subconscious & antitheses

great theory bro ric
how i wish that it be kindled...

yah this the witness of teachings
i love that abstract word!

in psychology there is a term called subconscious
the actions or words that we do without being aware of it
but in reality it was dictated by that hidden consciousness
many times in terms of defense mechanisms in order to protect that
gravitational pulls of 'I' and 'self'...

it happens in people-of-preach
the talent often times overacting or over-looked :)
wisdom is the quest of truth. so where do we go from here?
is it obligatory?..
if you want to see the result of your life's lamp & talents
it becomes a destiny...

but does it really depends on the number of members?
i wish it depends on the responsibles' conversion too..
like 'na(g)wawala sa sarili' so he cannot order "pride chicken"
sana wala na yung sinasabi ni ate clang na
makaluma at sagrado este sarado ba iyon ate? ano ba talaga?

but the worst thing that could happen
is the blocking-syndrome-subconsciously
'di mo alam hinaharang mo na pala ang daan
patungo sa tunay na kalayaan
na tinatahak tulad ng alibughang anak
at walang kaabog-abog na binura mo na lahat
na ginawa niyang mabuti dahil lamang sa isang mansanas?
salamat na lang at nag-aabang ang Ama
tuloy nakakita ng magandang kapa
at naisuot muli ang kanyang dignidad :)

no need for assignments just look around


john
prayers more...
to find that word

we always celebrate that!
every tuesday here in salmiya

lol :)




-----------------------------





yes anamnesis
the legacy with the Spirit
sorry but i would like to add something maybe antitheses
if not paradox in this course... (subok lang po father:)
change is constant
we are in the world of plastic if not lax
and this is the default of life here...
but the quest is growth
and i'm so excited about it!
we have new speakers
new PL
new guitarists or organist
new styles
new members
new BBS
new active leaders or servants
and that's it ;)
in all those changes still plastic?
yes we have our prayers by all means
but again the sermon of our life is but antithesis
if not contradictions or triple identities...
maybe this is the funny thing of it all?
ok then i'd rather preach... that's it?
what about the sermon :)
so i was looking at the plastic flower
i saw it was new so it changed
i want the real one but tomorrow it'll fades away
so prefer the plastic one at least it's new..
sorry this is my amnesia. lol
or hopefully the escathological encounters or trials
our own conversion
the ironic thing is we're already christians
maybe it's just amnesia.. hope so?
sorry po :( it's just a disguise

iloveyouall
johnjong



ps.
kumusta na bro jowel..
welcome back sis. dulce we're all excited!
ate clang ano ba naghihintay na sa iyo ang italy!
kailan ka raw papasok?
ate gee ano po ba ang yoga.. ;)
bro paps what was that you're reading...
joke only.

Ang buhay nga naman... part 2

Those who praise me scourge me.. so is the opposite. The scourging at the pillar second sorrowful mystery in our history of salvation, the real new history of man the divine creativity of God of the creation.

Sorry I am using two names in many of my interaction here and there one jong the other john. One of my friends told me in one of our discourses was that I have a triple personality. 3-in-1 as the commercial always said. As I was reflecting on this truth of scourges, I may feel, there was some kind of shame within me. Because he was right that I'm living a double life, if not triple: Spirit during the day or light, then a flesh during the night or dark. Rebellious here rebellious there, saints here sinner there. I belong to communities called Charismatic or ecumenical yet I am but a prosti. Living the mask of hypocrisy. there's nothing more but I should be ashamed of myself.

I was really laughing (lol) even rolling to the ground (just like when we were in france laughing out loud in our last day from pilgrimage, angie know it she took pity este photo on us) when I read all the messages from angie's kumustahan till now. It was all joys and wonders!...

But I was stunned by the reality of it all amidst those laughter and jokes, humor, the explicit letter, the flickering of lights to katipuneros Andres and rizal, to trip to obando to jerusalem and Italy, to kapeng barako plus the prayer request, and of course the mug awards night. etc... there was some kind of journey towards spirituality that I realized by the still small voices within me and caused after shocked it was some kind of flames burning inside being consumed like gold on fire and as if there was sharp teeth grinding me: the contrasts, critiques, direct or indirect open or hidden insults or criticisms and oppositions, indifferences, debates or arguments, different ideas and opinions, differences in characters
and all these kind of unkindness, yet I am very grateful in all this kinds of discourses, it leads me to close my eyes within my own close- door room of selfishness, self-righteous-glorifications-pride of nakedness, imprisonment, emptiness, sickness and poverty, in return I became the least of all.. then and should really then lit a new candle/s for me!

Is this Eucharist?... I wish I can be full time here, there and everywhere!
This is my bread and wine not butter?!. Ang buhay nga namang buhay!

Ps.
But please, please :(
Not the all-saints-souls-day-candles ha or kandila sa mga patay..
huhuhu. Di ko na kaya 2!
Please :)

lol rtg
pray for our community and all
john-jong



ps. 2
kumusta na kapatid na angie ang unang araw ng pag iipon este ng
trabaho pala... miss ka na ng kapamilya at kapuso.





...it is the little silk thread which prevents the bird to fly... St.
John of the Cross.

ang buhay nga naman parang life…

Hahahaha
Iloveyou clang…
actually di naman talaga ako ang Bantay kundi si jowel, but jowel is
back home so Malaya na po ang dalagita-to-be ng fcck…
wala naman akong sinabing inspired ka este lovelyf ka ngayon sabi ko
nga sa obando muna para makasama mong muli si sis Nadine… is sly
godie be with yo there?…
so magmamadre ka pala ngayon alam ko na. Hindi yata dapat sa obando
ang sayaw mo, mas maganda sa Italy… hibernate ka pala kaya pala
blooming ang lola. Iba na talaga ang magdadalaga… peace… kumusta nga
pala raw sabi ni bro. danny at bro ric… nami-miss ka na ni jocel.
Lagot ka kay godie di ka sumama sa low low low hinahanap ka na ng mga
anak mo sa animators di tuloy nila masayaw ang `don't stop the
music', na delete tuloy. Kaya pala nadelayed ang anihan…
imbitahan mo naman sila best friend at edut dito para mas maraming
magbabantay sa iyo ngayon wala na kasi si jowel… sabi nga ni bro gino
ikaw ang ilaw at haligi na rin ng praise, para mabantayan mo sila…
so mamimigay ka na naman ng walang kamatayang mugs sa beach sino kaya
ang best tampurorot ngayong awarding, abangan ang susunod na mug-
award-beach. Basta tabihan mo ako ng mugs ha baka kasi di naman ako
makasulpot alam mo na hibernate din este busy pala… ikaw ha sumbong
mo rin ako na lay-low, pinag-aaralan ko kasi ang sayaw na low low
low… si edut kasi… di bale sasayaw naman si bebot at si godie at pati
ang galing Jerusalem na si ate Nadine, na ngayo'y isang mananalita na
rin sa fcck, di ko alam to, busy kasi ako sabi ni bro ric at bro
boyet… si chief nga pala hinihila ka sa pl para may kasama si bro
mike (not bro. mike velarde ha)… si bro jess nga pala kailangan ng
manunulat para sa powerpoint show, kailangan ng secretary remember
you were my secretary before…
kumusta na nga pala ang kalakalan natin, na inspired ka ba sa sharing
ni bro Tamayo sa pagiging milyunaryo. Mangungutang nga sana kami ni
bro jowel para sa pag-uwi sa pinas at meron na ring negosyo…
so hanggang dito na lang muna ang mga katatawanang kuro-kuro at
mapagnilay na kumustahang nagpapaligaya sa samahang patuloy na
lumalago sa tunay na kagandahan, ang mga estoryang naglalantad ng
iba't ibang kaganapan sa mundo ng kapatiran at kantahang pagsamba,
isang karisma ng kumonidad na patuloy na naglalakbay patungo sa dulo
ng walang hanggan kaakibat ng lahat nang karanasan at paghahanap sa
makahulugang buhay na punong-puno nang kahiwagahan at surpresa at sa
huli'y ibabalita ng bawat isa na bantayan ang samahang ito, na
masakit mang ilantad ang katotohanang minsa'y nasa piitan pa rin pala
tayo nang kawalan ngunit patuloy na magsusumikap maabot ang tunay na
kalayaang iniatang sa atin, isang katunayang pagbibigay at pag-alay
nang pagmamahal na inihanduhay sa krus at maranasang mapatagumpayan
ang kamatayan at mabuhay na muli… ang buhay nga naman parang life…

Hihihihi

I really enjoyed your messages clang…

I'm proud of yo… may ice cream ka from edut…

Mugs ko ha ;)


pls. Pray for all communities

jong

glimpse of miracles

glimpse of miracles

Eulogy
josefina nono lisboa
1928 - 2008


greetings friends and family,
from her loving husband, children and grandchildren...

We want to share the truth revealed by Pope Benedict XVI: spe salvi…
He wrote;

"Death admittedly one would wish to postpone for as long as possible, but then the question arises, do we really want to live eternally? But to live always, without end – all things considered, can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable. As St. Ambrose (one of the church Fathers) said in the funeral discourse for his deceased brother: Death was not part of nature it became part of nature, God did not decree death from the beginning; He prescribed it as a remedy. Human life because of sin began to experience the burden of wretchedness or in unremitting labour and unbearable sorrow. There had to be a limit to its evils; death is, then, no cause for mourning, for it is the cause of mankind's salvation…"

Our utmost gratitude to Dr. Cunanan, Dr. Leyson, Dr. Paul. Dr. Mons, Dr. Ang and the nursing staff, the attendants and the best of the medical staff, who was not only cared but given Mamang the hope and chance to hang on inspite of all the odds. We are grateful indeed to all her friends who were constantly on her side to comfort her and given her precious moments until the last breath. Also thanks to Governor Reyes and Congressman Alvarez her Co-teacher; the senior citizens; the COG, jong's friends; and john's friends in Kuwait and his church communities there esp. Fr. Windel; Nancy's friends in Riyadh and her CFC community, and all the people/s who gave support in many ways…

Maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat!

Almost 55 years ago Mamang arrived here in Palawan from Iloilo to venture into life of services as a teacher, sacrifices as a lone daughter of our grandparents, love for our father Dodoy and everything else that is good and righteous for us her children.

We are all in great pain and full of sorrow for the loss of Mamang. A tragedy for the family, we hardly could bear and accept that she is gone now. But we are able to hold on, to move on. Your being with us today and all these moments of Mamang struggle, that you have been a part of this misery and make our burden a little lighter.

We are not at all wholly saddened by Mamang demise, we are In larger sense full of happiness that God has given us all a lifetime of love, care & understanding thru Mamang, a blessing beyond the other gifts we have triumph in life. The goodness that made us stronger and the bond we continue to enjoy was a gift Mamang has left us that shall transcend on to our children and that we can share to our friends and to others.

Mamang left behind everything and become committed to become a teacher, what could have been an easier life in Miagao, Iloilo as the sole daughter of a landed family. She opted to be a teacher and finally a mother of six children leaving behind all her properties and wealth for our sake. What great love and sacrifice is there to compare?

Mang became part of what was then the greatness of Culion. A true public servant dedicated to the preposition that to live is to let live life in its fullness and giving to others is a privilege beyond doubt.

