Minggoy: From harsh to gentle transformation

Minggoy (Photo by fjacinto)

My nephew owned a black tomcat that he named "Minggoy" [pronounced Ming-goi], the most unfriendly black cat I ever met.

I often had scratches, cuts and wounds from being willfully attacked by its fangs and wolverine paws but I could hardly resist the temptation to caress the pet.

But something happened so that it changed behavior 360-degrees and I was treated like a bro.

Once I was home, it sprang up to run towards me and caress its head on my ankle.

One time, two of its front paws even stepped on a platform to be able to bump its head gently on my forehead as I bowed to untie my shoelaces.

The feline harsh-to-gentle transformation came after I saved it from strangulation.

It had a collar strapped on its neck that was entangled on to a window grill so that Minggoy was dangling, meowing and struggling for life.

Nobody in the family tried to help it out, lest it bit them.

Out of compassion but amid fear of being bitten, I rushed to rescue it by cutting the collar off.

Minggoy was so grateful after that; and I cannot fathom the thought that a savage cat was capable of returning goodness to whoever did it good.

Note: This was written years ago and Minggoy that died in its old age is one of the few memorable cats that I had ever encountered. -Author

Taking everything as a sign from God

Cat sisters, Greco and Gege. (Photo by FJ)

As I take shelter in the residence of a sibling who has a family of her own, I take everything that happens inside the house as a sign from God. When they hide the remote control so I'd be unable to operate the Smart-TV, I take it as a Divine will for me not to spend time watching YouTube and Netflix so I can have time for prayer, writing and siesta. The other day, I was able to pray, update a blog and have an afternoon nap because the remote control was nowhere to be found. "Losing" the remote control was a usual phenomenon before and I came to realize sis' partner had the penchant of hiding it but now it appears my sibling has joined in the hiding game. I'll do the best I can to not to touch and operate the device from now on, lest the Smart-TV, who knows, might break down in the coming days and God is just trying to get me out from the trouble of being blamed for the malfunction. I need divine strength to keep my promise as admittedly I'm a couch potato after all the chores are done. There were also times when they went out to eat in restaurants and not brought me anything so I took it as God never wanted me to eat those foods. So I was fine being uninvited and no food being brought home because of the realization it was not the will of God for me to eat those foods. One time, I understood my sibling and family for not inviting me to lunch out owing to that stream of, shall I say, divine thought or realization. What happened instead, they changed mind and told me to go with them so God wanted me to have those foods instead. I went with them. Those are now my attitude towards everything to keep me from pampering resentments in my heart. What about my family who devised the plan of ignoring me in their lives? Naturally, if we are aware of our actions against someone, surely there would be bad repercussions to our misdeeds. When menace takes place to my family, I would be affected still, being an immediate family. I hope and pray, my family would be responsible for their actions, especially towards their own kin so that nothing negative would boomerang and affect their lives. Anyhow, as trying to be a well-meaning Christian, I should never reciprocate the ill-mannered actions done towards me with retaliation but with love and extra understanding, particularly to a sibling who was attempted beforehand of being aborted when she was still a fetus inside mother's womb. I read a psychology stuff, saying that those who were planned or attempted of being aborted but had a strong hold on life will grow up to be a problem child or individual. True enough as she displays toxic qualities and bad habits past and present! That's why, I keep understanding this particular sibling of mine because of her past that was none of her doing and she doesn't know about. I am 15 years older than her and our parents already talked about the abortion attempt even she was still too young to understand the conversation. Time might come when I would not be able to take her attitudes anymore. Probably, I'd take it as God's way of telling me it's time to go homeless again.

