Important Announcement. I announced that the deadline for the final storybook (and the church involvement) would be two days before grade consultation day(which used to be Coursecards day), and this would be on September 8. So the deadline I announced before was Sunday, September 6. However, upon verifying with the Department Chair, I was told that the deadline for the submission of grades is September 7,  and not 8, it is because of the new system in place of not distributing coursecards anymore, but just posting it online.

So, the deadly deadline would be Saturday, September 5 . However, I have a wedding to attend to from after lunch, until about 8 PM. So, I will be seeing people for submission in the morning of Saturday until before lunch, and then around 8:30 PM until around 11 at Bo’s Coffee in Bonifacio Highstreet. Text me if you’re going na…

By the way, tomorrow, I will post here my intro for the storybook, and a jpeg logo you will put at the upper left hand corner of the cover of your storybook...

A Discussion on the Beatitudes

The First Beatitude

The first Beatitude is not an acceptance of poverty as a condition. It is not poverty itself but poverty in spirit that is a condition. It is not poverty itself but poverty in spirit that is blessed. To be “poor in spirit” requires a humble recognition that one’s life must be lived in radical dependence on the goodness and providence of God, who is the source of all good things. To be “poor in spirit” means to remain open and trustful in God’s love and providence.

The Second Beatitude

Mourning is an expression of a moral attitude. We mourn over the sinful condition of our lives, the misery and suffering of others, the massive poverty, and injustice in the world. Our mourning which impels us to give comfort and consolation to others is blessed with God’s comfort for us.

The Third Beatitude

Meekness is not identical with passivity. The meekness which is blessed comes from the tranquility and gentleness of spirit in a person who, united with God, is filled not only with the passion to correct the wrong, but also the compassion to offer forgiveness and renewal to the wrongdoer.

The Fourth Beatitude

The deepest hunger and thirst of the human heart is the thirst and hunger for the righteousness of God, fulfilled and realized in justice. Justice is the first demand of love. Works of “charity” are not authentic Christian love when they maintain the position of the rich as the donor and the poor as the recipient of that which are rightfully theirs in justice.

The Fifth Beatitude

Mercy means more than pity. It is not simply an emotion. It is an action which entails the movement of one’s heart for the suffering of others in a true and genuine care for them. God’s mercy is the cause and condition of our mercy for others. Only those who have known God’s mercy and compassion in Christ can be truly merciful and compassionate to others.

The Sixth Beatitude

“Purity of heart” is centering one’s life on God, through one’s concern and compassion for others. “To see God” which is the grace and blessing of the Beatitude, refers to the communion with Jesus who has completely lived according to God’s will and plan.

The Seventh Beatitude

Peace liberates and unites people. Where the well-being of persons in all aspects of life is realized, there is true peace. But peace is made possible only through God’s grace present in men and women who work for peace. Peace is both a grace from God, and a human task. Peace is founded on love, justice and truth. When one of these human values is violated, peace is not attained. Peace is a total and integral human reality.

The Eighth Beatitude

Only a persecution for righteousness is blessed, for this is righteousness for Christ. Suffering with and for Christ and suffering apart from and without him are different things. Those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are promised the reign of God. since the reign of God is a reality in the very person of Jesus, the reward is intimacy and communion with him here and now, and its perfect fulfillment in the end of time.

P.S. Memorize the "Our Father" Prayer

All the best for tomorrow. =P
 

5 Questions

1.       Do you believe in God? What makes you not believe in Him?

Ok, really, what do you think? I’m a TRED prof, am I not? Hehehehe. But seriously there are a couple of ways that we can view your question. First would be how we understand, or what we mean when we say “believe” . to believe could be taken to mean simply as to hold true in one’s mind any concept to be existing. Therefore, we even an atheist can believe in God as a concept. And then, there is this believing that necessarily orders or rather, demands that anyone who does so (i.e. to practice believing) to orient one’s whole life in order to fulfill or put into concrete particular actions, that which is abstractly held true by the mind, in this case the particular object, God. of course, when we say or use the term object here, that is not to means that we are objectifying God, we are merely using the term so that we will have a “handle” so that we may be able to talk about this phenomenon, that is, believing in God. as per the follow-up question ( Which makes it 6 questions, hehehehe) I cannot, for myself find any plausible reason to contradict what I have arrived at through an honest personal search of what to believe in. for some people however, it might be that the matter you asked for the third question, would be enough reason for them not to believe in God. And no one can blame them, they probably have gone through really tough times. Although I believe that if they would be able to see beyond the suffering, which again, I repeat, is not an easy thing to do, then they would probably believe. And if I may add, without prejudice to answering the third question a little later, it is when people have gone through this difficult process of coming to believe that we see real conviction in faith, much more than those of the people who haven’t had the same difficult experience.