She has teached us by her simple gesture of concern and love with a ready helping hand.

As the final chapter of Mamang's life comes to an end, let it be ours to share a reflection of our own destiny, with a strong past. We owe to Mamang and a conviction to continue the goodness of the same love & passion she has shown..

Mang's journey in this life was full of joy in the sense of challenging discourses of life itself, as a mother and as a teacher. She can always sense the goodness of a person inside. Yes she has weaknesses too as all humans have, but her kind of action was simply the actualization of disciplined-life of joy and happiness.

Our experience of Mamang's love through her sacrifices were simply glimpses and signs of miracles, the beauty of life amidst the sufferings, because we believed that we also embraced the cross of Christ.

We continue to thank all the people who supported Mamang and the whole family in these times of unbearable sorrow, losing a true mother in all her sufferings that lead us all to realized the real gifts of faith, hope and love giving us the spiritual growth or the gifts of the Holy Spirit not only for the whole family but most especially for Mamang and her preparation and acceptance to meet our mighty father the creator. It was a meaningful journey for all of us a great encounter of the presence of God because we can only put our whole trust in God.

We treasure these trials because we had established a firm foundation of our faith so remained steadfast and at the same time grateful for all the blessings in the guise of pain and sorrow for we have seen God on Mamang.

The whole family cried a lot even until this very moment. But our tears now could also be tears of joy because we all believed that our mother's death is an assistance of grace and the blessings of immortality, that is the salvation of our faith and hope, the fulfillment of Christ death for us in the love of God! Bible defines love of that of a mother. How can a mother forget her child? That is next to impossible, and that is Mamang's love for all of us! She can never-never forget her child…

From Papang to her children and grandchildren our unending thankfulness for this beautiful life she had shown to us all.

Thank you forever Mang!

We will always love you!

Paalam at maraming salamat sa lahat lahat…

facts of lies... the quest of imbestigador

The facts of lies (…utos ni big brother,, prove it;)


July 17, 2007 the first Intel Fund was released… (based on the
proofs of Imbestigador)
Considering that the IF was not included in last year Annual budget
of Culion(aire:) and to amend an adopted Ordinance 17 days after
assuming office is shocking indeed! The SB of any municipality must
first adopt its house Rule before any other business can be tackled.
Now, the house rules provide for among other policies the creation
of the different committees including its constitutions or
membership. The chairman therefore has the mandate to review, amend
for that matter, any adopted resolutions or ordinance that they may
deem necessary at the moment based on present needs or desire of
the Local Chief Executive. These review function and the power to
amend is incumbent only to the SB thru its committee concern.

Let us consider the Intelligent Fund. If and when the LCE (Local
Chief Executive) deem it necessary to acquire the IF based on her
discretionary power, he or she can then recommend to the SB, again
thru its concern committee, necessary amendment of the Annual Budget
which form part of the Annual Investment Plan as provided for in the
Appropriation Ordinance.

Now given that the executive has duly convene the Local Dev't
Council and has recommended therefore reprogramming of the 2007
budget or in such a case of programming an unprogrammed budget and
augment or add to an existing Annual Budget then there is an
existing policies and standard that should be followed as provided
by COA rules and regulations as well as Legislative Proceedings as
required by law.

Given these procedures and rules of law, it is but incumbent
(serving?) for SB to pass an Ordinance that will provide for
amendment of the existing Appropriation Ordinance i.e. the Annual
Budget of FY 2007, that will effectively include the Intel Fund as
part of the year budgetary requirements and legalize its
disbursements.
This ordinance should pass through its normal course procedures. It
require submission of the LCE recommendation based on proposal of
the Local Finance Committee which is chaired by the mayor upon the
necessary approved recommendation of the Local Dev't Council to the
SB thru its appropriate Committee.

Now again let us consider the time frame. The newly elected
officials from mayor to SB have assumed office July 1, 2007. The
first business of the day for SB is to approved its House before any
other business can be tackled. Assuming that the SB were able to
adopt their House Rule within the first convention of their Regular
session and in the succeeding session has already included in their
agenda amendment to the Appropriation Ordinance which again included
the allocation of the Intel Fund, the supposed Ordinance will still
require a 2/3 majority vote of the regular member of SB must submit
the said amendment ordinance to the Provincial Gov't for its own
approval.

But remember that the first release of the Intel Fund was disbursed
on the 17th of July. This means that in just a matter of 2 weeks all
the requirements and all the standard procedure has been duly
complied as required by law…
Further if it is done according to the rule of law there are still
some prerequisites that must be satisfied before any intelligence
fund can be considered. Foremost is the high incidence of crime in
the jurisdiction of a given LGU, presence of rebel forces or
______________.

What is funny about is was during the interview of Imbestigador, the
mayor was very proud in declaring that Culion was relatively
peaceful and this was corroborated by the chief of police and some
local residence during the same episode. Nobody accused anybody of
telling lies. Every aspect of the interview leads to question of
propriety, good manner, decency and honesty. Truth is what has been
revealed in this story. There is nothing to deny or somebody maybe
accused of deceitful.

The basic question needs only a simple YES or NO answer. Was mayor,
the chief of police and some local residents honest and truthful
when they said that Culion is a peaceful place? Everybody in Culion
and those who knows the place can say they were all right in saying
that Culion is a very peaceful place. Therefore everybody in that
episode was telling the truth.

The quest of Mr. Mike Enriques was legitimate and beg to be
understood by the people. Was the LGU of Culion in this case the SB
and LCE justified in their discretionary (mandatory) power to
allocate Intel Fund? This is not a question of wither or not the LGU
has that power to decide over the passage of an ordinance. That is
not the quest.. the question is more on the PROPRIETY. Wither or not
there Is need to use public fund for the needed intelligence or
information that could better the peace and order situation of the
locality. Was the 1.3 million really necessary to spend for in
better judgement of the SB and the LCE (Local Chief Executive)?

Conscience dictates that there are other pressing needs of the
locals as promised to them by those aspiring to better serve the
people. Isn't it but proper for any elected officials to consult
first the people to determine priority needs before any decisions
are made? SB represents the will of the people and anything that
memanetes or echoes from this august body, has its accountability to
the people. Were these honorable or moral officials sensitive enough
to the basic desire of its constituent? Are they aware or conscious
of what they are doing? Or is it just a trial of who is telling the
truth? We as culionaire wants to know the Truth, proof of who is
lying is coming or present or is it really vague `till now? We have
our own opinion and examination and at the moment, what we need is
the proof of lies. At the end of the day, find out who is telling
the truth. Unless truth is finally revealed we can only pray that
everybody remain steadfast to fight for what is right and good, as a
kababayan, as a friend, as a neighbor and as a community. We owe it
to our children. And we cannot put what our father has given us the
goodness that was culion in vain (nor all become useless)…

Then what is 1.3m? why not tell that to the marines of juan dela
cross and too noah.
Actually we don't need the boat cause we're already flooded by the
sea of intel around us even here in cog:)

To all cog members let us all welcome our new members from cavistes.
Welcome po.
Pareng Rupert sorry erap they know yo:) already. . they're going to
build the arc of noah loaded with lobo and malignos by the sea of
basin and pulang! that will self-destruct. sad, paano nga bang
sumakay sa arko ngayong iniwan na tayo ni noah?
Kumusta na kaya ang library balita ko may pinirmahan si chapz. Ano
kaya yun, abangan ang susunod na kabanata. Or abangan na lang natin
ang susunod na konsensiya upang pukawin ang diwa.

walang personalan
we're just ideas and opinions,
can't do anything just revealing the facts.
Prayers , don't hurt our families back home.

















......
fyi




We have heard of numerous instances of civilian and military
officials making a milking cow out of the intelligence fund that is
under their disposal and control. Perhaps the intelligence fund is
the most abused of all forms of public money. But have you heard of
people charged with graft and jailed for misappropriating the
intelligence fund?



The misuse of the intelligence fund is rampant but it is the hardest
to prove in court. Being a confidential fund, its disbursement and
the purposes for which are done in secret. They are not subject to
regular accounting and auditing procedures. All that the head of an
agency or authorized disbursement officer has to do is sign a
certification that a certain amount — whether it's P1,000 or P1
million — was spent on a specific intelligence project and received
by a certain individual or group of individuals and submit it to the
chairman of the Commission on Audit in a sealed envelope. And that's
it. No questions asked.

The amount is considered liquidated.!

clear and present danger

last very early AM there was one dangerous malignant statements
from one of the promising extinct lost sanggunian...
mike said in his intro that culion was once a lost paradise
a leper colony not only of the philippines but of the world
because of its int'l research done by the int'l experts or scientists
who dedicated their own lives to fulfill what the culionaires
are enjoying now.
cure of leprosy
but mike said there is another kind of leprose
that is more malignant more dangerous than the past
that is infecting the very town
who once was lost and isolated...

but another person said last dark day in a clear sun, stated:
"how pity are the culionaires who were always trying to go back to
the old lost culion history of leprosy, how pity are our children
whom we feed the very lost stories of our history.. in short-kawawa
naman ang mga taga-culion na gusto laging binabalikan ang kahapong
kawalan!"

last imbestigador intro
mike went back to the very history of culion
and he said fortunately that leprosy was already being conquered
by the dedicated doctors and scientists!
but he shouted back
that there is another kind of sickness
more malignant than culion past...

and the sangguniang bayan rep. said
""kawawa naman ang taga-culion!""
(parang di yata siya kasali doon
bakit kaya niya alam?)

the statement was and is the very present and very clear dangers
in culion now as i post this letters that needs intel funds!
what is intelligence F-cts? how can yoU acquire it?
even if all the barangays or municipalities or cities or country
are intittled for that budgets there should be
an in-depth rationales and analysis
for that amount of money in an
intelligent manners and right conducts.
the accounting of pierto also shows a very questionable
irregularities on the rationales of present admin of culion
even with the majority votes of councilors
(in short council-taga payo, isinasangguni,
sangguniang tao in wisdow) the signs are dangerous and malignant.
they are the very symptoms of centennial leprose!
it all started in basin :) and now

it is the clear and present danger in culion

yes of course we need the funds
but the quest just begun
where is it now???
very simple question yet...

i watched 11th hour many times
better than imbestigador of 7
and all of them said
from scientist to students
the very reason why humanity will go to the road
of extinction is the very simple story of
"divine comedy"
if man does not convert and change
like adam and eve who survive the once
extinctions of other rational animals here on earth,,,

we will be lost forever!!


like the irrationale of that COUNCILOR/S!

what a pity
simply
he's the divine comedy


lol


ps.
kawawa naman
di na nila maipaliwanag ang mga tanong?
kaya kung ano-ano na lang ang masabi...
;))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

opps. brutality
but many times when you realized reality
you will sense how brute life is!!!

