The Garden of the Saints

Visiting a botanical nursery garden,

one is amazed

by the variety of plants and flowers,

and often one is drawn to think

of the imagination of the Creator

who has given the earth a wonderful garden.

A similar feeling of wonder strikes us

when we consider the spectacle of sainthood:

the world appears to us as a "garden",

where the Spirit of God has given life

with admirable imagination

to a multitude of men and women saints,

of every age and social condition,

of every language, people, and culture.

Everyone is different from the other,

each unique in his own personality

and spiritual charism.

All of them, however,

were impressed with the "seal" of Jesus (cf. Rev 7:3)

or the imprint of his love

witnessed through the Cross.

They are all in joy,

in a festival without end,

but, like Jesus, they achieved this goal

passing through difficulties and trials (cf. Rev 7:14),

each of them shouldering his own share of sacrifice

in order to participate in the glory of the Resurrection.

...This spiritual destination,

towards which all the baptized strive,

is reached by following the way of the Gospel "beatitudes"...

It is the same path Jesus indicated

that men and women saints

have strived to follow,

while at the same time being aware of their human limitations.

In their earthly lives, in fact,

they were poor in spirit,

suffering for sins, meek,

hungering and thirsting for justice,

merciful, pure of heart,

peacemakers, persecuted for the sake of justice.

And God let them partake in his very own happiness:

they tasted it already in this world, and in the next,

they enjoy it in its fullness.

They are now consoled, inheritors of the earth,

satisfied, forgive, seeing God whose children they are...

We feel revived[d] within us

our attraction to Heaven,

which impels us to quicken the steps

of our earthly pilgrimage.

We feel enkindled in our hearts

the desire to unite ourselves forever

to the family of saints,

in which already now we have the grace to partake.

As a famous spiritual song says:

"Oh, when the saints go marching in,

Lord, I want to be

in that number!"

May this beautiful aspiration burn within all Christians

and help them to overcome every difficulty, every fear, every tribulation!

Let us place, dear friends, our hand

in Mary's maternal hand,

may the Queen of All Saints,

lead us toward our heavenly homeland,

in the company of the blessed spirits

"from every nation, people and language" (cf. Rev 7:9)

Pope Benedict XVI, 1 November 2008

...

Cover Photo -
The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs
Fra Angelico
© National Gallery, London, Great Britain

Life Update 03.11.2020

Gothic rib-vault ceiling. Photo by Tom Kamenjack.

It's been a while! So, I had no idea that this niche of mine still exists here online. I just spent the last couple of hours reading some of my old blog posts and playing around with a new theme. Maybe I'll revive this sleeping blog. Maybe not. I don't know. It's nostalgic and at the same time like a time capsule, from another me seven years ago.

It's 2020 and a lot has since changed since my last post. I'll go over and fill you in on some of the details in the last "twenteen" decade. Let's see...

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In 2014, I enrolled myself in a 25-week Living Waters program to deal with the struggles I had regarding behavioral addiction problems and false intimacies. The latter half of this year was spent recollecting my broken self. I finished my undergraduate thesis and while waiting for my graduation day, got myself a job in a small architectural firm. I was mostly on the production of contract documents used in construction, with a bit on the schematic and design development for new projects.

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In 2015, I finally graduated from college and got my Bachelor's Degree in Architecture. I left my first design firm and switched on a non-government organization, teaching out-of-school youths marketable and specialized construction skills, while managing projects in the field of heritage conservation --- mostly centuries-old churches built during the Spanish-Colonial period. I spent the next four years here falling further deeply in love with church history, liturgy, and research. I also had a health crisis that will be changing the course of how I view and live my life.

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In 2016, I fell ill around the later half of the year and decided while recovering to spend the rest of the remaining months studying for the upcoming Licensure Examinations. I enrolled myself for review classes, had a great time burying myself for hours and hours studying, made some awesome study buddies and grew my hair to about shoulder-length <laughs>.

