Blogs & Books
Running Priest Launches “Online Parish”
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008Fr Robert Reyes is popularly known in the Philippines as “Running Priest” because he runs to make the Filipino people aware of the pressing social issues affecting the country. He has recently launched a website called “Parokya sa Web” (Web Parish).
In “Parokya sa Web” you’ll find Fr Reyes’ homilies as well as his views [...]
Green Bible Highlights Environmental Themes in the Scriptures
Sunday, October 12th, 2008The principal aim of “The Green Bible” is “to show that seeds of environmentalism were sown in the Garden of Eden”. The Green Bible is actually a new edition of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Holy Scipture and it is “printed in soy ink on recycled paper and bound in eco-friendly linen.” [...]
Download Wikipedia for Offline Use
Monday, June 30th, 2008Wikipedia is without doubt the biggest free encyclopedia online. It has more than 7 million articles in over 200 languages. And it never ceases to grow as more people collaborate to write and edit multilingual entries everyday.
You can download Wikipedia as a database XML or SQL dump. You can also grab a copy of [...]
The Blogger’s Prayer in the Bikol Language
Thursday, June 12th, 2008Dios na samuyang Ama. Ika mamomoton, maheherakon asin maimbodon.
Pakosoga an samong pagtubod asin pagkamoot saimo tanganing gamiton mi an blogging bilang kasangkapan sa pag-otob kan saimong kabotan. Logod kami magin bloggers nin katotoohan asin tagapamareta nin katoninongan.
Tabangan mo kamo na magin pusog sa samong katongdan bilang mga Kristyano tanganing mahiling kan samong mga bisita an [...]
Searching for a Bible Blog Directory
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008I have a new favorite search engine. The best thing about it is that it is fast and uncluttered. Another good thing about this google-based tool is that it has no advertisement. It’s difficult to find a website that doesn’t sell you anything these days, so goosh is a real treasure. Yup, goosh is the [...]
The Blogger’s Prayer in the Mangyan Language
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008Mahal Makakaako kawo gid ti maawaon, totoo ag mapagmahal sa kanmi, maghagad kami kanmu awat na pabaskugun kanmi pagsarig ag pagmahal sa kanmu, bilang usa ka blogger’s. Mana inda ay magamit gid nimi angay sa Kanmu pagkaibgan, mana maging blogger’s kami katotohanan ag manpalagnap kapayapaan.
Awati nimu kami na maging matibay pag mga Kristyano, na kanmi [...]
The Blogger’s Prayer in Kinaray-a
Monday, May 12th, 2008Amay namon, ikaw ang pinakamaloloy-on, masarigan kag mapinalangga-on.
Ginapangayo namon sa imo nga dugangi ang amon pagtuo kag paghigugma kanimo agud nga magamit namon ang “blogging” bilang kasangkapan para matupad ang imong mga katuyuan. Kabay nga himu-on mo kami nga mga “bloggers” kang kamatuuran kag manog pahayag kang paghidaet.
Buligi kami nga [...]
Oración del Blogger
Monday, March 31st, 2008Tú que eres tan compasivo, fiel, amoroso; Tú eres nuestro Padre. Te pedimos que engrandezcas nuestra fe y nuestro amor hacia ti, y así podamos usar los blogs como instrumentos para cumplir con tus propósitos. Debemos convertirnos en bloggers de verdad y promotores de la paz.
Ayúdanos a ser firmes en nuestra responsabilidad de cristianos y [...]
Panalangin ng isang Blogger
Monday, March 24th, 2008Aming Ama, ikaw ay mahabagin, matapat at mapagmahal. Nagsusumamo kami na palakasin ang aming pananampalataya at aming pagmamahal sa Iyo upang magamit namin ang blogging bilang kasangkapan na maisakatuparan ang Iyong mga dakilang layunin. Nawa’y maging bloggers kami ng katotohanan at tagapagtaguyod ng kapayapaan.
Tulungan mo kami na maging matatag sa tungkuling Kristiyano, upang [...]
