Putting My Faith In Love Line

We cannot discount the fact that moving is such a personal problem only because the March 15 birthday celebrant is still a heart occupant.

Ides of March we call it, the day Julius Ceasar died, but for me it is one of the best day a lover can celebrate. March 20 only comes second. March 20 is the day she graduated in highschool. A miraculous day when I had the chance to see it and celebrate it right there with her. March 2, the day I've learned that Sheena Orolfo exists. it was that summer of 2007 when Lara passed her diadem to Sheena as she leaves our high school academy. Always a great day after celebrating her birthday is the day she along with Rizzel, Chona and other young maidens receive her diploma.

If March 15 is the ides of March, a fire prevention day, March 20 is known as the vernal Equinox. It is the date when day and night are of equal proportion in terms of hour.

As we move closer and closer to March 23 and to the Holy Week, the week where there is less twitter updates and fb statuses, I want to re-assure myself of one promise; that next year's March 15 and 20 will be even better.

Yes, I sacrificed the beauty of the dates this year due to unanticipated circumstances. I must say that there should have been more glory days if have had enough savings and on-the-time allowances but it never happened exactly the way I planned it. Now that we are waiting for Lawson to invade Manila and Demi Lovato singing for Filipinos here tonight. I cannot swallow that easy that here I am spending those days in the ordinary when in fact she wanted me to spend it this way.

Last Monday, I was supposed to be in UP. The Script will have their concert March 31 this year. There's a lot of work and events to attend but I only have me instead. graduation ceremonies are here again. Please, heaven shine on me and bring me Lara. Because anywhere and anytime with her is a spacial date. I don't have to wear new socks nor coat. I don't even need to shave or bathe thrice. I don't need to buy expensive foods and busy myself with a different routine in a different location with a different persona. i only need to love her. I only need to be with her coz everyday and everyplace with her is paradise.

That's how she is to me. That is why she was born. To make everyday a special day.

You don't need to wait March 15 when you're with the one you love. You just need to love. To be. And let her BE. ///

I'm Stuck

I'm Stuck because I cannot move on with my life

I'm Stuck because I still dream about her whether I'm asleep or I'm awake

I'm Stuck because she remains a constant part of my life

I'm Stuck because I still mark March 15 in my calendar and it's her birthday

I'm Stuck because when I think of marrying she's the first woman that enters my imagination wearing the bridal gown with a veil of white.

I'm Stuck because whenever I hear her favorite songs, I move back down

I'm Stuck because I am happy when I hear her name

I'm Stuck because it's always fun to see her wacky pictures

I'm Stuck because I always want to get back to the time when we were still wearing our high school uniforms and I am doing everything I can just for her to take notice.

I'm Stuck because I cannot write a song about another girl

I'm Stuck because no one in this world can massage my back when it aches and i don't dare anyone touch it if not she

I'm Stuck because I still put two plates in the dine and cook two spams for morning meal

I'm Stuck because her pillow remains in my huge bed thinking that anytime of the night she'll come by and take a night of sleep though she has a home of her own.

I'm Stuck because I cannot speak of love if it's not consecutive to her

I'm Stuck because her number is the first name you can dial from my phone book

I'm Stuck because I am waiting another van ride hoping she'll be there sitting next to me

I'm Stuck because I still want to name a girl daughter if ever... Lauren Stacy ...

I'm Stuck because every season I want to know how she feels

I'm Stuck because I cannot mention the word "Darling" and "Sweety" when there is another girl not she

I'm Stuck because all roads lead to Lara Faye./


and so to you who makes my life a complicated life...

Happy 22nd Birthday!

I miss you and may I be stuck here forever and melt with you.

Brighter Future Awaiting Neo-Classical Music

Paving the way for a more vibrant proliferation of the arts in this country are the social networking media; the efforts of National Commission for Culture and the Arts; the fusion of traditional media outfits and academic institutions envisioning a more cultured environment for Filipino youth.

It is not anymore a surprise that amidst the inviolation of internal and external socio-economic and political problems, local artists are never wary nor discouraged to promote a culture of international aesthetic ties and local activities cum festivities that concerns exhibitions of heritage and passionate talents.

I am forever a slave of the arts. I am forever indebted to arts. I am forever in support for the arts. In as much as I am convinced that it is a form of leisure and entertainment, I am also pursuant of educating people of its intellectual, sociological, and spiritual relevance. If we are simply watching Italian films to be entertained then we are missing the point. Film is an art as much as it is a vehicle of communication. A screenplay wright wants to communicate something to the populace yet his avenue is thru script writing. And as the director reads the script, he augments the idea of the screenplay and develop a more vivid concept, this concept is then translated into a film.

Last year, plenty of foreign film festivals graced mega Manila. Not to mention the exclusive premiere of Bourne Legacy which is purely mainstream, Instituto Cervantes in cooperation with the Cultural Center showed Indie Spanish films to the delight of Filipinos. Cinemalaya is already an institution in the Philippine Cinema. Yearly, it is one of the most anticipated festival by movie enthusiasts.

On my part, more than the explosion of local and foreign film festivals, Filipino audiences were enthralled by the versatility of theater and broadway arts. 2012 will forever be known in history as the first ever visit of Phantom of the Opera. One cannot describe how busy the CCP was upon hosting the most famous production in broadway. While all these are happening in CCP, the King and I was gracing the Newport Performing Arts Theater at the Resorts World Manila. Indeed, RWM is a valuable development in stage drama and broadway arts.

