T’was a great 2018!

Started the year doing my job as the designated zoning administrator of the municipality. Faced a lot of challenges and even opposition as I implement zoning regulations. I stood firm and yes the law prevailed.

 

My job took me to Surigao City, Davao City and Angeles City. Wandering through the streets of these cities has filled me with tons of ideas for local development planning especially in terms of environmental protection, urban planning and community resiliency.

 

Though I sometimes had to struggle with health issues, I was able to surmount it all. Thanks heaven, I have always been receiving undeserved leases in my life hehe. Perhaps, God has more plans for me hehe.

 

One important lesson I learned this year is to take life easy, anyway, no one comes out of this world carrying all the things that worry people a lot like money, career, and all worldly cares.

 

If the spirit is like an airplane, it would be easier for it to soar up to the greatest heights if it does not carry tons of baggage.

 

Living unattached to material things is essential to living a happy life. However, fighting materialistic tendencies is a constant battle between good and evil, call it the “armageddon” on a daily basis.

 

When the plane that we were riding on in Surigao hardly took off from the runway due to strong winds and heavy downpour caused by a signal number two typhoon, I thought the plane will not be able to pull it off. I thought it would smash through the grassy and muddy area. Our plane is just so good and obviously we have a good pilot.

 

Up in the air, turbulence was so scary. I saw my companion’s daughter holding on tight to his father’s arm. Admittedly, I was scared but here we are in a corner where all of us seemed to be helpless. I closed my eyes, said a prayer, relaxed myself and listened to a love song on my tablet. In forty-five minutes, our plane is making a landing in Cebu airport. However, our ordeal is not yet over. We are still in the middle of the storm. We are just half-way to our final destination which is our hometown of Lavezares in Northern Samar.  

 

We had the night passed in a cheap hotel in Cebu. At past 4 in the morning, we prepared for the airport. It was raining and wind is getting stronger as the typhoon is now in Cebu. From our room, I can see the country’s flag fluttering so fast with the strong winds. We went to the airport. There was no flight cancellation. Friends were calling me concerned of my flight as it was situation in my hometown is not good either. A friend even livestreamed the strong winds in my hometown ripping through the streets and banana areas. Several teachers were calling and texting me asking if the mayor would cancel classes and offices. I told them we have to wait for the provincial government notice of cancellation.

 

Absence the flight cancellation, we proceeded with our trip back home. There were even more turbulence. To relax myself, I opened myself for a nice conversation with my seatmate who happens to be a bank manager of a local bank. In more than an hour, we landed at Calbayog Airport amidst worrisome turbulence.

 

Lesson learned through all these air turbulence is to stay relax by consoling oneself with the thought that man has no control. God has.

 

Turbulence comes in so many forms, both natural and real life in other aspects. Having faith in oneself and in the Supreme Being are enough to tame me no matter how earth shattering the turbulences are.

 

Great thoughts to live by as 2018 leaves and as 2019 beacons a new gravity-defying hope and positive vibes.# 01-02-2019

 

God-centered vs. Self-centered Posted by Scott Chafee

 

God-centered vs. Self-centered

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Scott Chafee

The essence of sin is the shift from a God-centeredness to a self-centeredness. To know God’s will, we must turn away from self-centeredness. Look at it this way:

To be self-centered: life is focused on self, we are proud of self and your own accomplishments, we have confidence is in self, a dependence on self and our own abilities, seeking acceptance from the world and its ways, selfish and ordinary living.

To be God-centered: we have confidence in God, dependence on God and on his abilities and provision, life is focused on God and his activities, we have humility before God, denying self, seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and seeking God’s perspective in all circumstances, holy and godly living.

In the Bible we don’t see God asking people to dream up what they want to do for God. The pattern is to submit, wait, watch and then join him.

Our goals for experiencing God, basically to know and do the will of God…

1. I must deny myself and return to a God-centered life.
2. I must reorient my life to God.
3. I must focus my life on God’s purposes and not my own plans.
4. I must seek to see from God’s perspective rather than from my own distorted human perspective.
5. I must wait until God shows me what he is about to do through me.
6. I must watch to see what God is doing around me and join him.

THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE AND WORKS OF FR. CANTIUS KOBAK: A Book Review

 THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE AND WORKS OF FR. CANTIUS KOBAK

A Polish Priest and Historian in the Philippines

Author: Carl Sanchez Bordeos

 

Bridging the past to the present is what this book has successfully accomplished. The author, Carl Sanchez Bordeos, was able to connect piece by piece the significant events in the life of the great Samar historian, the adopted Calbayognon, the personification of Franciscan mission, and the pride of the Polish people, Fr. Cantius Kobak.

 

The book which is studded with well-researched facts and old photos, traces the footsteps of Fr. Kobak. It engages readers on Fr. Kobak’s journey from his birth to his finding his priestly mission, to the trails of his mission in the Philippines and his legendary work in assembling the records of the rich history and heritage of the Samar Island, especially during the pre-Hispanic period. It establishes the generosity of spirit of Fr. Kobak, both as a priest and as a historian, and puts him on a rightful place in the history of Franciscan mission in the Philippines and elevates him as one of the important historians the Philippines ever had.

 

Fr. Kobak came to Samar on August 28, 1959. It appears that right from start, he immediately developed his deep appreciation of the island leading him to take the monumental challenge of documenting its storied past. Undaunted by the then seeming lack of records and huge data gaps, Fr. Kobak explored the libraries in Samar and Leyte universities in search of documents.

 

Undeterred by poor roads and transportation at that time, he travelled across towns and islands in Samar and Leyte. He conducted research of their histories, visited historic sites, explored caves and burial grounds and collected valuable artifacts. He also visited the site of Magellan’s first landing in Homonhon Island which he also believed to be where the first mass in the Philippines was celebrated.

 

In 1967, he also took part in the retrieval, translation and annotation of the volumes of Fr. Francisco Alcina’s Historia de las Islas y Indios de Bisayas, the surviving well-written volumes of books about the Visayan people.

 

His body of works and collection of valuable artifacts are now stored and exhibited at the Samar Archeological Museum in Christ the King College, Calbayog City, which is now highly regarded in the country as the banner museum in the Samar Island. Succeeding historians and students of Samar’s history, including the author of this book, will never come out with a paper without going through the works of Fr. Kobak.

Fr. Kobak has done all these while attending to his pastoral and evangelization mission as a Franciscan. He exemplified what is meant by integral evangelization. His life’s journey taught all of us not to idle time in the service of God and humanity in whatever place and circumstance one may find in; in his case, a Polish and a European sent to mission in one of the poorest regions of the world, the Samar Island. His life and work were indeed “extraordinary” as aptly mentioned in the title of this book.

 

After reading this book, one important reflection is that – if Fr. Cantius Kobak who is a foreigner developed a genuine and deep love and concern for the island of Samar, how much more us who are born natives of this island?

 

Thirty-two years since he left the Philippines and seventeen years since his death, this book came to be. It may be long-delayed but was never made irrelevant by the passing of time. This only means that Fr. Kobak’s life will always ring an inspiring tune in the heart of every Samarnon. Thanks to the author, Carl Sanchez Bordeos and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in the Philippines for immortalizing and reliving the legacy left by Fr. Kobak’s thru this book.