2.       As we know, the Bible was written by different people and therefore has many contradictions which is inconsistent in a way. What is your comment on this/ Religion and religion doctrines are also self-contradictory, how can they all be true?

If I may also add, the Bible was also written spanning several hundred years. So saying that there are some inconsistencies in it are of course an understatement. However, we should bear in mind a couple of things whenever we talk of Scriptures, and this will be further clarified when you take TREDTRI, that the inspiration that God gave to the sacred writers of the bible is not like a divine dictation, whereby he actually whispers into the ears of the authors. Rather, God respected the autonomy and freedom of the writers to write the way they want to write and how they write. We can cite for example, the accounts of the evangelists when they write about the birth of Jesus. One writer said Jesus was born in a house, and yet another mentions he is born in a cave. Another example we can look at in the Old Testament this time is the number of days it rained during the days of Noah. Two figures were given. 40 days and 40 nights, and later in the same chapter, there is mention of 120 days. Now for my “comment” which you are asking. No comment. Hehehehe, just kidding. Uhm, ok, the short and sweet answer to it would be that though the Bible has a lot of inconsistencies, it only shows how god always at all times respect the inviolable free will of all human persons. At the same time, despite the inconsistencies, the Bible is still inerrant in the matters that pertain to the essential salvific truths. There are some secondary details in the bible, and they can be subject to human errors, part of the human foibles, however, the overarching theme of the Salvific story of God is recorded quite accurately. As regards your follow-up question, I cannot for a fact think of any example. i think that the church is as consistent as it should be. Although at several points in history, misinterpretations of its doctrines have led to the falling out of a lot of its members. However, be that as it may, the Church still keeps on going, and better at that, than the Energizer bunny.

3.       Why do you think there is still human suffering?

Human suffering, I think is intrinsic to our existence, which means to say, it is an integral component to out being human. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to sound nihilistic when I say this, but what I mean to say is that it is a part of human life in that it is necessary for us to be able to achieve our fullest human potential. Suffering is something that is properly attributable to human beings alone, and yet, by extension, we attribute it also to animals. However, strictly speaking, suffering involves the component of the will. This is what makes it different from just experiencing pain. Suffering can take up a lot of different forms. Buddhism teaches that the root of all suffering is attachment to impermanent things. It teaches that suffering would cease when we are no longer enamored by things that are impermanent. Christianity on the other hand, does not seek to eliminate suffering, but instead use it in order for human persons to transcend, or go beyond the limitations and boundaries that are set in his life. To quote Philippians Chapter 2 (and it is quite rare that I quote Scriptures, hehehe) “Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at, rather he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of man, it was thus that he handled himself over to death, a death on the cross.”  The example Jesus set dfor us is that we ought not to escape suffering, but if we face it, it will teach us a thing or two on how to achieve happiness, which is, ultimately, the other side of the same coin.

4.       There are so many Gods and religions which are contradictory to each other. How would we know which one is true or not? Is it possible that all of them can be true?

Let me tackle the second question first (which makes it 7 questions na, hehehehe). The possiblity is there, that ultimately, all religions pertains to the same reality. However, our limited capacity for understanding all concepts come into play. We have differences in opinion, which contributes to, and is at the same time, is partly shaped by a lot of different factors, like our culture, age, gender, even our geographic ethnicity, to name a few.  So certainly, the religion of some remote South African tribe which teaches them that their God is the Crocodile, is very different from our religion that says that god is  loving Father, who sent his Son and became human with us, Emmanuel (Although there are some who worship the crocodile in the brand of Lacoste, hehehehe). One of the documents of the Church from Vatican One, Nostra Aetate, states that in most of the world religions and world-views, there is what can be called, “semen veritate” or seeds of the truth, and thus all religions should be respected. As regards your first question (in this number, that is), Knowing which one or true or not, takes a back seat to finding out which religious system one finds most meaningful, at a personal level. That is to say, if you find that worshiping Lacoste is something that personally makes sense to you, then by all means, worship the crocodile! We are a people who subsist with meaning, more than bread and water and oxygen. For most part, it is meaning that we live for. You want proof of this? Try the concept and meaning of Love. Now, don’t get me started with the topic, as we could go on and on talking hours on end about that.

