ab epistvlis

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 ...