How many metanoias does one need to get to heaven ? – I’m scheduled to attend another recollection in Tagaytay City on the weekend after next (Oct 11-12). The Sunday before that (Oct 5) it’s “Walk with God” with TV evangelist Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD, actually a twice-a-year spiritual (and physical) exercise where we the pilgrims hike from the town of Urdaneta, Pangasinan to the famous Shrine of the Blessed Mother in Manaoag, a good 13-kilometer stretch, all the while reciting the rosary and singing songs to Mama Mary over and over again until we reach the Manaoag church where Fr. Jerry traditionally celebrates the Mass at around high noon. By then the church would be jampacked with people since it’s a Sunday and the shrine has really become a most popular destination for many local devotees. There’s no air-conditioning to speak of. It must all be part of keeping the quaintness and charm of this old Dominican town. It’s a clever investment to equip oneself with the native “pamaypay” before entering the church, unless one also has vowed to sweat it out as part of his so-called “panata.”
It’s Sunday as I write and so in a few hours, I’m off to church for the obligatory Sunday Mass. Next Wednesday (Oct 1) is the end of Ramadan, now a holiday for all. More importantly, it also happens to be Fr. Jerry’s birthday. That’s like saying it’s Christmas. I cannot miss that celebration. This week also happens to be First Friday (Oct 3), for many devotees a more sacred and memorable day than Sunday. All things considered, you might arguably charge me of being a religious freak. My life nowadays seems to gravitate around anything that has to do with the hereafter, not surprisingly a common tendency among elder people preparing to enter the “pre-departure area.”
The XVDs won’t settle for the mundane term “recollection” or retreat anymore. Like the Romans of old, we now like to go Greek and call it “metanoia,” which as it turns out every colegiala knows to mean some kind of a “religious renewal” of sorts. We’re now into Metanoia 4. But then I got to thinking (a dangerous inclination in itself), how many more of this do I need to get to heaven? Other than the fact that it’s as good an excuse as any to get out of the house, and enjoy the cool Tagaytay clime, I’m not really sure that another metanoia more, or less, will get me a better seating arrangement in the kingdom come.
Without wishing to brag, at my age, I have attended my share of retreats, recollections, pilgrimages, religious revivals, cursillos, Life in the Spirit seminars, marriage encounters, novenas, devotions to the Sacred Heart, the Holy Spirit, and about half a dozen saints. I have adored the Blessed Sacrament at countless benedictions, joined religious processions, and like every good Pharisee I have fasted and abstained during the Holy Week season. I have served my time in parish councils, religious organizations, served at countless masses. After Vatican II, I was a regular commentator at Sunday mass. There was a time when as a high school kid in the seminary we were required to pray every 15 minutes a devotion called “the quarter-hour prayer.” That’s aside from daily mass, rosary, morning, noon and evening prayers, holy hour and benediction.
For a while I was almost afraid I might overshoot heaven. I felt I was getting too churchy or too religious for my own good. Also, it was getting to a point where I found myself taking some of these religious exercises too much for granted, your classic case of familiarity breeding contempt. Could this also be partly the reason why ex-seminarians and sacristans tend to be so irreverent?
Have I become a better person on account of or despite all these religious practices and exercises? I am not too sure anymore. At least they could not possibly be the reason for my sinful ways. We are all too familiar with many old housewives who go to church daily and just as soon as they get home they start berating their husbands, children and househelp like some drill sergeant in boot camp.
I have been told that man is basically good at heart or by nature. How come I am still as sinful and profligate as the next fellow? Except perhaps for the sociopath or the mentally-challenged, most people do have a good sense of right and wrong. We instinctively know. Indeed, we don’t need to know more. Robert Fulghum was right. “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.”
