In a recent phone conversation with my mom, she mentioned my nanny, who lived with our family for almost 60 years before passing away in 2014. I told my mom—she is based in the United States; we speak daily—that we were both lucky to have been cared for by a remarkable woman who loved us...
Category: Lifestyle
Post
In Payatas, the Church helps widows and orphans pick up the pieces
The women are all business inside a tailoring shop a stone’s throw from Ina ng Lupang Pangako church in Payatas, Quezon City. They work on fabrics and sewing machines to produce bags of all shapes and sizes—totes, “ecobags,” shoe bags, envelope bags, lunch bags, laundry bags. For six days of work a week, they take...
Post
Still lovely: Baguio in a day
BAGUIO CITY—From the lowlands we drove to the country’s summer capital and stayed for 10 hours. And we enjoyed every minute of our visit. We (my husband Charles and I) came up with the plan last year, when travel restrictions due to Covid-19 were eased. We carefully chose the date, taking into consideration the factors...
Post
Scientists say the soul doesn’t die and returns to the universe
The existence of the soul, and whether it is immortal or not, has polarized great thinkers from both the philosophic-theological and scientific camps. The “physicalists” (those who hold that everything about us, from consciousness to higher rationality, can be explained by biochemical processes) are quick to say that the phenomenon of consciousness does not emanate...
Post
Amid tensions, Jerusalem celebrates the King of Peace
While the Crucified Christ and the Risen Lord are the most dominant images of Jesus during Holy Week and the Easter Season (which runs until May 28, Pentecost Sunday), another image is that of the King of Peace entering Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt. Christians remember it as the Palm Sunday to start Holy Week. The...
Post
Let us embrace the 4 Ls of life
The Four Ls of life are: to Live, Learn, Love, and Laugh. They embody a good, godly, and happy life. From my own life’s “wandering and wondering,” I’ve reached one profound realization: Rather than loathe the present disappointments or be anxious about the future, it is more meaningful to just experience life, learn and grow...
Post
It’s OK to lament, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me!’
Minutes before he died on the cross, Jesus cried out in a loud voice: “Eli, Eli, la’ma sabach-tha’ni?”—“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me!” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). This lament, considered Jesus’ fourth last word before he died, is one of the Seven Last Words, compiled from the passion and death narratives of...
Post
‘Pasyon’ and ‘Semana Santa’ when I was young
AVERNES, France—When I moved to France in 2005, I didn’t expect anything closely resembling the practices of the Semana Santa of my childhood in the Philippines. But without fail, every year in March or April, as though set off by an internal spiritual clock, I hear familiar strains of pasyon in my head. Once, my...
Post
Holy Week is Prayer Week
‘Tis the season of prayer as we’re into the most hallowed part of the year, the Holy Week. There is no arguing it: We can never underestimate the immense power of prayer. Having spent a considerable number of years in a seminary and almost completing a priestly formation, I can only reminisce, with nostalgic yearning,...
Post
In Iloilo’s museums, you find pioneering photos and rock stars
ILOILO CITY—Surely there’s more to this city than molo, batchoy, biscocho and tablea tsokolate. The city’s gastronomic haunts are well-known and all over. But in between hopping into these pit stops, you can take leisurely strolls along its esplanade, in the old downtown, in plazas outside churches and, yes, in its museums—the better to get...