ab epistvlis

This was my recent visit to the beautiful Boracay Island . With me in the photo are Rona Bunda, Almi Nuguid, Irene Sy, Haids Bongon, & Marie Buhain. Not in the picture are Ichu Rabe & Robust Montealto. These are just a few of my friends in YUPPEACE - an organization that provides psychological and spritual formation. It was my second time in Boracay. My fellow Yuppeace went to Boracay to plan on the foundation that Ichu was planning to put up -- the Connect the Dots Foundation, an organization that provides scholarship to needy children in the Philippines. Boracay Secrets You can download Picasa for free at http://picasa.google.com . "So, here we are. Send us oh, Lord! We embrace the world." -- YUPPEACE

It was my first visit to Boracay; and first to witness the real ati-atihan in Aklan. My mother has relatives in Aklan. If I remember it right, they were the Fuenteses or Gabriels who lived near the church. Incidentally, my friends and I stayed at the home of a priest which was also near the church. I learned about my relatives in Aklan only when I returned home. Fr. Ramiro and Fr. Miguel are priests from Guatemala and Spain, respectively. They ministered to me during their stay in the Philippines. I owe them my road to my redemption from a series of sexual abuses. Some of my friends here are people I met during my journeys with Yuppeace. yuppeace & friends "So, here we are. Send us oh, Lord! We embrace the world." -- YUPPEACE

This is the final artwork of the invitation I made for YUPPEACE Navidad 2007. The pages of the card are attached by a bamboo toothpick. For a dimensional look, I used real bamboo leaves to decorate the card. "So, here we are. Send us oh, Lord! We embrace the world." -- YUPPEACE

"So, here we are. Send us oh, Lord! We embrace the world." -- YUPPEACE

The Invitation This is the invitation I artworked for the Young Upbeat Professionals for Peace (YUPPEACE). It has a Filipiniana theme. The first image is the cover. The second image is the second page. I called it "hinubog ng panahon" (formed by time) because YUPPEACE has molded thousands of Christians through its various psycho-spiritual formation programs. Instead of the usual date and venue details, I wrote a riddle (palaisipan, bugtong) I took the picture of the bamboos at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, Quezon City. If you want to signify your interest in attending the Yuppeace Navidad 2007, you may click this button to direct you to the YUPPEACE Calendar. "So, here we are. Send us oh, Lord! We embrace the world." -- YUPPEACE

MDG's motto is "To serve is God's grace." Translated to Tagalog, "Ang maglingkod ay biyaya ng Diyos." In Latin, it is "Ut servo est a venia ex Deus." The image above shows how it will look like in the MDG's coat of arms. "So, here we are. Send us oh, Lord! We embrace the world." -- YUPPEACE

The Shield One of the faith paradigms of YUPPEACE is about simplicity, which is also one of the four pillars of YUPPEACE spirit. To symbolize simplicity in the Coat of Arms of MDG (Mother of Divine Grace), I used a simple shape for the shield and the color white. A white ribbon envelopes the shield. This tells us simplicity in our daily lives. The white cross, on the other hand, tells us about the simplicity in expressing our faith. (White or silver is Argent in the lingo of the rules of heraldry.) The color of the field is red, the house color of MDG. But for this particular color, I used darker red (almost like the color of the blood) to denote life, royalty, and nobility. (Red is Gules in the lingo of heraldry.) The white (Argent) cross in the middle divides the shield into five fields -- the four quadrants and the cross itself. The cross, complemented by the royal red, represents Christ, His royalty or Kingship, and His nobility. Being white, it signifies light. The cross is at the

The crest and the helm (helmet), according to the rules of heraldry, should define the achievement of the group or individual to which the Coat of Arms belong. In MDG's case, its achievement is being YUPPEACE itself -- it's creation and existence -- and the individual Christians formed by YUPPEACE. Helm For the reason that we are actually not state soldiers or knights in a combat, we don't have a helmet that we can identify ourselves with. Instead, let's look at ourselves as soldiers of Christ in a battle that fights for our faith and our Church. The Word of God is our helm , symbolized by the Holy Bible . The Wreath, The Crest and the Crown The wreath above the helm is the a pale yellow and Argent flag -- symbolizing the Roman Catholic Church . Nestled on the wreath is a globe with a cross at the center. It symbolizes the transformed humankind -- the wounded people that Yuppeace embraced. Above the globe is fire - symbolizing the Holy Spirit . The Holy Spirit serve

Let me continue with the different charges (symbolic objects) found in the fields of the shield. The charges in MDG's shield speak also of the beginning of YUPPEACE. Starting from the first quadrant , the fishermen's boat reminds us of the World Youth Day in Manila . That's when YUPPEACE was born, or the YUPPEACE's womb (" pinagmulan "). In the second quadrant , the rectangular objects are edifices symbolizing the work force or the working professionals in the business district. The YUPPEACE members principally come from the business district (" pinanggalingan "). In the third quadrant , the mountains and hills are charges that can also be found in the Coat of Arms of the Salesians of Don Bosco . This picture, where I added a church, tells us of how we were formed by the Church through the Salesian spirituality (" pinaghubogan "). And in the fourth quadrant , the emblem of YUPPEACE tells us that YUPPEACE is the fruit of this World Yout

After a night of trying to get divine inspiration about our Coat of Arms, I came up with this "story" of our Coat of Arms. But, first, try to visit this illustration so that you would have an idea of what I'm going to detail here at this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms. The Compartment The compartment has two coconut palms : one on the left, and another on the right. At the center are 3 sampaguita flowers chained by 24 bamboo leaves. These are all symbols we associate with the Philippines. According to rules of heraldry, the compartment should describe the place (state, nation, town, etc.) where the group or individual originated from. For example, a maple leaf would describe Canada. Cherry blossoms describe Japan. Edelweiss is Austria. Locally, everlasting is Baguio, rice is Nueva Ecija, garlic is Ilocos. Our coat of arms' compartment, therefore, should symbolize the Philippines. The coconut tree is called the tree of life. Yuppeace is about life. Two

Before I go into details, let's review what we have talked about so far at McDonalds last May 23 (Celebration of the Feast of Mary Help of Christians. Thank you sa treat ni Fr. Armand.) ONE word that best describes our house: We didn't decide on this yet. We pondered on " grace " and " leader ". Maybe we should go with "grace". But "grace" is a noun. It doesn't describe something. May be "full of grace" but we need one word. Is it "gracious" or "graceful"? Is it "blessed" or "gifted"? The word "grace" is a very rich word. It can mean blessings, sinless state, bliss, "matimtiman", gifts, queenly or princessly gesture or moves. Maybe, we should create a new word. How about " Grace-full ". TWO things the house do well: 1. To serve 2. To lead (aka servant-leadership. Very appropriate, di ba? Originally, the group thought of "to facilitate" and &quo

To my fellow YUPPEACE in Mother of Divine Grace (House of MDG), When we discussed about MDG having a Coat of Arms based on the house's values, character, and attributes, I thought it was as simple as drawing an events logo for a t-shirt. I had a vague idea of what a Coat of Arms is. For that reason, I googled the Internet to find out more about this coat of arms. Wikipedia has a rich content about the coat of arms that it overwhelmed me; realizing that designing a Coat of Arms is not simple. There are rules to follow and to observe. It's not just about a shield and the motto. There are other elements that make a Coat of Arms. I was even fascinated about the lingo that one uses in describing a coat of arms. I had to understand new terms like gules, argent, sable, escutcheon, etc. Whew! A Coat of Arms has many elements. The shield and the motto are just part of the whole thing. Other elements are the crest, wreath, helm, mantling, field, supporter, charge, and compartment. That m