Jesus said to forgive so we can let go the clinging bad energy and so as not to attract anymore of the same...what you resist persist and they invite more company.....so letting go is a great self help and a wonderful favor we can give ourselves...

Ed Rame shared Imelda Cledera Rodriguez's photo.
September 19 at 10:15am ·
Our Father........thy will be done on earth as in heaven, like my mother on earth, I honor the Mother of Jesus....as my mother too John 19:26...and as a son to a loving mom, help my prayers reach the presence of the Lord Almighty...may all of us triumph over our adversities, be enlightened to know the truth and live lives according to what the Father wills....in Jesus name.
Viva Nuestra Senora de Penafrancia!!!!

My Hiding Place...
Twice in a row......I was in a conversation with someone very dear to me. It was a ticklish topic and as much as possible I wish not to offend a seemingly fragile or more likely a guarded relationship. But I am happy though that when topics are delicate I get the phone call first. One family, two cultures, separated by time and oceans apart. The misunderstanding is purely missed communications as technology came up only high speed for the last five years or so. My draconian response was wrapped in the finest of fabrics of hard hitting gloves that it would be puzzling or condescending realizing what would hit so bad yet still in the gentlest of blows. I wouldn't like to embarrass nor put anyone in a bad light so I asked What would Jesus do? And the formidable accusations and defenses just came crumbling without even me trying hard yet as I sensed my upper hand I gave all the gentlest blows I can and ended...."I believed these are God's messages for you for there is no way I can put all these together" I just thought hiding in the cloak of God's words really is the safest way to go....

The First Christmas Gift

The First Gift of Chrtistmas

For God has so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but will have everlasting life...(John 3:16)....This says it all why we should stop and think, consider, process this verse that it may sink in our entire being and become the defining structure of our thinking, This is the root of all love and our very ...reason to be grateful, thankful, joyful and hopeful. In one word FAITH, our "must be" all encompassing response to this wonderful Gift. It is the kind of lifestyle that we should be so learned about, so educated about that becomes our default as we go on with our daily lives. The importance of this Gift covers the entire gamut of our existence and becoming well nurtured with this makes us become the person we are so meant to be. The search for the truth should start from knowing this Gift fully and in the process achieved our greatness and be testament to the promise of Matthew 6:33 Seek yeah first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you....Unknowing what I know and knowing this Gift will be to abide in Him for Him to abide in me

May all of us get to know and receive too the First Gift of Christmas. May the love of God in Jesus Christ be with us all from this time on to eternity. God bless us all.

Breakfast with my Mom and TinaPA

Breakfast with my Mom and TinaPA
Every Tuesday nights is our Bible study at our humble yet so blessed home but for some reasons only TinaPA would know, she was only able to muster her energy until dinner. She said goodbye before we could begin our usual light, insightful and happy story book telling like mood. So this morning at breakfast, TinaPA is ok and we talked about a lot of stuff about her family, children and her own journey. I kind of mad at her because I have a strong feeling she was not being honest about last night but my mom said to be patient as I was advising my sister too to do the same in her situation that when logic fails all you have to do is shut up, do not react, be patient and pray for enlightenment for it will come. And to me it did come and as we wind up our breakfast, I brought to the table one of the side lessons last night which is Mat 5:3..The first of the Beatitudes.....Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven...For a good measure we are blessed to have our own morning rigodon of just preparing the breakfast and after that our schedule is at our mercy for we are so wealthy with time. And for a good measure too all of us three suffered severe losses in our lives too, for a start both are widows. Materially, all of us were in one way or time or the other were stripped literally. Now we live simple lives. TinaPA is a doyenne of a pedigreed family with a rich history of a father whose kindness is legendary to the needy in his lifetime... Must not be easy for her really for as protected as she was before..it came to us too that good intentions are not always for the good. Mat 16:22-23.. I now believed God has made us so to become depleted in spirit and wealth so that all that was left to us is our thirst for Him and His words, our thirst for our own gift of deliverance..in our own needy lives, it is only His words that man doesn't live by bread alone Mat 4:4 that became so real and meaningful. So this is it. This is our journey. Our own transformation, our own restoration and His Kingdom come in our lives. From a human perspective of neediness and searching state to a continuously being spirit filled life where we all three believed did happened for a very good reason. And how we all met is one for the storybook of how really everything was planned out by God long before we've met.

