Manny’s Defeat

Boxing pundits have several reasons for Manny Pacquiao’s loss to Juan Manuel Marquez. Some say it was a lucky punch while others say it was lack of preparation. But the most unique explanation comes from his mother, Dionesia Pacquiao.

I am sharing this reading taken from garabandal (motherofgod.com / December 10, 2012) as we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God on January 1, 2013! Give it some thought.. This piece was written by Angel in his blog.

I am a big boxing fan and have always admire the skills of Manny Pacquiao the legendary Filopino boxer. Raised in a devout Catholic home he used to always hear Mass before fights and wore Rosary beads into the ring until a few years ago he became a Protestant. He was knocked out on Saturday night in the 6th round in a big upset --

I came across an interesting piece by Manny's Mum who was upset when her son joined a Protestant sect: I think his Mother's faith will bring him home one day to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Mommy Dionisia Pacquiao revealed that the Virgin Mary appeared to her when she was still bearing eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao in her womb. In an interview over ABS-CBN’s Umagang Kay Ganda, Mommy Dionisia said her son forgot his roots when he left behind his rosary and did not make the sign of the cross before his fight with Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez.The fight ended after Pacquiao was knocked out in the sixth round.

Mommy Dionisia said she saw the Virgin Mary when she was one to three months pregnant with Manny.
“Manny, I saw you even before I gave birth to you. The Virgin Mary appeared to me the whole time I was pregnant. I saw her. It means the Virgin and Child watch over you. We cannot live in the world without a mother,” she said.

She said Pacquiao falling face down in the sixth round had a deeper meaning. “It means that you should not leave this,” she said while holding up a red, white and blue rosary, which she said Pacquiao purposely left behind before the fight. The boxer’s mother admonished her son for removing the figures of saints inside a grotto that he had ordered built.

She said that despite her recent illness, she still prayed for Manny and had another vision during the fight. “You may not believe me but the Divine Mercy smiled at me during your fight. Jesus told me He will be the one to discipline you. He said he will make you retire after the fight,” she said.

Dionisia appealed to Manny not to change religions, saying that her Catholic faith had helped her through many trials. “Ang tao iba-iba ang religion pero kung ano ang nahawakan ni Manny sa maliit pa, ayaw kong maglipat siya ng ibang sekta kasi sa umpisa ’yan ang palagi kong hinging panggabay sa kanya. Ang tingin ko lang sa kanya, wag niyang iwanan ito. Sa dami ng trahedya sa buhay ko, ito ang nanlaban sa akin. People have different religions but I don’t want Manny to join other sects because I have always asked the Catholic Church to guide him,” she said.

She again made an appeal to Pacquiao to hang up his boxing gloves. She said all of their relatives want to see him retire. She also told Pacquiao’s wife, Jinkee, not to sign any contract for Pacquiao’s next fight.
“My son is not a dog. Boxing is really a gamble. Son, you are not an animal. You are not a fighting cock. God the Father said stop gambling and boxing is a gamble with the body at stake,” she said.

God with us

I saw in You Tube a video of a young Einstein when he was still in Elementary. It begins with their professor discussing that “God is Evil.”

P: If God created everything. Then he created evil. Which means that God is evil!

E: Excuse me, professor (raising his hand). Does cold exist?

P: What kind of question is this? Of course, it exists. Have you never been cold?

E: In fact, sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.. Does darkness exist, professor?

P: Of course, it does!

E: You are wrong, sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light, we can study, but not darkness. Evil does not exist. It is just like darkness and cold. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of God!  This is one of the mysteries of our faith. What is incomprehensible is now comprehensible. The transcendent and distant God is not visible. From this point on God will have a human face. He will be part of our human history and belong to a human family. God will assume a name: Jesus!

          St. John in the Prologue of his Gospel insists: “In the beginning was the Word.” He presupposes that this Word pre-existed before time; before everything else. The Word has an eternal quality. “All things came to be through Him.” Which means that the Word is the source, the creator, the origin, the giver of life. He is, in fact, Life itself! He is the very Light and without Him, everything will be in darkness.

          Today, 2012 year ago, this Word became flesh! God became man. We can also say: Love was born today. And because of His birth, the world is no longer the same. We are no longer the same. If you allow Him also to be born in your heart, He will make a difference in your life, in your world.

          To paraphrase the words of little Einstein: “Evil is the result when man does not have God’s love present in his heart.” Evil is the result of the absence of God. But if you allow Jesus to fill your heart with His love, He will fill your life with love – as well as your family, your community; our country and the world.

          The question is: why is there so much evil in the world today? When evil things happen, we ask: where is God? We blame God and say: “God is under-achiever!” We don’t realize that God is also the “victim.” He is not the cause of evil. In fact, He is also “suffering with us” and sharing our pain. This God who is born today, is destined to suffer in order to right the wrong we have caused.