The Eagle Eye: Captioned photographs

A plant breaks through concrete! Why so when a plant is soft and concrete is hard? Ah, one thing we, humans, take for granted — a plant is a Divine creation. So is the rest of its clan, Nature! Thus, man cannot outdo the Divine: either human works must blend with Nature or humans must leave it untouched. (Photo by FJ)

Out of place? Two buildings are closing in on a tree. Is progress shooing away nature from the city? (Photo by FJ)

Rise above mediocrity. See things from a higher point of view or from within you. Be different yet simple -- as a green, wide-winged butterfly in the photograph that rises above past self, the forever-crawling-caterpillar notion of life. (Photo by FJ)

The rainbow-winged

Photo by FJ

"What you are is God's gift to you..."

Before one enters a portal new to him, he finds himself at a loss, afraid, and apprehensive as to what is in store for him beyond that door. 

One thing is certain, however. By the time he decides to tread the path leading to that portal, what he has just made is the greatest decision he ever thought of -- the acceptance of self... the first step in achieving great goals.

Sure enough, if he did not take that first step, accepting himself as he really is, he would be an ugly green caterpillar, crawling on the branches of endless uncertainties.

But the caterpillar soon learns the golden message that the stepping stone to achieve great things lies in the threshold of accepting its real self.

That threshold alone spells nothing but courage.

And that same courage is put to real test -- the caterpillar has to lock itself behind the bars of cocoon for a long time... a dark, warm, painful, lonely battle to reach the unreachable.

We, humans, share the same experience... the same struggle. Now, they are brave people in our midst who accept themselves as they are.

And are determined enough to move on from there.

For a long while, the cocooned caterpillar has to end what it has started. And taste the ripe fruits of its toils.

Yes, if there is a beginning, there is an end. But for those who understand its real meaning, the struggle has not died yet.

It only opens a new chapter in life.

As it came out slowly from the cocoon's door, the different creature was greeted with the stillness of the darkness -- the same darkness when it entered that same world.

But the caterpillar -- now, a rainbow-winged butterfly! -- knows, for sure, that the night is different from the night it was once before.

A new horizon is taking shape in the distance.

One wondered, before, what lies beyond that horizon. But the butterfly is certain that ahead of those far-fetched mountains is a new day that is about to unfold before the eyes of the world.

There is a new hope, new life that promises a new beginning.

Now, the butterfly has to flap its wings and see and do new role, new responsibilities that await him.

For us, humans, whose struggle in life is patterned after the cocooned caterpillar's, what we have achieved of late is only a beginning of another higher level of achievement.

Ours is a lifetime quest.

As the sunflowers await the butterflies, the world awaits these promising men and women.

This is where the truth from the saying comes back to heart.

"...what you become is your gift to God!"

Note: I wrote the first half of this piece as prologue and the second half as epilogue for our batch '90 yearbook back in college. -Author

The Talisay tree of the Crucified Christ

Photo by fjacinto

"Talisay" (tuh-lee-sigh) is a tree common in the Philippines but the one in the photo is unique in that it is doubly-trunked and the upper part of the right trunk looks like a Crucified Christ. Amazing too because it grows and stands inside the compound of a particular Catholic church in southern Philippines. I first noticed the Crucified Christ resemblance when I was inside the church one afternoon and saw it from the viewpoint of the grille window of the church. Personally, I feel like the image is telling us the beauty and the value of suffering. Suffering is part and parcel of our day-to-day living whether we like it or not. The rich and the poor suffer. The beautiful and the not-so-beautiful. The learned and the unlearned. The fit and the fat. The abled and the disabled. The self-righteous and the righteous. All! We suffer simply because we fail to see and accept suffering as something beautiful and valuable to our growth as a human being. We can learn a lot from the caterpillar that has to wrap itself inside the cocoon, it endures and accepts much sufferings of loneliness, darkness and spiritual desert to achieve a higher level of existence. By its sufferings are birthed in its soul new gifts -- the gift of wings, the gift of colors, and the gift of flight! So it is in the life of a human being.

