THROUGH THE YEARS

THROUGH THE YEARS:

PANIS ANGELICUM

I ever tire of listening to FriarAlessandro sing this:

Panis angelicus
fit panis hominum;
Dat panis cœlicus
figuris terminum:
O res mirabilis!
Manducat Dominum
Pauper, servus et humilis.

Te trina Deitas
unaque poscimus:
Sic nos tu visita,
sicut te colimus;
Per tuas semitas
duc nos que tendimus,
Ad lucem quam inhabitas.

Bread of the Angels
Is made bread for mankind;
Gifted bread of Heaven
Of all imaginings the end;
Oh, thing miraculous!
This body of God will nourish
the poor, the servile, and the humble.

Thee Triune God,
We beseech;
Do us Thou visit,
Just as Thee we worship.
By Thy ways,
lead us where we are heading,
to the light Thou dwellest in.

MIRACLES AND SCIENCE

• Apropos some miracles I have experienced and posted in this blog before, here's an addendum: "Naturalistic scientists presuppose that the universe is structured and follows rational physical laws which can be determined by experimentation and observation. The Bible actually teaches this concept. But why is there constancy in the universe and why does it follow rational laws? Because there is a Creator, because God is logical and has imposed order on the universe. The universe obeys laws because God established them. And God has given us the capability for these laws to be discovered by man; God created our mind—we are made in His image. God also wants us to search out knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 1:5, 4:7, 16:16, 23:23, 25:2). Does this of necessity mean that science must exclude the miraculous? Since God is capable of creating the universe and establishing the natural laws which govern it, would He not also be able to supersede those laws occasionally when He chooses? It is illogical to think that God could create the universe out of nothing but then would be powerless over it."

TO BE HUMAN

     Reposting this old poem of mine in the wake of the Sri Lanka suicide bombing that killed hundreds of Christians         


TO BE HUMAN

  

The thing hoods his head and shrouds his face

Scared to let others know the real him.

Would he let us see the contour of his soul?

Beloved earthling, why do you hide behind 

a black shade? Is your face so accursed 

it glowers beyond my nightmare?  

 What kind of god tells you to behead  

One who touched not a single strand 

Of your hair?

What power sets your mind to mangle

a world so lovingly shaped by the one

true God, then rend yourself to pieces?

What vileness breaks your fragile brain

And turns your humanness into a chimera?

Oh, that you would wake up ,

Would that you look to the sun and lift the veil,

Shake off the shackles and behold

The heroic wresting lives from dragon.

Breathe in the fresh scent of flowers,

Cradle a  baby, nurse a wounded soldier.

See, the sky bends to kiss the sea.

Sun gleams resplendent if you let it in.

See the you that is human and beautiful

With all the fullness of your splendor.

                            - Blanca Datuin, (c) 2008

Obituary n Loneliness

OBITUARY

Poring over death notices is addictive.

Do I know any on this earth, heard of

those morphed into dust to fly with

the swaying clouds on a last voyage?

How had they lived, what cut that final

breath mourned by wrenched hearts?

The poet that surpassed ultimate in arts 

to live on through eternity in fame, 

giants, players of field, rising to mount peaks

victors climbing the height of glory,

building towers of sky height, beyond Babel.

Jetting to the moon, what else is there to conquer?

Plethora of lives gone fill pages of print.

Countless leaving this world crowned with 

laurels, names hallowed. Such recherché du

temps perdu,leaving memories to live on

behind the thicket of drying leaves as

cowslip bows its head at sunset’s last colors.

When time comes to claim this soul, what then?

Aura popularis,when did a sniff of it come?

Naked I saw the light, crown of glory ne’er

intruded, a speck of luster ne’er passed

through my window. I leave this world still 

naked as yesterday, will slip away sans 

trumpet to beat the dirge, only my dog moaning,

whiff of jasmine in air, languid sky kissing sun, 

my creed and eucharist to whet tongue,

ah, sweet oblation. Feathery light flying.

handmaid I serve, servant I go, to 

meet my master where sun never sets.

