Lesson on TATAKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University
97.8 FM Radyo Katipunan, 11 to 12 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024
Lent 2024
Self-Evaluation and Reflection
Dr Abe V Rotor with Prof. Emoy Rodolfo, AdMU
Part 2 - A Study of Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son"
Part 3 - The Power of STILLNESS
Part 4 - Fifty Verses for Reflection and Meditation
Helen Keller, deaf-blind since infancy became a role model for millions of people. She wrote a moving essay that challenges us who have the power of vision on how we would value “Three Days to See” if we were blind like Helen Keller blind since infancy. (The Story of My Life)
Try this exercise. If you were given Three Days To See just as Helen Keller told in her essay, how would you prioritize these? (Please indicate the day after each item; or it is not applicable.) Please refer to the answers below
1. Lives of people everyday
2. Theater – concert, performing art
3. Transformation of night to day
4. Views from top of a high building
5. Loved ones and friends
6. Nature - landscape and garden
7. Museum of arts and natural history
8. Historical records of man & society
9. Things at home, favorite books, etc
10. Comedy, the lighter side of life.
After checking your work with the answers guide below, compare it with the priorities of Helen Keller.
1st Day - Loved ones, Favorite Things, Nature
2nd Day - Natural History, History, Humanities,
3rd Day - The Business of life. (NOTE: The lighter side of life closes the episode.)
Three Days to See challenges us to look into our priorities and choices in Life
• City or countryside life
• Aesthetics or materialism
• Permanence and transience
• Love and Friendship
• Spirituality and faith
• Computer graphics or fine arts
• Perception or sensitivity
• Affection or companionship
• Vice or hobby
• Knowledge or Wisdom
____________________________________________
Answer Guide:
Lives of people everyday - 3rd day
Theatre – concert, performing art –end of 2nd day
Transformation of night to day –opening of 2nd day
Views from top of a high building – 3rd day
Loved ones and friends – 1st day, immediately.
Nature - landscape & garden – 1st day pm to sunset
Museum of arts and natural history – 2nd day
Historical records of man & society – 2nd day
Things at home, favorite books, etc – 1st day
Comedy stage play - End of 3rd day
____________________________________________
This masterpiece leads us to ponder on the deeper sense of sin which is pride and unforgiving attitude of the "righteous" brother over his returning prodigal brother. And on the part of the mother, what role had she as a mother? How about the wealthy guest, who apparently like the mother were unmoved, indifferent, cold?
In 1976 I had a chance to visit the Netherlands. There I stood at the center of Amsterdam plaza facing a monument of Rembrandt, the greatest Dutch painter rivaled only by Vincent Van Gogh who - two centuries later - revolutionized the romantic and classical schools the former brought fame worldwide.
The works of Rembrandt are distinctly unique. His colors are almost divine, combining warm and cool colors into something which make Rembrandt paintings Rembrandt - unmistakable, alluring, devotional. Painters all over the world followed his style, even up to the present. But none has ever claimed success. Rembrandt is original.
Juan Luna's Spolarium bears Rembrandt's influence in color, style and subject. Like the great master, Luna knew how to create special effects. For example the heads of the dead gladiators are smaller compared to their torso, creating a massive yet undistorted view, a kind of foreshortening effect. A diagonal perspective adds to forward movement, and common direction. A distant view of the mural draws spectators like Rembrandt's murals.
2. The rain pelts on the faces of children
Turned heavenward. Look my brethren.
A slice of rainbow
3. Walks he alone in the rain singing,
Whether the wind's cool or the sun peeping.
4. If I'm responsible for what I tame,
Would I have a choice of only the lame?
5. A gentle breeze came through a lid;
Where's the window when the wall's solid?
6. Pray, but if Thor holds back the lightning bolts,
We may not have mushroom and the jolts.
7. Hush! Suddenly the world became still;
Gone is the lark or the raven on the sill.
8. Saxon wall, each turret a guard-
Now empty, lonely is war afterward.
9. Radial symmetry starts from the center,
That balances an outside force to enter.
10. What good is a lamp at the ledge?
Wait 'til the day reaches its edge.
