YE-Experience - tagaytay

Kakaibang "Retreat" experience ever!

source: http://joycegalvz.livejournal.com/

Hay! Napaka-HAPPY naming mga OLICians kasi naging KAKAIBA, MEANINGFUL, at NAPAKASAYA ng last retreat namin.

January 7, 8, 9, 2009 is unforgettable moment/s for me.

Ishi-share ko lang po sa inyo yung onting HIGHLIGHT sa retreat experience ko.

First, kakaiba yung place syempre, Villa Sta. Luisa, Tagaytay City. Eh, super lamig kaya! Parang 5 aircon na sabay-sabay bunuksan at grabe, umuulan pa! San ka pa? Oh di ba, masaya?! Kakapal pa ng ,ga jackets namin...Hehe!

Second, ATTACK! Attack yan.......................sa pagkain! Hehe! Yan yung natutunan namin kapag time na kumain...Hehe! Pasaway!

Third, yung facilitator namin. Kulet nilang 2 ever! Yung una, parang si FRANZEN daw ng PBB.. kasi kamukha nya tas yung isa, DINGDONG DANTES look-alike daw! Nakuu! Cheness ever! Eh ang kamukha nya naman eh si GABE MERCADO o kaya si MICHAEL V... Pero pinakanagustuhan namin kay "Dingdong Dantes look-alike" kuno eh yung panggagaya nya kay Michael V. na "YARI KA...HAHAHAHAHAH!" Pati yung pagkanta ng rap songs...galing nya kaya...astig!

Fourth, yung session hall kung san kami nagse-session then yung mga lectures. Biruin nyo yon, tinatamaan ako sa mga lectures kasi na-experience ko na yung iba... Nakakainis nung una kasi grabe! :) Basta, yun na yon!

Fiftth, S.O.P.....The SIGN OF PEACE (SOP nga!) Ayan yung YAKAPAN MOMENTS naming lahat.... kada matatapos yung isang lecture.

Sixth, COME & SEE!!!! Eto yung lecture na gusto ko kasi maganda....tsaka sabi ng mga facilitators namin, kapag once na nagtanong yung mga lower levels or yung mga ibang sections sa 4th yr. kung ano yung ginawa namin....sasabihin lang namin na, "SECRET!!!! COME & SEE!!!" Hehe! Pasaway!

Seventh, yung theme ng retreat namin...YOUTH ENCOUNTER, Virac Model....Galing daw ito sa Virac, Catanduanes kaya sya tinawag na ganun.

Eight, sa dorm! Hehe! Igay namin dung mga girls, ingay talaga super! Hehe! Basta yun na yon! Private kasi yung iba! :)

Ninth, yung pinaka-FAVORITE ko sa lahat.... "CIRCLES OF LOVE"...kasi dito lahat sasabihin yung pinakamagandang description mo about my classmates. Nagulat na lang kasi ako sa mga sinabi nila about sa akin. Kasi di ko ine-expect na sabihin nila yung mga bagay-bagay na di ko nakikita sa sarili ko.....at narealize ko na..."Ah, dapat ko pala 'tong pagpatuloy, kasi yun pala yung nakikita nila sa kin." Kasi akala ko, puro negative yung nakikita ko sa sarili ko at pati nila yun pala ayun, sa nagpapasalamat ako sa ka-group ko. :)

And lastly, yung ONE BIG GROUP SHARING. siempre di mawawala yan. Natuklasan ko lasi yung mga sikreto ng mga classmates ko na napakabigat nilang problema pati yung mga masasayang expereinces nila kasi yung iba,di nagsasalita kung ano yung mga problema, tas yun. grabe!

Grabe talaga yung retreat na 'to kasi last year na namin sa GCS, kailangan na naming magpaalam this March 31. Graduation na!

Tumindi yung bonding namin as group and at the same time, mas lalo naming nakilala ang isa't isa and dami namin natutunan.

Kaya, Salamat IV-OUR LADY OF IMMACULATE CONNCEPTION (OLIC) SY 08-09...

• Location:Tagaytay City, PH

Friends: Gifts We Give Ourselves

Good friends enrich our lives in so many ways. Through a magical combination of similarities and differences, friends offer us the opportunity to know ourselves as we are and help us grow into who we want to be. Our similarities attract us to each other, comforting us with familiarity when we see ourselves in them. When we are drawn to those we admire, the same recognition is at work, unconsciously acknowledging that these people possess qualities that we ourselves possess. By acting as mirrors, friends help us define who we are by reflecting our selves back to us.

Friends also help us know ourselves through our differences. Differences allow us to see other options and make choices about who we want to be. Sometimes we are drawn to those who appear to be our opposites, and we learn to accept the parts of them we love and the parts of them that don't resonate with us, thus allowing us a valuable learning experience. By expanding our understanding to include others-- experiences, friends help us accept others. By understanding when someone's life differs from our own, we can learn about ourselves in contrast. There are times when we see in friends what we don't like about ourselves. That mirror reflection may be hard to take, but a good friend helps us find ways we can change and supports us in that choice.