But, to use a big word, there is a great dichotomy between knowing and doing. I am a great failure in the doing department. Very often I find myself failing to do what I know is the proper thing to do. I am weak. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Is it more theology that I need? In fairness to my blog-readers, I have tried to read up on the subject. The more I read, however, the more I realized how pathetically little I knew about theology. I would literally have to be born again to even begin to comprehend what some of the great theologians have to say on the matter. I am overwhelmed at the breadth and height and depth of knowledge, for instance, of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Origen, Teilhard de Chardin, C.S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, Jurgen Moltmann, Dorothy Sayers, Martin Luther, to name just a few. I gave up trying to understand “Quantum Theology” by Gerd Theissen or lately Bernard Lonergan, SJ, on authentic Christian living.
Perhaps, what we need more of is some inspiration to be good, to do good. Like children we need to be constantly reminded, encouraged, guided - taken by the hand – and shown the way. That’s where a spiritual director or leader or even a religious exercise would be useful. We are weak. We are blind. Or, we refuse to see. “Lord, show us the way.”
If a visit to a shrine will help us to keep on following the straight and narrow path, then it would have been well worth the trip. “Lord, I promise, if you help me get out of this mess I got myself into, I will be a better person. I will sin no more.” Perhaps a priest or religious leader should ask himself that question everytime: “did I manage to encourage, to edify and to inspire the congregation?” “Will these people go home this week determined more than ever to do what is right and proper?”
I used to think that the “cursillo,” a 3-day course on “Christian leadership” used to be able to do just that. Back then I thought the “cursillo” was the answer to all our problems about good manners and right conduct. Some of those people coming out of that seminar were literally ready to give up all to follow Christ. For about a year or so. But still and all, it was good while it lasted.
On reflection I have realized that being the sinful person that I am, I need to be constantly reminded, encouraged and inspired. I need to be with and around people who share the same ideals, who will take that leap of faith with me. Faith, it is said, must be a shared experience. Whenever I see all those thousands of simple folks going to church on Sunday, apparently oblivious to what those rituals and sacramentals are all about, my faith somehow is renewed.
If a weekend with the boys in Tagaytay will help me to keep the faith, I don’t see how calling it “metanoia” should be a problem. It sounds more meaningful than “gimmick” or “happening.” As St. Paul said:
"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever is honorable, whatsoever is just, whatever is holy, whatever is lovable, whatsoever is of good repute, if there be any virtue, if there be anything worthy of praise, it is good to ponder on these things." (Philippians 4:8)
Indeed, it is good for us to dwell on these things - in Tagaytay. See you there! James L.
butchcelestial wrote on Sep 28, '08
Kuya James, you need only one, that is in the Cross of Jesus Christ. John 3:16
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tnx, kuya butch, for reminding me. but, I think I'll still try to go. The Tagaytay breeze beckons. It's almost irresistible. Like some temptations.
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Retreat. Recollection. Metanoia.
I need it every day. I believe we all do. I need to "retreat" everyday. i need to "recollect" every day. I need to undergo "metanoia" every single day. Why? Because, as u pointed out, Kuya James--- i know i know what is right, but i don't always do what is right. By retreating/recollecting, i hope and i pray that i will practise what i know is right more often. To go to heaven, i need to live an authentic life: being true to myself, being true to my higher self. And that's a tall order. i try, though. and i need to try harder. Gratias, Frater James. |
butchcelestial wrote on Sep 28, '08
. . . . now after the 'pulutan' . . . . you need another 'metanoia' . . . . hehehe
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A "Retreat", "Renewal", the presumption being there is something in the past about our knowledge of God, our relationship to we knew or did better and have forgotten or have been remiss and we are reacquainting ourselves with and finding new inspiration from the past. How far back do we go, to our seminary days, our childhood God we inherited from our parents? The history of our religion, "salvation history" ?
