It has been a privilege to be a part of the great Letran tradition, having lived in the school residence for over two years and consumed the academic excellence a student can ever derive from an alma mater. My contribution to the school had been measurably miniscule when juxtaposing with Letran’s 400 years of existence. […]
I only had time to view and listen to the pre-recorded talks of our revered speakers for this quadricentennial retreat as part of the grand celebration of the 400th Foundation Anniversary of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran last night. After listening to their talks, I am now more convinced than ever that the […]
This year’s Christmas day seems to have come so fast. I felt like I was caught unaware. The thought about it was totally forgotten. Or maybe I just had no anticipation of what was to come at all this year. I just let the day unknowingly go by, or anything for this matter, and that […]
From The Desk of the Filii NA President, A warm greetings to all our brothers and sisters in Saint Dominic and to all our Epistoliorum readers. In behalf of the Filii NA which we humbly represent, we congratulate the Editorial Board of Epistoliorum for another job well done. In spite of seemingly insurmountable odds primarily […]
Our Gospel for today is about a rich man, Zaccheus, who was a public sinner. Everybody in Jericho knew that as a tax collector, working for the Romans, he extracted exorbitant taxes from the people while he collected high commissions from the foreign government. He made himself wealthy as more and more people became poor. […]
I find solace in the thought that, however busy I am during the Advent season, there is something I am doing that is right and noble. Balancing family life and my diaconate ministry is not that a difficult enterprise after all. With the rush of buying Christmas gifts for our overly extended family in Melbourne, […]
The grade school teachers of Letran College have instilled in me the rigors of academic learning. Whether these be the principles of diagramming in order to understand the English grammar or the speed of computing mathematical equations, Letran did not settle for mediocrity. I had to live up to the academic expectations of this venerable […]
When will the Church would realize video games “unfulfilled potential”? Community quarantines makes us prisoners in our own homes. So to escape boredom, we need to rethink our activities, revise our schedules to keep ourselves busy again. Keeping busy does not mean working all day long, but somehow making our work a play. For some […]
Greetings and Felicitations to you, brothers, and your families in FILII SANCTI DOMINICI! Our love and our faith in Him, held us closer and stronger during this challenging time of the pandemic. For many of us who have lost friends and relatives, no words can describe our sorrow and loss. Our fraternal sympathy. Many of […]
There was one novitiate lecture that stayed in my reverie through the years. We were – to use a more secular term – ‘marooned ‘ in the Dominican Novitiate of the Annunciation (the DNA as we fondly called it which, looking back, is the right biological term when you are forming a group of individuals […]
I have not had an entry in my personal diary for so long. The significant years of our migration to Australia starting the year 2005 have been lost in the pages of my memory, and I’m trying to retrieve them especially in these slowest of times: longer nights and shorter days in winter, curled by […]
Question begets answer. But in the midst of a pandemic, it may be an exception. Not an exception to the rule but exception to reality. Removed from reality, I am an aberration. I depart from the usual, normal, typical, and on to obscurity, absurdity, and I dwell headlong as a menace to society. I am […]
Whenever I go to a mall, I always see the signages “No Face Mask, No Entry” and “Observe Social Distancing” Whenever I go to church, I always see the signages “No Face Mask, No Entry” and “Observe Social Distancing” Whenever I go to school, I always see the signages “No Face Mask, No Entry” and […]
Pots, Pans and the Recipes – Filii’s Kitchen Daily Bread Houston, TX was the venue of our 7th biennial FILII-NA reunion held last June 5-11, 2019. The choice of the venue was unanimously agreed upon since our host, Fr. Roger – the parish priest, had offered the parish new Life Center for our accommodations. As […]
Seven clicks into Highway 403 from the Starbucks franchise in Matheson, I got off the Erin Mills exit and took a beeline to the first street on my right. Two successive left turns, then one right turn followed by another left turn, and house #241 on Fudge Terrace Avenue on my right finally came into […]
Suddenly, the world turns upside down and the people are in quandary, brought about by the looming dangers of the pandemic. COVID-19 according to WHO is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. The virus manifests as mild to moderate illness symptoms associated with cough, sore throat, and headaches and could potentially and […]
On a good sunny day in summer, when the weather bureau issued no warning alert on extreme heat and high humidity, I would drive and park my car in our neighborhood’s Rathwood Park along the Rathburn road. Then I would spend a good hour walking repetitively around the whole circular length of the park, sometimes […]
The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has wrought sweeping, horrible havoc all over the globe. No nation on the face of the earth remains unscathed by it physically, socially, economically, religiously, and, if I may add, spiritually. Nobody stays free from the hardship, fear, and uncertainty which the flagrant virus brings in its wake. […]
All these years, I never really appreciated Father’s Day for the simple reason that I thought it didn’t apply to me for the longest time until about nine months ago when I finally had a son myself. I never thought of the folly of it until I came about a quotation from Clarence Kelland that says, […]
My descent from the back of a carabao Water buffalo – rice paddies – sugar cane plantation – scythe – farm bolo or machete – unleashed dogs – kerosene lamp – farmers planting or harvesting – chicken and swine roaming freely. These are some of the many images pictured vividly in my humble beginning. Images […]
Where were you on March 16, 2020? This date is very significant to many of us since this was the start when most corporate offices had advised employees to work from home and non-essential travels were banned. In my entire professional career for 35 years now, I never have imagined working in an “isolation”, i.e. […]
“I do believe in an everyday sort of magic –the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone.” ~Charles de Lint On the revival of Epistoliorum, there is one word that comes foremost […]
Catherine of Siena and the Covid-19 Pandemic Some thinkers like Slavoj Zizek, in his most recent book, aptly entitled the Pandemic! COVID 19 Shakes The World, compared our present lot to a post-apocalyptic scenario in a doomsday movie. However, some of us are not fortunate enough to be just mere watchers, some of us are […]
There are many catchwords that this pandemic has given birth to, which in turn describes our present lot. Some of the words are quarantine, lockdown and new normal. However, I would like to propose another word: re-imagination. This is not in any way longing for a future utopia after this pandemic passes, but a sort […]
