HELPLESS WITH THE VICTIMS: DON'T LOOK THE OTHER WAY

I can turn off the news,

I can block out the views,

I can alter my reality,

but is that my answer to their calamity?

Help me hear what my soul says

Strength to love, strength to pray, help me amass

Help me not look the other way

And remind me as often that...

this too shall pass.

You look at the scale of devastation made by typhoon Haiyan (local: Yolanda) in the Philippines and you get lost for words. Your head struggles to absorb the reality, seems like just in a movie. For a moment, you space out. Then you start admitting to yourself it is real. You are on one end --- the observer. At the other end is this tons of people, tons of your countrymen in agony. It makes you feel so helpless for a second that you just wanna look the other away.

Each and every time you see the news about the suffering of victims of Yolanda typhoon, you feel a punch on your stomach and you feel nauseous. You cannot understand why all this has to happen and you struggle for ideas on how to help ease their pain. You start saying a prayer, begging God for mercy.

But there's another prayer that is equally important: A prayer to help each one of us not to look the other way.

SEWA Application in Sharjah - Bachelor Tenants

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...

Take Away My Freedom

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.

I Almost Left the Catholic Church

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...

Have HOPE.

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