...

mabalik ako
ano nga pala ang sinasabi o pinapakita
ni mike tungkol sa culion?

ah alam ko na
makapal kasi kaya di makita!
siguro hanapin na lang natin sa dilim

yet better in lighthouse








............
not posted


my concern for all my postings here were simply
for the true development of the town we love culion...
it started from the basin cause many politicians
destroyed the true spirit of our community
and this will always be my struggle now.
yes we can do many charitable works
as we were and will continue it in many ways
but first of all we want the people to realized
the cause&effect of all these circles of 7sins

brutality of opaque faces

HAHAHA
yes that's the highest mountain we gonna climb
TRANSPARENCY... thanks bro that's what i forgot about our mountains
the 'mt. sinangkan' the highest in culion... a spot to view
great site like pulang L...

yes transparency in culion will be the biggest intangible brutality in history it will be a fact that will give proof for all the lies of technicalities to save the pulang lupa and intel funds... what are the proof? what are the facts? look at the faces of them all and simply you'll know who's tranparent or opaque ang faces....:) (toott. beep) yes this is brutal, simply the cause of divine comedy of victor... we're simply enjoying to be or not to be. that is the greatest gifts of culionaire now. no martials... only intel (masarap ba yun? akala nila sila lang ang marunung kumain non:) we're the vigilantes. or we can also choose the silence of the lambs. being silencer

so what are the facks behind these exagerated news?
we'll only lead to the quest of crimes(?) in culion...
the employees of munisipyo WHO WAS HIDING BECAUSE OF THE INTELLIGENCE AROUND. the majorities of kagawad councilors who need councils:(. the pitugo farms, the pulang lupa mt. owned now by no other than FG. which in reality they're own by the peoples of culion, the conspiracy of cavites business peoples. the proofs of victors:) what are the f-cks behind them???

justice in philippines is like banana or papaya.)
just look around and you'll simply see justice in brutality
that's why we got to express our engaged thoughts and minds
to equalized the powers of greed and money (opps. beep. censured)
this is our reasons, this is our hope, this is our very life
so why do we have to be blind folded and hand-cufted
this is our joy of freedoms even in the midst of
brutal realities! they owned the justice system that's why we have to engaged through the medias and communications net...
because they could be the contaminations of centennial leprose!
and this is the only equalizer versus the mighty powers of...


wanted LGU's
anybody there hello.... but of course not all of them!

see you there...:)

cheers

peace is total sacrifice...


ps
don't worry
all my message here were
filtered by moderators...
that's why they all disappeared:)








let's just enjoy the perspectives
i'll take the responsibilities
these are my pieces
anybody can have their shares. +/-



i'm sorry for all those i hurt
they're just my reflections or echos
in this 11th hour





let's vote
tubbataha as nature's wonders of the world!!!!!!!!!

what's the site again?...






(don'twatch.imbestigadorit's.nonsense)






sorry for the realities...
sorry po

trabaho lang


''''''''''''''






meg,
i still don't know if i'll have vacation

prayers:)

hindi ko ma-reach...

i can't reach the imbestigador
maybe it is better to have picture...
great and nice pictures
so we can see,
ang walang kakwenta-kwentang istorya ng pulang lupa...

umamin na ang imbestigador

but he was blind folded
identity unknown
cause of the intelligence around...

what is the crime rates in culion???
WHY do we need millions of funds for it???
ah maybe he or they need bodyguards
to guard his/their crimes:)

the life of truths...
it's like espionage stories
or better mafiosi\s

have you seen conspiracy
pulido ang pagkatrabaho...
flowless ika nga
there were zombies employees.. mga lobo
with the accounts of velardes & pidals


hindi ko na ma-REACH ang culion



i'd rather take nice pictures na lang
kahit walang kwenta rin...:)


pulang lupa is one of the tourist spot of culion
own by the red corpuscles of the people
by the intelligent designs of mafiosis
mga 'ninong' at 'ninang'
from kolyun to pierto to mallacannang

i thought culion is run by a she
the view was a he... believe it or not!


can you imagine our town also run by 'palos'
the new robinhood like erap.
Stealing from the POOR PEOPLE TO GIVE TO THE RICH!!!



what a shame






this is called global-WARming



rice where is thy sting
fish where is thy victory?




pahinga lang yan jong...
baka kailangan ko nga ng bakasyon
sa iraq o sa tibet or sa culion
sa china na lang
or sa egypt
to
great spot of the world:)
the never-never world of alice...



di-kaya nervousbreakna'to




ciao




zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz



ps.

is there a reality spot in kolyun
go to the mountains. (highest mt. of culion? i forgot the name:)
go to the sea (basin)
go to the falls (balanga)
go to the pearl (bugor)
go to the islands (stone este sand island or chindonan or siyok)
go to the caves (sangat)
go to the eagle (ascension)
go from dusk till dawn (halsey or galoc)
go to light (church)



or bangungot na yata ito
'wag naman sana



we can pray, though




cheers

jn.14:1

truth or consequence

rice shortage in culion 37 per kilo

people in destino have to resort to camote and corot

fish price at 70/kg

life getting too harsh

no alternative livelihood prog.

the blindness of the local gov't as they promised

napako na :(nabuhay nang muli ang mga multo:)

so what's the good news about it? pulanglupa yes mamumula lahat ng lupa natin sa halip na pataniman ay housing for the elite ang inaatupag ng bayan. wala na ngang mabiling bigas di man lang maisip ang kabulagan sa kalupaan. walang produksiyon lahat angkat. lahat para masalba ang polikang posisyon iniingatan ang kasakiman. hindi kayang maialay ang panalangin para man lang sa kanayunan.

napupunta na lang yata sa mga bodyguard ng ilan :(bakit kaya may bodyguard, kawawa naman:) ang para sa taong bayan. ni hindi malapitan ni juan dela cross ang mga servant ng bayan

saan kaya sila sa kalagayang ito...

'bigas at isda' the new perfect storm.

di bale may kamote pa naman daw

ang torismo baril-barilan na gastos ng pamahalaan gastos ng taxpayers money gastos ng munisipyong sipsip. ito raw ang torismo ng culion shooting. baka naman sila sila na ang magbbrln.? sana gawin nilang target and berlin walls o ang tore o ang deped o ang bigasan. ah baka iyun ang palabigasan ng mga tagapayong punongbayan oo nga libre kasi ang bala para sa pulanglupa.

can we have the 11th hour please

i prefer camote

tanim na lang tayo ng kamotehan at gawin natin target sardinas

ano na kaya ang balita sa culion ngayon???

ah alam ko na:) tsismiss blah blah blah blah



ps

malaki raw ang kinikita ng 5/6 talo pa ang remmitance ng bayan at banko. magandang negosyo puhunan ang saul. napanood ko na ito kapit sa patalim..



tsismis ba to? sorry po di ko sinasadya. nerbiyoso lang po wag sanang maging breakdown. nenenerbiyos kasi ako sa barilang torismo ng culion baka gawing praktisan ang... pag-asa ng bayan.

kailan kaya darating ang sapot ni spiderman. para magampanan ang responsibildad...

feedback sent... basin

Adieu... and Godspeed my joy.

I would like to share one of my letters pertaining ppa of culion
I know this is an old if not dead issue in culion.
and Everybody seems to accept it. I want to share this just to inculcate my self... What could be my misconception or mistaken belief with regards to this power of executive order No. 403... Last centennial of culion palawan there was a prominent visitor which is our governor who acknowledge and approved this project because for him it is essential and necessary simply because it is called development. Ok but does it balance the nature of ordinance and peoples involvements? Between natural environment & community against betterment? and this is also my reflections with regards to his approvals... my argument is this “basin is the heart of my community, of brotherhood and of family. It is the symbol of my becoming, my joys, and youthfulness. The destruction of it is the undoing of my past and of my community.” so I need some justifications of this cruel orders which is for me is just to maintain their political positions.... correct me I could be wrong and if not then reveal the proper order... things are in observance... to balance things. and I hope that this could be a productive moments...

Adieu... and Godspeed my joy.

Development has many levels, many variations to the same tunes, but the question lies…. What is the difference between personal achievements and the ability to develop for the good of all, that which is essentially a kind of development that is enforced to help the weak. The poorest. The powerless. The humanity.

Development can reduce community when it utilizes all the elements of forces only for one’s disposal in order to protect one’s own self interest. In macro point of view it applies to all forms of human desideratum..

The function of it uses only for one’s own personal self-interest is in fact the act of propelling ones self over another. It is what the psychologists described as Ego-consciousness… the lowest form of consciousness that is vest to the animal instinct of survival... The “survival of the fittest”? They will do anything to survive? It’s simply serving their egoistic self...

Then, who are the fittest in culion? The kings and queens of puerto prinsesa? Who are their sycophant who cannot repress their animal instinct… and frustrate their neighbors not more than their community... adoring their sham icons. Buying all balangays...

So what is true development? Is it building accesses for one’s own survival? Or is it the reflection of growth that encounters with the complexity of modern life? can we call ppa growth?

What is true development? Is it the marina or the people? ppa or basin? Is it the enjoyment of growth, or just a way of escaping this banal existence? Escaping downfalls...

What is true development? Is it the aesthetics formation of buildings or port, like concept or ridiculous ideas of this apocryphal claims of serving their people? Or is it the springing and a call from the depths of actuality where works are made to articulate the spirit of involvements…What is this advancement? Why are they confusing? Why when things evolve it becomes so disrectful, bogus and blasphemous. Pretending like god or serving?

Why is it always painful to go out there and view those empty walls where the abysmal void hurt with the shameless plasticity of it all? Why do we have to make walls of isolations on progress and betterment? Why do we have to clog and cast off commonality? Why do we have to wall the basin and pantalan?

Why is it that this development seems to have lost its spirit and moralities?

What are great achievements and strides made of? Why does it seem that while we experience accomplishments in businesses or productivity (DO WE?) we find the equal deterioration of the bayanihan spirit found in community? The spirit of oneness and solidarity... but instead we have apathy and torpidity. We have walls of ppa.

The complexities of modern life have become so bizarre as the philosophy of materialism have been well applied to defeat underdevelopment --- transforming money as the basic essential commodity that will feed the human body... Ah I think they’re just serving survival instinct... Then life might become formidable, unreasonable, vexatious and weaked, so painful, so sad and morose. Transforming the port into business... But where are the ships?!

Development includes business and can order by laws of the president or governor or mayor... a kind of system.
Yes indeed a system is a system that without which we cannot function in an organized way. The system is in place in order to create an illusion of control… the laws of man… of government… of industry or business… of this so called development.

But the problem lies not in the system or laws. It lies in the hearts of man or woman where the system becomes the end, the means to an end. It is a kind of system where progress has been assign to a mere survival -- where people denounce involvements, belongingness, in place of indifference... of money?

But development is not for the weak hearted nor for those ego-conscious-mind who only serve their animal instinct where reasons are irrelevant and nonsense…please, it is not for them all!

Development should be the backbone of a town. It must be effective and produce good results. Its created projects must depict, capture and document great achievements of great people’s way of life and values. Without it a place perhaps may not have been existed. Great minds that move the course of a community’s future know the value of development as an essential component in the promotion of ethics of pure life… evolvement is a community canonization. It is therefore an idea that development should belong to the people, for the people and by the people… yet look around culion?

Jose Rizal said: PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KNOW WHERE THEY CAME FROM DO NOT KNOW WHERE THEY ARE GOING. The reason we do not have a sense of country is that we do not have a sense of history.

The best thing we can improve Culion is not ONLY that we have more natural resources, and how to be productive on this area.... we also need better political system or even better leaders.and most of all the people should have a sense of community. The spirit of involvement. HERE LIES THE MAJOR PROBLEM. Not to mention the budgets!

