posted by itakeoffthemask.com

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blog, blogger, blogging, Inspiration, Life, musings, personal, personal sites, quote, reason for blogging, reason for writing, reasons for writing a blog, reflections, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

who uplifts us

and protects us

and provides for everything we need

It is God who loved us first

who showers us with every good thing

we do not even know

All that is required of us

is the faith to believe

that He is there

that He is our Greatest Lover

the source of all that's wonderful

there is in our lives

It is our part to be able to receive

such a love

to rejoice

because we have been called

because we have been found

because we learn

that despite the mundaneness of what we see

we are special

we are cherrised

we are in truth

God's beloved ones.

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: church, comfort, daily life, Inspiring Quotes, miscellaneous, motivation, random thoughts, reading, self help, self improvement, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advice, comfort, daily life, healing, Inspiring Quotes, love, motivation, moving on, psychology, random thoughts, reading, self help, self improvement, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

imperfect though as they are;

sometimes you wish you can improve them,

that in one way or another

you can somehow make them perfect;

but then you realize

that even if these things happen,

they will no longer be the same ones

that you have loved;

you realize that you love them more

just being the way they were,

with all their flaws

and weaknesses;

you realize that you love

even these flaws

 and one way or another,

such things just blend in

and then you know

what true beauty

really means.

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: comfort, daily life, healing, home, Inspiring Quotes, miscellaneous, motivation, random thoughts, self help, self improvement, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Then you take his gentle hand
and you allow His peace to flood over you
like a soft cool breeze that touches your heart

And you cry your pain away
and you cry your anger away
and you rest your worries and your anxieties
and you believe that things will be okey

and things will be okey
because love will shine thru once more
because your desires will be crystal clear
because you know what really matters
and there is nothing you can do
to take you away
from the One that matters the most to you

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advice, bible, catholic, church, comfort, daily life, healing, home, Inspiring Quotes, Jesus, love, miscellaneous, motivation, moving on, pain, personal, Poems, random thoughts, reading, self help, self improvement, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I myself have asked many questions:

What if these Christians retract their faith in the midst of their tortures, would God be saddened by such a decision?  Is God not saddened seeing them suffer that way?

On the other hand, why do Christians persist in defending their faith?  Is this some legalistic concept of salvation?  Is this some heroic act of defending an invincible All-Powerful God?

The understanding of such conditions depends on the premise one takes.  If one takes the purely logical process, one can't help but think there is really no benefit gained by such Christians from their suffering and that the God they worship is either not really present, or not a loving God at all to be able to allow such inhuman treatment to be inflicted upon the ones He professes to love.

It is only by taking the premise of love that one can have some insight within the hearts of these brave men.   If one sees that these people have really loved God with all their heart, as a lover does, one can understand how they have found in Him something more precious than anything else in their lives.  Losing such a thing is synonymous to losing their lives and living a life apart from Him cannot even be imagined as they have become one with Him, being empty without Him, being lost, being dead.

Now as to the reason why God does not intervene in this matter (apart from spiritual Grace), there are such Laws that even God cannot break and will not break, seeing the better good that will arise out of it all.

It might be beneficial to first review what causes suffering in the world:

• sickness of imperfect body
• death of others due to imperfect body
• pain inflicted by sin of others
• pain inflicted by sin of self

In other words, suffering is caused by imperfect body and soul, by SIN that brings about death. 

Now how to remedy it?

• Sickness and death eradicated thru resurrection, by way of being born into the new incorruptible body Paul mentioned in the Bible.
• Emotional pain caused by others relieved thru forgiveness and total surrender to the God.

Now, going back as to why couldn't God intervene more

• As to remedying sin, Love cannot be forced
• As to remedying physical death, it would be a curse to give immortality to those who have not learned of love.

What might happen if He does intervene?

• God stops us from getting sick
• God stops us from dying when attacked by others
• God stops us from sinning
• God stops others from sinning against us

As a result, the world we know today will no longer be the same kind of world.  Freewill shall no longer be.  God would dictate everything and we succumb to the level of a slave or a robot instead of a lover who can freely respond to His love.

This world is not yet perfect.  This isn't heaven yet.  Ours is a world of duality, of both light and darkness, of love and hate, of bliss and suffering, and of the many choices in between.   God can surely pull out the weeds, as the Gospel says, but He will not do so for fear of pulling out even the good wheat, of the many good things this world can accomplish for our eternal soul.  In patience then do we wait and in joy do we live for the moment given us here, growing in virtue and in love, shining forth what little light we can give, until the seasons of the earth are over, and the night shall be no more.