Photo by Justin Lauria

The white bridge and the new white city

Photo by Public Domain Pictures

I found myself, all of a sudden, surrounded by waters in mid-ocean so inky-dark, terrifying, and ominous that I could feel the depth beneath my feet roaring and satiating to gobble me up.

I was floating on a sea surface of the deepest trench of danger and death.

The land was nowhere in sight, not even an isle.

At the instant, a lone, dilapidated wooden launch appeared.

I climbed in to it and another launch appeared tied to the front of the first launch.

Another launch did appear, this time tied to the second launch and another launch to the third and another that they looked like a train on the sea.

I transferred from one launch to another to evade the Ire of the Ocean.

I had no way of knowing how many launches I passed through. 

It was like the Divine assisted me in fleeing from the enormous fury and the devilish wrath of the waters.

Gripped by passing through one launch to another, I realized I was nearing a mainland, about to enter the Gulf.

The towering arch of the white bridge connecting from one end to the other end of the Gulf was none of its kind ever built in the world.

The Divine Architect and Engineer must have designed and constructed the ivory arch-bridge of human impossibility. 

Caught up in a blink of an eye, I found myself on the roadside of the white bridge where the soil of the mainland was a few inches within reach.

The scenes in the dream were flashing swift, rapid, and hurried.

Once on the bridge, serenity, stillness, and safety permeated in the air.

On the bridge, a few strides away from the soil, I saw a table already prepared and the top covered with white linen.

A motherly figure, oh 'twas my mother, that sat opposite mine in the table was smiling at me.

Was the figure a soul since mother has been years away deceased? But why was the figure about to sip bubbling white wine from the crystal goblet with me?

And, behind mother, a hundred meters or less away from the bridge, I had a part view of a conglomeration of white buildings already divinely constructed and placed on the Earth soil -- the New White City.

Photo by Getty Images

The spiritual and environmental solutions to worsening climate crisis

The climate crisis our planet is suffering from is not due to physical causes alone but mostly of divine origins.

Reforestation and investment in renewable energy can hardly put a stop to the crisis when next to it the spiritual issue is not addressed upon -- the commitment to stop committing the Eucharistic sacrilege.

Even if the earth is replenished with forests and utilizes mostly nonfossilized resources of energy unless mankind stop committing at least the transgression of the first commandment such as eradication of the sacredness of the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament itself as a whole from the Roman Catholic Church, the earthly abode would still suffer the consequences of such transgression greater than the ill effects of deforestation and the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The activity of the sun alone is most fierce and intense bombarding geomagnetic storm on planet Earth. The sun is emitting its strongest deep-yellow light and rays as in the stove burner fire when the LPG is about to run out of gas. In my Science subject in the primary, I remember my teacher lecturing, our sun is a type of star and it's an old, dying star based on its deep-yellow or almost orange light rays emissions. But, she assured the class, it will take many years before the sun expires and is not in our generation. In the Book of Truth prophecy, however, it says that the sun will die in our own generation. It will stop giving out light and there will be the oft-repeated prophecy of "three days of darkness." After which will shine the light coming from Heaven.

The Earth is the center of Creation and if and when it becomes "uninhabitable," nowhere in the Universe is ever habitable for the physical man.

In a recent study, levels of "brain damage" are detected among astronauts because of weightlessness and absence of gravity in outer space. Man already has a physical issue in flight alone. How much more will the human physical conditions be once man sets foot in the so-called Planet B or Earth 2 space projects of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk? These billionaires do not consider the sun's imminent expiration. Where would they get solar in those planets? Those are lofty yet stupid projects.

Interest in space travels, incidentally, will lead one to interest in so-called extraterrestrials and their advanced technology in spacecrafts -- the "false miracles of the modern times." Extraterrestrials are non-existent. What we see on videos circulating in social media are not E.T.s but fallen angels, also known as demons, under the guise of E.T.s to make us humans think we are being deceived by the Creator for creating intelligent creatures other than human beings, thus, making us believe Earth is not the center of the Universe after all. Only the affluent could afford space travels to get to Planet B or Earth 2 so those who could not afford would opt for offer from fake E.T.s to take a ride on their spacecrafts making you believe your travels with them are Planet B- or Earth 2-bound -- but, nonetheless, to Hell!

