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We knew her as Gigi Lazaro. We worked together for the Working Hands Scholarship Foundation together with Marty Manalo, Oyie (who is now in US), Doris Alcantara (who is now in Milan). Gigi now is one of the resource persons of Evangelion Foundation chaired by Bishop Teodoro C. Bacani. Working Hands Scholarship Foundation was formed by Yuppeace. Update. YUPPEACE now acts as formation arm of Working Hands Scholarship Foundation.

When YUPPEACE started in 1995 for the World Youth Day in Manila , we were nearly 10,000 volunteers. We were divided then by 5 houses namely: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. About a thousand of us decided to continuously relive the spirit of the World Youth Day and the spirit of volunteerism by meeting in 5 different places without any goal. We simply wanted to see each other while the fire brought by Pope John Paul II was still burning. Believing it was a heaven call, soon, Fr. Armand Robleza , SDB relaunched YUPPEACE as a registered foundation. The thousand remnants of World Youth Day 95 became directors, officers,   house heads, group heads, cell heads, WEST heads, and members of YUPPEACE. The five houses were renamed based on the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Help of Christians , Mother of Christ, Cause of Our Joy, Spiritual Vessel, and Morning Star. After many years of existence, a lot of us have decided to go home to their hometowns in the far provinces of the P...

Last May 24, Yuppeace celebrated Mass to celebrate the feast of Mary, Help of Christians. That mass was especially offered for the healing of John Karl, a boy who needs a miracle. Fr. Armand, asked Joyce to bring a rose and have it kissed by the image of Mary, and send that rose to John Karl. Here's the message of Joyce. "Today, June 5, John Karl celebrates his 2nd birthday. We thank God in all those who have helped him in one way or another survive his challenging journey of life. Biopsy results revealed benign tissue, GIT infected with h.pylori bacteria. We continue to pray for his healing as he struggles with everyday vomiting in tube feeding. Taking little steps to walk and now weighing 9.4 kgs (he used to weigh 6 kgs). Each day is a miracle."

I write my heart, my thoughts, and my soul for my faith community -- the YUPPEACE. This is my way of witnessing to the greatness and goodness of the Lord, Jesus Christ. YUPPEACE [Young Upbeat Professionals for Peace, founded in 1994] is a community of people who used to be "wounded children" but have grown spiritually Christ-centered through various spiritual and psychological formation programs created by this community. Our spiritual director and founder is Fr. Armand Robleza, SDB, a Salesian priest. Currently, the St. John Bosco Parish in Makati is our home base where we meet every Wednesday night. Our activities, though, reach the various provinces of the Philippines. Yuppeace conducts retreats, recollections, seminars, apostolic activities, and other formation programs. If you wish to join YUPPEACE, drop by at St. John Bosco Parish Church compound in Makati at Arnaiz Avenue on any Wednesday at 7:00 PM. You'll find us at the AVR, 2nd floor of the parish building. Eve...

At the Sacred Heart Novitiate The following are text messages from Fr. James Reuter sent via SMS. 02.01.08 "When a man kisses his wife, and his children, he is kissing God." 02.02.08 "When a mother gets up early in the morning to cook breakfast and to serve her family, she is serving God." 02.04.08 "Foreign forces pour money into the Philippines for population control, but the Filipino and the Filipina feel that their baby is worth more than money." 02.05.08 "In the Filipino family, the love among brothers and sisters is shown in this: the elder children chip in to send the younger children to school." 02.06.08 "The President of the Nurses' Association in the State of New York is a Filipina. She was the seventh child. She was put through nursing school in Manila by the contributions of her elder brothers and sisters." 02.07.08 "The bond in a Filipino family grows stronger as time goes by. Our Lolo and our ...

01.01.08 During the revolution of 1896, many brave young men were killed fighting for the freedom of our people. They are our Unknown Saints. Greater love than this no man hath, that he lay down his life for his friends. 01.03.08 The Filipino man has a deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He is convinced that, somehow, Mama Mary will save him in the end. 01.04.08 When Our Lord was dying on the cross, He gave us a beautiful gift – His mother, Mary. And she has been watching over us ever since! 01.07.08 Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of the unborn, of the child in the womb. She has been the cause of so many miraculous deliveries and of so many abortion survivors! 01.09.08 It is strange how many Filipino athletes pray to the Virgin Mary before they go into competition. They feel that she understands them – her children. 01.10.08 When you pray for those who have gone, it leaves you with peace of soul and with a balanced outlook on life. You realize that yo...

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 ...

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...

Dear Yuppeace, You Are A Gift. This Christmas, Christ opens you as the Gift to your loved ones - your family, your friends, your fellow Yuppeace, and to people you don't even know but you have helped in your littlest way. Celebrate that gift in you on YUPPEACE Navidad - A Christ Mass Celebration , on the 9th of December 2006 at Duets Bistro , 4th Floor AIM Conference Center, Benavidez Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City. Be there at 6:00 PM . We start the evening with the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Be at your best attire. Share your P500 for the place and the food. To signify your interest, enter your e-mail address on the calendar below. This will help us estimate the RSVP's. See instructions below.

I created this blog at the time the Philippines mourn for the lost of more than 1000 men, women, and children buried beneath a 30-meter landslide. Barangay Guinsaugon, a 1000-hectare town in St. Bernard Southern Leyte, was totally covered by soil and rocks from the nearby mountain. One school, 3 churches, hundreds of family homes, in 5 minutes, vanished from the map of St. Bernard. About 300 students and 7 teachers were in the school when the deadly landslide happened. There were reports that a few of them tried to contact their relatives and friends through their cell phones. So it was possible that they may might still be alive that time. At that time, I requested for prayers. "So, let's pray that they may be rescued alive. Let's also pray for those who didn't make it." I had a radical thought. Where do our prayers go? Do they travel through wave lengths? If I post a prayer on the Internet, what happens to that prayer in digital format? So, I imagine that...