In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.



First of all, thanks to my family and friends for the encouragement to me in keeping my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God for you too, because I see His Spirit in you. And it is by your own choosing that His Spirit resides in you that God is able to use you to inspire me thus.

Anyway, here is a personal errata.

Recently, I've come to an understanding of prayer. This understand has led me to prayer more daily. What is this understanding?

In the past, I've always said, "You only need to pray once. No need to pray again. It's in the hands of God. Whatever happens is up to Him. Praying for the same thing more than once is a sign of the lack of faith. By praying for something only once, and being done with it, you need faith for your intentions to be resolved."

However, a week ago, a combination of reading some books gave me a new approach to prayers for intentions: that when we ask God to grant our intentions, we should ask it continuously.

In the first place, the fact that we pray to God for our intentions to be granted is a sign of faith. Because, in doing so, we believe that only God can grant our wishes.

Praying to God again about the same thing is a further sign of faith. I believe that subsequent prayers come from a faith that is stronger in a person than from another who prays only once.

In Lk 18:1-8, Jesus preaches that "God will see justice done to his elect if they keep calling on Him day and night even though He still delays to help them...(v.7) He will see justice done, and done speedily...(v.8)".

(Of course, prayer should be only done with good intentions, so that justice may be done in this world. Intentions should never be for self interest, but for the God's glory.)

Repeating your intentions in prayer helps build a conversation with God, as well as keep tracks of prayer events concerning our intentions. It also promotes confidence in God. We tell God our intentions and confide in His presence what our heart's deepest desires, hopes and longings, spiritual or otherwise. We would also be telling God the problems we face concerning our intentions.

What I find interesting is this: even though you pray for the same things everyday, your mind is at greater ease. In the past, I've tried the 'praying once' logic, but I've always gave up on God and try to attain my intentions by my own means. This is my lack of faith.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.



Happy Easter to you all! This Easter weekend is the 10th anniversary of my baptism. Indeed, these ten years seem to have gone by in a flash, and yet much has happened. During these ten years, I backslided from Christ. But at the moment when I needed Him most, He reaches out his hand and gave me back my life. No questions asked. I often quote Psalm 118:23 to myself: "This is the Lord's doing; and it is marvelous in our eyes!"

The Lord forgave me so thoroughly that my guilt is in itself my sin. After all, if one cannot forgive oneself, one cannot begin to forgive others. The source of forgiveness is love. "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16). Therefore, the source of forgiveness is from God. What I am saying is that before forgiveness comes love.

The Lord moved the spirit of love in me by all those unfortunate events. After stacking guilt upon guilt, believing in my own human strength to bear my own sins, He has thought me how to love again, beginning with myself, then towards others.

Next: Suffering in this world. Time and time again, people ask, "If God exists, why is there still suffering in this world?"

We must understand that God is not the cause of suffering in our world. Suffering comes from the sins of humankind. As a result of one's selfishness, for example, others are made to suffer. The injustices caused by the sinful against God's holy people (and therefore to God) is the sole source of this suffering.

The cause of human suffering is our very own disobedience towards God. Because God gave us free will, we are free to choose between the good and the bad. We become responsible for our actions and therefore must also assume the respective consequences of good and bad actions. If we choose to live in God, a life of sanctity and human dignity, the chances are that we will live in God's graces, being bestowed upon by God the necessities for a purpose-driven life in Him. However, if we choose the path of evil, we will end up causing suffering to others and ourselves.

Of course, while He gave us free will, He never leaves us to this free will without a word of advice or warning. Imagine that you're a parent of child who so very much wants to learn to skate. Would you let him? Of course. We are all very open-minded today. However, there are consequences of the child learning skating: he may get into an accident and be hurt. You know the chances of this happening is high, whatever the degree of hurt the accident may cause. Would you still let him? Of course. But you would let him learn skating only after a parental word of advice: "Be careful", "Don't try to be a hero", etc. Likewise, God advises and warns us beforehand about the consequences of sin: suffering. He does not stop us from causing others hurt.

The other cause for suffering is original sin (Genesis 3:17-19). I will not go into this part of the discussion because I want to discuss about Original Sin in a forthcoming entry here. However, I'll just say this: suffering can also be caused by the inherent imperfect nature of the human being. This imperfect nature is caused by original sin.

Simply put, we humans have the tendency to sin because our vulnerability to the devil's tricks. Even so, our sins can cause others and ourselves to suffer. (The only way to get around original sin is through baptism.)

I believe that the world's suffering can be lessened because God believes in all humankind. We know this because He calls all the world to be His people.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.



Today is my third day at The Wine Company. Last night was pretty busy, but I didn't think it was very hard work. Hard work, yes. Not very hard work though.

But today was pretty relaxed.

At the start of the evening, a cool thing happened to me. I met a very beautiful woman who made my day. I didn't talk to her or anything because I didn't want to embarass my uncouth self. She had short hair, fair skin and wonderful almond-shaped eyes which had very, very dark pupils.

