Jubilee in the Bible

The Jubilee in the Bible is an extraordinary Sabbatical Year.  It was celebrated every 50 years, that is after seven ordinary  Sabbatical Years (celebrated every seven years).  In the Year of Jubilee, the land was completely left to rest;  all debts were remitted; land that had been alternated was restored to its original owners; and slaves were released from bondage.  It was called Jubilee because it started with the blowing of the yohbel, or ram’s horn (Leviticus 25).

The Jubilee Year was confirmed by Jesus, when the said:  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

The Jubilee is a time for conversion, and it could be the last chance to escape eternal damnation.  As Jesus said in the parable of the fruitless fig tree:  “Leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.  if it bears fruit next year, fine!  If not, then cut it down”  (Luke 13:8-9)

The Jubilee

Good day to everybody.  Today while taking my breakfast, I was looking at the file of my reading materials.  I notice one small thing in between of the books that was there.  It’s very nice to read that.  I’m sure many read it also.  But for those who maybe don’t read it yet,  I am glad to share it with you.

The Jubilee, or Holy Year, is a period of conversion and grace to be kept every 25 years.  The name comes from the Hebrew word yobhel, or ram’s horn, that was blown to announce the beginning of the Holy Year.  It was St. Jerome (385 AD) who translated yobhel into the Latin Jubilaeum, meaning “rejoicing.”

The Jubilee 2000 begins on Christmas Eve of December 25, 1999, with the opening of the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and ends with its closing on Epiphany,  January 6, 2001.

The first Christian Jubilee was celebrated by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300 AD as a centenary observance.  In 1343 Clement VI reduced the interval to 50 years, and in 1470 Paul II further reduced it to 25 yrs.  Sometimes there are special Holy Years.

To gain the Plenary Jubilee Indulgence, the faithful have to visit a designated church and to perform three works of repentance and piety: [1] General Confession, [2] Participation in the Holy Mass; [3] Prayer for the intentions of the Pope and a deed of charity.

The pilgrimage to a designated church is a part of the Jubilee.  Until 1500, the Jubilee Indulgence could be gained only in the four Roman Major Basilica (Peter, Paul, John, Mary, Major).  Thereafter, it was extended to the minor basilicas, the cathedrals, and designated shrines throughout the world.

You’ll be seeing more with  this.

Daddy’s Day!

Adriano G. Torres Jr

 Today is the special day of my father.  If he was still alive today, he is already 83 years old.  In this picture he is still at the peak of his badminton career.  He became the First National Badminton Champion (Men’s Division).  I am proud to be the daughter of him.  “Happy Birthday Daddy!”

How to Do Things Better (2 of 2)

Thinking of a system that works best for you will be a task to itself.  First, you have to make a list of all your daily or weekly tasks, and the number of hours you have to accomplish each one of them.  Another tip is to start with the most important or immediate tasks.  In doing your schedule, you ought to leave enough time for rest and relaxation. 

You can revise your system if it doesn’t work.  As you get comfortable with it, you will be surprised at how much you can accomplish.  You will become organized and time-efficient.  Of course,  it will not guarantee that you can accomplish all the tasks that have been assigned for a given day.  A few taskmasters are really tyrants in disguise, but don’t say that to their faces. 

For all you know, they might be doing you a favor.  Being trusted to do something is another way of saying that you’re capable of accomplishing the task.  And gradually being assigned more difficult tasks implies that your skills and abilities are getting better.

While you are still  a high school freshman, it is wise that you develop a system this early.  In school, you’ll have tons of academic works, and extracurricular activities on top of the chores your folks will make you do at home. 

Many of these are exciting:  a funny role in a theatrical play, being a scout leader, etc.  But you might find a few that you’d rather let somebody else do.  In the end, however, you might still need to accomplish them just the same.  Systematizing all you tasks will not only make them easier;  you’ll more likely even do them better.

How to Do Things Better (1 of 2)

You have schoolwork, homework, chores, practice schedules, and all sorts of tasks in a given day—accomplishing them all could be, well, exhausting.  Sometimes, just thinking about them can cause a splitting headache, especially when you’re at a lost about which task to do first.

If you often encounter this problem our story on the next generation GSP (global positioning system) devices might be of help.  These devices make use of satellite technology to precisely locate any given position on the earth’s surface. 

