On a Roll
Yes, I’m on a roll this week . . . in terms of tasks and commitments, that is! A youth minister’s schedule can indeed get filled up easily -- and in a sense, the same with his life. Over and above the routine, everyday stuff, one-time special assignments time and...
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An Open Letter — to the Writer that Is Me
This entry is inspired by an idea from Andi Cumbo-Floyd, an American writing mentor to whose newsletter I am subscribed. Having just finished a three-part blog entry series on books and reading, I wish now to shift the focus a bit. Before I go back to writing about movies and youth ministry and other topics, this piece can serve as a sort of interlude.
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A Few Prized Finds
The Book Stash Adventures — Part 3
Actually the first one is not really the kind of book that will make you gush and drool. As I already mentioned it previously, the title is A New Kind of Conversation: Blogging toward a Postmodern Faith (edited by Myron Bradley Penner & Hunter Barnes, Authentic Publishing, Colorado Springs, 2006). It’s a bit of a novelty for me, despite my familiarity with both postmodernism and blogging. In fact, the only recognizable name for me in the data about the book is one of the contributors: Brian McLaren, the well-known Evangelical author, speaker, and pastor.
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Harvesting and Salvaging Old Books
The Book Stash Adventures — Part 2
I call the whole thing (as my title above puts it) harvesting and salvaging old books. Trash and treasure mix it up, and it takes a trained eye and an alert mind to sort them out. (Well, okay — add to that a passionate heart.) I can’t help but quote the “trademark” or “signature” of the evangelist Matthew — that “scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven [who] is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old” (Mt 13:52).
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Trash and Treasure in an Old Library
The Book Stash Adventures — Part 1
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Yes, this can’t be any truer for me as I carry out a book-related chore. It’s not cleaning up the Augean stables or anything herculean, thank God. It’s actually just a revamping of the old mini-library here where I am, in Don Bosco Batulao.
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Three-in-One: Frigate, Time Machine and Rocket Ship
I recently downloaded an e-book that definitely brought about in me a surge of memories. You know, it was one of those Christmases of my childhood . . . . I must have been Grade Five or Six back then. And since Christmas is equated with gifts, it was the first time for me to receive books — yes, books (in a marked departure from toys, cash, clothes, and candies) — as a gift from my mother.
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Birdshot: Worth the Effort
“Good things come to those who wait,” as the popular saying goes. But I add — better things come to those who go all the way to seek! It’s about the movie Birdshot. While it’s really Respeto I have been wanting to watch all this time (and up to now I haven’t succeeded yet), I couldn’t pass up this rare chance to watch this entry of our country to the forthcoming Oscars, for Best Foreign Language Movie. In any case, the reason why I’m interested in both films is that they both have thematic connections with youth.
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The Price of the Drug War
Part 2
That thought-provoking quote from Arrival leads me to link it with the war against drugs, which the current Philippine administration is waging in our nation. Yes, it’s an all-out, dirty war. There’s a death toll, of course, not to mention the accompanying fear, distress, and suffering. In all these, young people have been among those severely affected — in the price being paid.
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From the Movie Arrival: Wars, Winners and Widows
The Price of the Drug War — Part 1
I had my second viewing of the remarkable 2016 sci-fi movie Arrival. That was recently, when I used it as a “reflection trigger” for a semi-directed retreat I gave for an engaged couple preparing for their wedding day. I noted the nuances of the film with more intensity this time, with its many layers opening up for analysis, reflection, and interpretation.
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Martial Law Heroes and Martyrs
It’s been a year since I wrote a blog entry on Martial Law. Sad to say, but the revisionists are at it again, more than ever. We have to hold fast and keep guard -- more than ever as well. Nevertheless we can’t be happier and more excited at least with the opening of...
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