Of course, she's beautiful. But what made me attracted to her most isn't actually her looks. Although this is the first time I've seen her in person, she is someone I've seen on TV before. She appeared on a TV special on some sort of disease. The disease affected her body in a way that made her prone to feinting. The disease also made her skin extremely sensitive to direct sunlight. She was on the show as a representative of all those who suffer from this disease. The way she talks, you can tell she's a real fighter and a person with a lot of love in her heart. She's really someone who seems to know inner peace, as though she is very close to God.

She is someone that I admire, and someone I would like to have a nice chat with because of her courage. In any case, I didn't get to talk to her. Just reminding myself of the stuff she has to go through and how hard she fights against negativity and depression gives me a lot of encouragement. And I thank God for people like that who even from a distance could inpire so much courage in others.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.


Still from Alfie.

I just saw Alfie. It's quite a good film, if you ask me. Nice glamourous images with interesting editing style. I think they really did pick the right person to play Alfie. The theme of redemption is quite strong here, and although no one forgives Alfie at the end, he somehow manages to redeem himself.

On to other things: I finally signed up for film school and they said that there is space available. Hooray! Just have to pay a deposit for now after I receive some documentation from them. I wonder if I'm suppose to pay the deposit first or wait for their snail mail to arrive. Hmm.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.



Been ages since I blogged. How's everyone?

Saw several movies in the theatres: Ocean's Twelve, Phantom of the Opera, The Aviator, Constantine, and a couple others I can't bother naming. Didn't catch Million-Dollar Baby.

Ocean's Twelve is pretty cool. But I keep having that feeling is just an excuse for glamour. Seems like the script is not as tight as Ocean's Eleven. And the twist at the end is lousy. Didn't feel like it had built enough precendence.

Phantom of the Opera wasn't too bad. Nominated for Best Cinematography at the Oscar's? Not good enough. In fact, I thought that was the downside of the film. Bad cast too. Imagine: the Phantom was better-looking than Raoul. But what kept the crowd, including myself, going, was the music. No doubt a large part of the audience are quite familiar with the score. I found myself singing through the film.

The Aviator. It's the first time I've ever had anything good to say about Leonardo diCaprio's acting. The story was really good. Well written and well carried through. Of course, anything under Martin Scorsese tends to be quite well done. The hallmark of the film for me is the ending. So Scorsese.

Constantine. If you haven't seen it, don't. Rubbish. Ridiculous when filmmakers don't pay attention to details like excorcism rites and lore. Annoyingly flashy shots. All in all, just another Matrix mimic to wow the crowd. it didn't wow me.

Saw some movies on cable: Gum Gai(Golden Chicken), Empire of the Sun, and others that are not worth the mentioning.

Gum Gai is pretty darn good. To me, one of the hallmarks of Hong Kong satire. Very awesome characterization, or maybe just a film with a very strong redemption theme. There is still talent other than Wong Kar-Wai in Asia, after all. I wish I could make a Cantonese film.

Empire of the Sun. Admittedly, I've seen this before a long time ago. It's another Steven Spielberg film that almost made me cry. The only other films ever to make me cry were Forrest Gump and Schindler's List.

VCD and DVDs: The Indiana Jones Trilogy, House of Flying Daggers and Love, Actually.

The Indiana Jones Trilogy was so good that it caused me and my family to miss the New Year Countdown. Enough said.

House of the Flying Daggers was actually not bad. I think, in this case, I was won over with the cinematography more than anything else. But I thought the cast was somewhat strange. Could've chosen better, Mr. Zhang. The characters don't seem to be very well thought out, but at least they are consistent.

Love, Actually is a hilarious romantic comedy. But the plot devices used here are cliched, to say the least. And the cast is too glamourous. But it will still pass. If you think about it, though, there isn't much unusual about this film. The script is quite standard.

Now, anime. Watched too many series to name, most of them not new. But the good ones I shall mention: Otogi Zoushi, Last Exile, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, and Monster. Of these, only Last Exile has a more or less average anime plot. Otogi Zoushi is interesting but nothing to get bowled over. GITS: SAC 2nd Gig is still in the process of release, so is Monster. But these two have outstanding plots. Monster has especially fantastic characterization and a very tight storyline. Oh yeah, forgot to specially mention Windy Tales. Somewhat nostalgic. Interesting style of artwork.

Also watched these other feature films: National Treasure, Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Samurai), Mibu Gishi Den (When the Last Sword is Drawn), Appleseed, Sound of the Ocean, and Innocence.

Read: Haruki Murakami's Kafka On The Shore, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha (re-reading it), Luo Guanzong's Three Kingdoms, and La Bible de Jerusalem (hur, hur).

What's up?

I will most probably be going to Los Angeles for my next and final leg of education. I say 'most probably' because I haven't registered yet. I'm also currently working on designing catalogues and a website for a company to earn some money.

If there is anyone out there who wants to do photography portraits, I'd be happy to do them for free. Let me know so we can arrange a date. I'll be leaving the country in May and I won't know exactly when I shall return thereafter.

Like the new design of this website? Admittedly, the picture on the front cover is from Getty Images. I'll replace it as soon as I take a suitable photo. And yes, sorry, but no more tagboard. Don't want anymore pop-ups. Leave me a message below, if you like. Groove it.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.