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In 2017, I took the Licensure Examinations for Architects (LEA), passed and had myself registered as a full-pledged licensed Architect. It was one of the most surreal time of my life. For my old-time blog visitors, I started this niche to cope with the stress I had in the university as an architecture student. Looking back, I'm not even sure if I wanted to be an architect enough to merit where I am right now. I was truly just going with the flow, to be honest, but I somehow knew it was the right track for me to traverse at the time. Later, I would continue with my job on heritage conservation and would enroll myself for graduate studies to supplement and complement what I had been learning on-field all along. I had a lot of problems with politics in my working culture and environment, but I was getting by. I also started to lose my luscious locks and embraced balding. 

I think it was also around this time where I finally had this sense that I am being called to a life other than the married vocation and the priestly vocation. I was content being single and had regularly attended a weekly group with chastity as its primary goal. The catholic group truly is a gem that had nourished me spiritually and sacramentally through thick and thin. My love for the Mother Church and her heritage --- all her Truth, Goodness, and Beauty --- only grew, as well as my confidence to use my knowledge in architecture and history only for the service of the Church.

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In 2018, while actively working for the NGO and studying for graduate school, the toxic work environment had started to take its toll on me. I reacted by looking for a place elsewhere in the academe and was considered for a part-time position as a lecturer in my old university. As much as I wanted to teach history, I was only given Building Laws and Tropical Architecture, which to my surprise, I had a great time teaching. Tensions in the faculty did not spare me, and while I was doing well and had a sense of satisfaction, juggling three concerns in my head at all times really was too much.

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In 2019, I was at my wit's end. I quit my job in the latter half of the year and stopped going to classes in my graduate school, with no further intention of ever finishing. After a couple of years, chasing one goal after another, and trying to accomplish as much as I can with as little time (I hear people with a ticking time bomb, had this tendency), my passion had grown thin and weary. I figured it was a perfect time to slow down and just enjoy living. I took classes in graphic design and 2D animation while trying to figure things out.

I never stopped loving church history, and liturgy. I never stopped sketching, and making illustrations and reading the Lives of Saints because these creative activities and hobbies have given me life. I have a growing interest in iconography and hagiography (Click here for my DeviantArt Gallery!)

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Fast forward today in 2020, I just started a new job for a small design firm specializing in liturgical and ecclesiastical architecture. For anyone who has been with a start-up company, you know how it is with the birth struggles. Health-wise, I'm doing relatively good (amidst an impending public health crisis aka plague with the COVID-19 and the Novel Corona Virus). The world truly has changed a lot in the last couple of years.

It's funny when I think of myself as a grown man when all I could do right now is crawl back here where it all began. I stopped journaling a few years ago shortly after I stopped blogging. I missed writing and putting my thoughts out here for anyone who cares to dedicate a couple minutes to stop by and read. 

It may look like that I'm holding up pretty good for an average millennial, but with our age marked by uncertainty, all I could really do is to try to live one day at a time, write a piece in the stillness and quiet of my room, and narrate this story to myself. Just to make sense out of my restlessness, even for just a bit.

---

May He bless the broken road that lead me back to Him.

All Saint's Day Artwork!

The Catholic Imagination

"Catholics live in an enchanted world, a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles, saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures. But these Catholic paraphernalia are mere hints of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility which inclines Catholics to see the Holy lurking in creation. As Catholics, we find our houses and our world haunted by a sense that the objects, events, and persons of daily life are revelations of grace." 

--- The Catholic Imagination, Reverend Andrew Greeley (Feb 1928 - May 2013)

Architects on Churches

From the National Catholic Register Website: 

Architect Says Churches Must Be Beautiful to Reflect Faith
New book is meant to guide pastors, parishioners and architects as they set out to renovate or build new churches.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Because they help impart the Catholic faith to the world, Church buildings have a responsibility to reflect God’s beauty, says architect and author Duncan Stroik.

“You learn your faith through the [church] building; they’re sermons in stone, and that’s why they’re so important,” said Stroik, a professor at the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture.