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bible, catholic, church, comfort, daily life, essays, family, filipino, grieving, grieving the loss of a loved one, healing, home, Jesus, loss, loss of loved one, love, me, miscellaneous, motivation, moving on, opinion, pain, personal, psychology, random thoughts, reading, self help, self improvement, sick, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Very few realize what burdens geniuses carry their whole lives - what of Van gogh, of Edgar Allan Poe, of the mathematician John Nash?

Very few realize how hard it might have been to constantly manage and control that great power that they possess, to undertake it all alone, ostracized by the society that fails to understand them intellectually, and to sympathize with them as normal human beings who also need to be understood and to belong.

 People may not realize the efforts that they made in order to reach out.  On the other hand, people may look at them as snobs who can get by on their own and need not anyone else to fellowship with their whole life.  Others may even envy them and shy away from taking their company for fear that they might lose their self esteem in their presence.

Indeed, the greater the power given, the greater also is the cross and the task of harnessing it to the full.  May God help us all attain our full potentials, and may He help us find good friends who can lend us a warm hand along the way.

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advice, art, catholic, church, comfort, daily life, family, filipino, friends, grieving, healing, home, Inspiring Quotes, Jesus, literature, loss, love, me, miscellaneous, motivation, moving on, my life, opinion, pain, personal, pinoy, psychology, random thoughts, reading, self help, self improvement, sick, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Imagine a world

where you can't bring anything

you ever owned

not one valued possession

not a single penny you can toss

Imagine a world

where titles and status mean nothing

where authority belongs not to you

Imagine a world

where no man stands taller than another

and where beauty comes not only from you

Imagine a world where you can't hide anything

nor busy yourself with things that make you forget

just how empty you are within

how angry

how insecure

or how afraid

Imagine such a world

And then try to  imagine once more

Imagine a world where no one starves

nor longs for shelter

where no one gets sick

and no one ever grows old

Imagine no pain

and no death ever

that would make you weep

a world where you need not

depart from home

from the people you love the most

imagine never having to be alone

Imagine a world

where you are accepted and understood

for who you really are

Imagine you are loved

like you have never been loved before

Imagine such a world

and then open up your eyes

What do you see?

What is it that you truly desire to do?

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advice, catholic, church, comfort, daily life, filipino, grieving, grieving the loss of a loved one, healing, home, Inspiring Quotes, loss, loss of loved one, love, miscellaneous, motivation, moving on, opinion, pain, personal, pinoy, Poems, poetry, random thoughts, self help, self improvement, sick, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

What is the meaning of our life

if we are but a mist that quickly goes away

like a rose that blooms but for a day

What does it matter then that we have

ever passed this way?

Whatever happens

to the smiles we have smiled

to the tears we have cried

Whatever happens

to dreams we dreamt and reached

to failures that turned out bitter-sweet

Whatever happens to raindrops that fell

if thou shall not rise again towards heaven

and be made purer than it has ever been

Whatever happens

O whatever happens

if thy fallen soul

shall not be redeemed

Yea by now I can only pray

I can only believe

that everything is not meaningless

that there is reserved a destiny

even for a withered flower

even for mist that quickly goes away

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advice, comfort, daily life, grieving, grieving the loss of a loved one, healing, Inspiring Quotes, loss, loss of loved one, miscellaneous, motivation, moving on, pain, personal, Poems, poetry, random thoughts, reading, self help, self improvement, sick, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I am a tree

sprouting forth and reaching out

for the glorious sunny sky

strengthening my stance

drawing forth life

from the warm womb of the ground

bearing forth what fruit

i may offer to all

giving my shade

to those who may want to rest awhile

Not all men may notice me

when they pass by

not all may taste the fruit

that i have whole-heartedly offered

nor avail of the shade

of my embrace

and yet  i stand

and yet i stand

for a tree remains to be a tree

though no one comes to rest in thee

its arms remain wide open

its fruit renewed always in their season

its gaze always before the sky

smiling

knowing

standing firm

where God has appointed thee

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advice, catholic, church, comfort, daily life, filipino, grieving, grieving the loss of a loved one, healing, home, Inspiring Quotes, Jesus, literature, loss, loss of loved one, love, me, miscellaneous, motivation, moving on, my life, opinion, pain, random thoughts, reading, self help, self improvement, sick, thoughts

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh