Currently, the site has two articles, one of which was taken from The Mystical Geek. As stated in my Welcome message

The present “Collectanea” will be the host to other articles, essays and notes that I have used at different times and for varied groups. They will be posted here as part of an exercise to test them for a wider circle of readers. (see more)

I do have a lot of these articles scattered in notebooks and in different websites. I am putting them together now just in case I do begin to write a book.

The present site runs on Joomla and the Hyperion theme of RocketTheme. It was difficult to decide which among the possible alternatives to pick up. In the end, simplicity and ease in customization became the determinant factors for the choice of the theme. To be honest, I am not familiar with Joomla’s templating system….

Anyhow, the site is finished. The only thing I have to put in now is something that people would want to read.

• Jerry likes Christmas songs (Jingle Bells)
• Jerry would lie for a cigarette (Jerry was told to say “six” though he only saw “five”, and all this for a cigarette. With some hesitation, he did say “six”.)
• Jerry allowed another JOE to “die” so that he could get a candy (a video demonstration in court that was used originally to prove Jerry was a robot and therefore non-human, was used also to demonstrate that Jerry survived a mine detection mission when he pushed another JOE to the direction of a land mine he had already detected so that he can get a candy and a smoke.)

At the end of the episode, a voice over that sounds like Jerry says in effect that a time will come when men will be proved to be men not for the virtues they have but for their vices.
I thought that the episode was comedic, but the final idea that comes across — of one’s humanity proved by one’s vices, not virtues — is sobering. For it does reverse how we currently define “humanity”.
If you would recall the movie “Bicentennial Man” it does precisely the opposite of what the writer of “Jerry was a Man” did. In “Bicentennial Man”, Andrew the Android decides to be a human being by first becoming independent, then by transforming himself so that he could experience the world and others like a human being (this involved getting a central nervous system), and finally, by deciding to die. Throughout all these, he was able to do something beneficial for humanity through the experiments he himself funded, apart from showing how much he loved his adoptive family and remaining loyal and faithful to them. In other words, in “Bicentennial Man” the interest was to show three qualities that makes up a human being:

• freedom
• the capacity to experience pain as well as pleasure
• love, fidelity and compassion
• heroism in the face of death

Both the above presentations show what a human being is, in contrast with something robotic. There is some truth in the presentations of both. While the presentation in the “Bicentennial Man” the presentation of what is a human being is positive, one cannot also discount the definition of a human being in “Jerry was a Man”. So what do you think? How should “humanity” be defined?

I just came back from our group’s yearly retreat. This time it was held in the new Spirituality Center being constructed at ToloTolo, Concepcion, Cebu. The retreat was handled by Fr. Robert Dueweke, OSA of the Chicago Province.

The retreat lasted from September 22-26. During those days we tried to enter into the spirit of the recently held General Chapter of the Order. Fr. Dueweke’s role was to help us appropriate the guidelines made from the decisions of the General Chapter and see ourselves, not only as a Province but as individual friars, within a movement that would affect the Augustinians in the Asia-Pacific Region during these coming years. The general tenor of the retreat was hope-filled and perhaps it would generate more discussions and discernment in our own small communities in the days to come.

The retreat days were characterized by conferences and activities. The activities were actually exercises that kept us focused on the ideas expressed during the conferences. There was even a meditation session in the spirit of John Main and Lawrence Freedman (you know, that “Maranatha-thing” I used to do with the students in Guadalupe). In the evenings, there were rituals that reminded us of our baptism. We ended up each day’s sessions with socials.

The place wasn’t all that bad considering the constructions that are still going on. The one thing that bothers me is that the lodging places was built on a small scale. What would happen I wonder if people used to bigger sized facilities would come and make use of the place? It should have been made on an “international” scale. And then there is also the problem with bad acoustics. I was told that the room where we held our conferences was not really meant for discussions. There was still one larger aula that could have served the purpose, but it wasn’t finished yet. I guess, some things can still be done with the buildings.

More pictures are available at the Gallery of the friars and the Spirituality Center and its environs.

