esmaothegreat

Down and Out

2006-03-09T00:14:00.000-08:00

Reflection paper on
Step 10
By Alejo L.Esmao

As I continue facing the struggles and hardships in my chosen vocation, I realized that all of these things that I have are all gift from God. With humble heart I really accept that without God, I am nothing. I realized how blessed I am that had given me the opportunity to live in this world. I am very happy that despite of my shortcomings and unworthiness he continues shower his abundant blessings in my life .God had given me the chance to see the beauty of his creation and the beauty of life. And now it is my duty to protect these things and to govern it according to His will.
And as I grow in faith, love and wisdom, it is now a challenge for me to be the body of Christ. I will act according to His will, to be His hands to help those who are needy, then to be His ears to hear the cry of the poor. As a future priest, my rule is not only to administer the sacraments but it is also my rule to live with people, to join in their difficulties and most of all to aid their needs. And to be His mouth, in my future ministry, I am not just a mere preacher but it is also my obligation to pay attention the ongoing injustices and oppression in our society.
As my faith continues its growth, I had many realizations a kind of realization flows from the heart, heart that longing to extend my help and aid to somebody as a concrete sign of love. I realized that I need to sacrifice for the sake of my beloved, especially this vocation that I have. The same as the faith that I have, I am willing to give up my earthly possession for the sake eternal happiness. And this will be the starting point of my life to look everything in this world beyond its form and shapes. And most of all, I’m going to be more critical in seeking the true meaning of life.
Moreover, as I continue my journey in this world, as my faith getting older and mature, it helps me also to grow as a mature person. And as I observed’ it already penetrated in the cognitive and affective part of my whole being. It also penetrates more deeply in my conscience. I am now more sensitive in every action and most of all in every word that I am going to utter. I am now aware in dealing such things specially those things which I need to show for the better glory of God. Thru all of these realizations, it is now the time where I savor how sweet the fruit of my growth in my journey of faith.
Finally, as future servant of God, it is now the time to share the beauty of faith and to live in a meaningful way. It is the time to show the world the will of the Lord thru the Good deeds wrapped by faith that I have. I will show to the whole world the love of God thru exercising all the best things that I had learned and shared from God.

Christ Encounter

2006-03-09T00:13:00.000-08:00

Reflection paper on
Step 9
By Alejo L.Esmao

As I continue facing the struggles and hardships in my chosen vocation, I realized that all of these things that I have are all gift from God. With humble heart I really accept that without God, I am nothing. I realized how blessed I am that had given me the opportunity to live in this world. I am very happy that despite of my shortcomings and unworthiness he continues shower his abundant blessings in my life .God had given me the chance to see the beauty of his creation and the beauty of life. And now it is my duty to protect these things and to govern it according to His will.
And as I grow in faith, love and wisdom, it is now a challenge for me to be the body of Christ. I will act according to His will, to be His hands to help those who are needy, then to be His ears to hear the cry of the poor. As a future priest, my rule is not only to administer the sacraments but it is also my rule to live with people, to join in their difficulties and most of all to aid their needs. And to be His mouth, in my future ministry, I am not just a mere preacher but it is also my obligation to pay attention the ongoing injustices and oppression in our society.
As my faith continues its growth, I had many realizations a kind of realization flows from the heart, heart that longing to extend my help and aid to somebody as a concrete sign of love. I realized that I need to sacrifice for the sake of my beloved, especially this vocation that I have. The same as the faith that I have, I am willing to give up my earthly possession for the sake eternal happiness. And this will be the starting point of my life to look everything in this world beyond its form and shapes. And most of all, I’m going to be more critical in seeking the true meaning of life.
Moreover, as I continue my journey in this world, as my faith getting older and mature, it helps me also to grow as a mature person. And as I observed’ it already penetrated in the cognitive and affective part of my whole being. It also penetrates more deeply in my conscience. I am now more sensitive in every action and most of all in every word that I am going to utter. I am now aware in dealing such things specially those things which I need to show for the better glory of God. Thru all of these realizations, it is now the time where I savor how sweet the fruit of my growth in my journey of faith.
Finally, as future servant of God, it is now the time to share the beauty of faith and to live in a meaningful way. It is the time to show the world the will of the Lord thru the Good deeds wrapped by faith that I have. I will show to the whole world the love of God thru exercising all the best things that I had learned and shared from God.