Part of the joy of friendship is the feeling that we are accepted just the way we are, with no need to change. It is a gift they give us, and one we can give back every day. Ultimately, we choose friends because they make us feel good about ourselves and life. Through tears and difficulties, friends help us find the laughter. When we find those special people who offer us that perfect combination of comfort and stimulus to grow, we are very fortunate. Friends, those wonderful companions that walk with us through life, help us define and refine who we are and who we choose to be every day.

Overcome Your Fear of Rejection - Royane Real

Do you hold back from trying to start new relationships because you often worry that you will be rejected?

If a fear of rejection is holding you back from forming new friendships or relationships, there is help available. You can learn to greatly overcome your fear of getting rejected.

One of the reasons why rejection can cause us so much difficulty is that in our minds we often tie rejection to so many other ugly words that cause us even more pain. Humiliated. Inadequate. Useless. Loser. Not good enough. Pathetic.

The more we dwell negatively upon an instance of rejection, the harder it becomes to get up the courage to face another occasion when we might get rejected again.

Rejection is often much more troubling to those people who are very emotionally sensitive, who have low self-esteem, or who have had a very dysfunctional or abusive childhood.

There is good news though. Even if you are very emotionally sensitive or shy, even if you didn’t get much emotional support as you were growing up, you can still learn to change the way you talk to yourself about the experience of rejection.

You will have to practice a lot to change the way you think about rejection, and you may need the help of a good therapist to point out new, more supportive ways of thinking.

If you have decided to continue interacting with other human beings and try to make some of them your friends, you must be prepared to accept this fact: occasionally some people will reject you.

As terrifying as this may seem, you can take steps to reduce the likelihood that rejection will occur, and you can actually learn to make rejection a less painful experience for you.

Here is a brief summary of steps you can take to overcome your fear of rejection:

- Remind yourself why you want to overcome your fear of rejection. Remind yourself that your goal is to have a happy social life.

- Change what you say to yourself about rejection. Don’t tie your self worth to whether or not you get accepted or rejected by other people.

- Take a series of baby steps when developing new relationships.

- Look for signs of receptiveness in the other person.

- Deliberately set out to collect as many rejections as you can

- When you are out making approaches to other people, tell yourself that it’s just practice, it doesn’t count.

- Make many, many social approaches to other people.

One way that you can lessen the likelihood and frequency of rejection is to allow your relationships to develop slowly. Take baby steps. When relationships develop slowly, you must still make efforts to approach the other person, but your efforts will be low key and casual, rather than intense.

During each interaction with the person you wish to befriend, notice that person’s body language and facial expressions. Are you getting encouraging smiles and nods? Is that person’s body posture open or closed? Do you sense an eagerness to continue the conversation?

If the other person shows signs of enjoying your company and seems eager to continue your conversations, then he or she will probably be receptive to any overtures you make and any invitations you extend.

Although it may sound terrifying, one of the best ways to overcome a fear of rejection is to deliberately put yourself into situations where you get rejected a lot. This strategy is actually used by some therapists who specialize in the treatment of shyness.

If you actually confront the situations in which you feel anxious, your anxiety may lessen as you become more used to dealing with the feared event. But you may need help from a therapist to show you how to subsitute new ways of thinking about rejection in the place of your previous negative and self attacking thoughts.

By proving to yourself that you can face up to your fears, they will eventually lose their power over you.

If you are terrified of rejection, you may have thoughts like, “My self worth depends totally on whether other people approve of me and accept me. If people do not approve of me, I’ll be completely devastated and feel horrible because it means I’m worthless. If anyone rejects me it means that probably everyone will continue to reject me my whole life.”

We can become so completely overwhelmed by the negative emotions that follow this sort of thinking that we don’t notice what distortions we have introduced into our thinking processes.

If you persist in developing the habit of making many social overtures to other people, you will come to realize that occasional rejection is simply a part of life. It does not mean you are a flawed human being.

Even though we can’t control whether or not other people reject us, we can control how we react to rejection.

We don’t need to condemn ourselves when we are rejected, and we don’t need to stop interacting with other people just because there is a chance they might reject us.

When we give up interacting with others, not only do we give up some occasional pain and discomfort, but we also miss out on all the potential warmth, comfort, fun and excitement that other human beings can offer us.

Remember, if you never put yourself in a situation where someone can say “no” to you, you will also never be in a situation where someone can say “yes” to you.

The more often you put yourself in situations where you interact with others, the more you will face the likelihood that some of those people will reject you.

But you will also increase the odds that some of those people will accept you.

The main person whose acceptance you really, really need, is YOU!

World's oldest Christian Bible digitized

By NARDINE SAAD, Associated Press Writer Nardine Saad

LONDON – The surviving pages of the world's oldest Christian Bible have been reunited — digitally. The early work known as the Codex Sinaiticus has been housed in four separate locations across the world for more than 150 years. But starting Monday, it became available for perusal on the Web at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org so scholars and other readers can get a closer look at what the British Library calls a "unique treasure."

"(The book) offers a window into the development of early Christianity and firsthand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation," said Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library.