We naturally grow in every aspect of our life so with our knowledge of God and our experience of Him grows with us. So we cannot renew our faith based on our past knowledge and experience of God but rather we grow/expand our understanding of Him by relating with Him in the Present, The Here and Now. But undeniably we all have this longing to go to tha past to retrace our footsteps as it were. That is why the idea of retrears, renewals are so appealing. So what is this sixth sense of longing all about then. Our journey back to God is all about our consciousness, our soul. Interestingly enough our sould are timeless that why we believe they immortal. Timelessness is a spectrum from the past, the present, the future. Our souls/consciouness have the ability to go back to the past when we were one with God, in fact that is the whole message Jesus to help remember who are God's children and that the Kingdom of God is within YOU (in your consciouness). Retreat, Renewal, Re-Member we are God's children, that is how far we should go back to connect the Present, to a New Dawn - God's kingdom. Religious rituals are double edge sword. But this for are another post. Have a clear Re-Membering guys on your next Metanoia. And as always, thanks for making your mind provoking posts JimmyDee, And like you I am not much of a theology reader. I had an epiphany in the seminary that the best theologian for me was SOUL. Actually that you are familiar with all these named theologians is impressive enough. Now it is midnight here, and I got myself all worked up may have trouble sleeping. Goodnite. |
MALALIM, Kuya, ang iyong narating. Am glad that somehow even late into the night I may have managed to stir up some ground swell from your ocean of profound thoughts. In fact, that is one of the more worthy purposes of this blogsite. To stimulate some reflections, ponderings, to elevate, to empower, to edify. To inspire, to uplift ... and to entertain. In my own limited fashion. tnx. warm personal rgards.
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K.I.S.S.!!!!
"QUI NEGAT ESSE DEUM SPECTET MODO SIDERA COELI." The stargazers get it; the nose-in-the-books theologians can't. It is dawn here - the Monday-after of a heaven-of-a-weekend spent with fratres-past: Aster (a STAR now after a youth of being Asiong - neither Salonga nor Aksaya; just Asiong taga-Abra!) recounting the ins and outs of his more-than-one couplings; Cecil, florescing in his effervescent Sonia; Czar (another one of those?) Masca, giving life to songs of old, with lifegiving Vivien; Henry Bulaga-ing his enhanced King's Clarion cds (move over, Ranada!) and our hosts and song-leaders: Fr. Jun on alicia's keys and Fr. Jess with a one-and-only copy of his "Cantate!" NO RETREATS HERE! ONLY "SUGOD! CANTAT!" (no secantots) And I am already awake; fully rested - having gone to bed straight-up upon coming home from "it-is-good-for-us-to-be-here" Lakewood and after getting a call from over-achieving Lukas who is, only now, about to hit the sack and figuring he will only be tossing and turning - counting jeems-sheep jumping metanoia hurdles! It is overcast out; there's nary a star in my past-midnight sky. I gaze up at the heavens, at the grey swirling clouds, just the same; from legs over-lapped. The new-autumn breeze is chilly and god is in the air...AUUMMMM.... K.I.S.S. |
via lansang-an:
FELIZ CUMPLEANOS, PADRE AGERICO! To switch from the living derivative to the frozen dead (in memoriam - Constante Floresca, "Ars Latina" scriptor): AGERICO NUMQUAM ARAT; ERGO, LABORAT NUMQUAM ANCILLA! (N.B. - Spiro oroque...) (What sayest thou, Pere Pierre Michel, of the perfect X-position? some Color Latinus, n'est-ce pas?) |
Tomas, are you suggesting you're opting for hell? Well, "hell hath no wrath like a woman scorned!"
AND I KNOW OF ONE WHO FEELS SUCH - LIVING BY HER LONESOME IN A JACKSONVILLE HELLHOLE!!! NOW IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU, YOU BETTER GET YOUR CLEAN ASSHOLE THERE, PRONTO!!! |
Speaking of numerology, I like the suggestion I read somewhere in Luke Abaya's blog link: 22/7 which is equal to pi - 3.1416. I am betting on those two numbers on EZ2 daily. My winnings will help finance some bLOGOS meetings which are mostly being underwritten by RQ. If ever, you will realize what goes around comes around.
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lukeabaya said
 A "Retreat", "Renewal", the presumption being there is something in the past about our knowledge of God, our relationship to we knew or did better and have forgotten or have been remiss and we are reacquainting ourselves with and finding new inspiration from the past. How far back do we go, to our seminary days, our childhood God we inherited from our parents? The history of our religion, "salvation history" ? 
