THE MAYON VOLCANO

For our summer camp this year we went to Bicol. We wanted our Postnovices to see the sights of Bicol and at the same time to visit our two Don Bosco training ce

nters in Carolina (Naga) and in Bangkerohan (Legazpi). As they say, we wanted to shoot two birds with one stone.

After staying in Carolina for a couple of days, it was time to go to Bangkerohan. As we approached Albay from Cam Sur I asked the Postnovices to be on the lookout for Mayon Volcano. I didn’t say why yet. But once they caught sight of it for the first time, I told them of a belief that was told to me many years ago. I was told then that when you look at the Mayon Volcano for the first time and you are able to see its peak, then it means that you are a virgin. If not, then you’re not!

I won’t tell you if they saw the peak or not. But this I can reveal. It was only at the airport on the way back to Manila when we were able to see a bigger portion of the volcano. Even then some parts were kept hidden by the clouds.

Today let me say something about being a virgin.

I looked up the meaning of the word "Fräulein" in Yahoo! Answers and I found this entry: “It means ‘young woman’ or ‘young lady’ and is no longer used in modern German.” And I think I know why.

When I was in Switzerland to help in the Holy Week religious services of the Filipino communities in the German-speaking cantons, one of the Filipinos who took good care of us (I was with two other Filipino priests who were also studying in Rome) said in passing that young women would consider it an insult to be addressed as "Fräulein". I was curious and so I asked “why?” And she with a mischievous grin answered: “Because it means they are still virgins.” To be called “Miss” with the implication of being still (!) a virgin, an insult? Grabe! How the Western world has changed!

But maybe it’s not only in the Western world. I have a feeling that many young Filipino males might find it embarrassing to admit they are still (!) virgins.

Let them hear from Raymund and Sally who were interviewed over IBC-13. They are a young couple.

Raymund: "When you surrender your virginity to your bride on your wedding night, you give a tremendous boost to her sense of security. Because she'd know that, if you were able to control yourself when you were single, you'd definitely be able to resist temptation now that you're already married."

Sally: "Adding to my sense of security is the certainty that my husband loves me a hundred percent. His virginity was very precious to him and he gave it to me."

Let Josette (also in the same Channel 13 program) have the last word. Josette declares: "The first night was the most exciting experience. It was really worth the wait. The knowledge that it was the first time for both of us heightened our shared joy. It was a mutual giving and receiving of love." Perhaps it is in this context that we should understand the meaning of the lyrics of a song: “True Love Waits”.

Do Raymund, Sally and Josette make sense to you?

Ok. Ok. Let me have the last word because I can’t help but add: If you are someone who is going to make a vow of chastity, will that vow make any sense if there is no virginity to offer up to God? And once you offer it up to God, will it not be a great act of sacrilege for you to take it back from him by committing unchastity?

Doesn’t this make sense, too?

REFRESHING SUMMER DRINK FROM SPAIN

It was last March this year when my sister took me to Tapella in Greenbelt 5 for lunch. It’s a restaurant serving Spanish dishes. Tapella, of course, comes from tapas and paella. Tapas are a wide variety of appetizers. We are more familiar with paella. It is a rice dish also of Spanish origin or more specifically, from Valencia. I do not know if Arroz Valenciana is the same as Paella Valenciana.

I do not remember the name of the drink that my sister ordered for us. But it reminded me of the summer drink that was served for lunch and dinner at the Salesian house in Salamanca where I stayed for one summer to study Spanish. The beverage was not sweet but I was assured that it helped make the summer heat bearable.

Why was I studying Spanish? You see, if you are taking a master’s degree at our University in Rome you have to know two international languages. Filipino and English do not count. So in addition to Italian I had to learn another language. I was told that I can study Russian, French, German or Spanish.

Why on earth would I study Russian? French? I would love to but I was scared by having to learn how the pronunciation. German? My sister warned me that it was a complex language. The syntax was such that you have to wait until the end of the sentence to get the meaning. And words seem to lengthen endlessly. And I found it strange that there were a lot of words inside the sentence that were capitalized.

I chose Spanish (or maybe it chose me). Because Spanish and Italian are both Romance languages (that is, derived from Latin), I surmised that I would find it easy to learn Spanish. They say that two people will find no difficulty in talking to one another with one speaking in Italian and the other speaking in Spanish. In fact while resting at the plaza major in Madrid, I heard two men conversing, one in Italian and another in Spanish. Also, having been a former Spanish colony, Filipinos have learned a lot of Spanish words and so I thought I would feel at home with the language. Finally, I didn’t think pronunciation would be a problem. In fact I discovered later on that the only sounds I needed to learn were the two variations for “LL” (for example, paeLLa).

Language is commonly associated with words both written and spoken. But language is not limited to words. We also communicate with our bodies and thus, the term body language. Embracing a loved one who has just arrived may communicate the message: “I am so happy you’re here.”

In St. Augustine’s Confessions, we find the phrase: “cor ad cor loquitur.” Centuries later John Henry Newman used it on his coat of arms. It is translated as “heart speaks to heart”. There is, therefore, such a thing as language of the heart. And it is this language that Don Bosco insisted that his Salesians learn if they hope to succeed in forming the young into upright citizens and good Christians.

If you are an educator or a parent, you may want to learn more about this language of the heart. Please visit >> http://happynun.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/education-is-a-matter-of-the-heart-don-bosco/

Slim is beautiful. Fat is ugly. That’s how it is the West. And maybe that’s the reason why ramp models have this anorexic (starved) look. But this is not something universal. In Africa fat is beautiful. This is how one blogger puts it: “Many women in the western world want to look slim, which is considered that a woman is beautiful and healthy.  However, most of the women in Africa have a tendency to gain weight on purpose, which is an ideal beauty for that society.  Being fat in Africa means to be desirable, beautiful, wealthy, healthy, and possess a good status in a society.”

“Ballerini”, a bronze sculpture of Colombian artist Fernando Botero, seems to suggest the belief that indeed fat is beautiful. A commentary on the sculptor reads: “A brilliant sculptor, Botero worked within the perimeters [parameters?] of generous proportions and created greatly rotund yet graceful figures, which convey an ironical yet boundless ideal of beauty.”

Slim. Fat. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

What does it mean?

Beauty is not objective. It does not depend on what one sees but on how one sees it. For instance, have you ever heard someone say that no child is ugly in the eyes of its mother? There is truth in that assertion, isn’t it?

While there is such a thing as objective reality, there is also such a thing as subjective reality. And it is subjective reality that matters more in everyday life. A birthday card made by a seven-year old may be objectively ugly. But it will bring tears to the eyes of a parent, who receives it first thing in the morning from his beaming seven-year old son.

Subjective reality is how we look at the world. It is how we interpret it. And how we interpret the world depends very much on the environment, on what we read, on the events of our life and on people we live with and listen to.

When Jesus spoke about the eye as a lamp, he was actually asking us to check on the way we look at the world and perhaps, take some necessary steps. “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be” (Mt 6:22-23).

Are our eyes sound? Or are they bad? How do we know? We may need to examine the way we look at the world against the backdrop of the teachings of Jesus. But then are we so immersed in Sacred Scriptures as to know the teachings of Jesus?

Maybe the first step we need to take is to buy a bible and then start reading the gospels. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Buy that bible. Take the first step.