I am going back to the past, because i’m questioning the present in order to see my future.. Above all, I get to
have a sense of belonging to the community, or as that sublime Filipino word goes, "malasakit" for it. This is my compassion for the community, my sympathy for the community, my desire to do something for the community.

Basin is the product of my past. And it represents the beautiful values of our parents and grandparents; to preserve it is to preserve the memory of the great things they have done; their suffering, their love for one another; their laughter, their tears, their hopes, their dreams. They wanted to tell me or us that we are standing on the shoulders of great men; that we should
Not forget their warm hearts and their sacrifices; that we should treasure, and honor the beautiful gifts they have left us. at the least the “malasaki” they have done and endure... and one of this is the symbol of basin...


....


BASIN is a breakwater port of culion palawan that was being destroyed by the ppa to build their port in our town which is not appropriate because there are a lot of other good places for their businesses. they destroyed our heritage and with it our community. they destroyed it in 2005 building like a berlin wall behind our faces and houses where we get our food (fishes) to feed our families... so sad:( and until now it has done anything good for our town!!!

kindly inform me by email if you'll put it in your inq.net
thanks a million.

lupangpangako

Lupangpangako

Aminan ni juan dela cross

Umamin na si marcos, Umamin na si Imelda, Umamin na si erap, Umamin
na si j. Velarde, Umamin na si abalos at garci, Umamin na si neri,
Umamin na ang nbn zte nrt srt, Umamin na si jdv, Umamin na si
jocjoc, Umamin na ang dar fertilizer, Umamin na si j. pidal, Umamin
na si ramos, Umamin na si enrile, Umamin na ang senado, Umamin na
ang kongreso, Umamin na ang gobernor, Umamin na ang mayor, Umamin na
ang kapitan, Umamin na ang mataas na hukuman, Umamin na ang pcso,
doj, doh, dpwh, ppa, dilg, decs, dti, sss, dotc, pcso, denr, custom
etc., Umamin na ang afp, pnp, nbi, Umamin na, Umamin na si gloria!

At isinuli na nilang lahat nang may ikatlong beses... wala nang
gagaya pa.
kaya simula ngayon mawawala na ang kahirapan sa bansa. Inaayos na
lahat ng kalsada sa lahat ng mga probinsiya, meron na ring ilaw at
tubig sa lahat ng lugar 24/7. maayos na rin ang komonikasyon. lahat
ng bahay naka-internet na. Inaalagaan na rin ang kapaligiran meron
nang tagapangalaga sa lahat ng yamang kalikasan ng bansa sa dagat
man o lupa. Maayos na rin ang mga patubig sa buong kapatagan o
bukirin. Maayos na ang lagay ng mga magsasaka. Isa na namang
pagangkat bigas galing sa atin at marami pang ibang produksiyon.

Nagpagawa na rin ng mga bagong paaralan. Kasabay nito dumami na rin
ang mga guro dahil sa magandang sweldo. Makakapag-aral ng lahat ang
mga kabataan dahil libre na ang lahat mula elementarya hanggang
kolehiyo. At lahat naka-connect sa mundo. Moderno na ang mga gamit
at sistema at kalidad ng bawat paaralan.

Nagpagawa na rin ng mga solar at hydro power plants sa ibat-ibang
lugar dahil dumami na ang investors. Nagsisibalikan na rin halos
lahat ng mga ofw at migrant workers abroad. Sama-sama nang muli ang
mga kapamilya at kapuso. Meron na silang kanikanila negosyo. Isa
nang ganap na komunidad, barangay at bayan nang may pagkakaisa at
kabayanihan sa lahat nang gawain. Nagbabahaginan ng kanikanilang
espesyal na kakayahan at yaman o ari-arian.

Mahigpit na rin ang pagpapatupad ng mga batas sa kabutihan ng lahat.
Ngunit di na yata kailangan iyun dahil lahat ng pilipino ay
sumusunod na nang maayos sa mga kautusan. Dahil dito nagkasundo-
sundo na rin ang lahat ng mga sangay ng pamahalaan upang lalo pang
mapanatili ang kaunlaran at kasaganaang matatamasa ng buong
sambayanan. Napakaganda na ng lahat ng mga serbisyo sa lahat ng
departamento ng ating gobyerno. Wala ng katiwalian lahat katiwalaan
na at pagtitiwala dahil sa katapatan ng bawat namumuno. Isa na
tayong marangyang bansa sa mundo at ang palit ng piso ay 1 peso
laban sa 1 dollar.. nabayaran na ang utang ng bansa kaya nga't
lalong dumami ang negosyo sa bansa na siyang ring pinanggagalingan
ng kabuhayan ng lahat. Marami na rin ang pag-angkat natin sa iba't-
ibang bansa na pinangangalagaan ang bawat produksiyon.

May mga bagong pinuno na ang bansa at lahat may tunay na
paglilingkod sa tao at sa bayan nang may paninindigan. Nagresign na
rin sa wakas ang lahat ng mga tiwaling pinuno mula barangay hanngang
presidente. Tapat na lahat. pati simbahan. Wala nang gumagaya sa mga
kabalintunaang pinapangyari tulad noon.

Sa atin naman, merong tayong isang kasama na nakahuli ng lapu-lapu
sa may pantalan. Balik basin na kasi ang mga tao sa atin, :)) Doon
na silang muli kumukuha ng agahan at hapunan nang sariwang sapsap at
tunggaw. Nagsibalikan na rin ang mga matambaka at talakitok pati
tangginggi.. nailipat na rin kasi ang ppa sa halsey. Gumawa na doon
ng pangmundong daungan para sa buong asia at isama na natin ang
mundo.

Meron na nga palang natagpuang langis sa kalayaan at lugar lugar sa
palawan, at masasabing ang palawan na ang pinakamayamang probinsiya
sa pinas. Dahil ipininagkaloob na ng pamahalaan ang yamang taglay
nito sa pamayanan ng palawan dahil na rin sa mga natuklasang langis…

Dahil sa pagsusuri ng mga saloobin at isipan ng lahat ay tuluyang
nang nabago ang bawat isa kasama na ang bansa at buong pamahalaan.
Ang patuloy na pagbabago ang siyang naging tulay nang tunay na
kaunlaran. Kaya nga't tinatamasa na ang isang pangarap na sa
panaginp lamang matatagpuan kaya lamang huwag sanang maging
bangungot sa mga umaming nailista at nakaligtaang ilista sa pagtulog
na ito.


Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z z z z z z z z z z
z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z

gising
jong
gising

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ


sarap matulog
abril uno na pala, kahapon pa…

:))

why leaving the country?...

Everybody is Leaving ....




yes
and what is the root cause of them all
e.g. look at the root issue on spratly

so sad
really so sad

maybe we'll continue to look deep inside our hearts
and all our leaders should definitely must revolve or evolve
if not turn like revolution deep inside like saul
but not judas who never turned back... and didn't repent
like most (if not all:) of our leaders NOW & before

yes
let's continue to reflect
let's continue to be involve
let's continue to search and find reasons to learn then pray


there's much bigger world somewhere out and inside
and this is the truth and reality that many denied...
the great devide

thanks karen for the sharing and the reflection
it's the reality
saddest of them all our gov't is so happy seeing their people exiled
for greener pastures leaving the slavery of egypt este phil.. our
new moses like abroad passing the red sea

Jesus said...
"Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum. Alleluia! –
I have risen, I am still with you. Alleluia!"
apply indirectly to us as well, "children of God and fellow heirs
with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also
be glorified with him" (cf. Rom 8:17).



poverty and corruption where is your sting neither victory?!??



happy easter again
he is our hope –
true hope for every human being



we'll continue to talk to him
then pentecost will come
we'll going out without fears!!!
cloth with power on high...


cause we cannot do it alone
no man is an island
that's why we have families
we have communities


thanks karen
we'll reach
the promiseland


welcome aboard:))

...este abroad








;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

--- In Culion_Palawan_Online@yahoogroups.com, "Karen Fami"
wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi to all,
>
> I just want to share with you the sadness I am feeling right now,
> Four of my officemates(again!),one of them is my close friend will
be
> leaving our office. Almost every month, we are hearing that our
> colleagues leave,most of them are migrating to other Countries ;
to
> US,Canada,New Zealand and Australia, some will be working
> abroad ,mostly to Dubai and other Middle East Countries.
>
> Nauubos na kami dito sa office,Rationalization Plan (RAT PLAN)will
> soon be implemented to lessen daw the government employees pero
> mukhang naunahan na sila, ngayon palang ubos na government
employees.
>
> Why? syempre, employees try their luck in greener pastures,dito
kse
> puro trabaho,kulang ang sweldo.You give your all pero madalas di
> naman na rerecognize.Di naman pwedeng ipakain sa anak Merits and
> Awards.Hay buhay,overtime here is free,pwede raw i-offset pero
> pahirapan naman at matinding paliwanagan.
>
> Kaya di ko masisi mga kasamahan ko na umalis na. I wish them good
> luck, so maybe someday sunod na rin ako.... Ano kaya?
>
> Mag iistrike na naman daw ang mga jeepney operators kse tataas na
> naman sila ng pamasahe,tataas na naman daw ang presyo ng
> tinapay,bukod pa sa patuloy na pagtaas ng karne,gasolina at LPG
ganun
> din. Hay sana naman sipin nila na itaas din ang sweldo namin.
>
>
> Sensya na po,stress lang...kung meron po kayong comment, welcome
> po...advices welcome din...violent reaction,ok din.
>
>
> Karen Fami

multo

really?!!! hahahahaha
sorry for the laughters then
and frustrations for others here
it is my expressions of living here in abroad
and it could be my joy too
as what my title said
it made me laugh.
while the philippines is suffering from the rains
of money of china instead of bullets
in ways of conquering countries like us:)

akala ko pa naman aktibista ka rin (baka naman... kuya orly ha)

galoc is operating as posted here by the news
kalayaan is being sold already to china in billions of pesos
with kickbacks and moderate greeds
'di pa operational pero billions na ang natanggap
galing sa zte srt nrt etc. (130 million DOLLARS! zte pa lang yun)
check the -the correspondents-...
'wag imbestigador bayaran yata yun
the congress stopped the law
stating kalayaan is palawan or philippines
cause if they continue we will not have anything from china
like projects mentioned above
utang na naman
at sino ang mag babayad
ang mga anak natin!!!

sorry i was sending it to my blog
unfortunately it came here too
maybe i should have send it to congress o senate o cbcp
and unfortunately someone understands what i had posted

i'm doing this for my children
and for my country
this is my intangible ways of restoring life and joys
and i owe this in my working here in middle east
cause i learned a lot
i saw many ghosts
i see many zombies in our country
or town
i discovered many things that peoples ignored
which is their very life
that is being ruined and destroyed
like a cancer.

can you imagine
pinas as the most corrupt in asia



death where is thy victory
death where is thy sting


happiest easter
to all!








sorry for the sarcasm
maybe it's just an echoooo0000000000!






or multo!

