Remarks on the Natal Day of Mary

This is my closing remarks last 08 of September, on the occasion of the birthday of Mary, our Spiritual Mother.

"Do what he tells you." These are the words of the mother of our Lord to the wedding attendants at Cana. The consequence of their action was the first miracle done by Jesus - turning the ordinary water into the best wine.

The point of this closing remarks is not on the miracle per se, nor on the consequence of obeying our Lord that yields endless miracles. The real point here is discipleship of every followers of Christ.

The reason why we believe in her is because of two things: our belief that Mary is the most powerful advocate or intercessor in heaven, and secondly is our belief that when we pray to her, she will not abandon us but she will help us to accomplish our mission in fulfilling her son's commands for us.

Mary, intercede for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Theology for Personal Purposes

If in studying philosophy one cannot make money out of it, it is not in the case of theology. Many religious leaders in the Christian world have become rich because of theology.

Theology is the study about God, coupled with the divine revelation. It is an in-depth inquiry and research on the nature of God and His will for mankind. This discipline is very rich on how God has reached us out first in order to establish relationship with us – his universal salvific will. Since God is the Supreme Being, He knows all human queries. And that is the reason we ascribe to Him with the adjective word ‘omniscient.’

Objectively speaking, the discipline of theology is full of divine truth. It is not mixed with human understanding called syncretism, for God’s thoughts are beyond human understanding, according to one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament. But what makes the claim that ‘one can make money out of theology’ is of human doings.

The topic on tithing is out of the question here, for all members of any religious institutions are obliged to give one-tenth of his earnings for the support of all the expenses and the missionary activities of the Church, and of thanksgiving to God for the blessing we receive every day. But some religious leaders, who are knowledgeable in theologizing, manipulate and use it other than what is essential for religious purposes.

What is this all about? Theology should be in the service of the God and of the Church. But what we see from our religious leaders? They are using theology in the service of their personal gains by accumulating wealth. I remember the words of the executive director of one of the religious institutions in the city that ‘they are making the Church as milking cow!’ He himself, as a Jesuit priest, testifies to this common observation.

I think this is one of the reasons why people nowadays, who are immersed in the very secular world, do not take into hearts the preaching of their pastors. And if they do not give their listening ears to them, it is because they do not see the truth of theology. It just that people want to hear the real theology that brings salvation and not theology that fishes out money from their pocket.

Theology and the Limitless Queries of Human Reason

I met my former classmate a month ago. We had a short and update about personal life. And I was glad to know that he had just finished recently his doctorate in theology. He went to share about the struggles and hardships in doing the defence on his dissertation. But what stocked to my mind after our chat was when he made mentioned this thought ‘I wonder why I studied theology?’

I, too, asked the same question to my own self why I studied and obtained my masters in theology and in philosophy. In short, what are these degrees had to do with my life? My professor in college commented that studying philosophy would not make you financially rich. It is the truth that one cannot make money out of philosophy. (But I do not believe in the case of theology.)

My personal answer to the question in studying philosophy was I love wisdom. I love reading the thoughts of other philosophers. And in the process of understanding their writings, I would be able to reply to my own personal queries about life and the world where I live. But I always put in mind the limitation of human answers to all human queries. And here the role of theology comes in.

I do believe that theology would show me the way to the ultimate answer to our limitless questions. This can only happen when one would not deny the existence of God and his revelation. To the question on why I studied and obtained master in theology, my answer is very simple. Theology is not to put a stop to all limitless queries of human reason, but theology would lead us to limitless answers to human hunger for truth.

The Simple Notes

This article will show a short explanation on the raison de etre of the blog, its content and methodology.

The intention of the blog is for purely personal consumption. All the articles posted here are products of the author’s personal readings in philosophy and theology. They are his SIMPLE NOTES. The author is not an expert but rather licensed to teach on these two fields. He finished his undergraduate and master in philosophy, and another master in theology.

The author wishes not to waste his time and energy in doing his personal readings on those fields. Since this site is free, he preserves his understanding by keeping all readings in one single file, instead of keeping them in his personal computer. Wherever the author goes, he may have access over them anytime and post other new articles too.

How do these published articles appear? They are written in condensed form, and structured how the author understood the flow of their ideas either in inductive or deductive way. The author himself is not an expert on those disciplines. Instead the author is trying his best to summarize the thoughts of the philosophers and theologians in fragments. It is not scholarly done but the essential thoughts are there.

At the end of each article is the acknowledgement of the source where it is taken, to give justice to the original writers of those topics. No footnotes and bibliography are used, because they are too short. A maximum of one page – letter-standard size – is the size of the content. To reiterate, this blog is for the consumption of the author when he needs them in the future. But the author is willing to share it to any reader who happens to surf this site if he finds them helpful.

What’s on your mind?

The title above is taken from FACEBOOK, a common social networking site today. It has been loved and patronage by many people around the globe. That title is displayed on the homepage of site where one has all the chances to shout at the top of their lungs what they want to say to the world. It is a new phenomenon.

Some may say, and I am not exempted from being one, people who are fond of writing on the space of What’s on your mind are being unnoticed (ta pidi attencion). But that is not all the case. In reading Emmanuel Levinas’ ethics, the face of others tells something about our human existence. Two things I would like to point here. First, a person is a reflection of our own self. He may have come from a distinct family upbringing but how we understand him is not far from what we are. Second, the person whom we have spent a lot of time, though it is not limited to friendship and lovers, is calling the significant other of being heard. This reminds us of our duty in Kantian sense to fulfill for the sake of the good and well-being of the significant other – our ones a fellow member of the community – in this case, the Pastor Bonus Seminary.

