I would just like to greet everyone of you a Blessed Christmas.
And share with you four of the videos I took in Rome and Assisi.
The first time I visited St. Peter’s in 1989 with hubby I vowed to myself I would never come back. Because the place was just too grandiose, too wrong for a church that was supposed to be for the poor.
Last September, I decided to return and look at the Vatican in a new light.
St. Peter’s is still too ornate for my taste but I have realized that the Church is a repository of mankind’s history, greed, ambition, generosity and dreams.
To understand the human soul, I needed to expose myself to these.
The Vatican is still the last place on earth where I feel I am in the presence of God.
* * *
Pope Alexander VI is probably one of the most controversial popes in Catholic history. And yet, and yet, the nuns who taught us our religion never breathed a word about him.
This is how some faiths are destroyed – when Catholics find out later in life that they were never told some of the awful, awful truths about their religion.
And so I made it a point to visit the Borgia apartments that are now part of the Vatican Museum.
The first thing that came to mind was – how could a holy man lie in bed looking at THOSE GOLDEN KNOBS in the ceiling?
The next thing I thought of was – how could a holy man have those devil-like paintings on his walls?
I am glad, though, that the Church preserved his apartments. I guess it is to show that evil can be present in the holiest of places.
The last video was taken inside the crypt of St. Francis in Assisi.
Cameras are not allowed inside the Basilica and the crypt of St. Francis.
But luckily, on this day, his death anniversary was being celebrated with a procession and mass and I was able to record this video. The crypt is underground inside an old church. The present Basilica was built atop this church.
His tomb is encased in that circular column behind the altar.
Just a personal note – St. Francis of Assisi is my favorite saint because of his complicated simplicity.
Also, the first voice you hear on the video is that of the lovely nun I stayed with at the Istituto Beata Angelina – a convent that overlooks the Basilica. The second voice is mine – replying to her in my broken Italian :)
Neo Canjeca says
GLOFIL TALAGA is what the world needs . . . not love
HONEST PINOY CABBIE PRAISED BY US SENATOR
by Bev Llorente, ABS-CBN North America Bureau
Posted at 12/30/2013 3:47 PM | Updated as of 12/30/2013 4:08 PM
LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Gerardo Gamboa’s act of kindness earned him celebrity status in Las Vegas Valley.
Gamboa is the 55-year-old Fil-Am cabbie who returned the $300,000 stash of cash left behind by a passenger.
“Ang akin dun sinabi ko naman sa mukha niya talaga ng harapan sabi ko, “I don’t need this money, this reward from you.” Dahil ang ginawa ko natutuwa na ako na ginawan kita ng mabuti dahil yung karangalan na nakuha ko hanggang mamatay ako dala dala ko yun, hindi mabayaran ng pera kaya hindi siya makatingin sa mata ko,” Gamboa said.
Neo Canjeca says
Because my last piece about a probable cancer causing
the unstoppable assassinations of our journalists is not acceptable
to three threads of this blog, I prefer to say Good Bye CPMers and
knowing why let the wind blow me away to the cosmos.
Neo Canjeca says
try pa rin dito, to see why this won’t get through.
Any unlikeable, cantankerous sometimes praiseful admiring blogger is not the paid hack or GRO of any person, any group, any political party, or any damaged institution paying for cosmetic repair. That I think describes the majority though lean and slight of the CP Miranda bloggers. Take a hint este look at the item below:
Why Palace should listen to criticisms
by Kathlyn dela Cruz, ABS-CBNnews.com
Posted at 12/27/2013 10:53 PM | Updated as of 12/28/2013 12:01 AM
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/focus/12/27/13/why-palace-should-listen-criticisms
”MANILA — A political analyst believes the Palace should not easily dismiss negative issues being hurled against the Aquino administration but address these head-on.
Speaking to radio dzMM on Friday, political analyst and University of Santo Tomas professor Edmund Tayao said that while it is understandable that Malacañang would opt to focus on positive issues, it should also not forget to face criticisms.
“Sana nasasagot ng maayos… Hindi yung kumbaga papagalitan mo pa yung nagtatanong sa iyo. Para mas nakikita ng tao na may ginagawa talaga ang gobyerno,” he said, adding that the Aquino administration should stop blaming media for “bad news.”
How come, HOW COME? “Tayao’s statement came amid the slight increase in the number of people dissatisfied with the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.”
———————–
A section one grade five teacher during my time (ancient already) used to tell us: “Use your arithmetic when you want to say something about criticisms if on record count how many are there; how many are good, how many are bad, how many are ignored, how many are listened to; how many are based on facts and how many on lies, also how many are acted upon. Then you can study the criticisms. If your composition is only wise sounding boladas, and not from straight thinking, I will send you back to grade four.”
HAS IT EVER occurred to us Pinoys to ask Why Filipino Journalists are being mercilessly, brutally killed? Where? When? How? And How Many? The answers readily available are mostly accurate in quality and numbers and are obtainable in both primary and secondary sources, from people and the internet and media morgues.