ginisang langis ng palawan

nakakatuwa ang isang tao sa pierto
tuwang-tuwa na siya sa 3'ng milyon
na nakukuha niya sa iginisang langis ng palawan
at nakakapagawa na raw siya ng mga
kalsada at pier at school na mga multo naman.
at puro pintura ng pangngalan na lang.
at ngayon kinuha na ulit ni glorfia
ang yaman ng bansa katulad ng pagkuha niya
noon bago mag eleksiyon
ibinenta naman sa ulan ng pera
dahil baka umulan ng bala galing sa chekwa
sa halip pinaulanan sila ng pera.
nauna pa ang mga pera bago ang mga proyekto...
isang himala!
kaya nagkandarapa ang mga asong ulol
sa kagagawan nito
ngayon nagkahilohilo na tuloy ang tao
ng pinas pati na ang mga obisko at erap
di na nila alam kung alin ang dasal at rason
tuloy nagkalukoluko na ang mga kambing at tupa
na nahalo na sa mga asong ulol
at lobo na inaalalayan na lamang ang mga kasakiman...
buti na lang nandoon pa ang puta.
tuwang-tuwa na ang isang taong lobo
sa puerto at ipinamumudmud daw ang kita ng palawan
na galing
sa galoc at kalayaan...
nakakatawangnakakahiya na sa halip sanang
bilyong halaga na makakagawa nang
tamang pamahalaan sa lugar-lugar
eh tuwa na siya sa milyon na pagpapartihan ng milyong
tao. totoong nakatutuwangnakakahiya ang taong ito
sana paulanan na sila ng balang at usok ng mga angel
habang walang dugo sa mga pintuan nila
at huwag lampasan ng mga angel
upang di makatawid sa tubig ng pulang dagat






maligayang paskong muli sa lahat?!...




ps

hanggang kailan kaya ikakatwa ni pedro ang tupa?
pakinggan na lang natin ang sermon sa halamanan
habang hinuhugasan ni pilato ang kamay
at isinisigaw ng mga lobo si barabas
at hayaan na lamang ang mga manininda sa templo
ang kanikanilang ginto at negosyong nakahambalang
sa tahanan ng tatay sa tahanan ng tao



(pagpapahayag) at paglalayag
kawawanamanangpinas

pope Benedict XVI

Exclusive: The Words that Benedict XVI Adds Spontaneously, When He Preaches to the Faithful

Textual analyses of five of his most recent Wednesday catechesis, on Saint Augustine. The words that the pope added spontaneously, beyond the written text, are underlined. They're on the themes closest to his heart

by Sandro Magister



ROMA, March 11, 2008 – Last Wednesday, Benedict XVI dedicated his weekly audience with the faithful and the pilgrims to a catechesis on Pope St. Leo the Great.

Joseph Ratzinger recalled that he was not only "at the same time both a theologian and a pastor," but was "also the first pope whose preaching has reached us today, first addressed to the people who gathered around him during the liturgies." It is a preaching that consists of "very beautiful sermons" written in "splendid and clear Latin."

And he added:

"It comes naturally to think of him also in the context of the current Wednesday general audiences, appointments that over the past two decades have become for the bishop of Rome a normal form of the encounter with the faithful and with the many visitors from every part of the world."

These words are enough to indicate how Benedict XVI recognizes in himself many traits of this great predecessor, who was a respected advocate of the primacy of Peter and of the bishops of Rome – a primacy that was "necessary then as it is today" – a sure teacher of faith in Christ as true God and true man, in a time of great Christological disputes, and an authoritative celebrant of a Christian liturgy that "is not the memory of past events, but the actualization of invisible realities at work in the life of each person."

Before turning to St. Leo the Great, Benedict XVI dedicated his Wednesday audiences to other Fathers of the Church, after dedicating a previous cycle of audiences to the Apostles and to other figures of the New Testament.

After the Easter season, the pope will dedicate catecheses to other great Patristic figures like Gregory the Great, and then, little by little, to Western and Eastern pioneers of medieval theology like Anselm, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Gregory Palamas.

For these catecheses, Benedict XVI draws upon the help of scholars, whom he asks to prepare an outline for him. He then works on the outline, eventually asking for revisions and introducing modifications himself. The text that the pope will read to the faithful emerges from this preparatory work. But it doesn't end there. In addressing the faithful, the pope often looks up from the written text and improvises.

The final text that then appears in "L'Osservatore Romano" and is released by the Vatican press office corresponds to the one that the pope truly delivered, including the words added spontaneously.

Recognizing these additions is not difficult. All it takes is to attend the audience and watch carefully how Benedict XVI addresses those present, whether he is reading or looking up. This is at least the case for the Wednesday catecheses. It's different for the homilies. In many cases, these are entirely the personal work of the pope, sometimes delivered without the help of a written text.

In the catecheses, identifying the words added spontaneously by Benedict XVI is an exercise of great interest. It permits one, in fact, to recognize the themes closest to his heart, the ones he believes to be the most important to emphasize and communicate.

Here below are the complete texts of the five catecheses that, between January and February, Benedict XVI dedicated to Saint Augustine, the Father of the Church who has always been his beacon.

But the reader will also find something new in the texts.

He will see that many of the words are underlined. And these are the very words that the pope added spontaneously, departing from the written text. They are the words that spring directly from his mind and heart.

They are a window onto the central concerns of this pope, "theologian and pastor."


1. "He realized that God was calling him to offer people the gift of the truth..."

Wednesday, January 9, 2008


Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Christmas festivities, I would like to return to the meditations on the Fathers of the Church and speak today of the greatest Father of the Latin Church, St Augustine. This man of passion and faith, of the highest intelligence and tireless in his pastoral care, a great Saint and Doctor of the Church is often known, at least by hearsay, even by those who ignore Christianity or who are not familiar with it, because he left a very deep mark on the cultural life of the West and on the whole world. Because of his special importance St Augustine's influence was widespread. It could be said on the one hand that all the roads of Latin Christian literature led to Hippo (today Annaba, on the coast of Algeria), the place where he was Bishop from 395 to his death in 430, and, on the other, that from this city of Roman Africa, many other roads of later Christianity and of Western culture itself branched out.

A civilization has seldom encountered such a great spirit who was able to assimilate Christianity's values and exalt its intrinsic wealth, inventing ideas and forms that were to nourish the future generations, as Paul VI also stressed: "It may be said that all the thought-currents of the past meet in his works and form the source which provides the whole doctrinal tradition of succeeding ages" (Inaugural Address at the Patristic Institute of the "Augustinianum", 4 May 1970; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 21 May 1970, p. 8). Augustine is also the Father of the Church who left the greatest number of works. Possidius, his biographer, said that it seemed impossible that one man could have written so many things in his lifetime. We shall speak of these different works at one of our meetings soon. Today, we shall focus on his life, which is easy to reconstruct from his writings, in particular the "Confessions", his extraordinary spiritual autobiography written in praise of God. This is his most famous work; and rightly so, since it is precisely Augustine's "Confessions", with their focus on interiority and psychology, that constitute a unique model in Western literature, and not only Western but even non-religious, to modern times. This attention to the spiritual life, to the mystery of the "I", to the mystery of God who is concealed in the "I", is something quite extraordinary, without precedent, and remains for ever, as it were, a spiritual "peak".

But to come back to his life: Augustine was born in Tagaste in the Roman Province of Numidia, Africa, on 13 November 354 to Patricius, a pagan who later became a catechumen, and Monica, a fervent Christian. This passionate woman, venerated as a saint, exercised an enormous influence on her son and raised him in the Christian faith. Augustine had also received the salt, a sign of acceptance in the catechumenate, and was always fascinated by the figure of Jesus Christ; indeed, he said that he had always loved Jesus but had drifted further and further away from ecclesial faith and practice, as also happens to many young people today.

Augustine also had a brother, Navigius, and a sister whose name is unknown to us and who, after being widowed subsequently became the head of a monastery for women. As a boy with a very keen intelligence, Augustine received a good education although he was not always an exemplary student. However, he learned grammar well, first in his native town and then in Madaura, and from 370, he studied rhetoric in Carthage, the capital of Roman Africa. He mastered Latin perfectly but was not quite as successful with Greek and did not learn Punic, spoken by his contemporaries. It was in Carthage itself that for the first time Augustine read the "Hortensius", a writing by Cicero later lost, an event that can be placed at the beginning of his journey towards conversion. In fact, Cicero's text awoke within him love for wisdom, as, by then a Bishop, he was to write in his "Confessions": "The book changed my feelings", to the extent that "every vain hope became empty to me, and I longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardour in my heart" (III, 4, 7).

However, since he was convinced that without Jesus the truth cannot be said effectively to have been found and since Jesus' Name was not mentioned in this book, immediately after he read it he began to read Scripture, the Bible. But it disappointed him. This was not only because the Latin style of the translation of the Sacred Scriptures was inadequate but also because to him their content itself did not seem satisfying. In the scriptural narratives of wars and other human vicissitudes, he discovered neither the loftiness of philosophy nor the splendour of the search for the truth which is part of it. Yet he did not want to live without God and thus sought a religion which corresponded to his desire for the truth and also with his desire to draw close to Jesus. Thus, he fell into the net of the Manicheans, who presented themselves as Christians and promised a totally rational religion. They said that the world was divided into two principles: good and evil. And in this way the whole complexity of human history can be explained. Their dualistic morals also pleased St Augustine, because it included a very high morality for the elect: and those like him who adhered to it could live a life better suited to the situation of the time, especially for a young man. He therefore became a Manichean, convinced at that time that he had found the synthesis between rationality and the search for the truth and love of Jesus Christ. Manicheanism also offered him a concrete advantage in life: joining the Manicheans facilitated the prospects of a career. By belonging to that religion, which included so many influential figures, he was able to continue his relationship with a woman and to advance in his career. By this woman he had a son, Adeodatus, who was very dear to him and very intelligent, who was later to be present during the preparation for Baptism near Lake Como, taking part in those "Dialogues" which St Augustine has passed down to us. The boy unfortunately died prematurely. Having been a grammar teacher since his twenties in the city of his birth, he soon returned to Carthage, where he became a brilliant and famous teacher of rhetoric. However, with time Augustine began to distance himself from the faith of the Manicheans. They disappointed him precisely from the intellectual viewpoint since they proved incapable of dispelling his doubts. He moved to Rome and then to Milan, where the imperial court resided at that time and where he obtained a prestigious post through the good offices and recommendations of the Prefect of Rome, Symmacus, a pagan hostile to St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

In Milan, Augustine acquired the habit of listening – at first for the purpose of enriching his rhetorical baggage – to the eloquent preaching of Bishop Ambrose, who had been a representative of the Emperor for Northern Italy. The African rhetorician was fascinated by the words of the great Milanese Prelate; and not only by his rhetoric. It was above all the content that increasingly touched Augustine's heart. The great difficulty with the Old Testament, because of its lack of rhetorical beauty and lofty philosophy was resolved in St Ambrose's preaching through his typological interpretation of the Old Testament: Augustine realized that the whole of the Old Testament was a journey toward Jesus Christ. Thus, he found the key to understanding the beauty and even the philosophical depth of the Old Testament and grasped the whole unity of the mystery of Christ in history, as well as the synthesis between philosophy, rationality and faith in the Logos, in Christ, the Eternal Word who was made flesh.