5.       Who do you think made God and how did (this concept) come to exist?

I remember in one of my philosophy classes back in college, the “terror prof” asked all of us to define God. We almost banged our heads against the armchairs trying to come up with a definition that would please him. In the end, one of my classmates, the rather slow one (ok, ok, I’m mean) defiantly stands up and declares, that god cannot be defined, because the very action of “defining” means delimiting, or putting boundaries on something, which is of course impossible to do in the case of God. He got 1.0, which is equivalent to 4.0 in the DLSU grading system. The bastard! Hehehehe) So when you ask who made God, the question is absurd in that God in the proper sense, necessarily means that S/he is not made, has no origin or ending. Of course you understand that when I say “S/he”, that is because god is beyond the categories of gender. Now, how the concept of God came to exist shows us that there is a universal longing for something that is beyond what is apparent, more than just what is here and now. Some would argue that God is merely an intellectual construct that man used to explain the things that used to be unexplainable. Remember the Greek and the Roman gods and goddesses, for example, like Zeus, who was the god of lightning, and Vulcan, the god of volcanoes. However, if that were true, how come, in our day and age, where science is at its peak, people would still turn to God and religion? I go back to what I said earlier, that meaning is what God mediates for us, and somehow, in our deepest core, our heart of hearts, it makes sense. Di ba? =P

Guidelines for the Storybooks

1.       Again, please observe the following format. Those who fail to do so will be deducted accordingly.

2.       THE DRAFT FOR THE STORY, AS WELL AS THE ILLUSTRATIONS, SHOULD BE PRESENTED FOR APPROVAL FIRST.

3.       For the Special power of attorney WHICH I REVISED AND POSTED IN THE YAHOOGROUP NA, it should be printed on LONG SIZED bond paper, signed and duly notarized. THERE SHOULD BE TWO COPIES

4.       For the storybook itself, please make sure you follow the format I specified to you. 6 LONG (not short) bond papers folded in the middle. That will give you 24 pages, plus an extra board that you will use as cover.

5.       The very first page which is the bond paper(not the board), should be a title page. The page right after it, on the left side should be kept blank.

6.       The inside cover page should be reserved for my introduction, which I will upload in the Yahoogroups first thing tomorrow.

7.       The inside back cover should have your pictures and a brief write-up of the members of the group and me as well.  I give you creative license to write whatever about me or my method of teaching. You may use any of my pictures in my Facebook or Multiply.

8.       The back cover should have a short synopsis of the story.

9.       Put the 5 copies of the story book, and the SPA forms  in a LONG brown envelope. Submission is from 9 A.M. until 8 P.M. of Monday, April 20.

10.   Put the names of the members of each group in front of the Envelope, with the Group number AND SECTION as well.

11.   A soft copy of the story book should be burned on a cd, with matching cover for the cd case. Submit this in the envelope as well PLEASE INCLUDE ALSO A PLAIN TEXT VERSION (Just the story, no illustrations) in RTF MS Word in the CD.

12.   As the envelopes are submitted, I will be asking the group how the participation of everyone had been. I will then give grades accordingly. NOT ALL ARE REQUIRED TO COME FOR THE SUBMISSION. JUST THE GROUP LEADER.

13.   Congratulations! You had IVAN Pineda for TREDONE! The toughest TRED prof! You now have bragging rights, and can tell others to avoid getting me during enrolment. =P

Guys, this is additional guidelines for making the storybook. To qualify for this contest ( which I am requesting the deadline to be moved to April 16) Only the text is needed. But for the finished project, the 6 completed storybooks will be due on April 17

Gig Book Storywriting Contest