Correct presumption, Luke.
There is something in the past about our relationship/s with the self, with our soul which, i honestly agree with you, is the best theologian we need to encounter, we need to deal and relate with. Our encounter with the soul, with our soul, is our encounter with our God. What "experts" (theologians, philosophers) think, what they say they believe, may help us gain insights about our very nature, about our soul, our real being and may even give us an inkling or some understanding of the Godhead. But i believe it is when we go back to the innermost recesses of our being, when we commune with our higher self, with our soul, that we encounter the source of our being, our God. That's what a re-treat is all about. We learn to re-new our ties, so to speak, with our soul, with our God. We experience again the real treat: being one with the self, being one with the one that matters most to us: our soul, our God. Luke, our parents, our elders, instilled their idea/s of God in our little minds then. As we grow, as we live our own life, we realize that God is more than everything we heard, he is more than what others thought and taught us to be. Salvation history? Every single soul has its own story. You have your own story of salvation. Like we all do. |
lukeabaya said
We naturally grow in every aspect of our life so with our knowledge of God and our experience of Him grows with us. So we cannot renew our faith based on our past knowledge and experience of God but rather we grow/expand our understanding of Him by relating with Him in the Present, The Here and Now.But undeniably we all have this longing to go to tha past to retrace our footsteps as it were. That is why the idea of retrears, renewals are so appealing. So what is this sixth sense of longing all about then.
Amen.
Years and years ago, when i was still teaching, i would always remind my students: When you write and whatever you want to write about, write to express, not to impress. When i read statements like the ones you write/wrote, i know and i believe they express what you believe, what you experience. They are your own personal statements. But we do grow and expand our understanding of our soul, of our God, precisely because we did and do realize and acknowledge how little we knew/know about ourselves and about Him. This happens when we go on a re-treat. And yes, when we do re-connect and relate with our higher self, with our soul, with our God, in the here and now, in the present, we experience personal growth, personal expansion of our own universe and we feel we are one with the universe, we are one with the One. The personal is fused with the universal. The universal becomes truly personal. |
your exchanges of blogs re God and godly things are more breathtaking than my freefall experiences during my skydiving days. i haven't graduated from st theresa's counsel ..."the important thing is not to think much, but to love much. do then what most arouses you to love". keep em coming.
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czarliza said
your exchanges of blogs re God and godly things are more breathtaking than my freefall experiences during my skydiving days. i haven't graduated from st theresa's counsel ..."the important thing is not to think much, but to love much. do then what most arouses you to love". keep em coming.
Hi, Kuya Czar. It's good to hear from you, finally, on multiply. You know of course that XVDs love to hear anything that proceedeth from your wise and witty lips. Like you said: keepem coming!
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There is no personal; no universal. THIS DICHOTOMIZING IS THE SOURCE OF ALL CONFUSION, ANGER, HATRED, LONELINESS, ANGST!
There is only THE ONE. UNUM. Imperfect creatures that we are, we attempt - futilely - to catch, in bumbling language, the wholeness of Being; like blind men touching the elephant in the room each pronouncing dogma: "wall", "snake", "tree".... The brightest among us stars even try to capture the Godhead in categories Greek! ENS, ESSE (in Roman Latin yet!) - BRILLIANT APPLICATIONS OF ORIGINAL THINKING, NO DOUBT, BUT HUMAN CONSTRUCTS JUST THE SAME; AND FALLING FAR, FAR SHORT OF THE MARK! More on target are the musings of poets and songwriters that - somehow, someway, someday - may lead us to that peak experience we sometimes call mystical because we cannot explain it otherwise: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound..." "...to see infinity in a grain of sand and eternity in a flower..." Sing your songs, ex-semens, and mean them! Listen with your hearts! Not with your two heads, for christsake!!! And SWIM! Like the seed you were - still are, were ordained to be from NOTHINGNESS in NON-TIME - furiously and blindly, but focused - with your WHOLE HEARTS AND YOUR WHOLE MINDS AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH - towards the Egg that will make you whole. And in that union create a flowering, a FULLNESS the likes of which has never been seen before. Nor SINCE, since it will be the OMEGA POINT, THE PLEROMA that has been touted in song and rhyme since the beginning of time. Now, can't you see from the above groping how language fails us? How we have to resort to analogies to drive home our points, to categories to explicitate our experience? Me, I prefer to take verbal snapshots/video clips. Like this one of me as I finger you damsels in distress: sun's rays stream through drapes play on the hot morning meal breakfast my prayer* * specially written for today's magpapa-INOM!!!! KAMPAI, JERRY-SAN!!! |
Cinti, (you are cinti whenever i feel your genius).