Augustine soon realized that the allegorical interpretation of Scripture and the Neo-Platonic philosophy practised by the Bishop of Milan enabled him to solve the intellectual difficulties which, when he was younger during his first approach to the biblical texts, had seemed insurmountable to him.

Thus, Augustine followed his reading of the philosophers' writings by reading Scripture anew, especially the Pauline Letters. His conversion to Christianity on 15 August 386 therefore came at the end of a long and tormented inner journey – of which we shall speak in another catechesis –, and the African moved to the countryside, north of Milan by Lake Como – with his mother Monica, his son Adeodatus and a small group of friends – to prepare himself for Baptism. So it was that at the age of 32 Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in the Cathedral of Milan on 24 April 387, during the Easter Vigil.

After his Baptism, Augustine decided to return to Africa with his friends, with the idea of living a community life of the monastic kind at the service of God. However, while awaiting their departure in Ostia, his mother fell ill unexpectedly and died shortly afterwards, breaking her son's heart. Having returned to his homeland at last, the convert settled in Hippo for the very purpose of founding a monastery. In this city on the African coast he was ordained a priest in 391, despite his reticence, and with a few companions began the monastic life which had long been in his mind, dividing his time between prayer, study and preaching. All he wanted was to be at the service of the truth. He did not feel he had a vocation to pastoral life but realized later that God was calling him to be a pastor among others and thus to offer people the gift of the truth. He was ordained a Bishop in Hippo four years later, in 395. Augustine continued to deepen his study of Scripture and of the texts of the Christian tradition and was an exemplary Bishop in his tireless pastoral commitment: he preached several times a week to his faithful, supported the poor and orphans, supervised the formation of the clergy and the organization of mens' and womens' monasteries. In short, the former rhetorician asserted himself as one of the most important exponents of Christianity of that time. He was very active in the government of his Diocese – with remarkable, even civil, implications – in the more than 35 years of his Episcopate, and the Bishop of Hippo actually exercised a vast influence in his guidance of the Catholic Church in Roman Africa and, more generally, in the Christianity of his time, coping with religious tendencies and tenacious, disruptive heresies such as Manichaeism, Donatism and Pelagianism, which endangered the Christian faith in the one God, rich in mercy.

And Augustine entrusted himself to God every day until the very end of his life: smitten by fever, while for almost three months his Hippo was being besieged by vandal invaders, the Bishop – his friend Possidius recounts in his "Vita Augustini" – asked that the penitential psalms be transcribed in large characters, "and that the sheets be attached to the wall, so that while he was bedridden during his illness he could see and read them and he shed constant hot tears" (31, 2). This is how Augustine spent the last days of his life. He died on 28 August 430, when he was not yet 76. We will devote our next encounters to his work, his message and his inner experience.



2. "I feel he is like a man of today: a friend, a contemporary..."

Wednesday, January 16, 2008


Dear brothers and sisters, today, like last Wednesday, I would like to talk about the great Bishop of Hippo, St Augustine. He chose to appoint his successor four years before he died. Thus, on 26 September 426, he gathered the people in the Basilica of Peace at Hippo to present to the faithful the one he had designated for this task. He said: "In this life we are all mortal, and the day which shall be the last of life on earth is to every man at all times uncertain; but in infancy there is hope of entering boyhood... looking forward from boyhood to youth, from youth to manhood and from manhood to old age; whether these hopes may be realized or not is uncertain, but there is in each case something which may be hoped for. But old age has no other period of this life to look forward to with expectation: in any case, how long old age may be prolonged is uncertain.... I came to this town – for such was the will of God – when I was in the prime of life. I was young then, but now I am old" (Ep 213, 1). At this point Augustine named the person he had chosen as his successor, the presbyter Heraclius. The assembly burst into an applause of approval, shouting 23 times, "To God be thanks! To Christ be praise!". With other acclamations the faithful also approved what Augustine proposed for his future: he wanted to dedicate the years that were left to him to a more intense study of Sacred Scripture (cf. Ep 213, 6).

Indeed, what followed were four years of extraordinary intellectual activity: he brought important works to conclusion, he embarked on others, equally demanding, held public debates with heretics – he was always seeking dialogue – and intervened to foster peace in the African provinces threatened by barbarian southern tribes. He wrote about this to Count Darius, who had come to Africa to settle the disagreement between Boniface and the imperial court which the tribes of Mauritania were exploiting for their incursions: "It is a higher glory still", he said in his letter, "to stay war itself with a word, than to slay men with the sword, and to procure or maintain peace by peace, not by war. For those who fight, if they are good men, doubtlessly seek peace; nevertheless, it is through blood. Your mission, however, is to prevent the shedding of blood" (Ep 229, 2). Unfortunately, the hope of pacification in the African territories was disappointed; in May 429, the Vandals, whom out of spite Boniface had invited to Africa, passed the straits of Gibraltar and streamed into Mauritania. The invasion rapidly reached the other rich African provinces. In May or June 430, "the destroyers of the Roman Empire", as Possidius described these barbarians (Vita, 30, 1), were surrounding and besieging Hippo.

Boniface had also sought refuge in the city. Having been reconciled with the court too late, he was now trying in vain to block the invaders' entry. Possidius, Augustine's biographer, describes Augustine's sorrow: "More tears than usual were his bread, night and day, and when he had reached the very end of his life, his old age caused him, more than others, grief and mourning (Vita, 28, 6). And he explains: "Indeed, that man of God saw the massacres and the destruction of the city; houses in the countryside were pulled down and the inhabitants killed by the enemy or put to flight and dispersed. Private churches belonging to priests and ministers were demolished, sacred virgins and Religious scattered on every side; some died under torture, others were killed by the sword, still others taken prisoner, losing the integrity of their soul and body and even their faith, reduced by their enemies to a long, drawn-out and painful slavery" (ibid., 28, 8).

Despite being old and weary, Augustine stood in the breach, comforting himself and others with prayer and meditation on the mysterious designs of Providence. In this regard, he spoke of the "old-age of the world" – and this Roman world was truly old –, he spoke of this old age as years earlier he had spoken to comfort the refugees from Italy when Alaric's Goths had invaded the city of Rome in 410. In old age, he said, ailments proliferate: coughs, catarrh, bleary eyes, anxiety and exhaustion. Yet, if the world grows old, Christ is perpetually young; hence, the invitation: "Do not refuse to be rejuvenated united to Christ, even in the old world. He tells you: Do not fear, your youth will be renewed like that of the eagle" (cf. Serm. 81, 8). Thus, the Christian must not lose heart, even in difficult situations, but rather he must spare no effort to help those in need. This is what the great doctor suggested in his response to Honoratus, Bishop of Tiabe, who had asked him whether a Bishop or a priest or any man of the Church with the barbarians hot on his heels could flee to save his life: "When danger is common to all, that is, for Bishops, clerics and lay people, may those who need others not be abandoned by the people whom they need. In this case, either let all depart together to safe places or let those who must remain not be deserted by those through whom, in things pertaining to the Church, their necessities must be provided for; and so let them share life in common, or share in common that which the Father of their family appoints them to suffer" (Ep 228, 2). And he concluded: "Such conduct is especially the proof of love" (ibid., 3). How can we fail to recognize in these words the heroic message that so many priests down the centuries have welcomed and made their own?

In the meantime, the city of Hippo resisted. Augustine's monastery-home had opened its doors to welcome episcopal colleagues who were asking for hospitality. Also of this number was Possidius, a former disciple of Augustine; he was able to leave us his direct testimony of those last dramatic days. "In the third month of that siege", Possidius recounts, "Augustine took to his bed with a fever: it was his last illness" (Vita, 29, 3). The holy old man made the most of that period when he was at last free to dedicate himself with greater intensity to prayer. He was in the habit of saying that no one, Bishop, Religious or layman, however irreprehensible his conduct might seem, can face death without adequate repentance. For this reason he ceaselessly repeated between his tears, the penitential psalms he had so often recited with his people (cf. ibid., 31, 2).

The worse his illness became, the more the dying Bishop felt the need for solitude and prayer: "In order that no one might disturb him in his recollection, about 10 days before leaving his body, he asked those of us present not to let anyone into his room outside the hours in which the doctors came to visit him or when his meals were brought. His desire was minutely complied with and in all that time he devoted himself to prayer" (ibid., 31, 3). He breathed his last on 28 August 430: his great heart rested at last in God.

"For the last rites of his body", Possidius informs us, "the sacrifice in which we took part was offered to God and then he was buried" (Vita, 31, 5). His body on an unknown date was translated to Sardinia, and from here, in about 725, to the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, where it still rests today. His first biographer has this final opinion of him: "He bequeathed to his Church a very numerous clergy and also monasteries of men and women full of people who had taken vows of chastity under the obedience of their superiors, as well as libraries containing his books and discourses and those of other saints, from which one learns what, through the grace of God, were his merits and greatness in the Church, where the faithful always find him alive" (Possidius, Vita, 31, 8). This is an opinion in which we can share. We too "find him alive" in his writings. When I read St Augustine's writings, I do not get the impression that he is a man who died more or less 1,600 years ago; I feel he is like a man of today: a friend, a contemporary who speaks to me, who speaks to us with his fresh and timely faith. In St Augustine who talks to us, talks to me in his writings, we see the everlasting timeliness of his faith; of the faith that comes from Christ, the Eternal Incarnate Word, Son of God and Son of Man. And we can see that this faith is not of the past although it was preached yesterday; it is still timely today, for Christ is truly yesterday, today and for ever. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Thus, St Augustine encourages us to entrust ourselves to this ever-living Christ and in this way find the path of life.



3. "Scrutinizing the truth to be able to find God and to believe..."

Wednesday, January 30, 2008


Dear friends, after the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity we return today to the important figure of St Augustine. In 1986, the 16th centenary of his conversion, my beloved Predecessor John Paul II dedicated a long, full document to him, the Apostolic Letter "Augustinum Hipponensem". The Pope himself chose to describe this text as "a thanksgiving to God for the gift that he has made to the Church, and through her to the whole human race". I would like to return to the topic of conversion at another Audience. It is a fundamental theme not only for Augustine's personal life but also for ours. In last Sunday's Gospel the Lord himself summed up his preaching with the word: "Repent". By following in St Augustine's footsteps, we will be able to meditate on what this conversion is: it is something definitive, decisive, but the fundamental decision must develop, be brought about throughout our life.

Today's Catechesis, however, is dedicated to the subject of faith and reason, a crucial, or better, the crucial theme for St Augustine's biography. As a child he learned the Catholic faith from Monica, his mother. But he abandoned this faith as an adolescent because he could no longer discern its reasonableness and rejected a religion that was not, to his mind, also an expression of reason, that is, of the truth. His thirst for truth was radical and therefore led him to drift away from the Catholic faith. Yet his radicalism was such that he could not be satisfied with philosophies that did not go to the truth itself, that did not go to God and to a God who was not only the ultimate cosmological hypothesis but the true God, the God who gives life and enters into our lives. Thus, Augustine's entire intellectual and spiritual development is also a valid model today in the relationship between faith and reason, a subject not only for believers but for every person who seeks the truth, a central theme for the balance and destiny of every human being. These two dimensions, faith and reason, should not be separated or placed in opposition; rather, they must always go hand in hand. As Augustine himself wrote after his conversion, faith and reason are "the two forces that lead us to knowledge" (Contra Academicos, III, 20, 43). In this regard, through the two rightly famous Augustinian formulas (cf. Sermones, 43, 9) that express this coherent synthesis of faith and reason: crede ut intelligas ("I believe in order to understand") – believing paves the way to crossing the threshold of the truth – but also, and inseparably, intellige ut credas ("I understand, the better to believe"), the believer scrutinizes the truth to be able to find God and to believe.

