Mama Mary

Today is September 8 (Manila time).

To the Catholics, September 8 is a very important day - for it is the birthday of Mary, the mother of Jesus. But to the Catholics, she is more than the mother of Jesus. Case in point. When it's Christmas, supposedly the birthday of Jesus, you hear Catholics say, Merry Christmas to everyone. But when it's Mary's birthday, you will hear some of them say, "Happy Birthday Mama Mary! I love you!". So the greeting is more personal, isn't it? She is most revered in the Catholic world. There are many titles attached to her name borne out of healing miracles and apparitions, whether clear or mysterious, in different places, all over the world.

She is known as the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mama Mary, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, Our Lady of Lourdes, Mother of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Medugorje, Our Lady of Antipolo, Immaculate Conception...and many more.

I have turned my back on Catholicism precisely because of how Catholics treat Mary. I feel that sometimes she is more important than Jesus. Some Catholics, if not most, would rather pray to Mary than to Jesus, or even to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. It's as if when you pray to Mary, all your prayers will be answered because Mary will intercede for you. It's like presupposing that Jesus can't say no to whatever Mary requests of him. This attitude was borne out of the story in the Bible when Jesus changed the water into wine upon Mary's request.

My Catholic education taught me that God is omnipotent, that is, an all-powerful God; omnipresent, that is, God is everywhere; and omniscient, that is, God knows everything. I can accept these attributes since God is God. What my mind can't reconcile is why some people think and treat that Mary is also attributed with these supernatural or godly powers.

It is only fitting to say that Mary is the mother of Jesus - but we have to qualify - Jesus as a man for Jesus is God and man at the same time. Jesus can't be a man without being born from a woman and God chose Mary to be the mother of His Son. In that aspect, Mary was the most blessed mother of all - and what made it more special is that Mary gave birth to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. That's why she is called the Blessed Virgin Mary because no man touched her before giving birth to Jesus. So if Mary is the mother of Jesus as a man, she should not be called the mother of God for that is not what the Bible teaches.

So it is wrong to associate the all those miraculous and supernatural healings and apparitions to Mary as if she is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Mary is not in the league of the Holy Trinity. Mary is not a God. She was only used by God to be an instrument for Jesus to be born as a man, to be one with us and to suffer the worst form of death which He certainly did not deserve. Just like the role of Judas. If Judas did not betray Jesus, there would be no death on the crucifixion and resurrection.

But because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16), Mary came into the picture to fulfill the biblical prophesy that a Savior will be born in Bethlehem to save mankind from the death of sin.

I do not hate Mary.

What I'm saying is that Mary is not a God. She doesn't deserve to be worshipped. Some Catholics call it veneration. But what's in a name? What's the difference anyway? Catholics build statues and images in honor of Mary, pray the Rosary, pray to her repeatedly, make sacrifices, light a candle, kneel in front of her image when they need something to pray for. Isn't that a form of idolatry which God abhors?

Mary's place in Christianity is secure. She will always be the most blessed virgin mother of Jesus. It was not her fault that people treat her this way, that is, to be treated like a God, like she is equal with God which is not biblical.

Mary should be treated with respect as part of Christianity but Mary is just like one of us, a human being, who was placed in a very important role in the history of Christianity. But that's all there is to it. Jesus is the main story of the Bible. All the Bible prophets, apostles and disciples lived and sacrificed their lives for God the Father in the Old Testament, and Jesus in the New Testament.

To my mind, the devil used some people to depict Mary to what is considered now so that the focus will not be on Jesus. Satan will use any form of distraction to lure people away from Jesus, who is God and man, the mediator between God and man, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

That's one of the reasons why I turned my back on Catholicism -- because of how Catholics treat Mary... like a God.

BGEA: Are You Getting What You Want?

BGEA: Are You Getting What You Want?