11. In seeing our past we find little to share,
If the past is the present we're living in.
12. In abstract art you lose reality;
How then can I paint truth and beauty?
13. Brick wall, brick roof, brick stair,
Glisten in the rain, dull in summer air.
14.What's essential can't be seen by the eye
Like the faith of Keller and Captain Bligh.
15. Similar is rainbow and moth in flight
When you see them against the light.
16. From respite in summer fallow,
The fields start a season anew.
17. From green to gold the grains become
As they store the power of the sun.
18. Not all sand dunes for sure
Ends up on empty shore.
19. One little smoke tells the difference,
Like a faint pulse is life's reference.
20. It's collective memory that I'm a part
To write my life's story when I depart.
21. Lost time, lost opportunity and lost gain,
like passing wind that may not come again.
22. Who sees silver lining of clouds dark and bold
seeks not at rainbow's end a pot of gold.
23. A clenched fist softens under a blue sky
like high waves, after tempest, die.
24. When a flock of wild geese takes into the air
a leader must get ahead to break the barrier.
Swallows on wire. Florida Blanca, Pampanga
26. In the doldrums or during sudden gusts,
the ship is much safer with a bare mast.
27. Wind, current, and keel make a perfect trio
only if they have one direction to follow.
28. You really can't tell where a sailboat goes
without keel, but to where the wind blows.
29. The sound of a yes may be deep or hollow,
and knowing it only by its own echo.
30. Walk, don't run, to see better and to know
the countryside, Mother Nature and Thou.~
31. We do not have the time, indeed an alibi
to indolence and loafing, letting time pass by.
Sun on a hazy day
33. Self-doubt at the start is often necessary
to seek perfection of the trade we carry.
34. What is more mean than envy or indolence
but the two themselves riding on insolence.
35. The worst kind of persecution occurs in the mind,
that of the body we can often undermine.
36. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors
the way we weigh ourselves with the same favors?
37. Friendship that we share to others multiplies
our compassion and love where happiness lies.
38. Evil is evil indeed - so with its mirror,
while goodness builds on goodness in store.
39. That others may learn and soon trust you,
show them you're trustworthy, kind and true.
40. Kindness and gladness, these however small
are never, never put to waste at all.
41. Beauty seen once breaks a heart,
Wait for the image to depart.
42. Being right and reasonable;
Black or white, and measurable.
43. She's coy who speaks soft and light;
Smoke first before fire ignites.
44. Every promise you can't keep
Drags you into a deeper pit.
45. To endure pain of hatred,
A leader’s wisdom is dared.
46. Make believe prosperity;
Sound of vessel when empty.
Fr Miguel Benavides, founder University of Santo Tomas (1611)
Part 1 - Priorities and Choices in Life
Helen Keller, deaf-blind since infancy became a role model for millions of people. She wrote a moving essay that challenges us who have the power of vision on how we would value “Three Days to See” if we were blind like Helen Keller blind since infancy. (The Story of My Life)Try this exercise. If you were given Three Days To See just as Helen Keller told in her essay, how would you prioritize these? (Please indicate the day after each item; or it is not applicable.) Please refer to the answers below
1. Lives of people everyday
2. Theater – concert, performing art
3. Transformation of night to day
4. Views from top of a high building
5. Loved ones and friends
6. Nature - landscape and garden
7. Museum of arts and natural history
8. Historical records of man & society
9. Things at home, favorite books, etc
10. Comedy, the lighter side of life.
After checking your work with the answers guide below, compare it with the priorities of Helen Keller.
1st Day - Loved ones, Favorite Things, Nature
2nd Day - Natural History, History, Humanities,
3rd Day - The Business of life. (NOTE: The lighter side of life closes the episode.)
Three Days to See challenges us to look into our priorities and choices in Life
• City or countryside life
• Aesthetics or materialism
• Permanence and transience
• Love and Friendship
• Spirituality and faith
• Computer graphics or fine arts
• Perception or sensitivity
• Affection or companionship
• Vice or hobby
• Knowledge or Wisdom
____________________________________________
Answer Guide:
Lives of people everyday - 3rd day
Theatre – concert, performing art –end of 2nd day
Transformation of night to day –opening of 2nd day
Views from top of a high building – 3rd day
Loved ones and friends – 1st day, immediately.