Augustine's two affirmations express with effective immediacy and as much corresponding depth the synthesis of this problem in which the Catholic Church sees her own journey expressed. This synthesis had been acquiring its form in history even before Christ's coming, in the encounter between the Hebrew faith and Greek thought in Hellenistic Judaism. At a later period this synthesis was taken up and developed by many Christian thinkers. The harmony between faith and reason means above all that God is not remote: he is not far from our reason and our life; he is close to every human being, close to our hearts and to our reason, if we truly set out on the journey.

Augustine felt this closeness of God to man with extraordinary intensity. God's presence in man is profound and at the same time mysterious, but he can recognize and discover it deep down inside himself. "Do not go outside", the convert says, but "return to within yourself; truth dwells in the inner man; and if you find that your nature is changeable, transcend yourself. But remember, when you transcend yourself, you are transcending a soul that reasons. Reach, therefore, to where the light of reason is lit" (De vera religione, 39, 72). It is just like what he himself stresses with a very famous statement at the beginning of the "Confessions", a spiritual biography which he wrote in praise of God: "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you" (I, 1, 1).

God's remoteness is therefore equivalent to remoteness from oneself: "But", Augustine admitted (Confessions, III, 6, 11), addressing God directly, "you were more inward than my most inward part and higher than the highest element within me", interior intimo meo et superior summo meo; so that, as he adds in another passage remembering the period before his conversion, "you were there before me, but I had departed from myself. I could not even find myself, much less you" (Confessions, V, 2, 2). Precisely because Augustine lived this intellectual and spiritual journey in the first person, he could portray it in his works with such immediacy, depth and wisdom, recognizing in two other famous passages from the "Confessions" (IV, 4, 9 and 14, 22), that man is "a great enigma" (magna quaestio) and "a great abyss" (grande profundum), an enigma and an abyss that only Christ can illuminate and save us from. This is important: a man who is distant from God is also distant from himself, alienated from himself, and can only find himself by encountering God. In this way he will come back to himself, to his true self, to his true identity.

The human being, Augustine stresses later in "De Civitate Dei" (XII, 27), is social by nature but antisocial by vice and is saved by Christ, the one Mediator between God and humanity and the "universal way of liberty and salvation", as my Predecessor John Paul II said (Augustinum Hipponensem, n. 3). Outside this way, "which has never been lacking for the human race", St Augustine says further, "no one has been set free, no one will be set free" (De Civitate Dei, X, 32, 2). As the one Mediator of salvation Christ is Head of the Church and mystically united with her to the point that Augustine could say: "We have become Christ. For, if he is the Head, we, the members; he and we together are the whole man" (In Iohannis evangelium tractatus, 21, 8).

People of God and house of God: the Church in Augustine's vision is therefore closely bound to the concept of the Body of Christ, founded on the Christological reinterpretation of the Old Testament and on the sacramental life centred on the Eucharist, in which the Lord gives us his Body and transforms us into his Body. It is then fundamental that the Church, the People of God in a Christological and not a sociological sense, be truly inserted into Christ, who, as Augustine says in a beautiful passage, "prays for us, prays in us and prays by us; he prays for us as our priest, he prays in us as our head, and he prays by us as our God: let us therefore recognize him as our voice and ourselves as his" (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 85, 1).

At the end of the Apostolic Letter "Augustinum Hipponensem", John Paul II wished to ask the Saint himself what he would have to say to the people of today and answers first of all with the words Augustine entrusted to a letter dictated shortly after his conversion: "It seems to me that the hope of finding the truth must be restored to humankind" (Epistulae, 1, 1); that truth which is Christ himself, true God, to whom is addressed one of the most beautiful prayers and most famous of the "Confessions" (X, 27, 38): "Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. "You called and cried aloud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours".

Here then, Augustine encountered God and throughout his life experienced him to the point that this reality – which is primarily his meeting with a Person, Jesus – changed his life, as it changes the lives of everyone, men and women, who in every age have the grace to encounter him. Let us pray that the Lord will grant us this grace and thereby enable us to find his peace.



4. "History is the struggle between two loves..."

Wednesday, February 20, 2008


Dear brothers and sisters, after the interruption for the Spiritual Exercises last week, today we return to the important figure of St Augustine, about whom I have repeatedly spoken at the Wednesday Catecheses. He is the Father of the Church who left us the greatest number of works and I intend to speak briefly of them today. Some of Augustine's writings were of major importance, not only for the history of Christianity but also for the formation of the whole of Western culture. The clearest example is the Confessiones, undoubtedly one of the most widely read books of Christian antiquity. Like various Fathers of the Church in the first centuries but on an incomparably larger scale, the Bishop of Hippo in fact exercised an extensive and persistent influence, as already appears from the superabundant manuscript transcriptions of his works, which are indeed extremely numerous.

He reviewed them himself in the "Retractationes" several years before he died, and shortly after his death they were correctly recorded in the "Indiculus" ("list") added by his faithful friend Possidius to his biography of St Augustine, "Vita Augustini". The list of Augustine's works was drafted with the explicit intention of keeping their memory alive while the Vandal invasion was sweeping through all of Roman Africa, and it included at least 1,030 writings numbered by their Author, with others "that cannot be numbered because he did not give them any number". Possidius, the Bishop of a neighbouring city, dictated these words in Hippo itself – where he had taken refuge and where he witnessed his friend's death –, and it is almost certain that he based his list on the catalogue of Augustine's personal library. Today, more than 300 letters of the Bishop of Hippo and almost 600 homilies are extant, but originally there were far more, perhaps even as many as between 3,000 and 4,000, the result of 40 years of preaching by the former rhetorician who had chosen to follow Jesus and no longer to speak to important figures of the imperial court, but rather, to the simple populace of Hippo.

And in recent years the discoveries of a collection of letters and several homilies have further enriched our knowledge of this great Father of the Church. "He wrote and published many books", Possidius wrote, "many sermons were delivered in church, transcribed and corrected, both to refute the various heresies and to interpret the Sacred Scriptures for the edification of the holy children of the Church. These works", his Bishop-friend emphasized, "are so numerous that a scholar would find it difficult to read them all and learn to know them" (Vita Augustini, 18, 9).

In the literary corpus of Augustine – more than 1,000 publications divided into philosophical, apologetic, doctrinal, moral, monastic, exegetic and anti-heretical writings in addition precisely to the letters and homilies – certain exceptional works of immense theological and philosophical breadth stand out. First of all, it is essential to remember the "Confessiones" mentioned above, written in 13 books between 397 and 400 in praise of God. They are a sort of autobiography in the form of a dialogue with God. This literary genre actually mirrors St Augustine's life, which was not one closed in on itself, dispersed in many things, but was lived substantially as a dialogue with God, hence, a life with others. The title "Confessiones" indicates the specific nature of this autobiography. In Christian Latin this word, "confessiones", developed from the tradition of the Psalms and has two meanings that are nevertheless interwoven. In the first place confessiones means the confession of our own faults, of the wretchedness of sin; but at the same time, confessiones also means praise of God, thanksgiving to God. Seeing our own wretchedness in the light of God becomes praise to God and thanksgiving, for God loves and accepts us, transforms us and raises us to himself. Of these "Confessiones", which met with great success during his lifetime, St Augustine wrote: "They exercised such an influence on me while I was writing them and still exercise it when I reread them. Many brothers like these works" (Retractationes, II, 6); and I can say that I am one of these "brothers". Thanks to the "Confessiones", moreover, we can follow step by step the inner journey of this extraordinary and passionate man of God. A less well-known but equally original and very important text is the "Retractationes", composed in two books in about 427 A.D., in which St Augustine, by then elderly, set down a "revision" (retractatio) of his entire opus, thereby bequeathing to us a unique and very precious literary document but also a teaching of sincerity and intellectual humility.

"De Civitate Dei" – an impressive work crucial to the development of Western political thought and the Christian theology of history – was written between 413 and 426 in 22 books. The occasion was the sack of Rome by the Goths in 410. Numerous pagans still alive and also many Christians said: Rome has fallen; the Christian God and the Apostles can now no longer protect the city. While the pagan divinities were present, Rome was the "caput mundi", the great capital, and no one could have imagined that it would fall into enemy hands. Now, with the Christian God, this great city did not seem any safer. Therefore, the God of the Christians did not protect, he could not be the God to whom to entrust oneself. St Augustine answered this objection, which also touched Christian hearts profoundly, with this impressive work, "De Civitate Dei", explaining what we should and should not expect of God, and what the relationship is between the political sphere and the sphere of faith, of the Church. This book is also today a source for defining clearly between true secularism and the Church's competence, the great true hope that the faith gives to us.

This important book presents the history of humanity governed by divine Providence but currently divided by two loves. This is the fundamental plan, its interpretation of history, which is the struggle between two loves: love of self, "to the point of indifference to God", and love of God, "to the point of indifference to the self" (De Civitate Dei XIV, 28), to full freedom from the self for others in the light of God. This, therefore, is perhaps St Augustine's greatest book and is of lasting importance. Equally important is the "De Trinitate", a work in 15 books on the central core of the Christian faith, faith in the Trinitarian God. It was written in two phases: the first 12 books between 399 and 412, published without the knowledge of Augustine, who in about 420 completed and revised the entire work. Here he reflects on the Face of God and seeks to understand this mystery of God who is unique, the one Creator of the world, of us all, and yet this one God is precisely Trinitarian, a circle of love. He seeks to understand the unfathomable mystery: the actual Trinitarian being, in three Persons, is the most real and profound unity of the one God. "De Doctrina Christiana" is instead a true and proper cultural introduction to the interpretation of the Bible and ultimately of Christianity itself, which had a crucial importance in the formation of Western culture.

Despite all his humility, Augustine must certainly have been aware of his own intellectual stature. Yet it was far more important to him to take the Christian message to the simple than to write lofty theological works. This deepest intention of his that guided his entire life appears in a letter written to his colleague Evodius, in which he informs him of his decision to suspend the dictation of the books of "De Trinitate" for the time being, "because they are too demanding and I think that few can understand them; it is therefore urgent to have more texts which we hope will be useful to many" (Epistulae 169, 1, 1). Thus, it served his purpose better to communicate the faith in a manner that all could understand rather than to write great theological works. The responsibility he felt acutely with regard to the popularization of the Christian message was later to become the origin of writings such as "De Catechizandis Rudibus", a theory and also a method of catechesis, or the "Psalmus contra Partem Donati". The Donatists were the great problem of St Augustine's Africa, a deliberately African schism. They said: true Christianity is African Christianity. They opposed Church unity. The great Bishop fought against this schism all his life, seeking to convince the Donatists that only in unity could "Africanness" also be true. And to make himself understood by the simple, who could not understand the difficult Latin of the rhetorician, he said: I must even write with grammatical errors, in a very simplified Latin. And he did so, especially in this "Psalmus", a sort of simple poem against the Donatists, in order to help all the people understand that it is only through Church unity that our relationship with God may be truly fulfilled for all and that peace may grow in the world.

