Pain

it is more painful to let go of the sweet memories than the death of the beloved. Den Mar

One Week On-Line Recollection

Jesus Christ is the Son sent to us by God the Father who is made presence to our midst by God the Holy Spirit. He is the healer of all wounds. He is the Saviour of us all. He is the lover of us all.

Jesus is always calling us. He is always waiting for us.

Let us let Jesus to enter into our lives. 

Let Him bring his overflowing peace into our troubled inner-self.

Let us make Jesus everything in our life.

Invitation:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/10/pagbabalik-loob.html

Sharing:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2013/04/inner-self.html

Reflections:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/when-we-are-alone.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/12/bawat-isang-saglit.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/inibig.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-all.html

Prayer:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/05/panalangin-sa-kawalang-pag-asa.html

God's Response:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-fathers-cradle-song.html

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Before you begin each day, in silence, reflect on these prayers. Just right-click to follow the links to help you reflect further.


Day 1:

Lord Jesus, I heard Your call. I heard Your sincere invitation.

I am here Lord Jesus, I come to You. Journey with me.

Let every step I will take today would be a step going closer to You. I am not yet prepared to come but I know You will lead me and You will give me the grace to follow You.

Empower me, O Lord. Free me the from bondage that hinders me to come closer to You. Draw me near to You. Reach for my hands and embrace me with Your loving arms.

Teach my heart to set aside all my fears and insecurities. Take away from my hands the things that I cannot leave behind. Teach me to ‘let go.’ Teach me to forego all the things I am clinging into.

Fill me with Your love. Let me be with You. Amen.

Invitations:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/naghihintay.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/o-sakramentong-pinakamamahal.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/05/sa-piling-koy-manatili-kang-muli.html

Sharing: 
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/07/pagbabalik-tanaw.html

Reflection:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/handog-buhay.html

Prayer:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/05/make-me-whole-once-more.html

======================================================

Day 2:

Lord Jesus, come to me. Send forth Your Spirit, rekindle me with Your fire.

Lord, I pray that I may become deeply aware of Your divine presence.

When I see everything, I see Your mighty hands who created everything. Your creations, O Lord, reflect Your glory and they draw me back to You.

Lord, I want to thank You for everything. Thank you for granting me another life today, for letting me to see the breaking dawn once again. I can feel You Lord in the fresh air I breathe. I can hear You through the singing of the birds. I can feel you through the gift of friendship that I cherish every day of my life.

Lord, let me be with You. I invite You Lord to come and to enter into my life. I humbly ask You to enter into my heart so that I could be like You… appreciative to all Your creations which is Your gift for us; a loving  brother or sister to those You sent me; and compassionate servant who proclaims Your name.

Lord, let me hear You. Lord teach my heart to be humble. Amen.

Invitation:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/11/pag-susumamo.html

Reflections:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/09/ngayon.html http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/01/pagdurusa.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/pagkasilay.html

====================================================== 

Day 3:

Lord Jesus, I lift to You everything. I lift to You my brokenness… I give to You all the problems that bothers me. I surrender everything to You, O Lord. Bring me to Your Father.

There are so many things that I cannot understand. Most of the time, I found myself in confusion and doubt because of the pains and sufferings that I and my beloved ones are experiencing. There were times that I feel that life seems to be meaningless because of the burdens that I am carrying in my heart.

God, I have no one to turn on to. Hear me, O Lord. Let me cry onto Your shoulders. Let me tell You everything that bothers me…

I beg of you my Lord... be a compassionate God to me-- be a God who listens... be a God who answers to all my prayers.

God, grant me the courage to hold on. Never leave me because I am afraid of losing You. Keep me beside you from now on...always hold my hand and always be my guide. Never lose me again in Your sight. Make me whole again my Lord. Heal my broken soul. Forgive me and renew me. Amen.

Reflections:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-surrender.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/05/pagisisi.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/09/repleksiyon.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/08/panalangin-para-kasiyahan-ng-puso.html

Challenge:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/05/ngayong-araw.html

======================================================

Day 4:

Reveal Yourself once more to me, O Lord. Let me understand You according to Your will, O Lord. Grant me Your Spirit to encounter You again. Teach me to listen so that I could understand You. Let my enlightened heart, this time, recognize You as who You really are. Seat beside me. Be with me. Call me as Your own. Talk to me gently . Have patience with me. Bear with me. Be with me. Embrace me my Lord and my God. Amen.