"sun's rays stream through drapes play on the hot morning meal breakfast my prayer*" You are my favorite 'two second' poet. Other poets have this lingering feeling that they unfurl in a language and image sublime to strum your heart endlessly. But you have the genius burst of insight the 'two second' window that explodes in the choice of image and words that captures the vortex of the moment for us. Funny you would introduce the metaphor 'seed and ovum', I was just contemplating on running a blog for xvd's 'the seed bed' - the role of those that were born and nurtured and then transplanted from the seedling farm (seminary) to the harvest farm. |
xvdph said
at this stage of his life, he is a sage where people go for advice or an Italian don where people looks for the device out of their problems.
Tnx, epi, you have deservedly established yourself as the XVD blog central. Your dogged dedication to spreading our blogs has been creating a whirlwind effect taking us to previously unimaginable heights. As Don Vincenzo would say: keepitups.
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Hi, Butch, we were just talking about you last night. How you impressed us all by taking the time and trouble to join us at the last reunion. How actively and enthusiastically you participated, and patiently covering the event with your expensive-looking camera equipment. How on the other hand we failed miserably to give you the proper recognition you so richly deserved during the affair itself. For the record, pls be assured that your inspiring interest has not gone unnoticed. tnx agn. rgards
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Manong Vic, your spontaneous comments typically contain some Shakespearian quality about them, proceeding as they do from the lips of someone whose current occupation involves quite a bit of imbibing from the cup of veritude. However, your double-entry comment appears completely unnecessary. After all, Shakespeare loathes repeating himself.
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butchcelestial wrote on Oct 2, '08
jeemsdee said
Hi, Butch, we were just talking about you last night. How you impressed us all by taking the time and trouble to join us at the last reunion. How actively and enthusiastically you participated, and patiently covering the event with your expensive-looking camera equipment. How on the other hand we failed miserably to give you the proper recognition you so richly deserved during the affair itself. For the record, pls be assured that your inspiring interest has not gone unnoticed. tnx agn. rgards
For the company I enjoyed and continue to enjoy through this blogging thing, I won't miss another chance to be with you guys again. I already booked my plane ticket for next year's centennial!
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"To see the world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a wild flower; Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour." (Robert Blake) A rose by any other name is still a rose. It remains a rose. It is a rose. But people, you and i, give and/or attach meaning/significance to a rose. Meaning, in a sense, then, is in people. Meaning is in you; meaning is in me. The meaning of anything depends on people. (There is, of course, objective reality.) Call it relativity, but there is a grain of truth in the statement. For indeed, it is you, it is me, it is every person who "gives" or attaches meaning and/or significance to what he sees, to what he reads, to what he hears, to what he smells, to what he tastes, to what he feels, to what he experiences. To the poet, to one who experiences something akin to the mystical--- the world could be gleaned/may be seen in a grain of sand; he/she gets a glimpse of, and experiences heaven in a wild flower; he/she realizes that infinity is within his grasp (in the palm of his/her hand); and eternity can be had in an hour (in a moment, even). One may not agree with what the other says (specially when the other is a lesser mortal, not a great mind, like some others) . But we agree that he has a right to say it. Thanks, Voltaire. I share what i believe in. Much of which i experience/d. No need to argue. It is an exchange. Part of our sharing. Every person has something to share. Worth pondering, and perhaps, imbibing. |
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