(Note: Remember this when the time comes! Do not get fascinated by spacecrafts and hang out with demons that man those spacecrafts.)

Going back to space projects, all are experimental -- trial and error -- but the final say is the wisdom of the Creator.

The physical Earth is the natural habitat of the physical man.

If the physical Earth is deemed on the verge of being "uninhabitable," stop the habit of committing crimes, physical and spiritual; and draw yourself to the "secret dwelling place of the Most High," the Supreme Being, the Creator of mankind and the Universe.

There are parts of the Earth that will constitute the New Earth. Those are places where the Creator will hide and protect His faithful from the Great Tribulation aside from the Spiritual White Bridge I saw in the dream commonly called "The Rapture" in Christendom while awaiting the merger of the New Heaven and the New Earth -- our new home.

Appease the Divine Wrath by preparing spiritually alongside implementation of environmental protection groundwork to help address the Old Earth's worsening climate crisis.

Love is the essence of Christianity

Photo by Mayur Gala

Love is the essence of Christianity. God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die for and redeem the whole of mankind from the clutches of sins and Satan. Having obeyed till death, the oblation of the Son should be remembered so that the Holy Eucharist where the Son's Sacrifice is recalled and relived was instituted. The Holy Spirit assists in the Transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ during Consecration and the redeemed receive the actual Christ through Holy Communion to give us strength to live holily throughout this earth-life and on to the life beyond with the Blessed Trinity. Hence, the Love of God is defined through this very act of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Should we mention love everytime we talk or write about the things of God and holiness? If and when we fail to mention love, does it follow divine preachings or writings are devoid of this love as the ultimate goal of every Christian? If and when a husband keeps telling his wife he loves her many times in a day, does it follow he really loves her in the truest sense of the word? The wife must be wary and nervous of the husband's possible infidelity by hiding or covering it up through constant saying "I love you!" Love is expressed more in actions than in speech in order for it to be real. Too much PDAs, however, are expressions to show off to people rather than to the wife or husband. The Holy Eucharist is the ultimate expression of the Divine Love towards humanity. When one receives the Eucharist into his being and the realization he is loved divinely from his core, he is overwhelmed at this love divine and is lost for words to express it but in trembling, panting and sobbing. And yet, the congregation is scandalized by man's non-word expressions of love to the Holy Eucharist so that the clerics preach against man's love manifestations and the congregation picks up the sermon as a go-signal to persecute the man. Where is love there? One more thing, when prayers and sacrifices are being mentioned as the be-all and end-all to all spiritual concerns, it is first born out of love in action and the ultimate prayers and sacrifices boil down to the Holy Eucharist, the source and strength of other prayers and sacrifices. The Holy Eucharist is the way of perfection of man. But why are there mass-goers (Traditional Latin Mass-goers, at that!) who cannot control their "demons"? Because there is no intentional decision and will to level up spiritually for the love of God. The Holy Scriptures are not empty words but a record of love in action so thus Holy Traditions, love in action passed on down from generations to generations via word of mouth. If and when the absence of love being mentioned in the literary and oratorical expressions of the divine were due and lead to self-love, I beg to disagree. Love as the essence of Christianity is a given and an experience before it was ever written or spoken.

The birthplace of this blog and Facebook page of the same title

The idea to put up a blog and social media page on life's journey with nature of the same title was conceived and coined in 2020 right inside an oasis.

Nature is being natural. No impurities. Candid. Being true to people, to yourself -- and most importantly, to God. Life is an open book but not all about you, you will reveal in one forum. Perhaps, in other platforms if not here.