          This Christmas, let us pray for a deeper faith in our God who became man. The God who became one of us.

          Pope Benedict XVI opened last October the “Year of Faith.” Its purpose is for us to re-discover the joy of believing. The Pope has observed a “profound crisis of faith” world-wide. It may not be so evident in our context because in the Philippines faith is alive! I feel inspired by the many people who fill our churches for the Misa de Gallo. But the European situation is alarming. In the west, they even speak of a “post-christian era.” It’s the end of Christianity. Many don’t believe anymore.

          Cardinal Chito Tagle, our newest cardinal, however cautioned Filipinos: “there is such a thing as Practical Atheism.” Practical Atheism is a situation in which people profess their faith in God but in their lives reflect no identification whatsoever of His teachings. In other words, there is no God in their practical life. “People attend Mass on Sunday and appear to pray devoutly yet during the week they cheat, step on others to go ahead with life and care nothing about justice or the general welfare.”

          The Challenge for us are the 3 L’s: Learn, Love and Live the Faith.

1.   Learn the Faith: know it, study it, read about it. Get informed. The suggested readings for this year are the Catechism of the Catholic Church published by Pope John Paul II twenty years ago. For young people, they may read the YouCat (Youth Catechism) to deepen their faith.

2.   Love the Faith: celebrate it, be proud of it, profess it, not be ashamed to show it publicly.

3.   Live the Faith: act on it, practice it, do it. This is the more difficult thing to do.

Faith is a living and loving relationship with God. If it has to be living, it should be taken cared of; nourish it because it needs to grow. If it has to be loving, it should strike the heart, touch your life and influence your choices.

Today, we re-kindle the light of our faith by going back to the manger. Like the Shepherds and wise men, let us kneel in contemplation of the mystery of God who became man.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Don’t Succumb to the Secular Tidal Wave

Here is an insightful reading by Randy Hain, Senior Editor for The Integrated Catholic Life. He is the author of The Catholic Briefcase: Tools for Integrating Faith and Work which was recently released by Liguori Publications.

This might be an American context. But in my observation, we always ape them even in their secular mindset. This is worth reflecting this Christmas Season.

Over lunch this week with a long-time client, the blessing I said at the beginning of the meal was the catalyst for an interesting conversation (as it has been with so many others in the past).  This human resources executive smiled as I made the sign of the cross at the end and said, “Well, I don’t see this every day.  I can’t remember the last time I said a blessing over a meal at a business lunch.”  Once again, the simple act of saying a blessing over a meal in public was prompting a conversation about faith in the public square and I must admit that I eagerly jumped right in!

“Why do you think people, especially people of faith, avoid saying a blessing over their meals in public?”  I asked.  “I value your opinion as an HR professional, but I also know from past conversations that you are a Christian.  What do you think keeps people from expressing their faith in front of others?”  She looked at me for a few minutes and said in a subdued voice, “I guess they don’t want to offend other people.”
I suspected this would be the answer as I have observed countless people over the years who are extremely reluctant to be open about their faith.  I have frequently written on this subject, but I want to narrowly focus on this idea that we are “offending” someone by being open in the practice of our Catholic faith, beliefs and values.

There is a secular tidal wave sweeping across our country and much of the world.  In the name of fairness, equality and political correctness we are being asked (and sometimes forced) to accept things which are absolutely contrary to our faith.  Because we often “don’t want to offend others” by speaking out or acting on our convictions, we are living with the following consequences:

• Political correctness is pervasive in business environments today and we have too few leaders willing to stand up for their convictions and do the right things regardless of the consequences.
• Merry Christmas has been watered down to the meaningless “Happy Holidays” or offensive “Merry Xmas.”
• Because many of us may be shying away from living out our faith in the public square, we run the risk of being “2/3rds Catholics” where we only live out our faith at home and at Mass on Sunday.  This split personality is toxic as we can’t possibly separate our spiritual beings from our physical selves.
• Religious liberties are under siege and it will likely get worse unless we make a stand.  Weakness and apathy in the face of an aggressor will only encourage worse behavior from the aggressor.
• Our silence in public may lead people to assume an implied acceptance on our part of things contrary to the teachings of our Church.  Over time, this silence may even lead some of us down the path of defending and promoting the wrong positions on abortion, gay marriage and other issues where Church teaching is crystal clear.

