Importance of Prayer

As human beings we are weak and prone to commit errors and have limitations.  Life is full of trials and ups and downs which are impossible even for a highly intellectual person to take full control of.  These trials oftentimes are ploys that corrupt our faith and weaken our spiritual defences.  God allows things to happen to remind us of some things that we may have taken for granted or for us to get His message. We need to pray daily to be spiritually healthy and to effectively examine ourselves on how do we respond to calls and graces of God in our daily life. 

Once we discover and humbly accept that we are on the wrong zone of life, the sacrament of penance is our means or way of returning back to the right path.  If we sin, God still loves us despite the offence but we need to embrace humility first and should recognize and accept our faults and be sorry for it.  We need to open up to God and show our repentance through prayers to seek His forgiveness.  God’s love is ever-present but it won’t work automatically in our favor.  We need to seek it and ask for His grace to fully renew and strengthen our spirit.  

As human beings we need help in fighting temptations and this could only be obtained through fervent and continuous prayers.  We should learn from Jesus.  He is God and the Son of God and He don’t need to pray, but in the Holy Bible He did not only taught us but showed us the importance of prayer by setting examples in His personal practice of always taking timeout to pray to the Heavenly Father.

When praying we should strive to make our prayers come from the heart and not merely  to be recited by our lips.  Let us:

·         pray for God’s grace to make us realize and recognize our sins,

·          pray for strength, endurance and wisdom to handle life’s trials and challenges,

·         pray for our love ones and people close to us as we are all responsible for one another,

·         pray for our priests and church leaders specially those who are facing difficulties that God will supply them with strength and perseverance to take into practice their  promises to the Lord when they embraced this calling of serving His church,

·         pray for our church particularly in times where it is undergoing condemnations from outside sources and most of all,

·         let us pray for those we are not in agreement with for enlightenment and conciliation

Food and water makes the human body sturdy and capable, incessant prayers makes the human soul strong and able.

My Christmas Wish

We are on the “ber” months now and this means that Christmas being the most important and exciting season of the whole year for Christians is just around the corner.

Generally Christmas wish is attributed to children who depicts this season as a time of receiving gifts from people who love and care for them.  And for adults, it’s time for proper budgeting in order to properly allocate funds for gifts to be given to love ones, friends and whoever they want to share their blessings.  But now as an adult I also have a Christmas wish and pray that our Lord will find me worthy enough for this gift which I need to ask from Him. 

Abnormal season brought about by global warming had created disasters never experienced before in most part of the globe.  Our place had not been spared and the havoc that nature had brought us was in the form of flood which destroyed properties and claimed lives.  Ten years ago, a flooding story in our area would be considered a fiction but when a typhoon locally named “Ondoy” ravaged our country  on September 2009 this story had become a reality.  The wide devastation sowed terror and embedded an unpleasant memory to minds of residents that triggers anxiety once rain starts pouring heavily. 

This has resulted to my Christmas wish to have a new home in a place where we could again enjoy sleeping soundly despite heavy rain.   I want it to be located in a flood free and landslide free area, and if possible far from established earthquake faults and in a peaceful community.  I know that this wish will have to consider a lot of factors to bring this to reality and foremost is the financial capacity.  And, this is the greatest drawback for our desire of acquiring a new home now.  We want one that we could really call our own and not a rented place where our right to stay depends solely on the owner’s decision on what to do with his property.   Actually my daughter and I had already formulated a plan more than a year ago on how to make this possible but fate interfered and funds allocated for this purpose was diverted to unforeseen hospitalization expenses.  Result of this twist however is a priceless gift, a bundle of joy to all of us, the life of my son’s first baby who is the latest addition to our family.  

Rain had been recurring for days in our place now and a couple of months ago we experienced flooding again.  Although this is very much lesser and not as destructive as Ondoy but every time there is heavy rain pour so goes also the apprehension that we could not just shake off.  If raining is happening at night we could not sleep well out of fear that flood-waters may catch us offhanded.   

Last year we anticipated celebrating this year’s Christmas under a new roof on a place we have conceived but as this seems now  to be not manageable, I am now lifting up this Christmas wish into the will and grace of our Lord.  I believe that He will eventually grant this to us IN HIS TIME and know that 'His time' is just the right time for us to enjoy it.  May our Lord Jesus grant my Christmas wish IN HIS SOONEST TIME.  Merry Christmas and God bless everyone.

Television Drama Shows and Their Entertainment Impact

There are myriad of television drama shows that aim to capture audience interest with the intent of entertaining but do these shows really achieved their purpose?