Breakfast with Mom.

At the breakfast table with my mom.......A closer look at my mom's piece of mind on having peace of mind.
Like many of us, my mom had her own share of catastrophic falls and fair share of glorious moments.  After 78 years, what unfolded was something she never expected.  She got peace.  One morning while tending to her plants, she was shaken upon hearing the words of Pastor John Hagee that the greatest gift one can receive in this life is peace of mind.  Mom's hearing is no longer as great and specially so when she's so focused with her plants but then surprisingly with that one statement she resonated very well.  She screamed in joy like one time when she found her missing heirloom at the potted plants.  I thought it was but told me instead "I think I found it", I asked what did you find , she said Peace of Mind....Looking back from her past, really she really did achieve much but lost a lot too.  When she moved to Kauai she (so we thought) crept her way to prominence.  Kauai was both a humbling and glorious experiences.  She started from scratch stripped with everything and left only with her faith and a fair amount of fear of the unknown..  She even took a second job as a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant Kintaro where she has to deal with huge pots and pans and hundreds of dishes at a fast pace and to think I've never seen her wash dishes before out of privilege and esteem accorded to her.  Yet she didn't mind and took them in as part of her own learning process.  Until an opportunity came that she moved to Prudential and became a star insurance agent in her own right.  If you can come to our humble home, I placed her numerous plaques of awards and appreciations in our wall to remind her of her colorful achievements.  After Prudential, she had all the body repairs...heart by pass, hip replacements, pacemaker and has to deal with her diabetes and heart issues since then....Finally her wings were clipped and again this time she can no longer assert her will as she used to.  Five years ago she joined me here in LA and slowly her transformation began.  I saw how she slowly accepted her new lifestyle and with all humility she accepted the big change.  I am a loving yet I am also a contentious strong willed son having lived on my own for the last 16 years in LA plus 10 years before that after she  she migrated in Hawaii.  It was a process for both of us to start and build a communication line and we have always referred to our faith...It was almost tumultuous but we both hold our horses and tried to see common grounds and always the words of God comes out.  Slowly we decided to now focus our thoughts to His teachings and words.  We decided to go to the mass as often as we can.  We devoted more time to listen and watch TBN for God's words, we joined Bible studies, and started one in our own home with some friends.  Evidently our auto pilots has changed.  It is now a growing grateful awareness and automatically and in effect I know it is subconscious.  The time probably has come and it came with a process....First of all there is this unfailing faith that so sustains us in our five years of some roller coaster together.  But the last two years has started to shift for with faith we hoped for our own deliverance and for our dreams, with hope we decided to be obedient or we do our best to be, with obedience we endure, we became patient and in time with more and more Words and prayers we slowly became still and more dependent on God.  Slowly surrendering our will to Him and all our dreams and hope. and slowly Peace came in  our hearts.  At this point.. worry, anger, doubt, fear became less and less prominent.....Though we still experience them like hard rocks that comes and hit us yet it has become easier to discern and avoid as already they became signs of spiritual poisons.  This is actually why I love Mat 6:33 Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.  It speaks of the journey of seeking asking knocking of that elusive truth.  I thought it was just a restless sinful beingness but it is a part of a personal journey to seek the Truth, the state of grace the state of the Kingdom.

LIttle faith...uncertain like maybe ...because can not see....The key is focus...focus of the creator., agreement with His will.....when in doubt and struggling ask ur focus....Mark Ch 9....v 17......