The wondering Mind

2006-03-09T00:12:00.000-08:00

Reflection paper on
Step 6
By Alejo L Esmao

As my faith continues its growth, I found many questions that coming out from my mind, questions that leads me to understand more-deeper the mystery of Christ. Even without seeing Christ I try to understands his will and without knowing Him a follow his commandments.
Moreover, I slowly realized thru the help of my prayers that as I journey in this world I need to have strong faith in God. I need to avoid rising questions that sometimes lead us into doubts and confusions. I should believe first the mystery of faith in order for me to understand the real meaning of my existence and the existence of God. Thru my strong conviction it is the time where we may able to appreciate the faith that I have. Yet I should nurture it first in order for this faith to grow and help me to live as good and mature Christian with mature faith. And this faith cannot be called a mature faith if will remain in words, therefore I need to show it thru my good deeds. I found it very significant to pay attention to the environment where I belong. My faith could be concretized thru active participation and heartily involvement in my society. Faith without deed is dead. Therefore let’s make our faith alive by proclaiming and living it inline with the will of God.
Thus, as a simple person who slowly understands the reality of life, I am now in the state of getting awake from a very long night sleep. I realized that life is not that easy. There are many things that we take for granted that pull us away from our faith especially to our God. We sometimes become business oriented and we tend to forget that there is someone who is the source of all these positions that we possessed. We need to be mindful enough to ongoing changes in our society especially the constant improvement of our technology that slowly pull us away from God. I realized that we are just like a passing shadow in this world. We have to work it out, to make our life fruitful and meaningful in the eyes of God. It is our challenge on how to live a meaningful and fruitful life.
As a product of this generation, it is not yet the end of our journey it is not yet the time to give up the fight. It is still the beginning of our struggle to change the face our world by living our faith in a very effective and meaningful way. We are called to face this earthly battle not in a bloody war but through our strong conviction, strong principle to stand our faith as a living example of Christ. I realized that we are just like a passing shadow in this world. We have to work it out, to make our life fruitful and meaningful in the eyes of God. It is our challenge on how to live a meaningful and fruitful life. Thru our courage and enthusiasm, all of things will be realized thru the goodness and help of our God. As a sign of our gratitude to him we will give our best to live as good Christians with undying faith.

The Heart’s Hunger

2006-03-09T00:11:00.000-08:00

Reflection Paper on
“Step 5
By Alejo L Esmao

Life is beautiful. Life is worth living. Why? It is because God is the owner of all these things that makes life beautiful. God also makes our life worth living, thru His creative way in molding and forming us as mature and responsible of everything as he allows us to govern the world. Yet he let us undergo a so called process, God allows us experienced pain in order for us to be brave, he let us experienced sadness in order for us to appreciate happiness as he let us grow in our faith. We need to let our selves or lives to be broken in order for us to be with God thru our faith.
Moreover, in order for this faith to penetrate in our lives, as a process we must know first our selves. As we try to examine ourselves, we can discover many things and one these is the changes in our outlook in life,. This will be the time where we slowly savor the beauty of faith that we have. Then our eyes will slowly open in every thing around us. On this level, we are aware on how to appreciate the beauty of creation and the defect as well specially in our society. We can distinguish what is the best for us to grow more-closer to God and what are the things that could pull us away from God. In other words we are now choosing the kind of system that we want that can help us a strong and well founded relationship with God.
As our faith continues its growth, it will also continue searching for truth until it comes to the point of deepest realization. A kind of realization that flows from the heart, heart that longing to extend to somebody as a concrete sign of love. This will be the time where we know how to sacrifice for the sake of our beloved. The same as the faith that we have, we are willing to give up the earthly possession for the sake eternal happiness. And this will be the starting point of our lives where we begin to look everything in this world beyond its form and shapes. We become critical minded, where we are seeking the true meaning of every existence. And thru our faith, we may able to understand that there is only one who authored all these things.
Moreover, as we continue our travel in this faith journey, as our faith getting older and mature, it helps us also to grow as mature person. And as we observed’ it already penetrated in the cognitive and affective part of our whole being. It also penetrates in our whole being. We are now more sensitive especially in every action and words that we are going to use towards others people. We are now aware in dealing such things specially those things which we need to show for the better glory of God. It is now the time where we can savor how sweet the fruit of our growth in our journey of faith.
After we experience all of these things, it is now the time to share the beauty of faith that we savor from God thru sharing these things to others. It is now the time to live all the things that we learned in our growth in the faith that we have. We will show the world the well of the Lord thru the Good deeds wrapped by faith that we have. We show the world the love of God thru exercising all the best things that we learned and shared from God.

