A Quote for the Day

God's generosity and glory are most profound in the sight of people who have developed their natural gifts and talents to the utmost. Only a beautiful God can create such beautiful people with beautiful gifts, distinct yet awesome even in that distinctness.

In misfortune opportunity still abounds, at times even more than anyone is prepared to take on. This thought came to me while watching the PSEi dropped today as AGI became the most active stock and giving investors enough return on investments to rival even that of usurious microlenders. Ironically, it went back up before the market closed. Opportunity taken?

Love does not wait to be asked to give. When it sees the need, it simply gives anytime, anywhere. This thought came to me today while driving on South Reclamation Project towards Minglanilla around past 2 pm. The kids were asleep, exhausted from their morning periodical exams. And the sun was punishingly scorching. Then a thin cloud appeared to cover the sun, giving all of us driving that very minute for a long enough stretch throughout the reclamation area. This gave us a sunny sky but with subdued light enriched with strong gusts of wind from the sea. Isn't God such a greatly loving Father to us that moment?

You will know people who truly love you when you see them with you in the worst times of your life. (photo: Christopher Erney Sculpture Studio )

We understand others well only when we understand ourselves better.

A bird is not a bird because it has wings. It has wings because it is a bird. So even if a bird loses its wings, it will still remain a bird though without wings. In the same way... A man is not a man because he got scrotum and penis. He got scrotum and penis because he is a man. So even if man removes his scrotum and penis, he is still a man. In the same way, a woman is a woman not because she got a womb and a vagina. She got a womb and a vagina because she is a woman. So even if she had her womb and vagina removed, she is still a woman.

The best leaders we ever find among us have all these three--intelligence, energy and integrity. But remove integrity, and you find the worst crook there will ever be.

The only difference between the wise man and the fool is that the former knows how ignorant he can be.

True freedom is not only about being able to choose to perform good acts, but also about being so in doing the bad. A good person however willfully chooses to do the difficult but good things to do, and take responsibility of his bad actions. The evil person simply chooses otherwise. It is not about finding faults in others any way you can. It is about being free to choose the full exercise of one's talents to find effective solutions.

In simple things comes the deepest of happiness, the joy of the soul.

While the brilliance of light can best be appreciated when surrounded by darkness, Light does not need the Darkness in order to exist. In fact, Darkness was of the Light but lost its source of brightness.

The sad, and many times painful, hollow inside ourselves is a grace that invites a person towards the river of living water that only Jesus can give. Our emptiness is our looking glass revealing before our eyes the fleeting satisfaction we can enjoy from all created things. Like thirst and hunger that returns after few hours of the previous meal, emptiness visits us, and invites us to seek the presence of God in our lives from where we can draw a filling of our souls that will never be exhausted.

Almost all the time, when we proceed to do the things we fear despite the fear, we come to find out that there is not much to fear at all. Fear oftentimes is just in our mind, a natural human reaction on things he feels uncertain about, things he does not understand. Fear is the offspring of unbelief.  

Each person is designed not to be alone. Each person's blind spots can only be seen by another. And without others, a person will remain blind in many things about himself. In intimate fellowship with each other we are meant to be.

You cannot change the nature of things. The most important difference between man and animal is that man can strive to change his natural inclinations through commitment, assisted by divine grace. A cat who knows only but steal food from your table seldom change no matter what punishment you bring into it. But a wayward person can change the course of his life if he realized he followed the wrong path, and seek God's graces for the change. Beyond that the nature of things stay the way they are.

The most welcomed gifts are those most often used.

If you have something you cannot part with, avoid talking about it. It is better for people to not know what they miss than to miss what they came to love too.

We give most sincerely when we do not expect even a 'Thank You' for our gifts. The joy of giving comes from a heart overflowing with so much love for others, it simply rejoices in the chance and the privelege of being able to give to others. And no personal credit for such love fits an ever-joyful giver, but a gratitude towards God for chosing us as His instruments in making others experience His love for them.  

It is better for a person to have lived a life of grievous sin, and then repented, than for a person to have lived a virtuous life, and then sinned grievously and not repent.

Trying hard at happiness fails because hardwork is not often compatible with a smile. A hardworker who concentrated at solving a problem will even forget he lost the laugh. Happiness comes in not taking life or yourself seriously, and in realizing that a hard face cannot form a happy smile.

Arrogance is telling others all the wrong things about what the other person does without even knowing exactly the 'why'.

Those who truly search for the truth will find truth even from the most unlikely places. Those who seek the truth only with their mouths will never recognize the truth even when paraded before their very eyes.

Before God calls any person to do a special mission for God, or even a lifetime vocation, He ensures that the condition in the person's heart is ready for the "Yes," or at least for the "partial Yes" that responds to His invitation, "Come and see." If the verbal cue on the call comes, either from a cleric, a religious, a parent, a friend, or anyone else, the person automatically knows that the time has come for a "Yes." If the person being told that he is called to this and that cannot confirm that call internally, he needs to be very careful because the Lord may not have called him in that direction pointed out.