“There’s no question in my mind that the architecture we built in the last 40 years did not help us in retaining the faith of the young and didn’t do a great job in evangelizing,” added Stroik, who penned the recent book The Church Building as a Sacred Place (December 2012, Liturgy Training Publications).

“Generations of people have grown up in these banal buildings, which have taught them either nothing or the wrong things about the faith, and that’s why architecture is so important.”

Stroik’s new work, subtitled Beauty, Transcendence and the Eternal, is meant to guide pastors, parishioners, patrons and architects as they set out to renovate existing churches or build new structures entirely.

The book is composed of numerous essays outlining principles of Church buildings, examining the history of both classical and modernist architecture, and looking to the future of sacred architecture.

“I’d like to put the book in context, in the sense that I see a huge renaissance of sacred architecture in this country that’s taken place over the last 20 years. ... This book is coming at a time when we’ve had a great sea change in the way Catholics think about their churches,” he said.

“Most parishes want something that looks like a church. ... There’s a desire for beauty. Now, how do we do it? And I like to think this book can be part of that,” he said, to help those who want to build beautiful, traditional churches.

Raising the Standard

Stroik said that while there have been “great successes” in Catholic architecture in the past 20 years, still more remains to be done.

“We need to do a better job. We haven’t built a new church in the last 50 years that is as good as the best things we built in 1920 or 1820.” We need to “hit that high standard,” he said, of “the best things.”

“I’d like to raise the standards. ... We really need to raise our eyesight, to look on the great things of the past.”

Stroik noted that not all Church buildings that are old are necessarily good and that we should look to the best among them, pointing out the cathedrals of Chartres and Florence, and, in the U.S., St. Patrick’s in New York City and the cathedrals of Baltimore and Philadelphia.

“Our goal should be to be as good, or better, than Baltimore or Chartres.”

Stroik, who designed the Thomas Aquinas College Chapel in Santa Paula, Calif., and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wis., pointed out that, contrary to the thought of modernist architects, working within the tradition leaves “a lot of room ... for a variety of styles, of ways of designing a church” and that creativity is welcomed in classical architecture.

He compared working within the tradition of architecture to working within the tradition of theology. “You have a whole lot of stuff that’s out there that you can learn from, and that you want to learn from, but there is development in theology and in architecture, and it’s very creative.”

In his book, Stroik writes that he intends to move Catholics away from “merely the construction of ‘worship spaces’” and towards the creation of sacred architecture.

“Walking into a church, our vision is meant to be of the heavenly city. ... There’s a different kind of vision; it’s a view to the world as it should be, to the heavenly realm,” he said.

He mentioned that while he believes sacred architecture should have height, directionality, iconography and a clear sanctuary, within those confines, “there’s room for many solutions, for different architecture and for people to do different things.”

Churches built in the past 40 years have not generally conveyed a vision of the heavenly city, Stroik reflected. This is largely because of the modernist elements of functionality and iconoclasm — the rejection of sacred images and statues.

“Often, we’re not conscience of what we’ve learned from these buildings, but we’ve learned a lot.”

Architecture “teaches us the wrong things or the right things; that’s why it’s so important. Our kids are growing up and worshipping in these churches, and that’s what they’re learning about the faith.”

To have a “healthy Church,” Stroik said, “we have to use all the tools we have ... and architecture is one of them. It’s not the most important or the only one, but it is an important one.”

Great Patrons, Great Architects 

Stroik hopes The Church Building as a Sacred Place will impact patrons of sacred architecture, without whom the creation of churches to rival the Baltimore and Philadelphia cathedrals will not be possible.

“You need a great patron, one who is informed and educated about art and architecture and who cares about and wants the best, and a really great architect, who is supported and challenged by the patron."

“I like to think this book can help the architect and the patron to prepare for their project,” he said, and to “help us all” rise the tide of Catholic architecture, lifting all boats.

“In my philosophy about Church architecture, I try to be as broad, as inclusive, as possible,” Stroik explained.