My family is not well-off. We grew up trying to make both ends meet on a daily basis. I, for one, peddled food wares for the family when I was in my elementary days. My father was a married man when he met my mother. So we the children were born out of wedlock.

I won't dwell on details since my purpose in this post is to establish how I came to the place I call "the oasis.'

After graduation in college with the lowest degree in a university, I worked as a news reporter in a print media. The job of beating deadlines, making interviews and writing the actual news and feature was too much for me to bear to say the least since, I learned later on, I have been dealing with anxiety and depression. Thus, I have stopped this job that so much drained me mentally and emotionally.

I had done business instead. My food business was OK until the place I rented on was demolished so that I transferred to my siblings' residences one after the other -- until I had no one to turn to anymore. I had become homeless starting in 2013. Within a year, three months of homelessness. Almost every year since, I would stay homeless for months. The last year I was homeless was in 2020 when I stayed homeless the longest -- six months.

During those six months when the pandemic was at its peak, I had lived in the forest, the one I call "the oasis" where the notion for this Facebook page and a blog of the same title was birthed.

The oasis where the blog and the Facebook page of the same title "The -Ion Oasis" was conceived. (Photo by FJ)

Going home from homelessness

On my Facebook personal account earlier yesterday, I have re-shared the message-post by Spiritual Inspiration (see photo below).

And now I've been back home since last night after almost six months of homelessness, let me tell you finally!

I left home last January 27 due to "misunderstandings" between me and siblings and leaving home was the only solution I could think of and it turned out to be the Will of God.

It had been a real challenge being homeless and I had offered the sufferings for the salvation of the lost souls and that of my family.

I wanted to go on with this life as I have been an admirer to the mendicant life of Saint Francis of Assisi.

But, two nights ago, my brother found me sleeping in a particular sidewalk.

He said, he just followed the "leading of the wind" to find me.

It's actually the Spirit of God leading him to my place!

It's like God saying enough of your sufferings, your sufferings have served its purpose, many souls are saved.

Servants of God are automatically victim souls.

We need not complain of the slightest pain but embrace the opportunity to suffer with love -- for God and our fellowmen.

Waiting is life, life is waiting

I am lost for words. I don't know what to say. All I know, if you'll allow me to open my heart to you, I am suppressing the tears from coming out from my eyes but I can't control the mucus from going up and down my nostrils due to mixed feelings I am having right now. I am overcome with acute nostalgia associated with the poem, the hope it promises and the pain I have gone through in life seems to resurface and I am asking my own self, "Why is this being shared to me now when my memory had already been oblivious of its existence?" When I wrote something before, I had had no confidence in anything I wrote. But when I read this poem, it seems I am reading the works of another person. I can feel his hope despite the pain he was feeling. Optimism behind pain of waiting. Yet waiting is pain all throughout. I had forgotten I ever wrote this poem. Luckily, I gave the poem to a particular friend who has kept it religiously "as a token of our friendship." Only awhile ago, he messaged and sent me an e-copy of the card I gave him. Why is God reminding me of my struggle and hope through this poem? Is it now the appointed time of the Lord in my life? I am still waiting, Lord. Please give me more strength to wait on still. I trust in Your faithfulness.