Body Talk with Solenn Heussaff

Body Talk with Solenn Heussaff - FUNFARE By Ricardo F. Lo | The Philippine Star >> News >> Entertainment

THIS IS YOUR LIFE.

To be a Real Estate Broker

I recently attended a Broker Accreditation seminar for a residential project located in the North developed by Phinma Properties.

I liked what I learned in that seminar. It only validated my career as a licensed Real Estate Broker.

Here are the reasons why being a Real Estate Broker is worth it.

1. A rewarding profession
2. High income potential
3. Work close to home (I actually work at home!)
4. Flexible hours (that's why I can blog!)
5. Opportunity for growth
6. Be your own boss
7. Investment Opportunities
8. Each day is different

I've had my share in all of the above and honestly, when you provide your clients good service, word-of-mouth  will sustain your business by way of referrals when clients are happy with your service.

Stephen Hawking

He made news again. And his publishers couldn't be happier.

In his latest book entitled, "The Grand Design", he suggested that God did not create the universe and the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics. Therefore, the Creation does not need a Creator.

Just who is Stephen Hawking that he can bravely make a bold statement such as this?

This eminent British theoretical physicist and mathematician first won global recognition for his book, "A Brief History of Time", an account of the origins of the universe.

Hawking, who is only able to speak through a computer-generated voice synthesizer, has neuromuscular dystrophy that has progressed over the years and left him almost completely paralyzed.

With his latest views, he has completely broken away from his previous view that the laws of physics meant that it was simply not necessary to believe that God had intervened in the Big Bang.

Personally, to say that God is not needed for creation runs contrary to my belief because of my Christian faith and mindset.

I still subscribe to the Christian belief that the Creation was God's plan and that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, and the world and all who live in it. (Psalm 24:1)

I will not judge Stephen Hawking for his courageous statement and findings. He is entitled to his own opinion. I just marvel at his intelligence despite his physical condition.

But I wish he refrained from making such a bold statement.

It's too risky especially if God proves him wrong in the end.

The Filipino Today

As a Filipino, I felt compelled to re-post this well-written article by Alex Lacson, former senatorial candidate, lawyer and author. Through this article, I ask for the world's understanding in the light of the botched hostage-rescue attempt recently that created so much negativity against the Filipino.

Ironically, it was the late Ninoy Aquino, the father of the present Philippine President, Noynoy Aquino, who has been receiving a tremendous flak because of the incident, who coined the legendary phrase, "The Filipino is worth dying for"

Please read. A well written article by Alex Lacson ... 

"Fight all this negativity about the Filipino that is circulating in many parts of the world. Let us not allow this single incident define who the Filipino is, and who we are as a people. And second, demand for good leadership and good government from our leaders. Question both their actions and inaction; expose the follies of their policies and decisions. The only way we can perfect our system is by engaging it. The only way we can solve our problem, is by facing it, head on."

The Filipino today

By Alex Lacson

After the August 23 hostage drama, there is just too much negativity about and against the Filipino.

 

“It is difficult to be a Filipino these days”, says a friend who works in Hongkong. “Nakakahiya tayo”, “Only in the Philippines” were some of the comments lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles received in her Facebook. There is this email supposedly written by a Dutch married to a Filipina, with 2 kids, making a litany of the supposed stupidity or idiocy of Filipinos in general.  There was also this statement by Fermi Wong, founder of Unison HongKong, where she said – “Filipino maids have a very low status in our city”. Then there is this article from a certain Daniel Wagner of Huffington Post, wherein he said he sees nothing good in our country’s future.

 

Clearly, the hostage crisis has spawned another crisis – a crisis of faith in the Filipino, one that exists in the minds of a significant number of Filipinos and some quarters in the world.

 

It is important for us Filipinos to take stock of ourselves as a people – of who we truly are as a people. It is important that we remind ourselves who the Filipino really is, before our young children believe all this negativity that they hear and read about the Filipino.

 

We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us.