Nature - landscape & garden – 1st day pm to sunset
Museum of arts and natural history – 2nd day
Historical records of man & society – 2nd day
Things at home, favorite books, etc – 1st day
Comedy stage play - End of 3rd day
____________________________________________
From this exercise we can better appreciate Helen Keller’s philosophy of life.
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am, therein to be content.”
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen and even touched. They must be felt within the heart.” ~
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am, therein to be content.”
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen and even touched. They must be felt within the heart.” ~
Part 2 - A Study of Rembrandt's
"Return of the Prodigal Son"
Dr Abe V Rotor
This masterpiece leads us to ponder on the deeper sense of sin which is pride and unforgiving attitude of the "righteous" brother over his returning prodigal brother. And on the part of the mother, what role had she as a mother? How about the wealthy guest, who apparently like the mother were unmoved, indifferent, cold?
In 1976 I had a chance to visit the Netherlands. There I stood at the center of Amsterdam plaza facing a monument of Rembrandt, the greatest Dutch painter rivaled only by Vincent Van Gogh who - two centuries later - revolutionized the romantic and classical schools the former brought fame worldwide.
The works of Rembrandt are distinctly unique. His colors are almost divine, combining warm and cool colors into something which make Rembrandt paintings Rembrandt - unmistakable, alluring, devotional. Painters all over the world followed his style, even up to the present. But none has ever claimed success. Rembrandt is original.
Juan Luna's Spolarium bears Rembrandt's influence in color, style and subject. Like the great master, Luna knew how to create special effects. For example the heads of the dead gladiators are smaller compared to their torso, creating a massive yet undistorted view, a kind of foreshortening effect. A diagonal perspective adds to forward movement, and common direction. A distant view of the mural draws spectators like Rembrandt's murals.
The hidden characters (like in Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son) adds mysticism to the scene, combining romanticism and realism. Luna inspired people to fight for freedom. He influenced later works like Millet's Man with a Hoe becoming a model of ideological movement against social injustice.
This is where Rembrandt is left in peace with his subject and theme, for Rembrandt was not a reformist of this nature. His own way of changing the world, so to speak, through his painting is by love and compassion as shown by this masterpiece - The Return of the Prodigal Son - unparalleled, universal, timeless.
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The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1661–1669. (262 cm × 205 cm) by Rembrandt van Rijn, Hermitage Museum, St. Peterburg, Russia. (Unedited as it appears on the Internet).
The Return of the Prodigal Son demonstrates the mastery of Rembrandt. His evocation of spirituality and the parable's message of forgiveness has been considered the height of his art. “Monumental,” is perhaps the highest praise by Rembrandt scholars led by Rosenberg. “The painting interprets the Christian idea of mercy with extraordinary solemnity, as though this were his spiritual testament to the world.” Historian Kenneth Clark, exulted the work, "A picture which those who have seen the original may be forgiven for claiming as the greatest picture ever painted."
It is among the Dutch master's final works, likely completed within two years of his death in 1669. It depicts the moment of the prodigal son’s return to his father in the Biblical parable. In the painting, the son has returned home in a wretched state from travels in which he wasted his inheritance and fell into poverty and despair. He kneels before his father in repentance, wishing for forgiveness and a renewed place in the family, having realized that even his father's servants had a better station in life than he. His father receives him with a tender gesture. His hands seem to suggest mothering and fathering at once; the left appears larger and more masculine, set on the son's shoulder, while the right is softer and more receptive in gesture.
A stream of light bathes the whole body of the repentant son, and strikes directly the face of his father in anguish and joy. The light extends to reveal the expression of the face of the older brother (standing at right) pathetic but unmoved as his body is unbent, and his hands freely crossed over a guided cane which is symbol of authority and affluence to. This further projects extreme comparison. With worn out sandals, one foot bare, clothes tattered , and head shaven - all makes wretchedness real. Rembrandt purposely hid the other characters in dim light and little details to focus the singular encounter. Yet viewers have the idea who they are in their own guesses and conclusions as they contemplate on the painting.
