Jandrea...so far

There is a question whether “physical distancing” should be used instead of “social distancing” to describe the measures we need to undertake to help curb the spread of the Corona virus. While this teacher of Psychology of Language prefers the former because using it makes it clearer to people the specific behavior that this concept entails, I also cannot discard the usefulness of the latter term when trying to understand what being away and apart from others can do to our inner emotional world.  My family was attending the 6 PM online mass last Sunday. We were projecting the Mass on our living room wall so that the large image of the celebration helped us imagine that we were inside the church! Suddenly, we heard a loud voice from outside our house saying, "Pow, laksan mo ang volume"!  We were surprised to see my sister and her assistant looking in through our windows but behind the wall separating our houses. Apparently, they had realized that the online mass was better s...

For Fr. Ron Mariano Roberto on his 10th Sacerdotal Ordination Anniversary The past few weeks have been filled with a lot of challenges brought about the COVID-19 situation. What started as seemingly just a minor health concern that could be easily handled by taking heed of prescribed measures has progressed into battling an enemy with unknown and fearful powers that have already resulted in death for many. Two Sundays ago, while serving mass as commentator, I regretted at not staying home even if I felt weak because midway through the mass I got dizzy and nauseous. I threw up in an adjoining room soon before I could go home. Thoughts of the virus filled my head but because it was an unusually warm day, I attributed my condition to heat exhaustion. But alarm levels were ringing in my head! The following day, I dealt with what felt like a throat infection by using my full arsenal of essential oils for boosting my immunity, salabat, and Pei Pa Koa. Battle won after 4 days! So even if ...