Prayer for the middle aged

This is among the  beautiful prayers I have come across and it is amusing to use at times.

It is my hope that you will also find this prayer beautiful and useful.

Lord, you know I am growing older.
Keep me from becoming talkative and possessed w/ the idea
that I must express myself on every subject.

Release me from the craving to straighten out everyone's affairs.
Keep me from the recital of endless details.
Give me wings to get to the point.
Seal my lips when I am inclined to tell of my aches and pains.
They are increasing with the years,
and my love to speak of them grows sweeter as time goes by.

Teach me the glorious lesson tha toccasionaly I may be wrong.
Make me thoughtful and not nosy,
helpful and not bossy.

With my vast store of wisdom & experience,
it is a pity not to use them all.
But you know, Lord, that I want a few friends in the end.

AMEN

A world w/o Wikipedia.

Jan. 18, 2012 Philippines saw the blacking of wikipedia in protest to the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) pending at the U.S. Congress. 

As a result students were not able to plagiarize er research for ther assignments.

My personal opinion is a world without wikipedia will be a world of challenge as students will be force to go to their school library and research.  Online encyclopedias like wikipedia only encourage academic complacency. 

I hope to see a renaissance period in education where students would flock to their library opening moth ridden books, borrowing them and talking about it with their friends.

Until that happens, I will be using wikipedia for the time being.

Deliverance and Exorcism: A Diary of a layman#1

Just one day after the attacks some students in a particular school.  Another case sprang, I took it upon myself to do the Deliverance Prayer.

After the person has came back to her senses, I now have the following insight:

1. Deliverance Prayer even in a private capacity is draining for a person.
   This means that after the Deliverance, the Deliverance Team was exhausted in all aspects of their person.  Physically, emotionally and spiritually.
   
2. Crowd control is a must.
   People will always be intrigued by the paranormal.  It can not be avoided that Kibitzers (uzisero in Tagalog) will attempt to join; unwittingly they can only exacerbate the situation.
   
3. Pray with good intentions.
   Prayer must come from the heart, not out of some sick egotistic sense of pride.
   
4. Learn to be Thankful
   Be Thankful to the people around you and the gift of life.

Indeed as it is writted in Luke 1:37: "For with God nothing will be impossible.” 
AD MEIOREM DEI GLORIAM!!!

Myths on exorcism

Today I witnessed an oppression.
Oppression is an external attack by spirits to a person.

I was scared, really!  I am not even sure if I was of any help.  What are the myths on exorcism that I'd like to tackle?

1.  Only priest can perform exorcism?
A half truth!  We have a private exorcism or private deliverance prayers that the lay people can use.  We must bear in mind that prayer must be with faith and not superstition.  Its hard to see if the prayer was whole done with faith or superstition during a deliverance session.

2.  Praying over a person will immediately remove the demonic oppression / possession (both terms are different theologically speaking).
Blame that on our culture of instant gratification.  We wanted cure instantly.  If our prayers are not answer immediately we either sulk or lose faith.  Deliverance may even take hours or even years.  its not for people with little patience.

After I was saying deliverance prayers, someone asked me if the Gideon's Bible may have contributed to what happened (some students were playing spirit of the coin, a poor man's version of the spirit of the glass).  

It goes without saying that we must acquaint ourselves more with our faith.  The good news? The fact that almost everyone took a knee and prayed. Now, that in itself was power!

May the Holy Spirit keep you safe!

Defense against the dark arts!

Me wearing yellow the color of Fear (according to Thal Sinestro of the Green Lantern myth anyway).  On my right is Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia who is an author on the book on Exorcism published by Shepherd's Voice Publications.


The Devil is a real!
he tempts us daily, even in my dreams he stalks me.  Sometimes he uses rationalism like when I was tempted to study divination (which I did for 2weeks).  In College, I studied Hypnotism; tried to hypnotize myself and didn't work; I quit.

Studying divination was a different matter.  Tried to let the Tarot cards read my past and it did read it so accurately that I was scared witless.  On the evening of the same day, I had a dreamt I was killed by someone stabbing me.  In my dream, I shouted and pleaded telling myself to wake up.  Took a long time for me to wake and when I did I was sweating profusely.

I immediately confessed to a Priest but still there are times my dreams are not good.

These events transpired last year, despite my service as a lay man.  The devil used my own reasoning power against me.  From the seminar, I learned that Satan is real, as is his minions.  He would prefer it if you didn't believe in him; makes his job easier.

To see within me is to see myself
The seminar lead me to many things:

• Catholic apologetics, where no catholic ever says sorry in his effort to defend his faith (why call it apologetics when they don't apologize is beyond me, this is an attempt to humor albeit a crude one). 
• Appreciating the gift of life
• Rekindling a devotion to the Holy Rosary.  

 The seminar may have ended but the as Niko Kazantzakis wrote:

 "My principle anguish and the source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh." 

                                                                         and so the war continues on....

Philo 7

All classes in Philo7 for August 16 and 18 will have their examination on the next week.  Aug 23 and 25 respectively on the schedule of your classes.

Taxation Sat News

Students in taxation Saturday schedule will have their midterm on Aug 20.

There will be an oral and Midterm exam on the said date.

Assignment: Answer pg63 of the book.

For the coverage: refer to the midterm of the book on taxation

Art or not?

I just read about that CCP Kulo Exhibit and found this art to be really offensive to Catholic / Christian sensibilities here's a sample:

The middle part that the guy is looking at is very disturbing.  WoW!  The artist really knows how to attract attention and scandal.