In line of this thought, this site will serve as freedom wall where each one can express one’s opinions, ideas and perspectives in life, for we are all graduates of philosophy, which is the unending search of meanings in life. Each contribution will manifest what’s in our mind, and it will be treated with utmost respect, understanding, and most of all, acceptance where each one is remembered in history as brothers. From this I do believe unsolicited but authentic assistance and wisdom will pour down the way.

The One-Sided Speaker

In the previous article that I have written, the whole point of it is to shed light on the role of lay-teachers in the life and mission of the Church. This will bring us to consciousness of many religious people who are being one-sided. An instance of this is the way the speaker neglects the fundamental importance of why these lay-teachers applied in their educational institution during the seminar on the WBLS and RCC.


If I am correct, the speaker began the talk with an introduction on two premises. First is that every Catholic school is founded on the mission of Christ – the reason of its being. And secondly, teachers applied in their institutions because of the need for money. But what happened eventually is that the flow of the exposition is now focused on the mission and not money. The speaker has intentionally separated mission from money.

Of course many are indignant in what they were listening. We could not believe that what the speaker was trying to say, and to support the claim, writings from the documents also been cited. But from the very beginning, the audiences were already following to where the flow of the talk would lead to. And many were expecting that there will be fusion between the two premises. But the speaker has gone beyond the boarder that if the lay-teacher still living with the idea of expecting more and living on compensation, that teacher, according to the narrow-minded speaker, has not imbibed the true intention of the Church – mission.

The speaker has missed two importance matters. To enumerate again, those two things are: the lay-teachers are not compensated through the generosity of the Church’s leaders, and the lay-teachers are front liners and great benefactors of the Church. It is not the other way around because they are not self-reliant. They have not read in one of the encyclical letters that salvation is not only an aspect of spirituality but on the totality of the person (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis). Thus these lay-teachers are not to be fed with purely spiritual matters. Even the speaker herself has already forgotten the second premise that they hire these people because they need money for survival. I just hope that every religious speaker should always bear in mind that no mission has ever survived without the involvement of money, lest there would be no tuition fees to be collected from the students and no payment for the reception of the sacraments in the parish.

Lay-Teachers: Partners in Church’s mission

This article will focus on the lay-teachers who are working in the Catholic educational institutions. This thought has been circulating in my mind after attending various seminars given to the teachers. We, the delegates of representing schools, cannot help but express to our dismay that most of the speakers, usually appointed religious people, are one-sided. The content of their talk is substantial for our professional growth, but somehow detrimental both to the lay people in general, and to the Church, whom we dearly loved most, in particular. What I want to explain here are of two things: the lifestyle of the lay people is different from the religious men and women, and the crucial role of the lay in the mission of the Church. Hopefully, in the end, this will help us enlighten that lay people and religious are unique partners in being the hands of Jesus in spreading the Gospel values.

Objectively speaking, the lifestyles of the lay people and the religious are different. What makes the two peoples different is not their status of life like being single or married. It is because some lay people are also internally professed celibate for Christ like the religious. However, lay people have so many responsibilities than the religious. Lay people, either single or married, have to support their family members and loved ones. Of course the religious people are not exempted from this duty. But the lay people have to divide their meagre salary for his self, and for others. Who is this ‘his self?’ A teacher whose work is far from his hometown, has to divide the monthly salary for the boarding house, for food, and other basic needs like cellular phone load, cosmetics, etc. If the teacher is married, his self is his own partner in life, his children, housing loan, and other basic necessities. On the other hand, the religious people, although they do not receive single peso as his salary, he is provided with everything, from shelter, food, clothing, and other basic necessities too. And somehow they are free from manual work, because they have hired people to do those things. Thus we cannot, and will not ever be, put these two peoples on the same footing.

The role of the lay-teachers in the Church is so crucial for two things. First is that lay-teachers are part of the definition of the word ‘laity’ as members of the Church whose mission is to sanctify all temporal realities. This people are indeed part of the world, immersed in the world, struggling in the world, and spreading the Word of God in their respective places and real-life situation. An example of the crucial role of the lay-teachers, and the lay in general, in the Philippine setting is during the conduct of local and national elections of choosing leaders-to-be of our country. The religious people, who are part of the Church hierarchy, are in neutral status or non-partisan. As part of the mission of the Church, these religious people are giving political education to the lay, because change in the society can be done with them as front liners of the Church. And secondly, the Catholic Church needs the help of the lay people particularly their financial assistance to support her projects and activities. The Church, objectively speaking, cannot survive solely on spiritual assistance alone. An example to this is the dissemination of Mission Sunday envelopes, because financial assistance could not be provided by the Church’s hierarchy alone. Thus there is the existence of benefactors and generous donors.

The invited speakers, who belong to any religious groups, have to understand better their vocation within the Church and the position of the lay-teachers in their educational institutions. Being one-sided is tantamount to say as being insensitive to the realities of life. Religious people have to care more these lay-teachers who are front liners and supporters of the Church, lest they become too narrow-minded, selfish and day-dreamers of the impossibilities.