Looking at the 2,000-year history of Catholic architecture, Stroik uses examples from diverse times and places, “so this is a book not just for Americans or the 21st century.”

“I’m really interested in those things which transcend our period, and even our regions. ... There are things relevant across the world to Catholics, and if I’ve done any little bit of that, there’s something for everyone in the book.”

Letter to Diognetus

Stupendous words of the ancient Letter to Diognetus, which describes the absolutely essential mission of Christians in the world. (Lifted from Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures by Pope Benedict XVI, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger)

For Christians are not distinct from other men in terms either of their territories, their language, or their way of life… They live in the cities of the Greeks or the barbarians, as the lot has fallen to each one, and they adapt to the customs of the place in their clothing and food and in the rest of their way of living, offering the example of their marvelous form of social life, which all admit has something incredible about it. They live each in his own native land, but as if they were foreigners. They take their share in all the burdens, as citizens, and they put up with everything, as strangers. Every foreign land is a native land for them, and every native land is a foreign land. They get married like everyone else and have children, but they do not expose their newborn children. They share their table, but not their beds. They live in the flesh, but not according to the flesh. They dwell on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the laws that have been laid down, but with their manner of life they rise above the laws. They love all and are persecuted by all… To put it in a word, Christians are in the world what the soul is in the body… The soul loves the flesh that hates it and loves its limbs: Christians, too, love those who hate them. The soul is shut up within the body, but it is the soul that sustains the body: Christians, too, are held in the world as in a prison, but it is they who sustain the world… God has assigned them such a high position, and they are not allowed to abandon it.

Ugliness

"When we allow God to see our innermost ugliness, He will not reject us. 
On the contrary, He will sing loving songs of acceptance and forgiveness as He embraces us in our dirtiness."

-- Bro. Michael Lobrin's book, "Laughing with God"

(which ironically broke me down into tears)

The Separation of Church and State

From the Facebook status update of a friend. This is for the extremists of democracy~

For the record: The separation of Church and State is a constitutional provision that (1) commands the State to guarantee the free exercise of religion, (2) that no religion be given special endorsement or recognition by the State as its official religion, and (3) that all religions are allowed to exist and function, as long as these do not offend public morals or do not violate existing civil and criminal laws.

IT NEVER PROHIBITS THE CHURCH TO SPEAK PUBLICLY AND STRONGLY IN MATTERS OF ITS OWN FAITH AND MORALS.

IT NEVER STOPS THE CHURCH FROM COMMENTING ON PUBLIC ISSUES. IT NEVER PROHIBITS THE CHURCH FROM PURSUING ANY ADVOCACY FLOWING FROM ITS SOCIAL TEACHINGS. 

IT NEVER PROHIBITS THE CHURCH FROM PROTECTING ITS OWN FLOCK FROM THE SELF--DESTRUCTIVE VALUES OF THE WORLD. 

FINALLY, IT NEVER MAKES THE CATHOLIC PRIESTS, RELIGIOUS AND THE LAITY, AND CHURCH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS.

In making laws offensive to the doctrines of the majority religion of its citizens, IT IS THE STATE THAT VIOLATES THE SEPARATION CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION, AND NOT THE CHURCH. So help us, God!

Exhausted

An entry from my personal journal, Spiritual Landmarks:

Exhausted. I dragged myself to the university for our final meeting with our thesis advisory class. I am forced to look back on those bloody scenes of my thesis deliberation. I had my copy of the jury's comment sheets to ponder on. In my stubbornness, I am still able to understand their bias and recommendations for the second semester. I failed to defend the beauty and synthesis of McNamara and his preference of Classical Tradition in architecture. So now I must face the consequence of submitting to their caprices and compromising the ideals of my approach (which was too ontological according to Kuya Red). I am deeply hoping that I may learn a thing or two in this whole experience. I have to open myself to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the Holy Spirit is guiding me to come up with a better synthesis and design translation. There's so much to think about and consider. What a completely necessary burden! With a bloodier thesis deliberation for the next semester, I am left with nothing but to commend this suffering to the Lord. The battle continues despite such very strong temptation not to push through. God bless my soul...

