Category: Charity

Your Children Are Not Investments

The last four days have been an enormous spiritual experience for me and my family. We may not have been able to see Pope Francis but the video clips, the articles, the news, and the collective prayers of different churches and spiritual communities online have helped us experience the “Lolo Kiko fever”.

The whole Papal visit was all about the children and the youth. From the Villamor Air Base, young students greeted the Pope with songs and dance. When the Pope was on his ‘jeepney’ PopeMobile while plying the streets of Manila and on the way to the University of Santo Tomas, he was captured by energy of the teens and the children. He hugged and kissed babies, toddlers, and the rest of the youngsters. Most of all, the adults showed and expressed the “children within” them.

Now that the Pope has left the country, what lessons have we learned and realized that our children are God’s blessings and not our properties? Continue reading Your Children Are Not Investments

How To Become The Fourth Magi

Today is the 12th and the last day of Christmas for most Christians, especially from the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and other mega-churches like the Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican churches, among others. It’s a Christmas feast called the Epiphany which celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.

We are all familiar about these three wise men in the traditional names of Melchor, Gaspar, and Balthazar who brought gifts to baby Jesus some 2,000 years ago. They may not bear those names in reality but this has captured the hearts of many Christians, children and adults alike. These are the “Three Kings” from the East who brought gold, myrrh, and frankincense. It is commonly accepted that they are the ones and their “giving” that are being celebrated today.

But it’s very interesting to note that a legendary writer Henry van Dyke wrote a story about “The Fourth Wise Man”. The story revolves around Artaban, a magi is the fourth wise man who desired to follow the star to the birthplace of the coming King, and was supposed to join the three other wise men, but misses the caravan because of too many “obstructions” along the way. Continue reading How To Become The Fourth Magi

Picket Lines: Dialogues Between Eves, Among Eves and For Eves

Our poet friend and financial literacy advocacy supporter Kooky Tuason is launching “Picket Lines”, a coffee table book about female power and beauty expressed through poetry and visual expression. It features 100 photos of women with poems written on their bodies. Picket Lines embeds poetry on select women’s skin and images to make powerful statements about the lives of women.

Continue reading Picket Lines: Dialogues Between Eves, Among Eves and For Eves