This is where Rembrandt is left in peace with his subject and theme, for Rembrandt was not a reformist of this nature. His own way of changing the world, so to speak, through his painting is by love and compassion as shown by this masterpiece - The Return of the Prodigal Son - unparalleled, universal, timeless.
The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1661–1669. (262 cm × 205 cm) by Rembrandt van Rijn, Hermitage Museum, St. Peterburg, Russia. (Unedited as it appears on the Internet).The Return of the Prodigal Son demonstrates the mastery of Rembrandt. His evocation of spirituality and the parable's message of forgiveness has been considered the height of his art. “Monumental,” is perhaps the highest praise by Rembrandt scholars led by Rosenberg. “The painting interprets the Christian idea of mercy with extraordinary solemnity, as though this were his spiritual testament to the world.” Historian Kenneth Clark, exulted the work, "A picture which those who have seen the original may be forgiven for claiming as the greatest picture ever painted."
It is among the Dutch master's final works, likely completed within two years of his death in 1669. It depicts the moment of the prodigal son’s return to his father in the Biblical parable. In the painting, the son has returned home in a wretched state from travels in which he wasted his inheritance and fell into poverty and despair. He kneels before his father in repentance, wishing for forgiveness and a renewed place in the family, having realized that even his father's servants had a better station in life than he. His father receives him with a tender gesture. His hands seem to suggest mothering and fathering at once; the left appears larger and more masculine, set on the son's shoulder, while the right is softer and more receptive in gesture.
A stream of light bathes the whole body of the repentant son, and strikes directly the face of his father in anguish and joy. The light extends to reveal the expression of the face of the older brother (standing at right) pathetic but unmoved as his body is unbent, and his hands freely crossed over a guided cane which is symbol of authority and affluence to. This further projects extreme comparison. With worn out sandals, one foot bare, clothes tattered , and head shaven - all makes wretchedness real. Rembrandt purposely hid the other characters in dim light and little details to focus the singular encounter. Yet viewers have the idea who they are in their own guesses and conclusions as they contemplate on the painting.
This is the same photo as above with Adobe Photoshop editing on lighting and contrast to show a clearer background in order to expose the characters. The woman at top left, barely visible, is likely the mother, while the seated man, whose dress implies wealth, may be an advisor to the estate or a tax collector.The standing man at center is likely a servant.
The prodigal son's older brother crosses his hands in judgment. In the parable he objects to the father's compassion for the sinful son.
But he answered his father, "Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him." (Luke 15:29–30).
The father explains, "But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:32). World English Bible.
Rembrandt was moved by the parable, that he made a variety of drawings, etchings, and paintings on the theme that spanned decades, beginning with this 1636 etching.
Dutch priest Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) was so taken by the painting that he eventually wrote a short book, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Meditation on Fathers, Brothers, and Sons (1992), using the parable and Rembrandt's painting as frameworks. He begins by describing his visit to the State Hermitage Museum in 1986, where he was able to contemplate on the painting alone for hours. Considering the role of the father and sons in the parable in relation to Rembrandt's biography, he wrote:
Rembrandt is as much the elder son of the parable as he is the younger. When, during the last years of his life, he painted both sons in Return of the Prodigal Son, he had lived a life in which neither the lostness of the younger son nor the lostness of the elder son was alien to him. Both needed healing and forgiveness. Both needed to come home. Both needed the embrace of a forgiving father. But from the story itself, as well as from Rembrandt's painting, it is clear that the hardest conversion to go through is the conversion of the one who stayed home. (Wikipedia)
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The prodigal son's older brother crosses his hands in judgment. In the parable he objects to the father's compassion for the sinful son.
But he answered his father, "Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him." (Luke 15:29–30).
The father explains, "But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:32). World English Bible.
Rembrandt was moved by the parable, that he made a variety of drawings, etchings, and paintings on the theme that spanned decades, beginning with this 1636 etching.