Here in our country drama shows locally termed as “telenovelas” dominate the viewing schedules of top television stations as these are the most patronized shows compared to news, documentaries, sports and many others.  Themes vary from light to heavy drama, comedy, fantasy, action or a combination of these.  Heavy audience or what is considered “prime time” is during evenings hence, expect this type of shows to dominate the airtime beginning seven o clock in the evening until about a little late before midnight. 

Before, I was also addicted to these shows and there was a time when I don’t mind sleeping late at night just to be updated with the latest events of the series I am following.  Lately however, my interest had waned down and despite the luxury of having the opportunity to be able to watch my favourite telenovela anytime of the day as I am now a twenty four hours stay at home person, most of these shows does not caught my fancy anymore.  And this is due to the following dominant issues in most of these drama shows which are:

§        endless perfidious acts and wickedness of not only one but several characters that stimulate emotions of anger and hatred from the viewers

§        Unending problems and conflicts that almost depict life as continuous flow of problems and miseries

§        Unbelievable twists of episodes  that somehow makes you think as a viewer if your intelligence is being tested

These synthesis of sequences and characters are maybe aimed to highlight or increase viewers’ excitement toward the stories.  I find it however difficult to understand why create a feeling and outlook that tends to be more on the negative side just by watching these shows.  Our main purpose in watching these shows is to be amused and if what we get is a heavy  feeling by witnessing onscreen the sufferings of the main characters where then is entertainment?

Television audience covers all ages and while there are viewers classification in every show but you could not expect parents to be always available to screen or explain the impact of a particular scene which is not adaptable to younger children.  The common plot where villains in the story are endlessly planning devious means to get even or to destroy the main character is unintentionally infusing similar ideas to innocent minds of young tv watchers.   This quote “ Whatever inappropriate act an adult person has made in front of a child will be perceive as proper in the mind of the child” could also apply to shows children watch on television  without the proper guidance of an adult. 

Now, I am just hooked into a couple of drama shows.  One is a light comedy love story which creates a “feel good” mood right after watching, and the other one is a light love story with an interweaving of cultural background/history of a particular country.   I just hope that television companies would be more innovative and conceptualize shows that will really entertain without the heavy feeling and at the same time impart noteworthy ideas in the subconscious minds of innocent growing children.

Caring and Gratitude for Parents On Their Twilight Years

I came across a reality show on television featuring a sixty eight year old father whose old age brought him physical inadequacies that made him dependent to his only living son.  Unfortunately, the son and his wife maltreated the old man.

These are among the abuses done to this pitiful man who could no longer fend for himself.  He was chained like an animal inside a room, beaten, feed with food no longer fit for human consumption and abused verbally by people considered to be his immediate family.  Had it not been for the concern of some neighbors who could no longer stand the inhumanly treatment, these cruelties may have caused the untimely demise (which as it seems would be a blessing to his son and daughter in law) of the unfortunate old man.

During the confrontation the son claimed that he has secretly kept a long standing grudge against his father due to the favoritism (as he alleged) the old man had then over his other sibling (now dead)  while they were still young.  His wife reasoned out that she has more than enough tasks to attend to in her waking hours and  looking after the needs of the old man is something she could no longer manage to.  Some people from the audience including the moderators could not help shedding tears to empathize with what the poor old man had gone through.

Everyone of us and without exception will age by the passing of time.  Basing from this incident, it is important that we should be ready to face the drawbacks and inconveniences that aging brings.  But there is no foolproof formula how to prepare a secure old age as maltreatment happens not only to financially deprived persons but there are also cases of abuse to older people in families who are lavishly blessed.  It is here where family relationship comes in and counts most. 

It is true that it is parent’s obligation to take care of their children and provide them all the physical, psychological and financial help they need. It is parental responsibility too to ensure that their every child will grow up as a responsible person, an asset to society and be fully equipped to face life without expecting any remuneration.  Yes!  It is not children’s obligation to take care of their parents but, if they have the heart and the conscience, they should not let their parents rot in their old age. 

Caring should neither be a responsibility nor a show of affection for other people to appreciate and admire.  It is more of “a show of gratitude and love” to the persons who took good care of us when we were not capable yet of caring and shielding ourselves.  Caring is a priceless “thank you” to the persons who had shed blood sweat and tears to help us become the person we are now.  And who knows, what we are doing to our parents now may turn out to be manifestations of what our children will behave towards us years later.