ArchInspire #030: Church Case Studies

Been on a long hiatus since the dawn of my thesis semester. I'm making a come-back with these images of church architecture case studies I included in the book. Enjoy <sarcastic and indifferent tone>. I intended for it to be a comparative analysis, unfortunately I may have fell short in establishing the definitive criteria to do so. I've been reflecting on the words Kuya Red left in my previous blog entry. There's still so much to revise and consider. What a burden! What a necessary burden! *sighs*

Joong-Ang Catholic Church

Anyang, Gyeongi-do, Republic of South Korea

Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cloister and Church

Jeongreung-do, Seoul, Republic of South Korea

Saint Alphonsus Mary di Liguori Parish (Magallanes Church)

Magallanes Village, Makati City, Republic of the Philippines

Basilica Minore de San Sebastian

Quiapo, Manila, Republic of the Philippines

Abbaye de Fontenay

Burgundy, France

San Agustin Church (Paoay Church)

Paoay, Ilocos Norte, Republic of the Philippines

Sources:
The Master Architect Series VI Kim Young-Sub +Kunchook-Moonhwa Architect Associates – Selected and Current Works (Australia: The Images Publishing Group, 2003) and BluPrint – The Design Sourcebook, Vol. 3/2010 (Pasig: Mega Publishing Group, 2010)

Thesis. Rants. Thesis. Rants.

Here are my reflections in light of my recent thesis deliberations yesterday which turned out completely not what I had expected <writing in a frustrated manner>

• McNamara's Architectural Theology can never be understood by architects with a functionalist mind setting much less be suggested upon those who are addicted with the modernist notion of progress and development. 
• Architects needed grace and divine intervention in order to understand Architectural Theology.
• Our college is never ready for a process-oriented-type of thesis. They busy themselves like all 'modern' and avante-garde architects by the cultural hypes and pleasure in the application of the latest trend and latest innovation - another proof of this age's upward mobility and false notion of development.
• There are those who can't stand being lectured upon. That's why they dwell upon their preconceived notions and assumptions, taking pride in their pretensions. They pretend to listen. They pretend to know. They pretend to understand. But they never listen. They know little. Because they are too stubborn to understand.
• There are matters which cannot be explained by purported figures and statistics. Design philosophies and theoretical discourses in theology are examples of those matters.
• Those who pretend to understand will never understand.Those who walk the road less traveled risk the chances of being mocked and called a fool.

---

Mother Teresa said, "God is the friend of silence." 

Things are born in quiet that cannot be heard in the din of our overly verbal days.

The Institute for Sacred Architecture

A great source of related literature and case studies. My thesis partner of reference :)

I'm so thankful of you. What blessing~

Shutterbug Wannabe #021: Conventus

Still life and everyday household photography at the convent of the Missionaries of the Beatitudes.

Luis Ak-ak's wood carving of St. Ezekiel Moreno

I had the best time with my almost 4-month stay at the convent of the Missionaries of the Beatitudes this summer - truly a momentous event in my life. The many quiet and sunlit afternoons in my final week of stay woke up my lost love for still life photography - a truly absorbing art requiring just the right lighting and composition. Check out more pictures here.

ArchInspire #028: Earth Chapel

The official promotional poster after the DOT 'More fun in the Philippines" meme.

Here's an overdue post from my not-so-recent visit to Bacolod City last March. It was one of the highlights of our sojourn aside from our ocular inspection and negotiation from one of the prospective donor's one-hectare site in the municipality of Murcia. During our visit, we stayed in the convent of the Recoleto friars inside the campus of the University of Negros Occidental - Recoletos. It was within the area of Greenheart Hermitage where we saw and held Mass in the Earth Chapel - a collaborative work from three Negrense artists anchored on their common advocacy of protecting the environment. Here's my review of the structure:

