I consider my immersion with the community in barangay Saysain in Bagac, Bataan as successful one. Three of my classmates, including myself, went there. I cannot deny the many meetings, tedious schedules, and the squeezing of every idea we shared just to come up with what is best for the people. This however, has proven me how a group can come up with the best decisions that we can work out. We worked as a team and the credit becomes a sweet welcoming of each individual’s personhood. All our efforts as a group have become a living witness of how we consider each person’s capacity and ability to merge as one. The openness...

Conducting ethnographic study does not only happen in any non-government or government organization specializing in investigating social structure of a certain place but also to any institution that wishes to study a certain place. Inter-Congregational Theological Center (ICTC) is one of it. With what we have done in the area, the school has put a certain degree of pastoral flavor on the study. It is pastoral because for me, the study does not end only in conclusions or recommendations written at the end-part of the paper, rather, the study has just begun through opening up experiences from both the people and the one studying it. It does not end on what we can do as researcher but on how we open up talk and dialogue. For I believe, it is the church’s responsibilities to have the community known and understood. The study becomes a medium of both experiences of the researcher and the people learning from each other. There is relationship building up where the concerns, plights and dream...

Standing still on the seashore, sand was on the ground, Gazing heavenward, purple sky is watching my eyes; Waves are singing, songs of lonely lullabies, I knew it then, sun is setting down… Light and darkness are catching their breath, Yet, is on its way back home; Cool breeze touches my skin, gentle as it goes on and on, For the golden sunrays found a place to rest… Do stars and moon would bring joy to me, Whose happiness wanders under the glistening Sun? Can they paint the face of the woman I love? That would bring beauty to a dark color hovers the sky… But when and when this long waiting would end? The long night of so much pain I suffer; Years have to be counted for that new morning ahead, Offers tomorrow that is not of the past… But still nature has taken its own course, Of sun and moon traveling here and there; The dawn has not resembling though, I will stay awake ‘till I reach so… No worries would I become, For I know it brings beauty on my palm; Though yesterday wasn’t that of ...

My Personal Spirituality The term spirituality is very broad and ancient. Even before the word spirituality came about, it was already expressed and seen in the very lives of the people. For this I would say that my own definition or description cannot embrace the totality of what spirituality is, for it can never be. However, I would say that my experience of spirituality is never far from what the ancient people have experienced. Spirituality for me is experienced. This experience has something to do with my whole being. This is brought out from the consciousness gain from my relationship with people and creation that was geared towards the realization of a deeper reality that there is Someone higher than me that sustains my life and the whole of creation. It is on how you became whole and one with the creation of God, the people and the environment and even the cosmos. In our tradition as Christians, Jesus became the mediator between the God and the humanity. Jesus is the bond that ...

NEW GENERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE CARMELITE ORDER On 13 and 14 September 2007, the members of the General Chapter, gathered in Sassone (Rome), elected a new general government of the Carmelite Order for the coming six years. Those elected are: Prior General: Fr. Fernando Millán, O.Carm. (Baet) Vice Prior General: Fr. Christian Körner, O.Carm. (GerS) Procurator General: Fr. Josef Jancar, O.Carm. (BM) Bursar General: Fr. Kevin Alban, O.Carm. (Brit) General Councillor for Europe: Fr. John Keating, O.Carm. (Hib) General Councillor for the Americas: Fr. Raul Maravi, O.Carm. (PCM-Per) General Councillor for Africa: Fr. Désiré Unen Alimange, O.Carm. (Ita-Congo) General Councillor for Asia, Australia, Oceania: Fr. Albertus Herwanta, O.Carm. (Indo) The new Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millàn, was born in Madrid, Spain, on 19 August 1962. At the age of nineteen years he joined the Carmelite Order in the Betica Province. After his year of noviciate, he made his simple profession on 3 October 1982. On...