Monday, February 19, 2024

Lesson on TataKalikasan: Let's Enhance Religious Practices Favorable to Health and Environment

                     Lesson on TataKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University

February 22, 2024 (Thursday) 11 to 12 a.m.
87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan
Let's Enhance Religious Practices Favorable to Health and Environment
Former title: Save the Trees on Palm Sunday

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
 with Fr JM Manzano, AdMU

Religious Practices' Effects to Health and Environment

It is time to review them in the light of health warnings and environmental concerns, particularly in these critical times of global warming and environmental degradation.  It is in line with the Holy Father's encyclical, Laudato Si'

Avoid wasteful candle offering.  It is harmful to health and environment.

1.Retreat and reflection is therapy, helps the mind, body and spirit release tension and do away with the effects of stress.

2. Abstinence conserves animal population especially during the lean months, conserving breeding stocks - like seeds (binhi) – in order to multiply in the next season.

3. The washing of feet is not only ritual, it is also sanitation, getting rid of germs and preventing their spread.

4. Dipping your fingers into the holy water bowl is now seldom practiced. Never wash your hands or face in it. 

5. Take communion on your palm, never with your tongue. Epidemic such as H1N1 (flu) and COVID-19 can be spread this way.

6. Holding hands in prayer is discouraged also for health and sanitation, keeping one's privacy in reverence, notwithstanding. 

7. Kissing icons is likewise discouraged for the same reason. Wiping holy objects with handkerchief will only pick up germs.

8. Paying last respect to the dead should be done with extreme care, especially if the cause of death is highly contagious like COVID-19, Ebola and SARS. Remember the tragic death of some religious sisters who contacted Ebola from their dead colleague?

9. Don't walk on your knees to the altar; kneeling in prayer is enough. Be kind to your knee tendon and kneecap; knee injury may incapacitate you permanently. "You re not growing younger," an elder advised me. Let's learn from athletes who retired early because of knee injury.

10. 
Removing shoes before entering a house of worship is an expression of respect and reverence, as well as for purposes of maintaining sanitation in the place. Any footwear carries dirt and germs, and may be teems with bacteria and fungi from long and intimate wear. This practice may not be as strict in Catholic churches as in Muslim mosques and Buddhist temples. Removing shoes in other places like prayer rooms, wakes, even homes, are becoming a popular practice.

11. Many religious ceremonies are without the use of incense**. Incense smoke and scent usually produce a pleasant and calming effect to the faithful. It is also an effective fumigant against flying and crawling insects. Its repellant effect helped keep down the spread of bubonic plague during the Middle Ages. The
 Plague bacillus, Yersinia pestis, which killed a third of the population in the known world is carried by flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) that resides in rats. Incense comes in various preparations and offerings, candle sticks among the most common. Burning candles have similar but lesser effects. To get rid of flies around food; one or two burning candles keep them at bay. Try it.

12. To some religions pork is banned. Pork is a carrier of known parasites such as tapeworm, hookworm, and Ascaris. It contributes to obesity, and related ailments. 

13. Ancient religions regard certain places, objects such as trees sacred, thus enhancing their conservation. Such worship was replaced by later religions, and modern living, thus losing their protection as a result.

14. On Palm Sunday trees are stripped off of their buds, leaves and stems. This is detrimental to the environment. Millions of pesos worth of coconut trees and other trees are destroyed. Endangered species such as the Cycad (Oliva), are pushed to the brink of extinction.

Bundles of palm fronds (young leaves of coconut and other palm trees). 
Lavish and wasteful observance of Palm Sunday, while Nature suffers and 
people lose their livelihood. 

The Christian world loses millions and millions worth of palm trees every Palm Sunday. Coconut-based economy is the worst hit - the source of many domestic and export products, and the foundation of people's livelihood. The coconut is the most important tree in maintaining the balance of tropical ecosystems.


