Ba'e Saná

BA'E SANÁ

Set your non-negotiables, your boundaries, your priorities. So you know how to let some things slide, to not sweat the small stuff, to choose your own battles. The point is not to live stress-free or without worry, and definitely not to avoid conflict – for that makes for a rather dull and shallow existence. But to focus on what really matters, to live with meaning, and to bear much fruit.

SIGE SANÁ

But First Listen

 

Before we raise our voice for any

just cause, or on behalf of another,

first we need to listen: whether by

prayer (which is listening to God),

or study (which is listening to others

wiser, more knowledgeable than us),

and preferably straight from them

whose stories we dare to represent.

For only by the discipline of listening

that we validate our truth-telling.

.38

Napansin ko lang, uso pala ang ang numero 38 sa taong ito,

Karaniwan nang mababasa sa mga police report at pahayagan,
Karaniwang ebidensya sa mga pagpaslang dahil “nanlaban”.

May ilan pang mga naging bagong normal sa kasalukuyan:

Karaniwan na araw-araw ang higit isang dosenang pinapatay
Sa giyerang tinuturing na kaaway ang katotohanan at karapatan.

Pero anupaman ang maging uso, meron pa ring mga bagay

Na di nalalaos ng panahon, katulad ng talinghaga ng pag-asa na
Ang pinakadilim na bahagi ng gabi ay bago magbukang-liwayway.

Pagmumuni’t panalangin sa ika-38 na kaarawan

9 Nobyembre 2016

Change is coming?

I have a premonition, it is strong but not certain;

the signs were there, not too subtle warnings.

We chose fear over hope, because we were tired

of broken promises, so we turned mortals into gods

and bid them to save us. All they asked was that

we ignore their faults and laugh at their humor.

We are a nation of faith, of course, we believed.

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort

at easy answers, half–truths, and superficial relationships,

so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger

at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,

so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed

for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,

so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in their world,

so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Amen.

Firesetter at 37

Lord, I praise you for the strength
of mountains, the longevity of trees,
though I wish them not for myself.
Neither the urgency of streams,
predisposed to seek the lowest level.
Rather I pray for the patience
of bees, working together to share
the fruits of their labor in ways
even they can’t fully contemplate.



9 November 2015
Balay Buhay sa Uma Bee Farm
Bulusan, Sorsogon

The last shall be first

This much I know – the last shall be first,

the angry ones need love the most,

and the bigot, to be heard and understood

Share joy with the joyful,

be there for the sorrowful,

and sometimes just let the lost be

The helper first needs to learn

the poor already want to help themselves,

and victims wish they could but couldn’t

That there is no single rule,

no silver bullet, no theory of everything;

only one way, certain and narrow

A Prayer on Turning 34

As I turn 34, I found advice in an old truism:
I acquired courage and sought to change the world.
I acquired wisdom and sought first to change myself.

And transformations are defined
more by the things I need to let go,
than the ones I need to acquire.

And so today Lord, as I turn 34,
I beg for the grace of a
passionate humility.

I pray for a consuming passion
to serve and to learn, to work and to listen,
to not be discouraged, especially
when dreams are too far to completion,
and inspiration is hard to come by.

I pray for a contrite humility
to confront myself, to break free
from self-deception, to suffer fools gladly
(aware that many times I play the fool myself),
to find glory in honest defeats
and redemption in mercy.

Through Christ, Good Shepherd,
living sign of passionate humility.
Amen.



9 November 2012
Chancery, Diocese of Legazpi

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Stations on the Way to Freedom

The Lenten season onus on self-denial and dying to oneself is really an exercise in finding the path to real freedom, something that can only be found in God. When the mind recognizes this, the heart finally discovers what it pines for all this time. This is what our Christian tradition calls “metanoia”. When this happens, the world may not immediately be less fraught with hardship and danger, yet it will no longer be miserable. For once again, hope sustains and the symbols of faith regain their meaning, and every step taken is a liberation.

This short reflection is prompted when I recently (belatedly yet ever so timely) came across the German theologian and WWII martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s meditation “Stations on the Way to Freedom”.

 

Self-discipline

If you set out to seek freedom, you must learn before all things mastery over sense and soul, lest your wayward desirings, lest your undisciplined members lead you not this way, now that way. Chaste be your mind and your body, and subject to you and obedient, serving solely to seek their appointed goal and objective.

Action

Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment. Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living. God’s command is enough and your faith in him to sustain you. Then at last freedom will welcome your spirit amid great rejoicing.

Suffering

See what a transformation! These hands so active and powerful now are tied, and alone and fainting, you see where your work ends. Yet you are confident still, and gladly commit what is rightful into a stronger hand, and say that you are contented. You were from from a moment of bliss, then you yielded your freedom into the hand of God, that he might perfect it in glory.

Death

Come now, highest of feasts on the way to freedom eternal, death, strike off the fetters, break down the walls that oppress us, our bedazzled soul and our ephemeral body, that we may see at last the sight which here was not vouchsafed us. Freedom, we sought you long in discipline, action, suffering. Now as we die we see you and know you at last, face to face.

Lines written while watching Midnight in Paris

In between a busy day and a busier day next I find myself enjoying this film.

