Conference on encyclical

This is my first time to put up a big conference for which the experience of organizing four work-life balance forums had somehow given my some ideas. But creating the brochure seems to be entirely new. Before, I would leave all to the artist. Now since Mimi left for a seminar with half of the conference speakers still to be confirmed, she had half of the brochure done. I asked some other help but everyone seems to be loaded with work. Good thing I remembered a student in the mini-MBA class last April. Unlike her sister Rheena (my  student in UA&P Management years ago) who shifted to culinary arts, Tara followed her passion in graphic designs. We only had a weekend to work on the brochure, so she relied on the initial ideas of Mimi, and delivered in two days. Wonderful! The other new experience besides recruiting an artist midway is to learn photoshop myself for minor and quick editing. But that is another story.

Do check out Tara’s website

Driving through Binondo

I had a meeting in Binondo today and came all the way from Laguna. I took the SLEX to Osmeña Highway (with a side trip to Sacred Heart Parish in Dao, Makati to attend the 6:45 AM Holy Mass). From Osmeña, I turned left to Quirino, then right to Taft. The Manila City Hall to my left was my signal to get to the leftmost lane in Padre Burgos as that would take me to Chinatown. After passing the bridge, I already saw the right wall of the Binondo Church.  I turned right in Ongpin and looked for Salazar (from the Chinese street signs). I turned left in Salazar and found a paid parking lot at my right. I walked to Masangkay Street and confirmed it is a one-way street to the direction of the Binondo Church.

How do I get out of Binondo back to Laguna? Good question which the female parking lot attendant answered for me. She said take CM Recto to Nagtahan Bridge. Well, that already sounds familiar. Thank you!

I took Benavidez Street which brought me to CM Recto.  I remembered I traveled this road in jeepneys a thousand times during my college days. “So I don’t have any right to be lost here!”

From CM Recto, I took Legarda street. When I reached the bottom of the  flyover to Sta. Mesa, I saw a sign to Nagtahan to my right. I took that side street (and was extra careful as there were children playing in the street).  From there I could already see the road that would take me to Nagtahan but I am only allowed to turn right (to AH Lacson? I am not sure about the name). So I made a U-turn and turned right away (this  street could be the extension of Legarda under the Nagtahan flyover).

Once in Nagtahan, I already knew that following the road would take me to Quirino, then left to Osmeña, then back to SLEX. I have lived in this vicinity for 4 years!

Finally, a billboard I like

I notice billboards a lot, even before I got back to driving. One brand I notice quite often is Penshoppe since I heard its founder speak in the campus years ago. The brand stuck to my mind ever since.

When I used to take the MRT, I would see their billboard above the Shell Station in the corner of EDSA and Buendia and would notice the seasons’ designs when changed. I just wondered what message do they really want to project. I wondered how much the founder/owner has a say in their marketing materials.

Recently, when I made the U-turn near Trinoma, I saw their billboard and I said, finally, they have put up one I like. Why do I like it? I wish my male students would dress like that, looking clean and intelligent. Although I wish the model were smiling, like this other “wish list” called “uplift” in their website. I have never seen this in a billboard. If I did, I would have taken the effort to get a photo of it, too, in a traffic stop.

The Grand Staircase

I used to live in Sta. Mesa Heights back in the early 90s. Visiting the house again today, I can’t help but admire its majestic staircase. I sure could have gone up and down those stairs a hundred times without thinking about it, but now it awes me to see it again as a visitor.

Advent Wreath

This is our Advent wreath, lit today on the first Sunday of Advent. It has three purple candles and a rose-colored one. The colors follow the liturgy. The purple candles are lit on the 1st, 2nd and 4th Sundays of Advent. On the 3rd Sunday which is also called the Gaudete Sunday signifying the joy that we are nearing Christmas, the rose candle is lit.

I know of some wreaths that have a fifth candle, a white one that is lit on Christmas eve. But in my house, there is no time to have a gettogether as a family around the Advent wreath due to the last-minute preparations for the Midnight Mass and the Noche Buena. Hence, you won’t see a white candle here.

Prayer for Priests

I had gone to Mass today in Sta. Isabel in Malolos. I heard this prayer which I could have heard the first time in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in the capital.

I like this one better than the other prayers I heard in Manila. It’s very personal and at the same time, it’s so Filipino for paying the “utang na loob” or debt of honor for the many priests who have helped me principally by administering the Sacraments I have received.

(from the website of the Archdiocese of Manila

http://www.rcam.org/prayers/prayer_for_priests/tagalog.htm)

Hesus, Pari magpakailanman, ingatan mo ang lahat ng mga pari
sa kandungan ng Iyong kamahal-mahalang Puso upang walang makasaling sa kanila. Panatilihin Mong walang bahid ang kanilang banal na mga kamay
na sa araw-araw ay humahawak sa iyong kamahal-mahalang katawan.
Panatilihin Mong walang dungis ang kanilang mga labi
na sa araw-araw ay nalilinis ng Iyong kamahal-mahalang dugo.
Panatilihing malinis at di makamundo ang kanilang puso na may dakilang tatak ng pagkapari.