The parallelism of high tides and low tides to life

Photo by FJ

High tide and low tide are natural phenomena characteristic of the movement of the sea and is parallel to the status of human existence. "Mahubsan man gani ang dagat, ang dato pa kaha!" (If the sea had such lowest point as low tide, how much more are the rich!) Without a second thought, a neighbor carpenter blurted the maxim out to the rich pediatric Chinese-Filipino physician who asked on how the second family of his father-in-law fares in life economically as they happened to be the carpenter's neighbors living and renting on a house. The affluent M.D., who lives with his wife and daughters in an spacious house surrounded by still large lawn in a posh village over and above being a stockholder of a thriving agribusiness, could not refute the lowly man's straightforwardness but chuckled and said, "Sakto jud ka, "Noy!" (You said it right, Sir!) I know both of them and my neighbor shared this story with me from the conversation they both once had. "Ang tinood nga dato dili nagapaila nga sila dato!" (The real wealthy people camouflage the fact they are wealthy!) is another maxim expressing reality. Why not? Trumpeting and showing off your wealth is an invitation for burglars to eye you and family as prospects for kidnap for ransom and robberies. In the high tide of life, it is wisdom to keep a low profile and save money so that in the imminent low tide of life, we have savings to spend with. Remember Joseph The Dreamer's interpretation of the Pharaoh's dream of "seven years of plenty and seven years of famine"? Egypt was spared from hunger and famine by application of this God-given wisdom in the instrumentality of Joseph, the Hebrew slave-turned government official whose rank was second only to the Pharaoh. "Seven years of plenty and seven years of famine" is same expression as "high tide and low tide," contradictory yet inseparable realities in human lives, thus are inclusive to the rule or law of opposites. Similarly, investing in gold jewelries is wise investment concept to engage in as gold increases value over time; wearing the jewelries, however, is both naivety and pedestal-placing on one's part but the esteem one gains is pretension. More often than not, the "esteem" most give is drawn out of the bucket of self-interest: either in exchange for job, business, or debt opportunities. In the low tide of life, people laugh at you when jewelries are no longer dangling around your neck and banding around your wrists, fingers, ankles and what-have-you (piercings, perhaps). Once this scenario takes place, the general impression is: you have just placed your jewelries for safekeeping and ventilation of air-conditioned pawnshops and protection of security guards! Just live a static, economical life and be safe from the evil eye and scrutiny of the surroundings. Even so, the lure of keeping (and wearing) gold jewelries did not spare women pastors of a particular Christian denomination church, thus tempted a church worker-relative looting almost the whole bunch along with several 100 USD bills! Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 lists 14 passage "opposites" of life that express general truth and in verse 5 is written thus, "A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them" -- but let not the opportune time of "scattering" be by means of falling victims to thievery. In like manner, the law of opposites is expressed in the song "Gulong Ng Palad" (Wheel Of Fate), a Filipino immortal classic, in the polarity of "ups and downs" and "nights and days." Almost three decades ago, Charlene Gonzales, the Philippine representative to the home-court 1994 Miss Universe pageant that eventually wrapped her up the third spot, was known for her "high tide or low tide" remark in the pageant's interview portion. Asked how many islands make the Philippines, she asked back, "High tide or low tide?" which gathered applause and laughter among the crowds. The host guffawed and replied: "Give me both!" Gonzales, now married to actor Aga Muhlach, responded: "Well, in high tide, we have 7,107 (islands) and in low tide, we have 7,108 (islands)." The difference is only one island! Was she referring to the "Vanishing Island" off the coast of Island Garden City of Samal in Mindanao? The United Nations convention on the law of the sea defines an island as "a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide." According to an Inquirer columnist, the one-time P.I. figure was due to lack of "expert knowledge" to determine the actual numbers of and which qualify as official islands that make the Philippines as the experts have discovered to date -- viz. 7,641 total Philippine Islands, a difference of 534 islands from the former branding of 7,107 islands that the Philippines and the world grew up with and formerly knew for a long time. Allegorically, high tide hides diverse islands and islets of material jewels and treasures of the Philippines and low tide reveals its hidden, non-material treasures. Is it no wonder RP had braved the colonization of Spain, Japan and America through years of its history? And now PRC is inching its way via the contested West Philippine Sea, slowly giving credence to the veracity of the 1948 Lipa, Batangas Marian prophecy: "China's dream of invading the Philippines and the whole world." Nevertheless, the Francis papacy-led Vatican quashed the apparition's supernatural origin in 2016. Regardless, Filipinos can learn from the wisdom of round-the-clock shifting of the sea surrounding our archipelagic state: the law of the opposites or the parallelism of the high tides and low tides to life.

