ABC STARS Inspires

Project Ugnayan

THE BIBLE is not a collection of myths and legends as the "intellectuals" of today would like it to be. Genesis, for instance, is on the contrary a capsulized form—what twentieth century intellectual could better such a summary—of the fact of creation. The Book of Genesis, in the language of science today, could well be— In the beginning, at Zero-moment when time began, there burst forth the Ultra Nova. And there was light. The amazing nova is a sudden stupendous outburst of energy which increases the brightness of a star temporarily up to 100,000-fold; in a supernova, up to several billion-fold. The Crab nebula in the galaxies was found to have been the remnants of a supernova in 1054. Astrophysicists had long discarded the Collision Theory and the Planetary Nebulae theory on the origin of the Earth. Energy, as the basic concept of Physics can neither be created nor destroyed but may ultimately be lost by imperceptible dissipation. It is known by man today

THE EVOLUTIONISTS are not wrong when they illustrate all life on earth as a tree — the "Tree of Life". The question, however, is the consistency and completeness of their theories. For they omit the characteristic that makes a tree the highest specie of the plant kingdom—the seed bearing fruit. For precisely, if life on earth is a tree, each part is to remain as it is, a root as a root, the trunk as a trunk, and a leaf as a leaf, that the tree be a tree. A tree which in the fullness of time produced as the fruit, the crowning glory of creation—Man. Man, the seed-bearing fruit whose source is neither root nor trunk nor branch, but the Maker of that tree. And the science of Genetics (which we owe largely to the Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel) confirms this. For a branch by itself cannot produce (evolve) the seed-bearing fruit of a tree even though, to all appearances, it seemingly does. Nemo dat quod non habet . No thing can give what it does not have. Non sequi

Naga is one of the five oldest cities erected by the Spanish colonizers in the Philippines. (Manila, Cebu, Vigan and Iloilo.) The heart of Bicol, it is the seat of a nine-day religious and civic festivities. The feast of the Patroness of Bicolandia. The Virgin of Peña de Francia. The religious rites begin with the traslacion of her miraculous image, on the Friday immediately following September 8, Mary's birthday, from the Basilica to the Metropolitan Cathedral for a novena of Masses. Each of the seven dioceses in the six provinces of Bikol—Camarines Norte, Albay, Sorsogon, Catanduanes and Masbate, one each, and Camarines Sur, two—has its special day. It is concluded with the regional concelebrated Mass at the Basilica immediately after the fluvial procession of the Image back to her shrine along the Naga river, the following Saturday, nine days later. There is one indubitable point of unity among the Bicolanos. Their unstinted devotion to the Virgin Mary whom they

A.M.D.G. 7 February 1975 Maritess, my child, It was 19 years ago today that you were born in our nipa hut, in our 8BCT camp atop a hill, beyond Baras, Rizal, beside Laguna Bay. And I recall those days because until last Sunday, we were "allowed" to be free for 14 days from your birthday up to the 21st (from 7 to a number divisible by 7) to discuss this coming referendum on 27 February (ending in7). When I think on it, Iget mad. That the exercise of our freedom of thought, opinion and conscience should depend on but one man. As if we owe our inalienable rights to any mortal on earth. As if man, created in the image and likeness of God, did not have freedom and human dignity as his birthright. And I feel sad. Very sad. For no one else is to blame but ourselves as a people. We act today as if freedom should be given on a silver platter. And not, as it should be, asserted precisely when threatened and despite the odds. As if we are not descended fr

Bernardita Zalazar Carpio rarely wrote. She was a frequent speaker on such themes as 'Love, courtship and marriage", "husband-wife relationship","the family, a miniature church", and the like. She never wrote down her talks. She favored familiar, person-to-person communication. She talked, not from books, but from life. For she lived her faith. As a wife and as a mother of fourteen children who, she would emphasize as planned and prayed for, had rhythm like a poem - one girl three boys, one girl three boys, one girl three boys, to complete the dozen she prayed for on her wedding day, plus "bonuses", two boys, to make the fourteen lines of a sonnet. Our love sonnnet. One day, a lady columnist in a Manila paper wrote about 'Painless childbirth: A myth" (Philippine STAR, 20 Feb 93). Bernardita wrote columnist Domini M. Torrevillas about "the other side". Domini published the letter in her column (3 April 93) saying