I remember Carlos P. Romulo, Salvador P. Lopez, CHINO ROCES and a forgotten very few. We don’t have the likes of them anymore. To remember them is heart rending history. In search for answers, I will use the society’s MIRROR as METAPHOR IN TWO TIME PERIODS. Before Martial Law, take the mirror to the Senate in the times CM Recto, JW Diokno C Primicias. Let the Senators look and ask what they see. Afterwards take the mirror to all print, broadcast, and visual media. Ask the Big Guys to look at the mirror and ask at what they see. FAST FORWARD to the times when journalists start getting murdered , take the METAPHOR MIRROR again to the Senate and the Media establishments. Compare the faces and the souls behind them and what do you see? Certainly the senate and media are just small microcosms of aberrant culture, believe it and your teacher could get you returned to grade four because believing the MIRROR alone that is not straight thinking.
Beyond arithmetic, icons and idols are symbols which journalism here doesn’t have anymore. As a symbol, the theory este Neo conjecture goes this way: CHINO ROCES has a NEGATIVE correlation with journalists’s murders. Which means increasing CHINO ROCES, means decreasing journalists murders. Conversely, decreasing CHINO ROCES means increasing journalists murders. Have print media erected in any Plaza a monument for CHINO? Journos now in their march for truth have lost a guidon.
Perhaps the likes of Ms Raissa, Ms Danguilan-Vitug or Ms Glenda Gloria should write in context the intangibles of the murders. Or the PCIJ crusaders without casting aspersions investigate este write on ownership and brainrooms of media after Martial Law.
praetorius says
@Raissa,
regarding you mentioning as to why the nuns failed to mention Pope Alexander VI, his successor (Pope Julius II) said: “I will not live in the same rooms as the Borgia’s lived. He desecrated the Holy Church as none before. He usurped the papal power by the devil’s aid, and I forbid under the pain of excommunication anyone to speak or think of Borgia again. His name and memory must be forgotten. It must be crossed out of every document and memorial. His reign must be obliterated. All paintings made of the Borgia’s or for them must be covered over with black crepe. All the tombs of the Borgia’s must be opened and their bodies sent back to where they belong – to Spain.”
moonie says
history tells us rodolfo borgia a.k.a. pope alexander VI was not italian. he was from spain and extremely wealthy. he used bribery to secure two thirds of the vote that made him pope. at the time, people seemed content with him, with all that bribery going on and so many palms greased. he had 4 children by his mistress, got himself unprecedented power in the whole of christendom and europe, and his daughter lucrezia borgia had incest with him.
but religion is not all about pope alexander, he’s just a langaw albeit an oversized one. my faith is still whole. may we all have a prosperous 2014.
Neo Canjeca says
I have not read or studied it, but I have heard the rumour.
NEXT to the papacy of Pope Benedict IS THE LAST.
The next and last Pope is the anti-Christ mandated to
CLEAN UP CHRISTENDOM before the SECOND COMING.
The clean up seemed to have already started.
Neo Canjeca says
Not only that. It’s like Pope John Paul the first (Albino Luciani)
seemed to have been resurrected in the holy reforms
being carried out now by Pope Francis.
praetorius says
Yeah right…. keep yourself busy with the gossips.
chit navarro says
Merry Christmas Alan, Raissa and your lovely children. Thank you for another INTERESTING year of awakening to the realities of Philippines politics.
To all CPMers, here’s wishing everyone a joyful and meaningful Christmas and greater blessings for 2014. Let us consolidate the gains we have had at CPM by a continuing voter education at the grassroots. For 2016 presidential elections – the disadvantages of SELLING VOTES and how to dismantle piolitical dynasties.
To Raissa, my wishlist includes an in-depth write-up on the Binay dynasty. The earlier, the better.. :)
Cheers to a more interesting 2014!
pinay710 says
MANIGONG BAGONG TAON AT KALUSUGAN PARA SA LAHAT NG CPMers LALO NA SA MAGKABIYAK NA ALAN AT RAISSA.
nawa sa taong darating na taon MAWALA na sa mundong ibabaw ang mga HINAYUPAK na mga MANDARAMBONG AT MAGNANAKAW sa ating bayan.
leona says
Hoping that this word is whole and could be Italian unbroken, GRAZIE Raissa!
Once again, centuries ago, we express THANKS to those creative Italians, their workers, artists and Architect master, who made these ‘churches’ for now all peoples, believers and non-believers, to appreciate what the ‘insides’ of these churches are. I am not into arts but for me the churches of these kinds are masterpieces!
You save me some trips watching the videos here [thanks my chrome ran this second time]
You are right to believe that entering these holy places feels like you are in the presence of God! My feeling would be ‘my prayer is heard and answered by God Himself “LORD! It is AMEN!”
Right and Wrong will be continuously answered in pieces. Just like these created works. We will all be at it for eternity until God says ‘You have found it.’
I am sure the LORD approves these created wonderful works of art. He would have erased them a long time ago. He cannot envy it like that ‘Temple’ He found to have been desecrated by those He whipped out during His time.
Thanks Raissa.