Sunstar Weekend
Saturday, April 14th, 2007This does not happen everyday, so I better blog about it. Sunstar, the number one daily of the Visayas, runs a story about my blog in their weekend magazine today. My mother texted me about it this afternoon and she said that it made her cry. There is nothing tearjerky about the write-up but mothers [...]
Praying Is Good
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007Although I have never thought that this would be the outcome, the best thing about the controversy surrounding “A Blogger’s Prayer” is that bloggers - both theists and atheists - are now discussing prayer. Praying really does wonders.
I accepted the Philippine Blog Awards (PBA) organizers’ invitation to lead the invocation with the knowledge that those present would be a mix of believers and non-believers, theists and atheists, Christians and non-Christians. Since I was invited to do an invocation, I could not presume that I was there just to ask everybody to stand in silence for a while. The MC or the two beautiful and eloquent hosts could have done that with more finesse. I was there to offer a prayer, to verbalize my praise to God and my supplications for the blogging community.
I am a Christian so my prayer has a Christian flavor. If I were an Imam, my prayer would have had a Muslim tone. My seminary training and my experiences as a priest have taught me to be sensitive to people of other faiths and to those who do not adhere to any faith at all. In this context, sensitivity means respecting other people’s beliefs and non-beliefs. But that does not mean that because of the presence of non-believers I have to delete God from my rogation. Or because there are non-Christians around I have to leave out my Christian identity.
Trust me, there is no prayer that can please everyone. Not even silence. If you don’t agree with me on this, I challenge you to send me one.
I have attended many gatherings where prayers were not said at all, not even a short silence was observed. As a practicing Catholic, was I offended by that? Of course, not! I respect people and I still enjoy their company, even if they do not implore God. I have also attended many gatherings wherein people of other faiths led the invocation or some other form of religious expression. Should I be offended when a Muslim or a Jew or Hindu prays? No! In fact, I expect the Muslim to practice his faith and quote verses from the Koran. Just as I would expect the Jew or the Hindu or a believer of another faith to be true to his/her religion.
I am only offended when I am coerced to pray, when I have no other choice but to say a prayer against my will - which was not the case in the Philippine Blog Awards 2007. I offered a prayer but nobody was forced to pray with me nor to accept the words I uttered as doctrine. You could have left the auditorium or closed your ears or did some other non-violent action while I was praying, and I would perfectly understand your disagreement to my invocation.
What I am still trying to understand is why some atheists would react so negatively to a prayer which doesn’t mean anything to them nor is intended for them. But they didn’t react at all to Yuga’s use of the word “sh*t” in the video, even if there were minors around. Is it more politically correct to say “sh*t” than a prayer now? And it is just sad that they have to resort to using degrading, discriminatory words. Look who is being insensitive here. I would have appreciated it more if their reactions were written in a constructive, fraternal way. I have to say that I have deep respect for mature, open-minded and polite atheists. While I was studying in Rome, Italy, I had an atheist classmate who was writing a thesis on atheism. Sometimes we’d eat lunch together and he never felt bad that I prayed before eating just as I was not offended that he didn’t.
My prayer did not make the PBA a Christian event. If nobody prayed, would anybody think of it as an atheist event? No. The prayer was a very minor segment in the colorful evening of smiles and trophies. I wouldn’t call the invocation a mistake by the organizers. I would remember it as the evening when my favorite bloggers have received their well-deserved awards.
Thanks to all those who think that my prayer is witty, funny, meaningful and relevant. And to all those who left comments and blogged about the prayer - salamat kaninyo!
But then again, I am glad that my prayer has sparked a lively debate in the blogosphere. The liveliest, I think, is the one found here and of course here. It’s Holy Week after all and it’s a time for us to confront ourselves with life’s most important questions.
May you all have a holy Holy Week.
Perspectives on FOSS
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007Even by just browsing its table of contents you can tell that it is indeed a very important book on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). And then when you read each chapter you’ll both discover and understand a lot of new things about the revolution that FOSS has unleashed. That is because the book [...]
Free Linux Ebooks
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007Finding this website felt like discovering a treasure field. As a linux and opensource evangelist and trainor, I have scoured the internet a zillion times to find resources for my talks and presentations. This website or that blog would give visitors a few tips and some PDFs to download. But none would give a complete [...]