This is how this present Arthemia theme should look like if I had uploaded the images I use for this blog in this same server.  Unfortunately, I use pictures I have uploaded in my PhotoBucket account and so I can’t really make use of the magazine-like layout of the theme to full advantage. 

Your Daily Inspiration (http://biblica.frih.org) is my blog for the daily scripture readings at Mass.  As such, it is like the old Bible Journal website I used to have at Angelfire (http://angelfire.com/me4/abet/bible ).  I started it yesterday and I must remember to associate each blog with a picture that is uploaded into the same server that hosts the weblog.  Current content also includes a video of Scott Hahn and others reviewing a work by a contemporary atheit, a guy named Dawkins.  It is the first part of three videos;  I’ll post the two others afterwards, after I decide how to make a still picture of the video appear as thumbnails.

The only way I can keep Your Daily Inspiration free is by joining the forums at Frihost.  Perhaps I will also use the opportunity to get more visitors through the forums. 

May 7, 2009 a hundred years after the official date of the foundation (of the institute), will see the beginning of the “centennial year”. We will mark the date with a solemn academic act which will have its principal moment in the presentation of the book written by Fr. Maurice Gilbert: “The Pontifical Biblical Institute: A Hundred Years of History (1909-2009)” which will be published in French, Italian and English. In a volume of around 500 pages including archival documents and photos, Fr. Gilbert traces stage by stage the salient moments of the life of the Institute. On the occassion, a special edition of the list of alumni containing all the persons who have become protagonists in the hundred years of the institute’s life — authorities, professors and students — it will be a volume that acts as a complement to the historical compendium of Fr. Gilbert.

…

The apostolic letter of the Institute’s foundation, Vinea Electa, he is dated 7 May 1909, but the academic activities began in the following autumn. For this reason, the inauguration of the academic year 2009-2010 (8 October 2009) will be celebrated in a particularly solemn way.

For the centenary, the publication of a special volume of the Analecta Biblica is also scheduled: “Biblical Exegesis in Progress; Old and New Testament Essays” (edited by Jean-Noel Aletti, SJ and Jean Louis Ska, SJ): a collection of essays from the professors of the Biblical Faculty of the Institute meant to show the evolution of exegesis in the different areas of biblical research. The volume will be presented in the context of a scientific convention lasting a few days, which will be held at the closing of the centennial year, in the first week of May 2010.

During the centenary there will also be a special audience with the Holy Father, but for the moment it is not possible to fix the time nor the date for it, since it does not depend on us.

Apart from the events just mentioned, there will be others associated with the centenary. For example, the Society of Biblical Literature has decided to hold in Rome its international convention for 2009 (probably in the beginning of July) in consideration of the centennial celebrations of the Biblicum…

The only thing that the surfer should remember is to download the registration key for each of the products.  The softwares, you see, were formerly shareware; to get them fully functioning, one will have to register it in one’s system.  All the keys are found in one page: here.

Below are the links to the reviews for each:

AccelClip – Clipboard Extender

Accelman – A Filemanager on Steroids

ActualDoc – The Document Manager for Windows

We are here in Nicosia, Cyprus. the numbers of Filipino we have just here in Nicosia is around 2thousand unfortunately just few (500) of us are in the community, overall Cyprus about 10 thousand. We started 16 years ago, I was assign to do the transparencies for the readings in tagalog for the Filipino community mass, unfortunately I couldn’t make the prayer of the faithful in tagalog over 16 years cause I don’t have idea from where or which book I can take it, it’s just happened somebody told me regarding your web page, so I tried.

Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean that is shaped like a hand with a finger pointing somewhere between Turkey and Syria. It is one of the Bible lands from the New Testament [see this page about Cyprus in the New Testament]. Click on the thumbnail to your left for a bigger picture.

I was glad to know that there are quite a number of Filipinos there who come together to hear the Mass in Tagalog there.  So what I did was to scan a Sambuhay Missalette for the 24^th Sunday into PDF and had it posted on the web for download.  Bernadette got it just a few days ago.  So this Sunday, I’ll be helping 500 Filipino nationals in Nicosia Cyprus hear Mass and pray for the Church in Tagalog.  Now I think that is one other reason why it is worth doing this web ministry.