 

The August 23 hostage fiasco is now part of us as Filipinos, it being part now of our country’s and world’s history. But that is not all that there is to the Filipino. Yes, we accept it as a failure on our part, a disappointment to HongKong, China and to the whole world.

 

But there is so much more about the Filipino.

 

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Hitler and his Nazi had killed more than 6 million Jews in Europe. But in 1939, when the Jews and their families were fleeing Europe at a time when several countries refused to open their doors to them, our Philippines did the highly risky and the unlikely –thru President Manuel L Quezon, we opened our country’s doors and our nation’s heart to the fleeing and persecuted Jews. Eventually, some 1,200 Jews and their families made it to Manila. Last 21 June 2010, or 70 years later, the first ever monument honoring Quezon and the Filipino nation for this “open door policy” was inaugurated on Israeli soil, at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon LeZion, Israel.

 

The Filipino heart is one of history’s biggest, one of the world’s rare jewels, and one of humanity’s greatest treasures.

 

In 2007, Baldomero M. Olivera, a Filipino, was chosen and awarded as the Scientist for the Year 2007 by Harvard University Foundation, for his work in neurotoxins which is produced by venomous cone snails commonly found in the tropical waters of Philippines. Olivera is a distinguished professor of biology at University of Utah, USA. The Scientist for the Year 2007 award was given to him in recognition to his outstanding contribution to science, particularly to molecular biology and groundbreaking work with conotoxins. The research conducted by Olivera’s group became the basis for the production of commercial drug called Prialt (generic name – Ziconotide), which is considered more effective than morphine and does not result in addiction.

The Filipino mind is one of the world’s best, one of humanity’s great assets.

 

The Filipino is capable of greatness, of making great sacrifices for the greater good of the least of our people. Josette Biyo is an example of this. Biyo has masteral and doctoral degress from one of the top universities in the Philippines – the De La Salle University (Taft, Manila) – where she used to teach rich college students and was paid well for it. But Dr Biyo left all that and all the glamour of Manila, and chose to teach in a far-away public school in a rural area in the province, receiving the salary of less than US$ 300 a month. When asked why she did that, she replied “but who will teach our children?” In recognition of the rarity of her kind, the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States honoured Dr Biyo a very rare honor – by naming a small and new-discovered planet in our galaxy as “Biyo”.

 

The Filipino is one of humanity’s best examples on the greatness of human spirit!

 

Efren Penaflorida was born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and a mother who worked as laundrywoman. Through sheer determination and the help of other people, Penaflorida finished college. In 1997, Penaflorida and his friends formed a group that made pushcarts (kariton) and loaded them with books, pens, crayons, blackboard, clothes, jugs of water, and a Philippine flag. Then he and his group would go to the public cemetery, market and garbage dump sites in Cavite City – to teach street children with reading, math, basic literacy skills and values, to save them from illegal drugs and prevent them from joining gangs. Penaflorida and his group have been doing this for more than a decade. Last year, Penaflorida was chosen and awarded as CNN Hero for 2009.

 

Efren Penaflorida is one of the great human beings alive today. And he is a Filipino!

 

Nestor Suplico is yet another example of the Filipino’s nobility of spirit. Suplico was a taxi driver In New York. On 17 July 2004, Suplico drove 43 miles from New York City to Connecticut, USA to return the US$80,000 worth of jewelry (rare black pearls) to his passenger who forgot it at the back seat of his taxi. When his passenger offered to give him a reward, Suplico even refused the reward. He just asked to be reimbursed for his taxi fuel for his travel to Connecticut. At the time, Suplico was just earning $80 a day as a taxi driver. What do you call that? That’s honesty in its purest sense. That is decency most sublime. And it occurred in New York, the Big Apple City, where all kinds of snakes and sinners abound, and a place where – according to American novelist Sydney Sheldon – angels no longer descend. No wonder all New York newspapers called him “New York’s Most Honest Taxi Driver”. The New York City Government also held a ceremony to officially acknowledge his noble deed. The Philippine Senate passed a Resolution for giving honors to the Filipino people and our country.