To top it all, we have the classical music,that of the orchestra and choral arts most welcomed last year by Filipino concert goers. The institution of ABS CBN Philharmonic Orchestra might have been a gamble for the ABS CBN Corporation but nonetheless, the reception of the masses is absolutely overwhelming. Moreover, we have Maestro Olivier Ochanine at the helm of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra playing excellent works every month of 2012 outdoing the accomplishments of his predecessor. These and more for the orchestra community this year. My conscious update tells me that more and more college students will be encouraged to shift in music courses if they really want to because they are seeing now that music is a lucrative profession. Thanks to ABS CBN, I have this feeling that other networks will soon follow the trend.

Who will forget that January of last year the Capella of Calvin College under the tutelage of Maestro Joel Navarro PhD. visited Manila for a one night concert at the Church of Gesu, Ateneo de Manila University. I happened to be there and I really enjoyed the celestial sonority of the choral knowing they have different techniques alien to Filipino chorale groups. This March 18, Klaus-Jurgen Etzold will hold a master class in choral arts at the Abelardo Hall Auditorium of University of the Philippines Diliman. I will be attending the once in a life time workshop and hope that this early it will be one of the highlights of the choral music events in the Philippines.

Really? We are moving into a direction where more and more and falling in love with the classical music of old and the new school. The revitalization of choral arts and orchestra music is called neo-classicism. I will continue more of this analysis on my next journal entry but for the mean time, we'll have to wait for more upcoming events to fill the ambiance with fresher air and classical music to be incorporated in our daily playlist.

No Precious Time When Resigning

This article was written February 15 2013

Last Monday, feast of the Our Lady of Lourdes and two days before Ash Wednesday [official start of the Lenten Season] the Holy Father Benedict XVI renounced his papacy. A news that shocked not only the Catholic faithful community but even more, the media.

With questions of stability a midst the scandals hovering the Church today, the resignation of Pope Benedict is too much a burden for the college of Cardinals and a sources of uncertainty to weakening Catholic population.

It is true in the sense that for most Catholics, papal resignation is next to impossible if not a taboo. It is the first time in our generation that a Holy Pontiff of Rome resigns from his post. During the early history of the Church such phenomenon may occur as a normal consequence but not at this point. When a Church so stable that it is known as the largest of all eldest institutions, this act is saliently hypothetical.

A lot of questions arises after the news broke out from international media. The morning of February 12, messages from my friends flooded my phone as the brouhaha around the issue continues. My friend, Kevin Roy Castillo asked me bravely, "Papacy. Is it a job or a role?" Definitely neither of the two. It is a ministry. And it will forever be one. A service to Christ and to His Church. When somebody sees himself no longer fit for the ministry, it is with utmost prudence that he leaves it vacant for another worthy person to fill.

It is, as expected, given that several Vatican critics would compare and contrast Benedict XVI with his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. The latter may be the most accomplished papal of the yestermillenium. And I am well certain that Benedict is more than conscious of that. I would like to stress, that they are two different persons with different theological and prysbeterial backgrounds but with only one faith and ministry. While Pope John Paul II may be too charismatic and known to be possessing a paramount degree of emotional quotient, Benedict is a man of high intellect and formed by simplistic way of Christian Catholic life. The legacy of the man [Benedict] is more inclined to his dialogues with the secular and agnostics and in the strengthening of Christian catechism and doctrines.He will be known in history as the first Roman Pontiff who opened a twitter account, who stepped down from office in a stable period of the Church [the previous popes who resigned were of dramatic circumstances], and the first pope who will kiss the ring of his successor while witnessing the shattering of his own.

The next thing that came into my mind is the problem of protocol. Since this is first in a systematic way, with less drama of course, we do not have a precedent of how things are to be done after the abdication in February 28. Definitely, we are not seeing a camerlengo hitting the former pope with a hammer on his forehead. How will he be addressed? As to what I know, he will be called Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger episcopos emeritus of Rome. Will he still be infallible? Not anymore, for the pope is only infallible when speaking "from-the-chair" or ex cathedra. And since Bendict is no longer at the Chair of Saint Peter, his declarations and beliefs will not be infallible anymore. His power will be that of the same as the ordinary and will affect all the affairs of the Vatican office no longer.

It is very saddening O know, but to trust Benedict with his decision is the most we can do. After all, Benedict XVI is a theologian, an intellectual at that, whose immense ideological framework can be described as that between Jurgen Habermas and Yves Congar. Truly, a German thinker of his own right. His decision is premeditated and since a pope, it is a decision we presume to be guided by the Holy Ghost.

This brings us to another point, that of a successor. However, I'll leave it to the experts as to how they will bet for the future pope of the Church. It would be to early to claim a particular personality stepping into the throne of Church's noble. What is clear to me? The fact that because of age problems Benedict resigned, the College of Cardinal would elect a pope at the prime of his age so that the new pontiff would not be sabotaged by an ailing age problem as impediment to his ministry. I know that most of those expecting a younger Cardinal might thought of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle. He is after all a great theologian with immeasurable piety, exuberant youthfulness and charisma plus the fact that he is the second of the collegiate benjamins.

Again, too early to be certain. I know that Cardinal Chito possesses the qualities we are looking for a pope who will reign in a post modern post American world. He is from a third world country, the first probably from Asia who will take full responsibility of the flock on earth. Asia, Africa and Latin America are the new breeding ground of vocation. Europe is now finding their way to re-Christianize their continent. It is a high time for an Asian pontiff. But so too for an African pontiff. And Cardinal Turkson is one of the most visible contender. Whoever he may be, the new pope must take the responsibility of strengthening the ecclesiastical stability which is mildly shaken by this resignation.