Have HOPE.

Ah, the joys of a new job! Five years ago, I walked into this clinic with a backpack full of experience from companies that thrived on digital workflows. Imagine my surprise when my new employer's idea of "appointment scheduling" involved a color-coded system of sticky notes and a well-worn appointment book. Patient records? Buried in folders that resembled archaeological digs. Appointments were lost in the Bermuda Triangle of Outlook calendars, patient history resided in folders that resembled ancient scrolls, and the search function was a rumor whispered by stressed receptionists. But fear not, for I, the keyboard crusader, have arrived! Three years later, the clinic is a digital haven. This is the legacy I leave behind, a streamlined system that will become the stepping stone for new hires. But is that a bad thing? My sweat and blood is just a short-cut key of a new joiner?  Let's be honest, folks. We've all been there. You put in the blood, sweat, and ...

The Holy Spirit stopped me.  Since last year, time after time, I read news about our highest shepherd doing things that are against my core belief, things that I felt are being twisted, being made sound complicated to understand yet only to lead to wrong things.  Such is blessing relationships in sin...how can a sin be blessed, I asked myself. It is just wrong and I will not accept this. Needless to say, I am scandalized. I had to contemplate. This month, God led me to Armenia.  I saw the Armenians preserved their faith, and Christian practices in the Church. I have witnessed how sacred they still keep the traditions. I wanted to become part of that. I had to contemplate more. I asked the Lord to help me make the right decision that night when I came home from Armenia. In my heart, I will start looking for the church here in my community, the Orthodox Christian church. Sabbath day came. I attended my Sunday Mass. I thanked God for having brought me to Armenia and learned...

TAKE AWAY MY FREEDOM (by Lea Maria) Take away my freedom, O Lord, the freedom to turn my back on You. Take away my freedom, O Lord, the freedom to hurt You. Take away my freedom, O Lord, the freedom to hurt and be indifferent. Take away my freedom, O Lord, the freedom not to love as You have loved me. Take away my freedom, O Lord, the freedom to live just for myself. Take away my freedom, O Lord, the freedom to be deaf and blind to the needy. Take away my freedom, O Lord, the freedom to waste the time that is meant for You. Take away my freedom, O Lord, the freedom to ignore You when I know I heard Your call. I don't need these freedom, I don't want these freedom. Take away instead my life if my existence will be filled by these. For I only want to serve You and love You and glorify You. All the days of my life, O Lord, I belong to You.

Just this August, 2023, we moved to Muwailah Commercial, the New Muwailah. Coming from Old Muwailah with monthly rental tenancy, the application for SEWA for an annual tenancy is new for us. The office of our new place required us to process SEWA on our own. That means connection for water, electricity, and gas are all our part. From the office instructions, everything seemed to be very easy. And so I thought. Until I started the legwork! One thing was common from all the departments I was asked to go to: all their answers to my questions varied from person to person! They differ in their responses! Just when the officer you are talking to tells you that you only need this and that paper to present to the next department, you’d be surprised that the next department will ask something else instead! So. Tons of patience, so I thought. But for all of you who landed on my page and are really in need of some guidance, well, here’s your lucky day! Am not gonna let you experience what I...

  Find yourselves small and ignorant. Not to be sad, but to believe and feel that there is a single being that knows all, and this is the Creator of all things.   - St. Joseph, 2015 It makes you so small.  So helpless.  It forces you to be little and dependent. Your being bubbly leaves you.  Suddenly, you are not that assertive anymore.  You just want to listen when someone is with you.  You just let go of everything that is not necessary. You stop looking for fun.  You lose interest in being entertained by things you see on television. You just want to be quiet.  You just want to be attentive. IT IS TIME TO WALK WITH JESUS IN HIS WALK TO THE CALVARY. Few days ago, before I got sick, I was having a conversation with a priest friend and I was telling him "I feel I have not done so much for the Lord.  All I do is pray.  But praying is so easy."  I said it so casually that I did not realize I must have become boastful at that ...

The Unity of Two Worlds This  is the proof that with God, even the most damaged relationship can be healed.   For all of us who have been brain-washed by media for hundreds of years, making us think that Muslims are bad people, let the Christians who have lived and co-existed with them be heard:  the Muslims who are true to their religion are very loving people.  In the same way that the Christians who are true to their religions live the teachings of Jesus by heart and are loving people too. The Christians in UAE thank  His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, for such a loving heart, allowing our highest religious leader to set his feet in UAE.  We thank also our Pope Francis for being true to his mission, reaching out and becoming the channel of peace.  If one of this two heads refused the prodding of the Holy Spirit, this crucial, memorable historical event would not have taken place...