 

In Singapore, Filipina Marites Perez-Galam, 33, a mother of four, found a wallet in a public toilet near the restaurant where she works as the head waitress found a wallet containing 16,000 Singaporean dollars (US $11,000). Maritess immediately handed the wallet to the restaurant manager of Imperial Herbal restaurant where she worked located in Vivo City Mall. The manager in turn reported the lost money to the mall’s management. It took the Indonesian woman less than two hours to claim her lost wallet intended for her son’s ear surgery that she and her husband saved for the medical treatment. Maritess refused the reward offered by the grateful owner and said it was the right thing to do.

 

The Filipina, in features and physical beauty, is one of the world’s most beautiful creatures! Look at this list – Gemma Cruz became the first Filipina to win Miss International in 1964; Gloria Diaz won as Miss Universe in 1969; Aurora Pijuan won Miss International in 1970; Margie Moran won Miss Universe in 1973; Evangeline Pascual was 1^st runner up in Miss World 1974; Melanie Marquez was Miss International in 1979; Ruffa Gutierrez was 2^nd runner up in Miss World 1993; Charlene Gonzalez was Miss Universe finalist in 1994; Mirriam Quiambao was Miss Universe 1^st runner up in 1999; and last week, Venus Raj was 4^th runner up in Miss Universe pageant.

 

I can cite more great Filipinos like Ramon Magsaysay, Ninoy Aquino, Leah Salonga, Manny Pacquaio, Paeng Nepomuceno, Tony Meloto, Joey Velasco, Juan Luna and Jose Rizal. For truly, there are many more great Filipinos who define who we are as a people and as a nation – each one of them is part of each one of us, for they are Filipinos like us, for they are part of our history as a people.

 

What we see and hear of the Filipino today is not all that there is about the Filipino. I believe that the Filipino is higher and greater than all these that we see and hear about the Filipino. God has a beautiful story for us as a people. And the story that we see today is but a fleeting portion of that beautiful story that is yet to fully unfold before the eyes of our world.

 

So let’s rise as one people. Let’s pick up the pieces. Let’s ask for understanding and forgiveness for our failure. Let us also ask for space and time to correct our mistakes, so we can improve our system.

 

To all of you my fellow Filipinos, let’s keep on building the Filipino great and respectable in the eyes of our world – one story, two stories, three stories at a time – by your story, by my story, by your child’s story, by your story of excellence at work, by another Filipino’s honesty in dealing with others, by another Pinoy’s example of extreme sacrifice, by the faith in God we Filipinos are known for.

 

Every Filipino, wherever he or she maybe in the world today, is part of the solution. Each one of us is part of the answer. Every one of us is part of the hope we seek for our country. The Filipino will not become a world-class citizen unless we are able to build a world-class homeland in our Philippines.

 

We are a beautiful people. Let no one in the world take that beauty away from you. Let no one in the world take away that beauty away from any of your children! We just have to learn – very soon – to build a beautiful country for ourselves, with an honest and competent government in our midst.

 

Mga kababayan, after reading this, I ask you to do two things.

 

First, defend and protect the Filipino whenever you can, especially among your children. Fight all this negativity about the Filipino that is circulating in many parts of the world. Let us not allow this single incident define who the Filipino is, and who we are as a people. And second, demand for good leadership and good government from our leaders. Question both their actions and inaction; expose the follies of their policies and decisions. The only way we can perfect our system is by engaging it. The only way we can solve our problem, is by facing it, head on.

 

We are all builders of the beauty and greatness of the Filipino. We are the architects of our nation’s success.

 

To all the people of HK and China, especially the relatives of the victims, my family and I deeply mourn with the loss of your loved ones. Every life is precious. My family and I humbly ask for your understanding and forgiveness.