Dutch priest Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) was so taken by the painting that he eventually wrote a short book, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Meditation on Fathers, Brothers, and Sons (1992), using the parable and Rembrandt's painting as frameworks. He begins by describing his visit to the State Hermitage Museum in 1986, where he was able to contemplate on the painting alone for hours. Considering the role of the father and sons in the parable in relation to Rembrandt's biography, he wrote:
Rembrandt is as much the elder son of the parable as he is the younger. When, during the last years of his life, he painted both sons in Return of the Prodigal Son, he had lived a life in which neither the lostness of the younger son nor the lostness of the elder son was alien to him. Both needed healing and forgiveness. Both needed to come home. Both needed the embrace of a forgiving father. But from the story itself, as well as from Rembrandt's painting, it is clear that the hardest conversion to go through is the conversion of the one who stayed home. (Wikipedia)
--------------------------------------
Pope Francis' 100-page new book released in 86 countries (12 Jan 2016), to start the Francis Holy Year of Mercy The Holy Father criticized the self-proclaimed righteous, the doctrinaire-minded rigorists, the scholars of the church laws and rules, who in the long history of the church have challenged Christ's unconditional love and mercy. He offered "We must avoid the attitude of someone who judges and condemns from the lofty heights of his own certainty, looking for the splinter in his brother's eye while remaining unaware of the beam in his own." Pope Francis said
Which leads us to ponder on the deeper sense of sin which is pride and unforgiving attitude of the "righteous" brother over his returning prodigal brother. And on the part of the mother, what role had she as a mother? How about the wealthy guest, who apparently like the mother were unmoved, indifferent, cold?
The book rallies the church and her leaders to go out from the confines of the altar and pulpit, to reach out for the needy, the suffering, the hopeless.
To quote Pope Francis in his new book:
“I often say that in order for this to happen, it is necessary to go out: to go out from the churches and the parishes, to go outside and look for people where they live, where they suffer, and where they hope. I like to use the image of a field hospital to describe this “Church that goes forth”. It exists where there is combat. It is not a solid structure with all the equipment where people go to receive treatment for both small and large infirmities. It is a mobile structure that offers first aid and immediate care, so that its soldiers do not die.”
“It is a place for urgent care, not a place to see a specialist. I hope that the Jubilee [The Holy Year of Mercy] will serve to reveal the Church’s deeply maternal and merciful side, a Church that goes forth toward those who are “wounded,” who are in need of an attentive ear, understanding, forgiveness, and love.”
Which leads us back to The Prodigal Son. Wouldn't the father have taken the road to look for his prodigal son? A good father is not only forgiving, he is a missionary. Thousands, nay, millions out there are proverbial prodigal sons. ~
Which leads us to ponder on the deeper sense of sin which is pride and unforgiving attitude of the "righteous" brother over his returning prodigal brother. And on the part of the mother, what role had she as a mother? How about the wealthy guest, who apparently like the mother were unmoved, indifferent, cold?
The book rallies the church and her leaders to go out from the confines of the altar and pulpit, to reach out for the needy, the suffering, the hopeless.
To quote Pope Francis in his new book:
“I often say that in order for this to happen, it is necessary to go out: to go out from the churches and the parishes, to go outside and look for people where they live, where they suffer, and where they hope. I like to use the image of a field hospital to describe this “Church that goes forth”. It exists where there is combat. It is not a solid structure with all the equipment where people go to receive treatment for both small and large infirmities. It is a mobile structure that offers first aid and immediate care, so that its soldiers do not die.”
“It is a place for urgent care, not a place to see a specialist. I hope that the Jubilee [The Holy Year of Mercy] will serve to reveal the Church’s deeply maternal and merciful side, a Church that goes forth toward those who are “wounded,” who are in need of an attentive ear, understanding, forgiveness, and love.”
Which leads us back to The Prodigal Son. Wouldn't the father have taken the road to look for his prodigal son? A good father is not only forgiving, he is a missionary. Thousands, nay, millions out there are proverbial prodigal sons. ~
Part 3 - The Power of STILLNESS
"The sun sets with the Angelus,
as creatures go to their lair,
stillness reigns in the night
until the return of light. " - avr
Dr Abe V Rotor
Homeward Bound by Fernando Amorsolo
1. Stillness and Meditation
Silence, oh elusive silence,.
take me to your realm divine
where good and evil part,
that I may find a new start,
that begins in the heart.