Escaping from the wrong question

2006-03-09T00:09:00.000-08:00

Reflection paper on
Step 3
By yesmao

As I am getting older living in this world I have many realizations, I discovered many things especially in my faith. Before, I believe in God because it was taught by my parents and my teacher in catechesis before. As I grew old I slowly understand my faith. Yet there were still many questions in my mind questions that sometimes lead me into questioning the existence of God. Especially when I experienced hardships, struggles and difficulties that would be the starting point of my doubts and confusions. Yet I would still respond the call of God because I’m afraid to be punished if ever it is true that God really exists. But when I am able to overcome those trials and difficulties I felt guilt and ashamed for the unclean thoughts that I have.
Moreover, I slowly realized thru the help of my prayers that as we journey in this world we need to have strong faith in God. We need to avoid rising questions that sometimes lead us into doubts and confusions. We should believe first the mystery of faith in order for us to understand the real meaning of our existence and the existence of God. Thru our strong conviction it is the time where we may able to appreciate the faith that we have. Yet we should nurture it first in order for this faith to grow and help us to live as good and mature Christian with mature faith. And this faith cannot be called a mature faith if will remain in words, therefore we need to show it thru our good deeds. I found it very significant to pay attention to the environment where we belong. Our faith could be concretized thru active participation and heartily involvement in our society. Faith without deed is dead. Therefore let’s make our faith alive by proclaiming and living it inline with the will of God.
Furthermore, as a seminarian I found out that I have many hung ups and I can say that I need to work it out for my growth as a good Christian and effective priest someday. I have many lapses, I try to do my best to coup up in order to give justice to God who favored me this life that I had. God had given me the chance to serve him love him and most of all to exercise my faith without minding the any wrong questions that would hinder my good relationship to God.
Thus, as a seminarian who slowly understands the reality of life, I will exert extra effort, doing extra miles in all the things that I have to do. I will always bear in mind that without God I am nothing and thru him I able to believe in that way I able to understand. I am now in the stage or level of getting awake from a very long night sleep. I realized that life without faith in God is useless and nothing. There are many things that we need to change especially the wrong concepts and notions in our belief and understanding. We sometimes take it for granted without minding that it is already pulling us away from our faith especially to our God. We sometimes feel that we know everything, we become highly intellectual yet we become spiritually dwarf. We need to be mindful enough to ongoing changes in our selves especially the constant learning that we get in the ongoing improvement of our technology that slowly pull us away from God.
I realized that we are just like a passing shadow in this world. We have to work it out, to make our life fruitful and meaningful in the eyes of God. It is our challenge on how to live a meaningful and fruitful life. Thru our courage and enthusiasm, all of things will be realized thru the goodness and help of our God. As a sign of our gratitude to him we will give our best to live as good Christians with undying faith.