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of prepared animal skin, each of which measures 15 inches by 13.5 inches (380 millimeters by 345 millimeters). It is the oldest book that contains a complete New Testament and is only missing parts of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.

The 4th-century book, written in Greek, has been digitally reunited in a project involving groups from Britain, Germany, Russia and Egypt, which each possessed parts of the 1,600-year-old manuscript.

They worked together to publish new research into the history of the Codex and transcribed 650,000 words over a four-year period.

The Codex was both a key Christian text and "a landmark in the history of the book, as it is arguably the oldest large-bound book to have survived," McKendrick said.

Codex Sinaiticus, which loosely translated means "the book from Sinai," was discovered at the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai by German Bible scholar Constantine Tischendorf in the mid-19th century. Much of it eventually wound up in Russia — just how exactly the British Library won't say, citing lingering sensitivity over the circumstances surrounding its removal from the monastery.

The British Library bought 347 pages from Soviet authorities in 1933. Forty-three pages are at the University Library in Leipzig, Germany, and six fragments are at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. And in 1975, monks stumbled on 12 more pages and 40 fragments stashed in a hidden room at the monastery at Mount Sinai.

Juan Garces, the Codex Sinaiticus project manager, said putting the book online was a "definitely a historical moment."

"It's special because it's the oldest almost completely preserved bible," Garces said.

Garces said the only other Bible that rivals Codex Sinaiticus in age is the Codex Vaticanus, which was written around the same time but lacks parts of the New Testament.

"It's such an important book — that's why it should be accessible," Garces said. "If you would have liked to see it before you would have had to travel to four countries in two continents. If you want to see the manuscript right now all you have to do is go online and experience it for yourself."

On the Codex parchment leaves is written around half of the Old Testament and Apocrypha, the whole of the New Testament and two early Christian texts not found in modern Bibles. Most of the first part of the Bible manuscript — containing most of the so-called historical books, from Genesis to 1 Chronicles — is missing and presumed to be lost.

Garces said Codex Sinaiticus was handwritten by four scribes. Experts had previously believed there were only three, but researchers at the British Library looked at the script with high quality digital imaging that revealed the hand of a fourth penman.

"From Parchment to Pixel: The Virtual Reunification of the Codex Sinaiticus," an exhibit about the Bible's reunification process, opened at the British Library on Monday and runs until Sept. 7.

The digitized manuscript includes more than 800 pages and fragments, including the pages discovered in 1975 — published for the first time.

"There's a high demand," Garces said. "Our Web site has crashed because people want to look at it."

" The Golden Rule not the Rule of Gold "

Baha'i

"Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself."
...Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah,71...

Buddhism

"Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful."
...Udana-Varga,5:18...

Christianity

"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
...Matthew7:12...

Confucianism

"Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you"
...Analects 15:23...

Hinduism

"This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you."
...Mahabharata 5:1517...

Islam

"No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself".
...Sunnah...

Jainism

"In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self"
...Lord Mahavira, 24th Tirthankara...

Judaism

"What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the law: all the rest is commentary"
...Talmud, Shabbat 31a

Native American

"Respect for all life is the foundation."

Sikhism

Don't create enmity with anyone as God is within everyone."
...Guru Arjan Devji 259, Guru Granth Sahib...

Zoroastrianism

"That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self."
...Dadistan-i-Dinik, 94:5...

Quotes from Mohandas K. Gandhi

To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that the one that must be loved is not a friend

Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.

true love

Are your palms sweaty, is your heart racing, And your voice caught within your chest?

• It isn't Love, it's Like.

You can't keep your eyes or hands off of them, am I right?

• It isn't Love, it's Lust.

Are you proud, and eager to show them off?

• It isn't Love, it's Luck.

Do you want them because you know they're there?

• It isn't Love, it's Loneliness.

Are you there because it's what everyone wants?

• It isn't Love, it's Loyalty.

Do you stay for their confessions of Love, because you don't want to hurt them?

• It isn't Love, it's Pity.

Are you there because they kissed you, or held your hand?

• It isn't Love, it's being Unconfident.

Do you belong to them because their sight makes your heart skip a beat?

• It isn't Love, it's Infatuation.

Do you pardon their faults because you care about them?

• It isn't Love, it's Friendship.

Do you tell them every day they are the only one you think of?

• It isn't Love, it's a Lie.

Are you willing to give all of your favorite things for their sake?

• It isn't Love, it's Charity.

Does your heart ache and break when they're sad?

• Then it's Love.

Are you attracted to others, but stay with them faithfully without regret?

• Then it's Love.

Do you accept their faults because they're a part of who they are?

• Then it's Love.

Do you cry for their pain, even when they're strong?

• Then it's Love.

Do their eyes see your true heart, and touch your soul so deeply it hurts?

• Then it's Love.

But do you stay because a blinding, incomprehensible mix of pain and elation pulls you close and holds you?

• Then it's Love.

Would you give them your heart, your life, your death?

• Then it's Love.

Now, if Love is painful, and tortures us so,
why do we Love?
Why is it all we search for in life?
This pain, this agony?
Why is it all we long for?
This torture, this powerful death of self?
Why?
Because it's...
Love