2. Stillness and the Loving Heart
Throb oh heart, throb the magic of love,
lest desire may turn into lust,
blinding the senses in Freudian ido;
Browning, Ben Jonson, come
with your art of love on hand.
3. Stillness and the Arts
Soar into the heavens for peace and quiet,
let imagination rule over reason,
creativity reigns supreme in stillness,
spawning the great masterpieces.
4. Stillness and Scholarship
Fishing not for fish but ideas,
the rod bends, the line quivers -
a big fish bites, pulls, rages,
oh stillness, tool of the sages.
5. Stillness and the Longing Heart
When the heart throbs for someone far away,
of a place you can't go for the moment or nevermore,
of things lost and can no longer be found,
or wishing the good old days were here,
stillness, stillness must reign,
in fullness and profound.
6. Stillness and the Weary Heart
When doubt clouds the mind and shrouds the view,
which road to take of the two,
take the less trodden, more so the fresh path;
stillness – but never the heart to a halt.
7. Stillness and the Grieving Heart
In the dark hours of life the night is long,
the dawn comes late or seems it never comes,
grief and pain they are inseparable:
the mind, body and spirit;
stillness brings back the joy and wit.
8. Stillness and the Raging Heart
When rages the heart cascading wild,
chartless in a sea of tempest,
seeing the shore no more,
stillness shall give you rest.
9. Stillness and Nature
Calm is the sea but a sleeping volcano,
the sky is blue, the river meandering to the sea,
a child of creation I'm from the stillness of the womb,
to the stillness of hereafter.
10. Stillness and Angelus
The sun sets with the Angelus,
as creatures go to their lair,
stillness reigns in the night
until the return of light. ~
Silence, oh elusive silence,.
take me to your realm divine
where good and evil part,
that I may find a new start,
that begins in the heart.
2. Stillness and the Loving Heart
Throb oh heart, throb the magic of love,
lest desire may turn into lust,
blinding the senses in Freudian ido;
Browning, Ben Jonson, come
with your art of love on hand.
3. Stillness and the Arts
Soar into the heavens for peace and quiet,
let imagination rule over reason,
creativity reigns supreme in stillness,
spawning the great masterpieces.
4. Stillness and Scholarship
Fishing not for fish but ideas,
the rod bends, the line quivers -
a big fish bites, pulls, rages,
oh stillness, tool of the sages.
5. Stillness and the Longing Heart
When the heart throbs for someone far away,
of a place you can't go for the moment or nevermore,
of things lost and can no longer be found,
or wishing the good old days were here,
stillness, stillness must reign,
in fullness and profound.
6. Stillness and the Weary Heart
When doubt clouds the mind and shrouds the view,
which road to take of the two,
take the less trodden, more so the fresh path;
stillness – but never the heart to a halt.
7. Stillness and the Grieving Heart
In the dark hours of life the night is long,
the dawn comes late or seems it never comes,
grief and pain they are inseparable:
the mind, body and spirit;
stillness brings back the joy and wit.
8. Stillness and the Raging Heart
When rages the heart cascading wild,
chartless in a sea of tempest,
seeing the shore no more,
stillness shall give you rest.
9. Stillness and Nature
Calm is the sea but a sleeping volcano,
the sky is blue, the river meandering to the sea,
a child of creation I'm from the stillness of the womb,
to the stillness of hereafter.
10. Stillness and Angelus
The sun sets with the Angelus,
as creatures go to their lair,
stillness reigns in the night
until the return of light. ~
Angelus by Jean Francois Millet
"Silence, oh elusive silence,.
take me to your realm divine
where good and evil part,
that I may find a new start,
that begins in the heart." - avr ~
"Silence, oh elusive silence,.
take me to your realm divine
where good and evil part,
that I may find a new start,
that begins in the heart." - avr ~
Part 4 - 50 Verses for Reflection and Meditation
Dr Abe V Rotor
These verses may be read as prayer for this Lenten season, preferably with background music of Meditation (From the Thais), by Massenet. On Wings of Song by Mendelssohn, and Ave Maria by Schubert and by Santiago. Leader sets the sequence in meditative mood.