  • Don't use young (bud) leaves of coconut for palaspas. You will kill the tree.
  • Conserve the Oliva or the Cycads (Cycas spp). They are "living fossils" which lived in the dinosaur era, and now endangered as species.   
  • Don't strip the young leaves of buri and anahaw palms. They are now in the list of threatened species. The buri (Corypha elata) is the largest native palm species found in the Philippines, with trunks attaining a diameter of 1 meter, height of 20 meters, and with large fan-shaped leaves from which buri braids, raffia, and buntal hats are made.  
  • Get only the mature leaves - never the young leaves or bud. Get only a frond or small leaf, or part of it. Don't be wasteful. 
  • There's no need for each faithful to carry palaspas. One for a whole family is enough.
  • Get substitute plants that are not ecologically endangered and economically threatened. (Examples: MacArthur's Palm, palmera, Areca or betel nut, bunga de Jolo, and from hundreds of non-palm plants from bamboo to ground orchid and fern. Use mature or older leaves - never the young leaves and buds.
  • Seek advice from your community and religious leaders, and environmentalists.
     
    Oliva or Cycas, a living fossil is now endangered. Buri palm 
    (Corypha) is now classified as threatened species
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5 Benefits of Religious Practice for Your Health
1. It reduces the risk of death 
2. Lower rates of depression 
3. Religious experiences provide a cognitive framework for dealing with traumas 
4. Religiousness is better for mental health than sports among older people
5. It keeps young people away from alcohol and drugs 
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Review and Summary 

1. On Palm Sunday trees are stripped of their buds, leaves and stems. This is detrimental to the environment especially in summer when plants face tight water regime.

2. Fasting is cleansing, it helps the body stop the accumulation of unwanted substances such as cholesterol, and allows the body to eliminate toxic materials.

3. Retreat and reflection is therapy, helps the mind, body and spirit to release tension and do away with the effects of stress.
 

4. Abstinence conserves animal population especially during the lean months, conserving breeding stocks - like seeds (binhi) – in order to multiply in the next season. Abstinence protects us from infectious animal diseases such as anthrax.
 

5. To some religions pork is banned. Pork is a carrier of known parasites such as tapeworm, hookworm, and Ascaris. It is known to contribute to obesity and many ailments.

6. Ancient religions regard certain places and trees sacred, thus enhancing their conservation. Such worship was replaced by later religions, and modern living style, thus losing their protection. 


7. The washing of feet is not only ritual, it is also sanitation, getting rid of germs and preventing them to spread. 


8. Walking on knees, a form of penitence, usually along the aisle to reach the altar, is harmful to the knee joint and cap (patella).
 

9. Self inflicting of wounds imitating the scourging at the pillar, practiced by flagellants may lead to loss of blood, serious infection, and even death.
 
10. Communal holy water may become a breeding place of vermin and germs causing ailments and epidemic diseases.

11. Receive holy communion with the palm of your hand to lessen the possibility of disease transmission. 

12. Kissing or touching the dead is discouraged. Diseases like COVID-19, Ebola, SARS, MERS-CoV must be strictly quarantined.~

How do you classify the following practices? Add on to this list for livelier sharing with your family and church   
  • Removing shoes and slippers before entering a temple of worship
  • Viewing the bright sky and even the sun - to witness a miracle 
  • Wearing robes and habits of holy persons
  • Wearing veil when attending mass or any ritual inside the church
  • Baptism by immersion in a pool or river
  • Offering flowers at the altar, especially in the month of May
  • Walking barefoot as penitence, usually under the sun on rough road..
  • Actual crucifixion on Good Friday as "ultimate penitence"   
  • Joining a huge religious assembly or procession such as the Black Nazarene. 
  • Kissing icons for intercession or expression of reverence. ~
Image result for (Laudato Si' Encyclical)
*Laudato Si' is an encyclical of Pope Francis published in May 2015. It focuses on care for the natural environment and all people, as well as broader questions of the relationship between God, humans, and the Earth. The encyclical's subtitle, “Care for Our Common Home,” reinforces these key themes.


** Burning incense can help boost creativity and flow state by clearing and stimulating the mind. Purify your space. Buddhist monks have been using incense to purify their atmosphere for thousands of years. Amazingly, one study showed that burning incense for an hour reduced the bacteria in the air by 94%!

NOTE: This article served as a yearly lesson for more than 30 years on the former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio as host, and the author as broadcast instructor.  738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday, linked with  Philippine Broadcasting Service (PBS) network, and this Blog avrotor.bloforgspot.com and Naturalism - the Eighth Sense

Acknowledgement: Internet, Radio Katipunan, Ateneo, UST,  San Vicente IS Parish
Replay on 87.9 fm Radyo Katipunan, February 23, 2023

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