                                    -blanca datuin

  © 2014, revised 2018

LONELINESS

What night is free from goblins that yoke 

yesterday’s web, laughter, joys, sorrows 

strung together to face agonies of 

a writhing world? We dance your song

our song, locked together in shadows

that gilded the memory.

The lull lynches when day is over.

The lump leaves not, like a stubborn 

stone to prey upon a surviving soul.

Hark, my angel, where is the comfort 

for this mortal body aching to fly skies

to snow-white swaying clouds that 

carry to bliss that never ends.

Crawl out of this cavern of loneliness,

and end this wait for stalactites to melt,

when cobwebs of memories return

to claw at your heart. Fetters must

be cut loose to see sun kissing the light.

                                    ©2012, revised 2018

THE OTHER HALF OF ME

THE OTHER HALF OF ME

(in memory of Wilfrido D. Nolledo, author of But for the Lovers, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1970)

Beneath this mound of soil

lies the other half of me,

in wait for this self

still walking the ground

trekked together before, but

now dotted with only a pair of footprints.

I lay the roses upon the tombstone

in a ritual of love, and pray:

please God let him who loved

you continue to love you,

and you who loved him in his life

continue to love him evermore.

I sit awhile on the grass

the well of tears  at last

comes unabated, unashamed as,

desolate, I speak to the other half of me,

retrieving images of the past,

the highs and lows of our together life:

the poetry we fed on that filled the soul

as our empty pouches laid concealed in the

richness of our dreams; the hurts we

unknowingly meted out to each other. What are

aches and pains for--that gnaw at layers and layers

of grit--if they cannot unearth the Phoenix in us?

Shared rage against inequity, shared agony

over the cauldrons of war, shared anguish

over injustice, shared dreams and hopes for peace.

Such passion and ecstasy, anger and humor--

all inextricably bound in the mingling

of life’s laughter and tears.

This self must go on through the motions of life

though not quite whole, not quite hale,

for the other half of me is gone.

(How strong she is, people say; if only they knew…)

Tasks must be finished, whatever the heavens drop;

but there is an end to every journey, I, too well know.

Little drops of rain moisten the soil on my other half;

the cold tomb looks up at the endless blue above,

and the earth sucks the tears of the va ulted sky.

I beg the other half of me, be patient, wait for the

Dispenser of Life to fill the tomb’s empty space by your side

and make the we of us complete again.  - Blanca Datuin, 2004

Membership in the Purisima Fellowship

Membership in the PURISIMA FELLOWSHIP

Welcome to this Fellowship. Membership in this Fellowship entitles you the benefits of enjoying a sense of belonging where you can express yourself freely with the knowledge that confidentiality is respected, and that you are valued as a person who matters a lot to your family, to your community, to this world. You are facing forces, a lot of which are trying to pull you down: hip hop culture, video games, television, wrong conceptions of beauty and body images, drugs, alcohol, wrong use of cell phones, bad literature, pornography, texting, sexting, etc.

The good news is that you have a right to fight back, to mature and learn to evolve into the person God wants you to be. In this Fellowship, you will do just that. So, come to this Feast regularly. Remember the schedule: every second Friday of each month. (Calendar it.) This schedule may change sometimes depending upon the availability of room, but God provides. He will let you continue the learning process. Just be sure to answer His call.

OBJECTIVES: 1. to develop the members’ sense of identity, the better to get to know themselves through a process of self-discovery and interpersonal relationships;

2. to increase the participants’ spirituality---knowing God, loving, and serving Him---and grow in virtue and holiness with style, joy and grace;

3. to develop skills in combatting today’s sexual revolution; and

4. to increase faith in God and in themselves to gain strength in staying chaste until getting married within the sacrament of matrimony. Or, if a religious vocation is discerned, a choice of staying celibate is made.

5. beyond the six-month sessions, to be trained to become instruments in spreading to others their learned skills, thus, becoming mentors themselves.

This six-month training culminates with a chastity ring ceremony with a mass to be solemnized in church. 

Below is your personal contract that you need to sign as

reminder to yourself of your commitment. 

A duplicate will be kept on file in the

 archive of Purisima.  (Illustration shown in hard copy)