I suggest to you that the reasons people gravitate to the “I don’t want to offend” position include fear of job loss, fear of being criticized or judged, fear of losing social status, poor understanding of the teachings of our Church or the belief that somebody else will stand up as we are too busy to get involved.   The consequences I have identified are a sliver of the many challenges we face because we don’t want to offend anyone and are a direct result of us not acting on our beliefs.  If even a modest percentage of the 60+ million Catholics in our country openly embraced and acted on the principles of our faith, we would transform the entire world.  Maybe the answer for many of us is to take small steps at first.  A good place to start is wishing everyone a Blessed Advent and Merry Christmas.  Pray over every meal and make the Sign of the Cross in public.  Go to the voting booth and vote for candidates who support the teachings of the Church.  Let’s reflect on our actions each day and ask ourselves if we can offer each of those actions up to God.  Not everyone is called to heroic acts, so let’s start where we can, with what we have and grow from there.

The saddest and most glaring point about the “I don’t want to offend” mindset is that we rarely think about how we are offending Christ.  We get bogged down in minor personal concerns and our own fears when we should be thinking about His sacrifice for us on the Cross.  We should routinely fall to our knees in gratitude and recognize that nothing we will ever face can compare to what He did for us.   We will be supported through our fears, difficulties and struggles if we will go to Him in prayer and ask for help.  His sacrifice then and His ongoing love and support now will always sustain us in difficult situations if we will only be humble, acknowledge Him, embrace Him and love Him.

God created us for Heaven, not this place called earth.  We are called to lead lives of holiness.  We have the Church He founded to guide us.  We can be courageous because He is always with us.  If others are truly offended at the mention of Christ’s name or actions we take in His name, we should pray for them but not stop living out our faith.   Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia said it best in his excellent book, Render Unto Caesar (page 197), “What needs to be done by Catholics today for their country? The answer is: Don’t lie. If we say we’re Catholic, we need to prove it. America’s public life needs people willing to stand alone, without apologies, for the truth of the Catholic faith and the common human values it defends. One person can make a difference – if that individual has a faith he or she is willing to suffer for.”

We can make a difference if we are unafraid to be authentic Catholics and care less about offending others and more about giving offense to Jesus.  The choices we make are in our hands and the consequences of our actions will ripple across future generations.  Let us choose wisely.

RH Experience

The Catholic Church lost its fight against the Reproductive Health (RH) bill at the Lower House and its approval on second reading at the Senate. But the fight is not yet over! Msgr. Esteban Binghay of the  Cebu Archdiocese  told Cebu Daily News said the Catholic Church will continue to preach against the RH bill since some of its provisions are contrary to morals. The passage of the RH bill can be an occasion for more people to become martyrs by denouncing it. 

Dr. Ligaya Acosta, executive director of Human Life International (HLI), expressed disappointment over  congressional support of the RH bill which is nearing approval.  “This is really the saddest Christmas we’ll ever have… This is not the end. This is not over. Certainly, we will do something.”

Reflecting on this experience, I would like to share a special message from the National Catholic Register (a service of EWTN) and America’s most complete catholic news source. Its context is the recent American election. But its message can be an eye-opener also for Catholics in the Philippines (www.ncregister.com).

There aren’t enough of us!

The truth is that, right now, there aren’t enough informed, faithful Catholics engaged in the political process.

Sure, there are lots of Catholics. It’s well known that “the Catholic vote” tends to determine who wins or loses an election.

The problem is that so many Catholics are disengaged . . . don’t recognize the dangers to our country . . . don’t take them seriously . . . or — worst of all — are actively working to promote evil.

That means there is one thing that we urgently must do . . .

We’ve got to start changing minds!

It’s as simple as that. We need more informed, faithful Catholics working to save our nation, and that means we need to start changing minds.

And not just about political issues — because politics is not at the core of our faith.

We need to get people engaged with the Catholic faith itself — to learn it, to love it, to live it — and the rest will follow.  And we need your help!

What’s wrong with the world?

As Cardinal Dolan told the U.S. bishops at their recent meeting:

“The premier answer to the question ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ is not politics, the economy, secularism, sectarianism, globalization or global warming — none of these, as significant as they are. As Chesterton wrote, the answer to the question ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ is just two words . . . ‘I am.’”

We have to change on the personal level, one individual at a time — which is the way the Church has always grown.

It’s important that we not give up on our nation. We need to fight as hard as we ever have to deal with the many problems we face.

And we need to work hard to help catechize people about the Catholic faith, because that is the ultimate key . . .

The Truth will set us free

We live in an age of secularism and relativism, when so many cynically ask, “What is truth?”

But as Catholics, we have the Truth. We have Jesus Christ Himself, and it’s time we redouble our efforts to share Him with others.

That’s why Pope Benedict XVI recently called bishops from all over the world together to energize the Church for a wave of New Evangelization.

This urgent task will require all of us — bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity.
That means . . .

We all have to do our part!