Yet at mid-movie I had to stop, in between Picasso and Gertrude Stein, after scenes with the Fitzgeralds and Hemingway. It was obviously contrived the way they talked like they wrote. But it was heady just listening to them, to Hemingway for example, and remembering how it was always a compliment to call someone’s writing Hemingwayesque. Nick Joaquin’s was a bit Hemingwayesque, or so I think; the late Bishop Pacis’ was definitely Hemingwayesque. And once in a while in my less gifted writing I try to keep the style in mind. But it is not about the style.

It is about the golden age, how every generation looks back
at one to contrast and attempt to escape from a dull present.

It was the character least liked of all, the pedantic one, who said it first early on, only to be realized near the film's end, as in a fable, by a starry-eyed Owen Wilson, playing half-naive, half-wise, for the nth time. Annoying in its irony, but that is the genius of Woody Allen. He has moved me enough to take another moment and look back at our nation's proffered golden ages, then at my busy day and the busier one ahead, and I just know in some future I shall be looking back and declare this day, amidst its dullness and turmoil, its complexity and campiness, I have a feeling that today stands in line with our generation’s current golden age.

29 November 2011

Chancery, Diocese of Legazpi

Trust in the slow work of God

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
       to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way
      to something unknown,
      something new.
Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
      by passing through some stages of instability
      and that may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.
Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on
      as though you could be today what time
      -- that is to say, grace --
      and circumstances
      acting on your own good will
      will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new Spirit
      gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
      that his hand is leading you,
      and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
      in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
      our loving vine-dresser.

Amen.


-- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Memorial to those who perished here

Supertyphoon Reming. 30 November 2006.

If you come here looking for answers
to the whys and wherefores of the weather,
the workings of nature, its beauty and madness,
chances are you won’t find any.

This is a memorial to those who perished here:
pray therefore for their eternal repose,
for consolation to those they left behind,
and for yourself as well,
especially if you come here
caught in your own storms.

And if some deep parts of your being
resonate with a people’s instinct
for humor in dark places, their resilience,
and faith, then leaving here may mean
getting the answer you need after all.

Road to Emmaus

Who is this stranger who
interrupts our sad musings
with lively gait, his words make
impassioned palettes of the law
and the prophets, suffusing the grey
bleakness of these past days
with lights and shades we never
knew existed? On the road

Now at twilight, we thought
that distance might help
clear the dark hues that fill
our minds, that cloud
our places of gathering.
They were warm and humid,
and locked tight to create
a measure of safety, a refuge
for sinners, the spirit of fear
unable to escape as well.

But here the breathing is easy,
and our hearts are ember light.

And though the dark be upon us,
we wouldn't have mind at all
but for practical considerations
like a place to stay for the night
or the warmth of a meal. Should
we ask him to come in?

He doesn’t mind either, and maybe
he wont’ be a stranger for long.

A Resurrection Song

Something stirs this early morning stillness
and makes solemn chant of bird song
and rooster crow. Something. It is

Sunlight seeping through fissures
between leaves, twigs, garden.

It is motion, painting wisp-clouds
from ash blue to sepia cotton
afire. It is a new spirit

Rising from frozen ground and
misty wanderings over sudden
turn of events. Yesterday.
And the day before.

An event, so unassuming
and bare, naked as bared plots
and crucifixions. Who is it
you are looking for?

No regalness, no Handel's Messiah here,
only the theatrics of an angel
perched on a boulder

Unrolled now, exposing
a gaping mouth, voiceless
on a stone wall; Moses on Mount Sinai
dispensing advice to

A couple or so women
staring; unaware of his own charm
or shock value: two guards, dead
frightened, on the ground.
He is no longer here.
He is risen.

Just like that. Just like that.

No ornate cathedral splendor.
No outburst of rainbow colored majesty.
No fiery phoenix he.
Excuse me, sir, are you
the gardener?

It is I.

No hero's welcome here
either, no victory parade.
But a homecoming, yes,
for a prodigal Son sans

The fattened calf. A private party then,
by invitation only, with warm anxious
embraces and holy kisses.

Be not afraid -- he disposing
the first order of the day.
Peace be with you. I am
hungry. What's for dinner?

Later we would begin to understand,
not too fully, just enough, elsewhere
the world blooms on its own, or so it thinks,
and men mind their own business.

But here, today, it is
different. It is the LORD!



23 November 2003
Rm 333, SHN, Novaliches

Morning Benediction

Blessed be the Lord,
the God of mornings, sunlight
passing through curtains,
suffusing the room with the
glow of possibilities.

He gives me strength,
unmerited like the dawn,
makes hard work bear fruit.
I drink the cup of morning's
goodness, as I bless the Lord.



/October 2009, Banaw, Bacacay, Albay

For Ate Nuyen (1959-2009)

SUCCESS
Bessie A. Stanley

She has achieved success
who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
who has enjoyed the trust of pure women,
the respect of intelligent men
and the love of little children;
who has filled her niche
and accomplished her task;
who has left the world better than she found it,
whether an improved poppy,
a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who has always looked for the best in others
and given them the best she had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.


Requiescat in pace, Ate Nuyen.

Psalm 139 (a double tanka)

Yahweh, I know you are near
even when I don't
care, when I let the concerns
of life overwhelm
my pray'r, O God, you are here.

When I need you, you are here
by my side, to guard
me against the demons I've
made - could have been lost
but for You, Lord, who are near.

Billy Collins - "Litany"

why Billy Collins should have been the poet invited to read during US Pres. Obama's inauguration