Photo by fjacinto

Endless debate: Christianity on the losing end?

Photo by FJ

The essence of Christianity is on the brink of collapse unless denominations, sects or groups belonging to Christianity stop debunking the doctrines of one another. Christianity, the world's largest religion consisting of the Roman Catholic Church and over 30,000 (and counting) denominations and sects, is at war within its own circle. Christians belonging to different denominations have the penchant for debating each other on their doctrinal uniqueness so that they end up arguing, quarreling and fighting -- or, to use the atheistic perspective, the main cause for the existence of war in the world in which rationale is yet to be proven. Imagine the more than 30,000 Christian denominations espousing more than 30,000 separate doctrines! Christianity alone is not at peace, often engaging in word war of noxious debate with one another, losing the essence of Christianity. Unsurprisingly, Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian patriot and hero, once quipped: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." The Gandhi observation is an old cliche yet holds true even to this day. This is the blind spot of Christianity that only a non-Christian can see. One Christian is hardcore on the doctrines he believes in; and the other Christian likewise holds the same fervor on the doctrines the church he belongs to holds onto. Both have opposing doctrines born out of biblical interpretations of the founding denominational pioneers. We cannot reach concessions halfway and common grounds concentrating on debating each other. For instance, the two doctrines of "non-worship of idols" and Roman Catholic Church incorporating "visual aids" of images and icons in prayers are so irreconcilable that, if we try to force the north and south poles patched up together, would instead create an even bigger hole: limitless debate, rift and heated disagreement. Why are Christians so inclined to indoctrinate each other when atheism is gaining followers worldwide? Why has the no-God belief become popular in the contemporary world? Is it because the times we are currently in belong to the so-called "Aquarian Age"? Or, is it because of discouragement over Christians warring each other within the four corners of religion? Respect for doctrines incomparable to ours by not imposing our own doctrines -- and vice versa -- will set aside our differences (unless one or the other asks for enlightenment as to submit oneself for indoctrination). Furthermore, when dealing with atheists, deal with atheists with love. Persons tend to lose faith in God when, for one, disastrous circumstances strike their existence: for instance, tragic loss of a loved one and anxiety and depression for once Catholics now turned non-believers of God. The critical thinking is: if there is God, why such misfortunes are allowed to happen? So much so that atheists must be dealt with love since scores of them had lived through traumatic experiences in the past. Doctrines ought to lead Christians to love, the essence of Christianity; but Christians make an idol out of doctrines so that the essence of Christianity is on the verge of losing.

Unfriending: first-aid remedy for cyberbullying

Photo by FJ

Most view unfriending on facebook as an uncharitable, unchristian act of conduct. Nothing is amiss about clicking the "unfriend" button on social media inasmuch as you are doing so for those obsessed in hate posts and comments and cyberharassment. Unfriending is a healthy and wise move to maintain peace within yourself and your community online. Pharisaical view sees only idealistic rather than realistic approach to resolving human relations issues. Ideal is to befriend all people, but reality says, not all people like you. Evidence is in their, for example, unreasonable, destructive criticisms about your person, ideas, religious and political views -- and, worst, they post such criticisms to your own walls. The perpetrators try to undo you and do you unjust vexation that is overwhelming to the interior, stealing your peace and confidence. We are not shock absorbers of their unvented ire, much less doormats which they must wipe their grease-smeared shoes off on. It is imperative to do the sifting, separating the chaff from the grains, or cutting loose the toxic ones from your timelines and have an atmosphere of being at ease, at peace, and at home once again with your own computer, laptop, or mobile phone, screens. Or else, it would be a busy traffic for us online for self-defense and cyber-retaliation instead of using the gadgets for goodness' sake. Unfollowing, unfriending or, worse than other options, blocking is foremost first-aid remedy for cyberbullying, mutual reprisals and fake friendships.