To do this, the system not only hones into the requested location but keeps track of a number satellites whose data are relevant to the request.  Just imagine:  the satellites orbit Earth as Earth moves around the Sun while turning around its axis.  The number crunching alone is mind-boggling, yet the system works.  Why?  Because as the term GSP suggests, it is a system.

A system is a “unified” group of different interacting elements.  In a broader sense, these elements are organized in such a way that the whole group “works.”  Planetary systems, air-conditioning systems, and ecosystems are just some of the other systems we’re all familiar with. 

Getting back to everyday stuff, you can devise a system for just about any task you find difficult.  In fact, you can systematize all you need to do in any given period to accomplish each task in the best possible way.

The Quest

For some people, a quest may be encased in a religious experience—for others, it might be a crisis or a dramatic change in personal circumstances, such as a birth or death.  And while religion is the spark that lights the fire within some individuals, it can also imposed a limiting structure with rules and belief systems that interfere with true personal growth—especially  when the distinctions between religion and spirituality become blurred. 

We believe that our purpose in being here is to grow spiritually.  We do this in a variety of ways—none of which are better or lesser than others; but, rather, are chosen by us because we are at various stages of spiritual unfoldment.  The goals of peace, integrity, clarity, compassion and in particular, the balance between mind and body through personal and spiritual development are essential to spiritual development, regardless of the particular path one chooses to follow.  Spirit [God] is equally present in the job as in the remote mountainside.” 

In the end, setting out on a spiritual quest—may be less a choice than it is a necessity.  What often makes people begin a quest, is a feeling restlessness, and that something beyond is coming through to us, says Andrews.  Begin by seeing your intentions.  Set your intention to live a happier or fulfilling life.  Speaking strictly to that intention will lead us to being aware of guides or teachers around us,  someone who can help on the path.  Again, it’s essential to set your intention to reclaim your own happiness and connection with life.  I feel that the spiritual path to greater consciousness has been –part of the human experience forever, and always will be.  - Fit Yoga

 

What Thanks-Giving Can Do For You

Giving thanks—to one’s fellow man and to the Lord—is often overlooked as a powerful instrument for reaching oneness with God.  From now until Thanksgiving Day, why don’t you try this three-part experiment designed to increase your thanks-giving capacity.

Every day, surprise someone:  How long has it been since you thanked the mailman, milkman or newspaper boy for their reliability?  If you receive over-ripe fruit, do you complain to the grocer?  Do you likewise tell him if it was especially delicious?  Opportunities to surprise people with gratitude present themselves all day long.  Most of the time you will not know what effect your thanks have on the recipients (sometimes they’ll be more important than you might dream, arriving at a low point in another’s life), but the effect on your own life is certain.  You’ll training yourself day-by-day to seek out the good around you, rather than the more attention-catching bad.

Every day, thank God for something you have never thanked Him for—until now:  It is good to start any prayer of thanksgiving to God with some statement of over-all indebtedness, “For our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life,” as the Book of common Prayer has it.  But try to add each day some different, perhaps very tiny blessing: the gift of sight on a colorful autumn morning, warm clothes as the days grow colder.  The discipline of thanking God for a different blessing each day could go on for a lifetime without repeating, but your thanks will not be confined to little things all the time, of course.  There will not be confined to little things all the time, of course.  There will be days when as a Christian you will be overwhelmed by the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice for You.  Bu then, the habit of giving thanks will have been established.  You’ll be ready to express your deepest feelings of gratitude.

Every day, thank God for something you’re not happy about:  This is both the hardest exercise in thanksgiving and the one that comes closest to the heart of the spiritual life.  To the oppressed Ephesians an imprisoned Paul wrote, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:20)

Thanking God for seemingly bad events has been called the first step of faith in action.  If you can stand before a financial setback, a disappointment, even death itself, and thank God for what in His hands these circumstances will become, you are acting out your conviction that He can bring good when you yourself do not see it. 

Try these three suggestions until Thanksgiving Day—and maybe every day after . . .                                                                                                                                                     E.S.

Holiday Tradition (2 of 2)

♦  Once you get your children’s support for the project (and don’t stop trying until you do), tell them your general plans for it, and ask for ideas and suggestions on how they want it to be.  Be open to whatever they suggest, and respond positively by saying, “We’ll see if we can do that…”  instead of “That’s not practical…”

♦  Involve everyone in the preparations.  After making the announcement, let everyone know that each of them has a task to do in preparing for this first-of-its- kind family activity.  Give them a run-down of the different tasks to be done and ask each of them to choose where they would want to help—making arrangements with the orphanage or some other charitable institution to settle the date of the visit, collecting old toys and old clothes, preparing food giveaways, or whatever else you might include in your plan.  Of course, the younger kids will just be expected to help out while the older ones can be given the responsibility to bigger tasks. 

