Jose Rizal's Laguna Reveries

The evening shifted as though the weight of stars bore down on this corner of the universe. It’s half past eleven in the evening, a Wednesday, a few days prior to the rising of the full moon. A child was heard a-screaming, belting from one end of the spectrum to the other a cry yet to be silenced by the surrounding darkness. Beneath the looming scar that sliced the night from the birthing day, a poor mother pleaded to the Virgin of Antipolo to save her newborn son. Save for that evening’s defiant moon, the night was pitch black, and nothing but angels and a clutch of stars had heard her cries.

UST opens library treasures exhibit for quadricentennial 

An exhibition of the most precious gems in the library of Asia’s oldest university ran beginning June 17, 2010 at the University of Santo Tomas campus along Espana, Manila.  Dubbed “Lumina Pandit”, this unique exhibition is now housed in the university’s Miguel de Benavides Library and will run until January 2011 when the UST celebrates its 400th anniversary.

One of my fondest memories of childhood was having those catechism classes in grade one. I remember wondering for the first time about how the Holy Spirit could be separate from the Father or the Son, and how a ‘spirit’ could be ‘god’. I did not dare ask the nun who taught us, so it was something that I carried for quite a long time. Then, some time later in my childhood, I heard a priest gave out a homily on ‘the mystery of our faith’. From then on I thought perhaps that that should be the default answer to my every Christian curiosity – “it’s a mystery!”

It’s my first time to meet a miracle worker. In Balikbayan Magazine’s recent trip to Sta. Maria, Bulacan, we met Bro. Carmelo Cortez, an ordinary man blessed with special gifts from God. It was in June 12, 1991, Bro. Carmelo, then at 21, first witnessed manifestations of rose petals with religious images, and healing. He saw the Mother of Eucharist and Grace, a young lady dressed in white and bathed in brilliant light. Her heart was visible with the Eucharist at the center surrounded by golden stars. She held a rosary on her right hand and a scapular on her left.