Seeing through the System

2006-03-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

Reflection paper on
Step 2
By yesmao

For almost 24 years living in this world I discovered many things especially in my self. Before, I responded the call of God because I’m afraid to be punished and I wanted to receive a reward from Him. I really feel that God will grant all my wishes if I will follow his commandments. I don’t have any doubts and fear because for me nothing is impossible in God. But as I tried to reflect on it, I found out that I’m already bound on it. It became a system that monopolizes and dominates my self and in my life as a whole.
Moreover, fears are now slowly coming out, doubts and questions, what if God is not the way I look at it. Yet as I grew up, and getting mature in faith that I have I found out and I realized that living as a mature Christian cannot be measured by our good deeds alone but on how we live our faith through our good deeds. I found it very significant to pay attention to the outside forces that sometimes calls me into another way of life. Paano nga ba tayo mappalapit sa Diyos. Yes it is true that I am hundred percent open to any possibilities in my life. But on the other hand I am afraid to loose my faith because of my own perception and principle towards everything around me. Every now and then I am very sensitive of everything that is happening in my life. I’m starting to let go everything that blocks my way towards God, I want to be closer to Him. I know in my present stage it is just a beginning of long journey in life.
Furthermore, as I try to observe my self I have many hung ups and I can say that I need to work it out for my growth as a good Christian. I have many lapses, I want to coup up in order to give justice to God who favored me this life that I had. God had given me the chance to serve him love him and most of all to exercise my faith without minding the outside forces that pulled me down. God had given me this gift of life to be nurtured and to be shared to other people especially in my future in my future ministry. And most, of all to be a model of those people who walk astray.
Thus, as a simple person who slowly understands the reality of life, I am now in the state of getting awake from a very long night sleep. I realized that life is not that easy. There are many things that we take for granted that pull us away from our faith especially to our God. We sometimes become business oriented and we tend to forget that there is someone who is the source of all these positions that we possessed. We need to be mindful enough to ongoing changes in our society especially the constant improvement of our technology that slowly pull us away from God. I realized that we are just like a passing shadow in this world. We have to work it out, to make our life fruitful and meaningful in the eyes of God. It is our challenge on how to live a meaningful and fruitful life.
Finally, as a product of this generation, it is not yet the end of our journey it is not yet the time to give up the fight. It is still the beginning of our struggle to change the face our world by living our faith in a very effective and meaningful way. We called to face this earthly battle not in a bloody war but through our strong conviction, strong principle to stand our faith as a living example of Christ. Thru our courage and enthusiasm, all of things will be realized thru the goodness and help of our God. As a sign of our gratitude to him we will give our best to live as good Christians with undying faith.

“From False Self to True Self”.

2006-03-09T00:04:00.000-08:00

Reflection paper on
Step 1
By Alejo L Esmao

For almost six in living in the seminary formation I discovered many things especially in my self. Before, I responded the call of God because I really want it, because I really felt that God called me in this kind of life. I don’t have any doubts and fear because for me nothing would lose if ever my dream would come true or not. But as seconds turned in minutes and minutes into hours and hours into days and days turned months and months into years I slowly realized how blessed I am to have this gift, the gift of vocation that I have.
Moreover, fears are now slowly coming out, doubts and questions, what if God calls me into another way of life. Paano na ang pangarap kong maging ganap na pari. Yes it is true that I am hundred percent open to any possibilities in my life. But on the other hand I am afraid to loose this vocation that I have. Every now and then I am very sensitive of everything that is happening in my life. I’m starting to let go everything that blocks my way towards priesthood. I know in my present stage it is just a beginning of long journey in life.
Furthermore, as I tried to observe my self I had many hung ups and I found it not good in my growth as a priest to be. I had many lapses, I want to coup up in order to give justice to all people that in one or another had gave their moral and financial support to and most especially to God who really made me a special person in his vineyard. God has given me a chance to serve him as one of those harvesters in his vineyard. He gave me this gift of vocation to be nurtured and to be shared to other people in my future ministry. And most, of all to be a model of those people who walk astray.
Thus, as a simple person who slowly understood the reality, I am now in the state of getting awake from a very long night sleep. I realized that life is not that easy. There are many people in the world who really need me, despite my unworthiness and sinfulness yet I know I can help thru my prayers and strong dedication to my vocation. I slowly realized that we are just like a passing shadow in this world. I have to work it out, to make my life fruitful and meaningful in the eyes of God. It is my challenge how to live and meaningful and fruitful life.
Finally, as what Inigo experienced on his conversion from a soldier to a very religious person, I believe that every one of us has the chance to experience as what Inigo had experienced. Even in my life I never expect to be what I am now. Before, I thought that all things are just a dream for me, but thru the love and mercy of God, he gave me the chance to answer his calling in this kind of life. Thru my courage and enthusiasm, I realized many things especially this goodness that God has given me. As a gratitude to his goodness to me, I will give my best to be his good and effective priest in the future.