♦  In making plans with your kids, always be open about the budget that you are prepared to allocate for the affair.  Make them understand that it is important to remain within budget.

♦  The activity can be as simple as bringing donations of sacks of rice, canned goods, toys and clothes, and distributing these to the beneficiaries.  Or you may want to make it a full-blown affair, complete entertainment numbers.

♦ If your kids want to invite some of their friends along, let them.  Their friends can contribute to their activity and spread the spirit at the same time.  Just make sure they ask permission from their parents.

♦  And on the Holiday Season’s Eve itself, during your usual Season’s Eve, talk about this unique experience.  Ask your kids to share what they thought and how they felt about your family activity.  Start off the evening by praying.  This will put meaning and solemnity to all other merry-making activities you have prepared for the night.

Doing a good turn to the less fortunate should make our children realize that not all kids are as lucky as they are.  This new Holiday Season tradition should make them appreciate what they have, while teaching them the true meaning of giving and sharing.

Holiday Tradition (1 of 2)

Good morning friends.  I’m sure by this time everybody are busy planning what’s the best thing will they have this holiday season.  Everybody is preparing for the food they will serve, the clothes they will use, the place where will they celebrate the season and others.  But with others they want to prepare the more meaningful holiday season.

When we talk of Holiday Season, it’s a tradition,  the gatherings of all the family members are almost always the first to come to mind—when the entire family, with the extended ones and all, gather together on a sumptuous fare of the season’s best foods, after which  each one finally gets to open his fits that had lain under the Seasons free for days.  The Holiday Season offers the perfect occasion to express and give life to the very values that hold a family together—giving, sharing, talking, celebrating, and just being close together, while feeling the presence of God.

Although Holiday Season is still widely practiced, many parents now lament that the celebrations in their families have become quite predictable, almost like a yearly routine that somehow loses meaning each year.  Holiday Season has become a mere occasion for social gatherings of relatives and friends, and a time to party, and a time to enjoy.

Of course, the Holiday season is all that, but to focus on the merry-making aspect of the  celebration might pass on the wrong values to our children.  They will grow up associating Holiday season with good food, good clothes, and good times—which altogether give season a shallow and superficial meaning.

It’s about time we did something to make this Holiday season different from the past years.  Let’s create a new Holiday season tradition for the whole family that should open the eyes of our children to what really a season is;  a time to give, a time to share, a  time to reach out, a time to touch hearts—not always with people whom we love a all our lives, but more so with those who have not had anyone to give to him, share with him, reach out to him and touch his heart.

How do you do it?  here are some pointers:

♦  Plan for this new Holiday Season family tradition as you would for a big event.  Weeks before the season, announce to your family that you intend to make this year’s Holiday Season different by establishing a new tradition:  the whole family will visit an orphanage, a resettlement area for the victims, or some other charitable institution housing our needy brothers and sisters.  Explain to them that the idea is to be able to share your family’s blessings with the less fortunate, and hence make their season more meaningful and memorable.  Be prepared to answer all possible questions about the plan.

Power Up

Good news is always welcome news.  Every bit of good news, no matter how seemingly trivial in the larger order of things it may see, is literally a breath of fresh air.  That is why we become ecstatic about every small triumph that we learn about, even if they involve people whom we do not personally know, situations we ourselves have not yet experienced, and places we have yet to visit.

We become optimistic about any scientific breakthrough with its promise of a better life that is hopefully in harmony with nature.  We feel proud when we hear of everyday people returning to authority large sums of money and saying that no matter how tempting the find is, they simply could not keep what’s not theirs.

We become thankful to public servants who stay true to the cause not to gain media mileage but to carry out their sworn duty.  We are as jubilant as every single Filipino who surpassed seemingly insurmountable odds—surviving life-threatening diseases and or calamities, and reforming their lives and improving on what used to be a way ward existence.

Hearing good news can recharge our “batteries.”  Like a holiday, it can relax the mind and relieve stress.  Good news always brings a smile to our faces.  It brings hope that no matter how bad things are, they won’t stay that way.  Well, they could take a turn for the worse, but then all things pass.  We must have a firm resolve that we can prevail on it all. – Bato Balani