Invitation:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/dahil-mahal-kita-bilang-ikaw.html

Sharing:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/08/wounded-healer.html

Reflections:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/sa-maraming-pagkakataon-ang-nais-natin.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/memories-of-my-stubborness.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/sulyap.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/04/pagmamahal.html

Challenges:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/kenosis.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/09/paglisan_11.html

======================================================

Day 5:    

           

Lord Jesus, You are God, the Son who is sent by God the Father and who is made present in our midst by the God, the Holy Spirit-- teach me to love all you have loved.

Make me a loving person like You. Teach my heart to forgive and to offer sacrifices. Teach my heart to appreciate others. Make me love them like You. 

Teach me to love Your mother, the Virgin Mary who has been our model of discipleship. Her gift of self has inspired me to surrender myself. Like Your mother, Mary, I offer to You everything. Like Mary, I surrender to You my life. Like Mary, your mother, let me also say, “Let Your will be done unto me.”  Amen.

Invitation:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/01/pagpapatawad.html

Sharing:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-grace-of-appreciation.html

On Virgin Mary: 
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/06/mahal-na-ina.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/08/awit-kay-maria.html

Reflections:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/cradle-of-love.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/12/kamatayan.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/pagtanggap.html

Prayer:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/panalangin-sa-pagpapatawad.html

======================================================

Day 6:

Lord, thank You for everything.

Thank You for the all the talents You have given me.

I realized that no matter what had happened in my life, You never leave me... you never forsaken me.

I thank You for every answered prayers. I thank you for being faithful to me as I face all the trials in life.

Walk with me, O Lord. Teach my heart to fully trust in You.  Amen.

Invitation:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/05/ikaw-ang-nais-ko.html

Reflections:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/paano-kung-mamamatay-ka-na.html

Prayer:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/09/panalangin.html

Challenge:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/12/kaligayahan-ng-pagbibigay.html

======================================================

Day 7:

As I close my encounter with You, dear Lord Jesus, make me Your humble servant. Send me to where You want me to go so that I could share You to others. Use my weak hands to touch them. Use my fragile arms to embrace them so that I could share to them Your love which You have given me.

Lord Jesus, be with me to where ever I go. Let Your words be heard through me. Let Your love be felt through me. May Your ‘will’ be done unto me. May Your love always inspire me.

Make me Your humble servant. Change me and mold me like You. 

Guide my every step. 

Be my light. 

Never leave me alone.

Use my life and my all.  Amen.

Invitation:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/kapag-ikaw-ay-natambad-sa-dakilang.html

Sharing:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/08/ano-nga-ba-ang-kahulugan-ng-service.html

Reflections:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/pagkatuto.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/karukhaan.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/handog-buhay.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/05/bokasyon.html

Prayers:

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/05/take-me-lord-as-your-servant.html
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-soul-gives-you-back-my-praise-and.html

Challenges:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2012/02/pagbibigay.html

http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2011/10/pagtalima.html

===

for prayer requests and for counseling, send your request to: denmar1978@yahoo.com; or message me through Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denmar1978?ref=tn_tnmn.

Always pray for all Seminarians, all Religious, all Priests and all Christian Missionaries around the world.

The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament always remember you in our prayer. Keep in touch. Thanks a lot.

Adveniat Regnum Tuum. May His Kingdom Come.

Den Mar

Inner Self: the sanctuary of Inner Peace

I pray to the Lord to bring His overflowing peace to my troubled inner-self.

My inner-self is my spiritual self.

It is through my inner-self that I could meet the Lord. It is my spiritual being where the ultimate peace of God could immerse into my praying soul. It is where my prayers were answered by God’s response. It is a place where I could be united with God. It is a place within my heart where I invite Jesus... to embrace me, to stay with me and live in me.

It is a sacred place within me. Even the world is too busy and noisy; I could still find serenity and harmony within me. Even the world where I am living is in terrible chaos, nor despite of the pain and agony that I am suffering… there's, still, a very strong bondage between me and God. It is a connection connected by my prayers to a listening God who reveals Himself to me through our Lord, Jesus Christ. I am united to God’s Spirit because my soul is touched by God’s purifying fire.

