Tag: November 14, 2006

UMAALI-ALIGID sa aking tabi
Ang isang paruparong itim.
Paikot-ikot itong lumipad sa may sala,
Samantalang subsob ako sa pagbabasa ng libro.
Pumapagaspas sa aking gunita
Ang alaala ng kaibigang nagapi
Sa isang pagtutuos sa kanser,
Dalawang taon na rin ang lumipas.
Tumitindig ang aking mga balahibo
Habang dumapo sa aking malay
Ang pakay nito :
Hinihiling ko sa iyo, aking matalik na kaibigan
Na hindi mo sana ako makalimutan,

IT TOOK UST doctors and singers a gallery of photographs and a repertoire of songs to reveal the extraordinariness of life.

The uniqueness of human life was gleamed in the exhibit, Ordinary Photographs, and the concert by the UST Singers titled Journey on…Celebrate Life, both held at the Philippine Heart Center’s Medical Arts Building Lobby last Sept. 29. The two fundraising events were organized by the Human Life International Asia (HLI-Asia) which sponsored the 13th Asia Pacific Congress on Love, Life, and Family in Cebu City.

HOW DO Painting students of the College of Fine Arts and Design (CFAD) of the Catholic University of the Philippines interpret Eastern Orthodox sacred art? Interestingly, it seems.

More than 40 images of the evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and other religious figures and episodes were highlighted in Icons, A Sacred Art, an exhibit by Painting sophomores opened last Oct. 12 at the Beato Angelico Gallery.

CFAD professor Fr. Alex Bautista organized the exhibit as a requirement for his Liturgical Arts class.

PETER Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onégin had not been staged in Phillipine theatres, not until the Conservatory of Music took the challenge last Oct. 5 at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo in the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

IT IS almost five years since my father died. But I can hardly forget that endearing moment when my family, neighbors, and clan reunited over his loss.

Relatives from as far as Bicol and Zamboanga went all the way to Manila to pay their last respects to my father, who died at a young age of 39 due to an enlarged heart and respiratory complications from smoking.

THE EXISTENCE of “ghosts” and “ghouls” remains a mystery to many. Some claim they are creatures of faith and fear. Others say they reveal a reality we resist to see.

Throwing light into the shadows, the Varsitarian hunts for answers from the numerous accounts of these so-called “beings from the grave.” Are they from the unchartered realms of the spirits, or are they creatures of our brains?

Beings of the mind

Some scientists and doctors dismiss reports of ghosts as uncanny and scientifically explainable.

HE WAS a senior Philosophy student in the University back in the 80s when he began dabbling in New Age ideas and occult practices of the so-called Science of the Mind.

At night, the “spirits” started to harass him, choking and pinning him down to the point of pushing him toward death’s door.

“The devil figured out in my nightmares most of the time and the attack proved to be both physically and psychologically distressing that I was even rushed into the ICU,” Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, a demonology expert, told the Varsitarian.

EVERYTHING material has an end. But where does the human soul go after the body decays? Will it ascend immediately to heaven, fall to hell, or reroute to a cleansing place called purgatory?

“TED” AND “Janice” Sorreta were chaste fiancées back in college. For years they were always sweet and faithful to each other, even as they tied the knot. Janice could only be so sure, and Ted so confident, of their loyalty.

But with a successful career, philandering peers, a willing office mate, a lackluster marriage, and a desire for a second child, Ted turned 360 degrees, giving cheating a try.

Should Janice keep the marriage, learning of Ted’s mistress and the affair that bore fruit? Could Ted still leave his partner whom he learned to love?

PHILIPPINE law and jurisprudence are rich with doctrines meant to protect the family as the basic unit of society, but emerging trends on family relations continue to pose challenges to the Philippine legal system.

This was the observation made by Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban in his lecture titled “Safeguarding Life and Family in the Constitution” during the 13th Human Life International (HLI) Asia-Pacific Congress on Faith, Life and Family last Oct. 8 at the Parklane International Hotel in Cebu City.