1. When the skies cry and tears fall,
The grass is greener, so with the soul.2. The rain pelts on the faces of children
Turned heavenward. Look my brethren.
A slice of rainbow
3. Walks he alone in the rain singing,
Whether the wind's cool or the sun peeping.
4. If I'm responsible for what I tame,
Would I have a choice of only the lame?
5. A gentle breeze came through a lid;
Where's the window when the wall's solid?
6. Pray, but if Thor holds back the lightning bolts,
We may not have mushroom and the jolts.
7. Hush! Suddenly the world became still;
Gone is the lark or the raven on the sill.
8. Saxon wall, each turret a guard-
Now empty, lonely is war afterward.
9. Radial symmetry starts from the center,
That balances an outside force to enter.
10. What good is a lamp at the ledge?
Wait 'til the day reaches its edge.
11. In seeing our past we find little to share,
If the past is the present we're living in.
12. In abstract art you lose reality;
How then can I paint truth and beauty?
13. Brick wall, brick roof, brick stair,
Glisten in the rain, dull in summer air.
14.What's essential can't be seen by the eye
Like the faith of Keller and Captain Bligh.
15. Similar is rainbow and moth in flight
When you see them against the light.
16. From respite in summer fallow,
The fields start a season anew.
17. From green to gold the grains become
As they store the power of the sun.
18. Not all sand dunes for sure
Ends up on empty shore.
19. One little smoke tells the difference,
Like a faint pulse is life's reference.
20. It's collective memory that I'm a part
To write my life's story when I depart.
21. Lost time, lost opportunity and lost gain,
like passing wind that may not come again.
22. Who sees silver lining of clouds dark and bold
seeks not at rainbow's end a pot of gold.
23. A clenched fist softens under a blue sky
like high waves, after tempest, die.
24. When a flock of wild geese takes into the air
a leader must get ahead to break the barrier.
25. Even to a strong man, a little danger may create
the impression he's small or the problem is great.
Swallows on wire. Florida Blanca, Pampanga
26. In the doldrums or during sudden gusts,
the ship is much safer with a bare mast.
27. Wind, current, and keel make a perfect trio
only if they have one direction to follow.
28. You really can't tell where a sailboat goes
without keel, but to where the wind blows.
29. The sound of a yes may be deep or hollow,
and knowing it only by its own echo.
30. Walk, don't run, to see better and to know
the countryside, Mother Nature and Thou.~
31. We do not have the time, indeed an alibi
to indolence and loafing, letting time pass by.
32. As we undervalue ourselves, so do others
undervalue us. Lo, to us all little brothers.
undervalue us. Lo, to us all little brothers.
Sun on a hazy day
33. Self-doubt at the start is often necessary
to seek perfection of the trade we carry.
34. What is more mean than envy or indolence
but the two themselves riding on insolence.
35. The worst kind of persecution occurs in the mind,
that of the body we can often undermine.
36. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors
the way we weigh ourselves with the same favors?
37. Friendship that we share to others multiplies
our compassion and love where happiness lies.
38. Evil is evil indeed - so with its mirror,
while goodness builds on goodness in store.
39. That others may learn and soon trust you,
show them you're trustworthy, kind and true.
40. Kindness and gladness, these however small
are never, never put to waste at all.
41. Beauty seen once breaks a heart,
Wait for the image to depart.
42. Being right and reasonable;
Black or white, and measurable.
43. She's coy who speaks soft and light;
Smoke first before fire ignites.
44. Every promise you can't keep
Drags you into a deeper pit.
A leader’s wisdom is dared.
46. Make believe prosperity;
Sound of vessel when empty.
Fr Miguel Benavides, founder University of Santo Tomas (1611)
47. Take from the ant or stork,
Patience is silence at work.
48. Good wine grows mellow with age;
Good man grows into a sage.
49. He finds reason for living
Who sees a new beginning.
50. Beauty builds upon beauty,
Patience is silence at work.
48. Good wine grows mellow with age;
Good man grows into a sage.
49. He finds reason for living
Who sees a new beginning.
50. Beauty builds upon beauty,
Ad infinitum to eternity. ~
