Saturday, August 27, 2011

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!!!


Thursday, August 25, 2011

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!

Friday, August 19, 2011

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....

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

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.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

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

Monday, August 08, 2011

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.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Pets and more

on a cold night like today.  My aunt randomly threw a towel for our dog to use as a blanket and this was the result.  Needless to say, I ran off to get a camera yet skip was still motionless as if waiting for me to get her picture.  She's such a ham on this one.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Funny conversations

Me:  You have gotten so thin? you might be anemic?
Student: What do you suggest I would do, sir?
Me:  Take Sangobion for anemia
Student:  Will that make me FAT?

******
Consequently there's a student who does not know how to download the notes in my previous post.  (ORLY?) perhaps she was plain lazy for a prime being.  

This Wednesday Aug3 I will be absent for my afternoon classes to get a flu vaccine from my doctor.  Assuming the schedule will not change. 

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Continue on Philo hand out

Download the hand out

It up to 8pages now ... yeah I know insert sarcasm.  I'm getting lazy lately and will have to work on that one.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Getting Old

Being a teacher has its share of ups and downs.  I just realized that I have been teaching for almost a decade.  Its amusing that I have never celebrated my work anniversary or anything. 

I had just finished reading Jeph Loeb's Superman for all seasons. There's a very beautiful line:

We can be grateful for the seasons, no matter how cruel or harsh they may seem.  For it is only through their passage that we can truly appreciate the future.  

Serendipity, perhaps? As the reading came in a time that I have been doubting my career choices.

Was my career choice not only good but did it inspire others to do good? 

Good Luck? Bad Luck? Who's to say, too soon to say.  Too soon to say.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Gay Marriage in the Philippines

A lot of good google will do to you rather than reading some news.

Last week saw the solemnization of same sex marriages in Baguio by Bp. Richard R. Mickley of the Metropolitan Church Community Philippines (MCC).  I will try my best to be objective in sharing my readings, as opposed to a research, even if I am a devout Roman Catholic.

Bishop Richard R. Mickley has a blog too suffice to say his group isn't affiliated with the Vatican or the Archdiocese of Manila although their office is in Quezon City; they have adopted St. Aelred fo Rievaulx as their saint for Lesbian and Gays.  Incidentally, he is the bishop of Catholic Diocese of one spirit.  the group is in existence since 1991.

What the news tries to block on account of sensationalism is that this group has a freedom of religion, albeit questionable as it runs counter to our traditions and culture which itself becomes part of the law of the land.

If you have seen Br. Richard Mickley's garb, which can be found on his blog.  It raises the following question:

a.  Is the group really Catholic?
Based on their beliefs there are many parallels with Roman Catholicism as well as Greek Orthodox Catholicism but at certain point deviates from both religions.

b.  Is the marriage binding as far as our laws are concerned?
Law students will no doubt have an easy time in answering this question but Philosophy majors will spend more than a year pondering it.

c.  How different are they from Roman Catholicism?

But it can not be denied that they have made history in the Philippines.  They lived their "faith", they acted it on the way they trust it to be.

How about you? Does your faith bear fruit?


NOTE: 
This article does not support MCC but it aims to awaken people from the idiocy of labeling something as bad based on pure conjecture or on a faith that they barely understand.  

As I always say in Philosophy classes in U.V.: 
"How can you say that something is bad if you had not tried it?" but then again curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back!!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

In construction Philo7 handout

Hopefully by next year I would have finished making a handout for Philosophy of Man. Here is the file http://www.sendspace.com/file/ecx0a4

It is using sendspace. Kindly view the webpage properly by scrolling down and pressing the download button.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Repost of my old poems

Dreams by Aljoriz M. Dublin

With the torrent of rain that greeted my day,
it is my hope that this luck would stay.
and If by chance I can no not smile
I just won’t let all my dreams to die

So all I can do is dream and dream
Think of all the brand new scheme.
Every waking day we plan and plan
as we work each day to please a fan.

Dreams of dreams o wonderful dreams
Live and love are not made of creams
So let us dream and plan to live a life
so that our stay in earth won’t be a strife.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The year that was

2010 was a good academic year, although I am sad to see a few of my good coworkers to move on to better academic pursuits. I can only content myself in the fact that I am staying with UV to fulfill a dream.

Still I am grateful that they have touched my life in a profound way. Many thanks goes to the following:

Dr. Jose Galleon
Dr. Bernardita Soledad

I will never forget your contributions to UV