The chapel is the first solar-powered religious edifice in the country where it is envisioned both to have a sound spiritual and environmental atmosphere. The main material used for its walls were mud mixed with lime and rice straws. The posts and trusses were salvaged bamboo trunks and the roofing is made up of thatched cogon grass. During the day, the green-tinted old wine bottles incorporated in the structure lets in an ambient lighting aside from serving as an aesthetic recycled stained-glass window. LED lights were used to illumine the interior at night. Discarded tiles and wood slabs are only some of its notable recycled materials. The chapel was envisioned to be the center of the community's ecological reflection, owing to the spiritual inspiration of our Creator, in the hopes of transforming individuals in the community to be men and women of faith committed to protect and preserve the earth.

The collaborative project was from the brain juice of Marisol Alquiza (visual artist), who sketched and designed the chapel; Brother Tagoy Jakosalem (a Recoleto friar and an official presenter of The Climate Reality Project), who did the interior and conceptualized the incorporation of the use renewable energy to make the structure true to form and function in its liturgical scheme; and Nunenlancio Alvarado (a leading social-realist artist in the country) who designed the centerpiece of the chapel - a mosaic crucifix for the altar that depicts Christ as a suffering sacada.

The Earth Chapel adds another spiritual and liturgical venue in the island of Negros, aside from the "Chapel of the Angry Christ" in Victorias and the "Chapel of the Cartwheels" in Manapla. The chapel is a model of how a place of worship can maximize the use of renewable energy and indigenous materials in its structure.

Below are the original images I took during our visit. We also made history by celebrating the first Holy Mass in it after its official blessing from the Bishop of Negros Occidental :)

 

Christ as a suffering sacada. (Altar centerpiece by Nunelancio Alvarado)

On Silence and Solitude

From  Blessings of the Daily: A Monastic Book of Days:

The monastic tradition has always emphasized the necessity of both solitude and silence as requirements for those who apply themselves exclusively to prayer. Silence and solitude are indispensable tools for a solid life of prayer. Silence, interior and exterior, pave the road for communication with god. Without silence, the road is not accessible.

Solitude frees us from our particular attachments to others, to ourselves, from our strong dependence on security and worldly values. It compels us to look at God alone for our sustenance, for friendship, for comfort. In solitude, the monk never ceases praying, never ceases knocking and calling upon him who is the only left to him. Solitude, seen from this perspective, is not a negative experience or a deprivation. On the contrary, monastic solitude can be incalculably rich, immensely positive. When cultivated properly, humbly, it creates the right climate that makes unceasing prayer possible. Just as silence paves the way for closer communication with God, solitude leads the soul to the harmony and joy of intimacy and communion with him.

+ Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourette

Update 06.07.12 - Retablo

What's keeping me busy all summer.

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Yesterday, the Lord broke my heart. 

Today, I'm starting to see how He piece them back again.

Funny how I have waited for a year only to be greeted by another two years of waiting.
It is not a race against time. The will of the Lord prevails. *sighs*

ArchInspire #027: Vault Patterns

Here's a repost from Visual News -

The next time you find yourself in a Romanesque or Gothic European church, cathedral or basilica, lay down on the floor and cast your eyes up to the mesmerizing ceiling. Built between the 12th and 16th centuries, it’s hard to believe the level of detail and variation in these marvels of architecture from over half a millennia ago. The designs, full of intricately repeating ribbed diamonds and triangles, look like kaleidoscopic designs carved from stone… actually, that’s not far from the truth.

In his book Heavenly Vaults, photographer David Stephenson continues his work he began with his book Visions of Heaven, taking images of the ancient houses of worship that fill the european continent. The book captures many ceilings of the transcendent structures, designed in a time when they easily towered over any surrounding buildings, with the intention of inspiring passerby to higher callings. Stephenson’s images flatten the vaulted ceilings, simplifying them to their essential shapes and emphasizing their repeating patterns, intricately carved detailing and colorfully painted ornaments.

The beautiful book contains 104 pages of photographs and an accompanying essay by Stephenson charting the history of the vault and explaining its technological developments. You can see more images from his series here.