When I open my inner-self which is my spiritual being, I am touched by the grace of  God. God is uniting Himself to me through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I am not alone anymore. I am with God.

In the depth of my prayer, God consoled me through my realizations that He personally called me no matter what mistakes I have done in the past. Despite of my weaknesses, still, He tenderly loves me for who I am now. I am not afraid anymore to look beyond to my future for I am sure God will always be with me. 

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go to a recollection:
http://denmar1978.blogspot.com/2013/04/one-week-on-line-recollection.html

Den Mar

Giftedness

melt hostility in the hearts of men by appreciating the giftedness of one another. 



Den Mar

Dennis and His Sister

It’s never been easy to grow in a family with a mentally and physically challenged sibling. The attention and the financial resources of the family are always drawn to sustain the person in dire need. For the parents, it has been always a challenge to provide their children with equal attention, needless to say, with equal nurturance and utmost care for all of their children.

Usually, the children, at their early stage already knew that there is something which is distinct with their family. One example which I interviewed via Facebook is Dennis who is a second child to his elder sister who is a mentally challenged individual. At his early age, he already knew the situation. Her sister who is one and a half year older than him started walking when she’s already three years old, while him, Dennis, already started to learn how to run. His parents already told him to protect his sister. When they were in a school, her sister was usually retained to the first grade for his sister could not absorbed what her teachers were teaching her. While Dennis, advanced to the higher level.

Dennis was in grade three when their mother decided not to enroll his sister to school. It was a painful part to his sister for she really missed her classmates. Instead, their mother privately tutored his sister. It was already a success for his mother to teach his older sister to write her name and to do some house chores.

When his sister reached the age of 10, there her epilepsy occurred. Their dad was forced to leave the country to work abroad sustain her regular check-ups and medicines. The pain in the head of his sister was too severe that she ended into several hospitals. The augment the situation, his mother was even forced to employ herself as a laundry woman. During this time, Dennis, as a high school student cannot easily go to school for he needed to look after his sister.

After Dennis graduated his high school, the doctors informed their family that the brain of his sister was in need of constant draining of an amount of liquid which causes the terrible pain. They needed to implant a tube in her cranium. This needed a big amount of money and his college education was almost put into jeopardy. Instead, he enrolled himself into a state-college where he earned his BS-Education degree.

As Dennis looks back, he sees the situation as a grace from God. He admitted that he always wanted to have a normal family with healthy members who, like the other families, had a very normal life. The situation forced him to grow-up. He was endowed with so much responsibility as a child that he missed so much opportunity to play with his friends when he was young. But none-the-less, he learned at the very early stage of his life to sacrifice. He understood right away that his family was his first mission.

When he became a teacher, he became an advocate and promoter of the rights of special-children. He usually brings along with him his sister so that his class would know her. He even allowed some of his high school students to visit his sister at home where they usually do their reviews and research since Dennis collected huge amount of reference books and he had a connection of fast internet. When there’s an activity in school, like Scouting, he also let his sister to stay for an overnight to experience what normal teenagers would undergo. It was through this that Dennis applied this idea of welcoming mentally and physically challenged youth to enter Scouting. As a Scouter, Dennis has been so active to the Antipolo Municipal Council. Right now, after teaching for almost three years in a Montessori school and four years in a public school, he decided to enter the Seminary to continue the mission he has discovered in his own loving family.

====

an interview to Den Mar by Artzie Villegas Perez

Where I Am Now As I Enter Unto the Novitiate

I acknowledge my presence here in the novitiate as a grace of God-- a gift despite of my imperfections… a mystery that unfolds unto me little by little each day--  from the start of my journey… when the moment I said ‘yes’ to God.

I always remember that God has been with me as I sailed to Davao City for my postulancy. There, I realized that my past life was made complicated by my very own personal desires.

‘Letting go’ of things has been so hard for me at the start of my formation for I used to live in fear when uncertainties come along the way as I embrace a more simple life. The congregation’s ‘come and see’ program’ has opened my eyes to see God more clearly; and the program has enabled me to experienced Him as He manifest Himself through the Eucharist—inspired by His compassionate love, I am resolved that my life’s purpose is to serve God.