The mass of homilies that he would often deliver "off the cuff", transcribed by tachygraphers during his preaching and immediately circulated, had a special importance in this production destined for a wider public. The very beautiful "Enarrationes in Psalmos", read widely in the Middle Ages, stand out among them. The practice of publishing Augustine's thousands of homilies – often without the author's control – precisely explains their dissemination and later dispersion but also their vitality. In fact, because of the author's fame, the Bishop of Hippo's sermons became very sought after texts and, adapted to ever new contexts, also served as models for other Bishops and priests.

A fresco in the Lateran that dates back to the fourth century shows that the iconographical tradition already depicted St Augustine with a book in his hand, suggesting, of course, his literary opus which had such a strong influence on the Christian mentality and Christian thought, but it also suggests his love for books and reading as well as his knowledge of the great culture of the past. At his death he left nothing, Possidius recounts, but "recommended that the library of the church with all the codes be kept carefully for future generations", especially those of his own works. In these, Possidius stresses, Augustine is "ever alive" and benefits his readers, although "I believe that those who were able to see and listen to him were able to draw greater benefit from being in touch with him when he himself was speaking in church, and especially those who experienced his daily life among the people" (Vita Augustini, 31). Yes, for us too it would have been beautiful to be able to hear him speaking. Nonetheless, he is truly alive in his writings and present in us, and so we too see the enduring vitality of the faith to which he devoted his entire life.



5. "We need permanent conversion..."

Wednesday, February 27, 2008


Dear brothers and sisters, with today's meeting I wish to conclude the presentation of the figure of St Augustine. After having dwelt on his life, works and some aspects of his thought, I would like today to return to his inner experience which made him one of Christian history's greatest converts. Last year, during my Pilgrimage to Pavia to venerate the mortal remains of this Father of the Church, I particularly dedicated my reflection to this experience of his. By doing so I wished to express to him the homage of the entire Catholic Church, but also to manifest my personal devotion and gratitude in regard to a figure to whom I feel very linked for the role he has had in my life as a theologian, priest and pastor.

Today, it is still possible to trace St Augustine's experiences, thanks above all to the "Confessions", written to praise God and which are at the origin of one of the most specific literary forms of the West, the autobiography or personal expression of one's self-knowledge. Well, anyone who encounters this extraordinary and fascinating book, still widely read today, soon realizes how Augustine's conversion was not sudden nor fully accomplished at the beginning, but which can be defined rather as a true and proper journey that remains a model for each one of us. This itinerary certainly culminated with his conversion and then with baptism, but it was not concluded in that Easter Vigil of the year 387, when the African rhetorician was baptized in Milan by Bishop Ambrose. Augustine's journey of conversion, in fact, humbly continued to the very end of his life, so much so that one can truly say that his various steps – and three can be easily distinguished – are one single great conversion.

St Augustine was a passionate seeker of truth: he was from the beginning and then throughout his life. The first step of his conversion journey was accomplished exactly in his progressive nearing to Christianity. Actually, he had received from his mother Monica, to whom he would remain strictly linked, a Christian education, and even though he lived an errant life during the years of his youth, he always felt a deep attraction to Christ, having drunk in with his mother's milk the love for the Lord's Name, as he himself emphasizes (cf. Confessions, III, 4, 8). But also philosophy, especially that of a Platonic stamp, led him even closer to Christ, revealing to him the existence of the Logos or creative reason. Philosophy books showed him the existence of reason, from which the whole world came, but they could not tell him how to reach this Logos, which seemed so distant. Only by reading St Paul's Epistles within the faith of the Catholic Church was the truth fully revealed to him. This experience was summarized by Augustine in one of the most famous passages of the "Confessions": he recounts that, in the torment of his reflections, withdrawing to a garden, he suddenly heard a child's voice chanting a rhyme never heard before: tolle, lege, tolle, lege, "pick up and read, pick up and read" (VIII, 12, 29). He then remembered the conversion of Anthony, the Father of Monasticism, and carefully returned to the Pauline codex that he had recently read, opened it, and his glance fell on the passage of the Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle exhorts to abandon the works of the flesh and to be clothed with Christ (cf. 13: 13-14). He understood that those words in that moment were addressed personally to him; they came from God through the Apostle and indicated to him what he had to do at that time. Thus, he felt the darkness of doubt clearing and he finally found himself free to give himself entirely to Christ: he described it as "your converting me to yourself" (Confessions, VIII, 12, 30). This was the first and decisive conversion.

The African rhetorician reached this fundamental step in his long journey thanks to his passion for man and for the truth, a passion that led him to seek God, the great and inaccessible One. Faith in Christ made him understand that God, apparently so distant, in reality was not that at all. He in fact made himself near to us, becoming one of us. In this sense, faith in Christ brought Augustine's long search on the journey to truth to completion. Only a God who made himself "tangible", one of us, was finally a God to whom he could pray, for whom and with whom he could live. This is the way to take with courage and at the same time with humility, open to a permanent purification which each of us always needs. But with the Easter Vigil of 387, as we have said, Augustine's journey was not finished. He returned to Africa and founded a small monastery where he retreated with a few friends to dedicate himself to the contemplative life and study. This was his life's dream. Now he was called to live totally for the truth, with the truth, in friendship with Christ who is truth: a beautiful dream that lasted three years, until he was, against his will, ordained a priest at Hippo and destined to serve the faithful, continuing, yes, to live with Christ and for Christ, but at the service of all. This was very difficult for him, but he understood from the beginning that only by living for others, and not simply for his private contemplation, could he really live with Christ and for Christ. Thus, renouncing a life solely of meditation, Augustine learned, often with difficulty, to make the fruit of his intelligence available to others. He learned to communicate his faith to simple people and thus learned to live for them in what became his hometown, tirelessly carrying out a generous and onerous activity which he describes in one of his most beautiful sermons: "To preach continuously, discuss, reiterate, edify, be at the disposal of everyone – it is an enormous responsibility, a great weight, an immense effort" (Sermon, 339, 4). But he took this weight upon himself, understanding that it was exactly in this way that he could be closer to Christ. To understand that one reaches others with simplicity and humility was his true second conversion.

But there is a last step to Augustine's journey, a third conversion, that brought him every day of his life to ask God for pardon. Initially, he thought that once he was baptized, in the life of communion with Christ, in the sacraments, in the Eucharistic celebration, he would attain the life proposed in the Sermon on the Mount: the perfection donated by Baptism and reconfirmed in the Eucharist. During the last part of his life he understood that what he had concluded at the beginning about the Sermon on the Mount – that is, now that we are Christians, we live this ideal permanently – was mistaken. Only Christ himself truly and completely accomplishes the Sermon on the Mount. We always need to be washed by Christ, who washes our feet, and be renewed by him. We need permanent conversion. Until the end we need this humility that recognizes that we are sinners journeying along, until the Lord gives us his hand definitively and introduces us into eternal life. It was in this final attitude of humility, lived day after day, that Augustine died.

This attitude of profound humility before the only Lord Jesus led him also to experience an intellectual humility. Augustine, in fact, who is one of the great figures in the history of thought, in the last years of his life wanted to submit all his numerous works to a clear, critical examination. This was the origin of the "Retractationes" (Revision), which placed his truly great theological thought within the humble and holy faith that he simply refers to by the name Catholic, that is, of the Church. He wrote in this truly original book: "I understood that only One is truly perfect, and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are completely realized in only One – in Jesus Christ himself. The whole Church, instead – all of us, including the Apostles –, must pray everyday: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" (De Sermone Domini in Monte, I, 19, 1-3).

Augustine converted to Christ who is truth and love, followed him throughout his life and became a model for every human being, for all of us in search of God. This is why I wanted to ideally conclude my Pilgrimage to Pavia by consigning to the Church and to the world, before the tomb of this great lover of God, my first Encyclical entitled "Deus Caritas Est". I owe much, in fact, especially in the first part, to Augustine's thought. Even today, as in his time, humanity needs to know and above all to live this fundamental reality: God is love, and the encounter with him is the only response to the restlessness of the human heart; a heart inhabited by hope, still perhaps obscure and unconscious in many of our contemporaries but which already today opens us Christians to the future, so much so that St Paul wrote that "in this hope we were saved" (Rom 8: 24). I wished to dedicate my second Encyclical to hope, "Spe Salvi", and it is also largely indebted to Augustine and his encounter with God.

In a beautiful passage, St Augustine defines prayer as the expression of desire and affirms that God responds by moving our hearts toward him. On our part we must purify our desires and our hopes to welcome the sweetness of God (cf. In I Ioannis 4, 6). Indeed, only this opening of ourselves to others saves us. Let us pray, therefore, that we can follow the example of this great convert every day of our lives, and in every moment of our life encounter the Lord Jesus, the only One who saves us, purifies us and gives us true joy, true life.

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Benedict XVI began the cycle of Wednesday general audiences dedicated to the Fathers of the Church on March 7, 2007. Here they are, in order:

> St Clement of Rome

> St Ignatius of Antioch

> St Justin

> St Irenaeus of Lyon

> Clement of Alexandria

> Origen of Alexandria. 1

> Origen of Alexandria. 2

> Tertullian

> St Cyprian

> Eusebius of Caesarea

> St Athanasius of Alexandria

> St Cyril of Jerusalem

> St Basil. 1

> St Basil. 2

> St Gregory Nazianzus. 1

> St Gregory Nazianzus. 2

> St Gregory of Nyssa. 1

> St Gregory of Nyssa. 2

> St John Chrysostom. 1

> St John Chrysostom. 2

> St Cyril of Alexandria

> St Hilary of Poitiers

> St Eusebius of Vercelli

> St Ambrose of Milan

> St Maximus of Turin

> St Jerome. 1

> St Jerome. 2

> Aphraates the Sage

> St Ephrem

> St Chromatius of Aquileia

> St Paulinus of Nola

> St Augustine. 1

> St Augustine. 2

> St Augustine. 3

> St Augustine. 4

> St Augustine. 5

> St Leo the Great

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Before this, beginning on March 15, 2006, he dedicated a cycle of audiences to the twelve Apostles and to other disciples named in the New Testament. In order:

> Christ and the Church

> The Apostles, Witnesses of Christ'

> The Gift of "Communion"

> Safeguarding the Gift of Communion

> Communion in Time: Tradition

> The Apostolic Tradition of the Church

> The Apostolic Succession

> Peter, the Fisherman

> Peter, the Apostle

> Peter, the Rock

> Andrew, the Protoclete

> James, the Greater

> James, the Lesser

> John, Son of Zebedee

> John, the Theologian

> John, the Seer of Patmos

> Matthew

> Philip

> Thomas

> Bartholomew

> Simon the Cananaean and Jude Thaddaeus

> Judas Iscariot and Matthias

> Paul of Tarsus

> St Paul's New Outlook

> St Paul and the Spirit

> St Paul and the Church

> Timothy and Titus

> Stephen, the Protomartyr

> Barnabas, Silas, and Apollos

> Priscilla and Aquila

> Women at the Service of the Gospel

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