Victin Luz says
Happy New Year maam @Raissa and to your family…..i hope you can write something about Bong Bong Marcos and the KBL or Marcos clicks ,, advertising or promoting Him to be a good replacement of PNOY next 2016… as early He should not be given a CHANCE….GOD BLESS
vander anievas says
again my sincerest greetings to the couple and to all cpmers!!
baycas says
For Reflection
raissa says
yes.
chit navarro says
Can we also add “symbol of man-made calamities” as well? Because the mother of all greed hail from this city and she was once referred to as The Rose of Tacloban.
moonie says
the rose of tacloban is now the gross of tacloban. she is nearly the size of jabba the hutt (star wars character who enslaved pricess leia). gross cannot wipe her own p–et now, someone has to do it for her. it’s possible she has no control over her bowels too. and cannot walk without mobility aids and carers assisting her. all that money cannot make her 21 again, fit and healthy with not a care in the world. where she will soon be going, she cannot take all her money with her, but she has grandchildren as inheritors ready to follow in the family tradition. I will not wish gross and her clan merry christmas. I’m not worthy. baka maduraan pa ako.
greenpea says
The best of the holidays to you and family, Ms Raissa! and also to CPMers and all men of goodwill.
Although I consider myself as an agnostic now, I was schooled by franciscan priests and I still remember by heart this beautiful prayer of St. Francis:
Lord make me a channel of your peace,
where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord,
Where there is sadness ever joy.
O master, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand
to be loved as to love with all my soul.
It is in giving that we receive
and in dying that we are born to eternal life.
I may not believe what other things the friars taught me
but this prayer is my guide in life.
And St. Francis my model
netty says
Since you wrote about the Church and not the other idyllic places of interest, I would comment about the Vatican as the church and as the seat of Holiness as per some people’s description although honestly not my taste and belief as well. I share the link from a former highest ranking officer who knew the inside and out of the grand collusion between the IMF and the Vatican. As I expressed my most honest thoughts via my comment, I hope that this won’t be the start of the battleground between CPMERS on who is right and who is wrong about beliefs and religion, who will be save and who is not. I hope not for this is a very touchy feely freely subject. I can understand why the Vatican would be attach to faith for some but not to me now that I am a changed soul. For believers and non -believers, I think anywhere exist a place to adore their God, but going there for adoration is also perfectly OK to do. Holy places and churches are in the Vatican but it is also one other thing as a secretive bank and depository of enormous wealth among the elites and powerful especially among Catholic allied churches. They are, I mean the people running the Vatican hold the most secret of the universe for they can afford the humungous satellite peeking into space, keeper under secrecy of ancient books of information of the origin of men and the universe, holder of vast real estate holdings and money laundered, (too many links to see) and the most corrupt activities happen in THE VATICAN, so the saying what happens in the Vatican, stays in Vatican is relevant. It is said to be immune from persecution and that the POPE HIMSELF IS INFALLIBLE, now think who punish the holiest? …and those priests who commit crimes.. I believe they are the judges themselves and resolved through monetary measures. Anything that preaches the Golden rule is good if not used to control the believers and only for the interest and goodness of humanity.
Happy holidays, Raissa and family. ;))
http://youtu.be/-YP5sO76bwo (LINK) fr 17:29 is interesting.
Alfredo says
Thanks Netty for the link, a must see. It confirms my theory that a very powerful group ( I just don’t know who they are) is running the affairs of this world, doing what they want and not be accountable to anyone.
“I hope that this won’t be the start of the battleground between CPMERS on who is right and who is wrong about beliefs and religion, who will be save and who is not”. I do not see any reason why not. If we can talk here of politics that always come and go, why not talk about a topic that concerns salvation of the soul? Is politics more important than salvation? One of the reason why I’m not a frequent guest in this site is because I’m more on spirituality and all of you are already contributing much that I cannot add more to what most of you know, except for example things that I know but cannot divulge here for fear of reprisals from some powerful groups, i.e.: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/264842/news/nation/doj-assists-us-in-probing-mikey-arroyo-for-alleged-money-laundering. What happened to the investigation? I don’t know, but I know that this is true.
And may I say this, not because we (most of us I guess and a Catholic for that) are Christians, we think we are correct in many ways than others. In the book of Revelation, in the letters to the seven churches, where Jesus cited the characters of the entire Christian church, (number 7 being the fullness of the church), only two were given commendation and the five were rebuked. From here, we have to always ask ourselves if we are really doing what God approves. Not long ago that you(I did not join) talked about the RH bill and most of you are for it. But may I ask now, if God tells you like he told Abraham that he will make your descendants as numerous as the stars the sky, since you are for RH bill, will you tell Him,”God please don’t, I have no means to feed all of them!” The problem is, we are always relying on ourselves, saying yes I have faith but actually too small, the reason why Jesus said that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed…Mine is not even half of that size but I recognize that I need to have more.
Mel NL says
I would to greet you and your family and the CPMers too!
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!! Raissa, may you continue to give us deep insights on any topics. I love reading your blogs as I learned many things from it! Thank you!
Mel NL says
should be ‘would like”.
Dee says
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Raissa! I would like to tell you that I appreciate you and Cyber Plaza Miranda.