From my past, I used to believe that I was just running away from my responsibilities and obligations in life... that my choice was merely influenced by my personal gratification. There were times that I could find myself asking God why He chose me. I asked Him, “why me and not the others.” Sometimes, at the back of my mind, there’s a part of me that always dreaming of having a family of my own where I can be a father to my own children.

Such blames and agonies were pacified by God’s time. My intentions were, perhaps, purified as I understand my purpose—not as my personal choice but as a part of God’s magnificent plan.

I also acknowledge the desert parts of my journey where in this, sometimes dry and a desolate, journey, I heard God speaking to me. During these chaotic moments, there were times when I'm alone in my room, that I feel terribly lonely. I admit, it’s hard for me to imagine that I’ll be alone waking till the rest of my life without someone by my side. Sometimes, it’s nice to imagine that there’s this human touch caressing me gently to assure me that I’ll be okay whenever I feel sick and chilling during the cold dark nights. But, these fantasies would all end up when I imagine the face of God on the cross… alone and deserted by his own beloved apostles… where in my loneliness, he’s always there to fill the emptiness that succumbs my restless soul.

God has been there in the darkest part of my life... when all the things that I used to love appear to be meaningless… when the sole purpose of my personhood was jeopardized by corruptions and injustices. In Him, as I pray, I cried all the tears of my heart. I fervently asked God to teach my heart to accept the things that I cannot change. I ask Him to make me understand the things that are beyond my capacity and to inculcate in my heart the virtue of patience that would give me strength in this very long journey to persevere and to find joy in whatever circumstances.

I also pray for the grace of humility so that I can serve Him best in whatever means I could do. I know that my restless soul will finally find its rest in Him alone. Nothing more should my heart desire but His love as my God and my dear Savior.

Den Mar

(May 17, 2008. Written during my Novitiate days at SSS Novitiate, Carmel Farms, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan)

Life's Challenges

don't give up yet. isang araw, makikita mo rin ang iyong sarili sa ilalim ng araw... you will cast your shadow under its light and when you look back, you will see your footprints at saka matatawa ka na lang at sasabihin mo na: nakaya kong daanan ang mabato at lubak-lubak na landas ng buhay. Den Mar

Leadership

great leaders are not afraid to empower others.



Den Mar

Inner Peace

INNER PEACE is our peace without boundaries. Den Mar

Patience

a missionary was sent into a far flung barangay. after two years, his sender visited him. the sender was amazed to see a primary school, a health center and a small church built by the missionary near his small hut. the sender asked, "what did you bring with you to build all these?" he said,"patience."


Den Mar

Prayer

our work is the expression of our prayer life. 

Den Mar

Answered Prayer

i offered to God my 'brokeness'
God shared it to others.



Den Mar

On Bullying

'Bullying' is an act of disrespect to the inalienable human freedom of others
As a child, I was once verbally and physically bullied by my classmates and playmates
My mother taught me not to fight back but, instead, encouraged me to become more resilient to the terrible disturbances caused by others
Now, as I reflect back, inner peace becomes everything to me
Revenge never became my option in life but more forgiveness, more compassion and more love for all those who persecuted me
It taught me to offer my hands not to retaliate nor hurt others but to embrace the broken spirit of those who were wounded by such an act of violence that became indelible to the souls of every innocent victims
Like others who became my beacon of light, I also offer my shoulder to all abused not only for them to ventilate their deep seated woundedness but also for them to be healed... and later, for them to stand on so that they could relive their once shattered childhood with memories of joys and not only of bitterness
I pray that all of us, who recovered from such a lifelong agony, will come into the open to shed light as wounded-healers and inspire the world to love more...because, we realized that the absence of love is the cause of all forms of violence. 




 Den Mar

Solitude

it is in 'solitude' that we will find our self. silence heals pains.only those who are healed can forgive and only those who can forgive can be happier in this life.

take time... you are in the process of breaking... tomorrow, after being broken today, you'll be shared and will be a wonderful gift to others.

recharge your self... be with God today.



Den Mar