Have you ever been attacked by the Suicide Demon? In one of the apparitions of Mama Mary to visionaries, she has mentioned that in the last days, many of the faithful will be taking their lives by their own hands and many will fall.  Those closest to Jesus will be attacked. If you search google about what goes on in the mind of someone about to commit suicide, most often than not, you will end up reading lines like 'no one knows what he/she was thinking before it was committed'. Well, today is your lucky day.  Below is an information straight from someone I know so well who was a hair-strand away from committing suicide. My head was very heavy.  I was bombarded with all sorts of dark thoughts, of reasons why I should take away my life.  I was so full of hopelessness.  A part of me was telling me 'tell the people you love about this, you gotta let them know' but another part of me was telling me 'just keep it to yourself'. How did the feeling s...

19 7 Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which will be given for you; DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME"  (Luke 22:19) God knew that without Jesus, we cannot live up to our commitment to God. He knew we will have amnesia at some point. Or worse, not just 'at some point'.  We do have amnesia every now and then! One day, we are so spiritually high. Next day, we are floating in a sea of desperation. One day, we kneel down promising to be a good Christian, Next day, we are spewing fire over anything we can imagine. We forget. No matter how often we profess our commitment to God. We do forget. We do forget. WE DO. WE DO. WE REALLY REALLY DO! AND THAT IS WHY JESUS SAID " Do this in remembrance of me."   The Holy Communion . First celebrated in the Last Supper. Continuously being done in every single Holy Catholic Mass!   So we don't forget Him. So, if someone asks you why ta...

TO GOD BE THE GLORY! 

I see beauty in the vulnerability of another human... We were all born sweet, cute, adorable in the eyes of mankind.  Indeed, we were.  We had that innocence, complete trust and smiles that could melt the hearts of our parents. The beauty of our souls radiated like a beacon light to all our family members then. Then as we journey through our lives, we get bruises and calluses that tarnish us. We get scars that somehow deminish the light from our beacons, bit by bit.  Until one day, we look at the mirror and realize how difficult it is now for us to smile. We find it difficult to give a stranger that cheerful look, that which could give hope. We now fail to grin to our family members that sends that unspoken 'You have me' words straight to their hearts. As we journey, we learn to build defenses, we learn not to trust.  We unlearn all those wonderful things that made us sweet, cute and adorable in the eyes of mankind.  We no longer want to ...

Some of us learn through life by mistakes, making us imperfect with our pasts.  Some of us have even damaged past, not just imperfect, but totally damaged past that moving on is all we would wanna do.  Some of us are judged, some looked down, some become the topic of mindless discussions from time to time. Cheer up.  Never get affected.  Some blessings are in disguise. We are blessed because through that imperfect past, we are provided with knowledge that most young people really  need for guidance as they grow up.  With the knowledge we acquire from our imperfect past, we are provided with the choice to become a medium for other souls to be protected from committing the same mistakes we did, or at least present them the consequences of doing the same mistakes.  In essence, we become useful.  We help save souls. Yes, we are blessed and we can become a blessing to others. Never get affected by gossipers, by what others may say behi...

I knew I was going to cry the moment I heard the news. But for some reasons, it just won't fall. I knew I was going to be affected this day but for some reasons, it just wont sink in right away. I had to go to work. I had to wait until my work ended. I wanted to start writing already about her,why her death affects me. I remembered. A year ago, I signed a petition for OFWs, a petition that originated here in UAE, from a Filipino, addressed to her:   To fight the intrusive inspection of the Bureau of Customs on OFWs Balikbayan Boxes. I searched from my inbox and saw the emails. Our signed petition.  And her response. Yes.  She did respond. That's when my eyes became like a faucet of tears. Because that issue was close to my heart. And signing up on that petition was the least I can do to help my countrymen with that issue. And it was given attention by the very first Philippine government official ever that I h...

We have just been touched by another saint in this generation.

If you realize that the person in front of you, or a foot away from you is a suicide bomber, what will you do?  Suicide bombers are there because they want us to be terrorized, to be paralyzed by fear. And when our mind is not conditioned to really counter the fear, when we are on that situation on that very second, we can be paralyzed by fear. So to counter it, we should condition our mind for it.  Research, google on stuff about it. Encourage the town officials to conduct self-defense training. Increase social alertness, not just awareness. For ourselves, what do we do?  Like, once we come across a suspicious person, say the person is sitting beside us watching basketball in the arena, wearing bomb vest and looking agitated, what do we do about it? Do we wait for some other people to notice it?  If we are very sure about the person, and there's no time, how do we keep their hands away from detonating the bomb?  We have the Police forces. ...

Nine months caged in a bag.  Inside a human body.  Inside your mom's body.  And that was just the beginning for your hero's journey in carrying you through. Or maybe not.  Maybe someone else took that job from your original hero.  Maybe someone else became that hero for you.  And you also call that hero your 'mother'.  Maybe a second mother but still a 'mother'. Filipino mothers made it to the headlines this year.  A mother filled and consumed by tears of sorrow for the innocent daughter in jail, a hopeful mother for a son bringing glory to his country and to God with his very own body on the line, a mother grieving for a son defeated by illness. Mary Jane, imprisoned in Indonesia, victim of drug trafficking. Its very easy to judge these mothers over the net, criticizing them, finding faults, making fun of them, as if they their pains are just any normal pain our own heroes suffer everyday. It doe...