Angels among us
“ I think that someone is watching out for me, God, my guardian angel, I’m not sure who that is but they really work hard.” – Mattie Stepanek Author, “Heartsongs” DO…
Category: Lifestyle Columnists
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Have you found your voice? Unshackling hostile work environments
Disclosure: In my prior work life, I had the unfortunate experience of working for a decade+ in a hostile environment in Sacramento, and where I pervasively felt all the disparagement…
To be intimately connected to God
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” John 15:1-8 JESUS’…
Renz Mareon Fernando: Gold mined from far-flung Tawi-Tawi Islands
GARNERING four medals in a highly contested international talent competition such as the World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) was one feat hard to duplicate but for a determined risk-taker…
Health info capsules
Restaurant menus Following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule introduced in 2012, restaurant menus today in about two-thirds of the largest restaurant chains have eliminated the highest caloric…
Scam-proofing basics 101
“ There is a sucker born every nanosecond.” –A play on a qoute mistakenly ascribed to circus impresario, P.T. Barnum YEARS ago, I came across an email message from a…
Life’s storms reveal your true friends
“When I came to know her exemplary kindness, I thought she should have been the nun and I should have been in the working world. Well. you must already know…
Goodbye Boracay — see you in six months
When an island becomes an income-generating tourist spot and has drawn millions of people to its powder-white sand beaches and coral reefs, it is hard to imagine that it will…
Divine echoes
THERE is a restlessness in many of us, one that makes us think about life and questions the varied facets of human existence. It’s a divine restlessness because it urges…
Linda M. Mayo: an instinctive mom and prototypical community leader
The long-standing notion of “women innately possessing maternal instinct is a myth” has been one debatable subject difficult to put to rest despite the fact that even psychologists settled that…
Insect Repellents
IS DEET safe? The ingredient DEET ((N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide) in insect repellents is safe when used according to directions on the container, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For approval,…
Garden lessons
“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.” –Claude Monet, speaking of his garden at Giverny in France SPRING is here and the earth beckons. The rains came this year, sometimes with…
Celebrating spring the Filipino way
Having four seasons in a year is an idea that is quite foreign to Filipinos who grew up in the Philippines. Back there, we only have dry (summer) and wet…
‘The Man with the Muck-rake’: Common good requires truth and facts
“In Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim Progress’ you may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward, with the muck-rake in his hand;…
During those perplexing times
”Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a…
Food Medicine
In this week’s issue, we shall devote our column to exalting “medicinal values or therapeutic effects” of regular, ordinary, food that people all over the world eat as part of…
The day I died
This is a story of a gynecologist as he related in MedScape: “When I began experiencing chest pain that was different from my usual heartburn symptoms, I denied I could…
‘Stop the heart?’
Why do cardiac surgeons stop the heart during surgery? The conventional technique in coronary bypass surgery includes, among other elaborate procedures, arresting the heart in order for the surgeon to…
Realities of aging
Last February 28, 2018, my wife, Farida, and I arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport from Manila, following our two medical missions in the Philippines. While waiting at the…
On listening in silence to God’s voice
I heard this beautiful story last week from a group of Lebanese Maronite Catholics during my visit to St. Maron’s Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In a mother’s womb were two…
Aphrodisiac dangers
What are aphrodisiacs? Aphrodisiacs are pro-sexual drugs or substances that will heighten libido (sexual desire), orgasm (ecstasy and pleasure) and performance in males and females, not partner-specific. As society gets…
Only by God’s grace
I ADMIT that there have been times in my life when my faith and prayer have run dry. What do I mean? It means that even in my life as…
Vatican to endorse porn?
For some people, to even think that the church could be persuaded to endorse porn or abortion is ridiculously absurd! The title is a satirical statement to highlight the stupidity…
On living our faith with passion, zeal, and conviction
REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn, one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art (1606-1669), portrays this Sunday’s Gospel in his painting, Christ Driving the Moneychangers from the Temple,…
Wisdom from a taxi driver
OUR team from Las Vegas and other states just completed our annual medical missions, first in Alaminos, Laguna (February 4-8), followed by another in Kamay ni Hesus Pilgrimage Center in…
The challenge and the promise of trust in God
Trust in God is what we need to face the hardships and incomprehensibility of life. It’s what Abraham in this Sunday’s First Reading manifested to us. He trusted in God’s…
Self-induced cancer
In the book on disease prevention at the cellular (DNA) level, entitled, Let’s Stop “Killing” our Children, I have highlighted tobacco and alcohol as the two major causes of most…
Lent as Kairos
“This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set a bow…
The tragedy of Valentine
Love is still thick in after Valentine’s Day, and as powerful and triumphant as ever, inspiring people around the globe, as different societies celebrated it according to their own tradition…
The greatest love is not bound by rules
WHY does some love between two people endure a lifetime, while others are destined only for a while? Then, the two lovers are separated, either by choice or by faith?…