Panginoong Hesus, kami ay nagsusumamo para sa tapat at masigasig na pari
Para sa di tapat at nanlalamig na mga pari
Sa mga paring naglilingkod dito sa Pilipinas o sa ibang bansa,
Para sa iyong nalulungkot at napapabayaang mga pari
Para sa mga batang pari
Para sa mga nag-aagaw buhay na mga pari
Para sa mga kaluluwa ng iyong mga pari sa purgatoryo.

Itinatagubilin namin sa Iyo na iligtas ang lahat ng mga paring malalapit sa amin,
Ang mga paring nag gawad ng kapatawaran sa aming mga kasalanan,
Ang mga paring dinaluhan naming sa pagmimisa,
At nagbigay sa amin ng Iyong Katawan at Dugo sa Banal na Komunyon,
Ang mga paring nagturo sa amin,
Ang lahat ng mga paring pinagkakautangan naming ng loob sa anumang bagay.

O Hesus, panatalihin Mong malapit sila sa puso Mo
At padaluyin Mo sa kanila ang biyayang umaapaw ngayon at magpakailanman. Amen.

Flikr photo of Sta. Isabel Church by Robert Bernabe

And by the way, here is the schedule of Masses in Sta. Isabel:

CNN hero

I had never voted online for any advocacy, but when I received the email last October 8 from my friend Beth E. in New York about Efren Penaflorida, I immediately went to Efren’s Dynamic Teen Company website, read his story quickly and went to vote for him as CNN hero of the year. Of course, I questioned what my vote could do, but it felt good supporting another Filipino as he tries to improve this country in his own little way. Well, that way is not little anymore, it’s international -good, great, positive -news.

Congratulations to him and his parents.

Eucharistic Processions

The University has been having Eucharistic Processions since 2005. I find it a good opportunity for students to manifest their faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. They also get to decorate with flowers the paths where the procession will pass. Some students get to design the floral carpets themselves.

We Filipinos love processions. In non-religious kinds, the focus of attention are entertainment stars or national heroes. When Manny Pacquiao comes back from a victorious fight, he rides on a float that parades around Metro Manila. When the remains of Ninoy and Cory Aquino were going to be moved to the cemetery, the whole distance covered took hours in slow processions in streets filled with mourners. As the national elections near, we will have more of those floats and parades of political candidates.

Here in the University, the only V.I.P. that’s given special treatment (not with red carpet) but with carpet of donated and picked flowers (with wood shavings as fillers) is the Son of God whom everyone studies in four Theology subjects. It might look weird to both insiders and outsiders, since a Eucharistic procession is not the usual fanfare and worshiping a white round bread isn’t really a non-believer’s or a non-practising Catholic’s cup of tea. But we are in a free country, thankfully.
In the basketball court
This is my homebase – MScM or Master of Science in Management Program
In the pathway leading to the College of Arts and Sciences
In the CAS ledge
In the pathway leading to the Administration and Library Building (used to be CRC)
In Promenade A

To Quezon Avenue from EDSA

Do you encounter constant traffic along EDSA near Roosevelt Avenue? I am not exactly sure what is the cause of the traffic. It might be the buses taking or dropping off passengers to the new Walter mart or the vehicles from Roosevelt trying to get to the leftmost lane of EDSA to make a U-turn.

I was caught up in that traffic once so I decided to try the shortcut I somehow remembered from an MMDA sign. From EDSA Balintawak I turned right in Roosevelt and looked for Baler Street to my left. Its landmark is a Shell gas station. Baler took me to West Avenue where I turned right. A few meters away, I saw Examiner Street. I turned left there and the road took me to Quezon Avenue.

I would not take this route often. There is a dilemma between suffering the traffic in EDSA or the traffic inside the market zone of Roosevelt.

From Katipunan to Elliptical Road

I discovered that there are three ways to reach Elliptical Road coming from Katipunan.

The first one is when you happen to miss the right turn to CP Garcia. (It happened to me last September when I picked up my mother’s maid from Los Banos.) You take the next possible right turn towards UP campus. If you happen to be a non-UP graduate like me, just ask anyone the direction to Oblation. I did ask that, but only after getting lost in the campus (see my blue marking in the google map). Then when I get to the Oblation & University Avenue, I already knew how to get out to Commonwealth, make a U-turn to Elliptical Road.

The second way is through CP Garcia (if you happen to see the little road sign, but the other way to know you are near there is when you have Miriam College to your right). Follow the road and you will get to University Avenue (see my red marking in the google map)

The third way which I discovered yesterday when I unintentionally followed some cars turning left in a road along CP Garcia. I entered Teacher’s Village which became familiar when I reached a school (“I’ve been here a few months ago to attend a Holy Mass and to see the healer Emma de Guzman). I followed the cars to Matimtiman and saw Masaya road which I knew (if I turn right) would take me out to University Avenue just a little past Elliptical Road (see my black marking).

I am getting to know Quezon City.