A soul guides me to his grave to see his name so I would pray for him

If souls go out their way of the netherworld to ask for prayers from the living, how eager would these souls be once they know of a person who is as eager as to pray for them even without them asking for it?

And how the soul helps you out especially when you, the intercessor, never know its name! 

The soul I wanted to pray for was the soul of the father of a friend. 

But this friend would not give me the name of her father no matter how I insisted. 

It might be because this friend resented over my non-appearance to her father's funeral. 

I was broke at the time, nothing to even buy load for my cellular phone to contact and inform her of the matter. 

I was even too sick to walk my way to the wake. 

And because of this, I never knew the cemetery where the remains of her father were to be buried. 

After the burial, I was able to secure some money to contact her and asked for the name -- for prayers! 

But she would not reply pertaining to her father's name. 

I was thinking, she might change religion that never believes in soul-praying. 

Well, enough of speculations! 

The soul would find ways to let me know its name. 

For, I do believe souls are in dire need of prayers. 

Souls even visit the living through dreams to tell of this intercessory need of theirs. 

I left everything to the soul and I let myself forget about it. 

One day, I came to visit my mother's grave. 

And after praying for my mother's soul, I decided to do "slow-walking" towards the interior of the cemetery while saying another rosary -- this time, for other souls. 

Along the way, towards the end of the cemetery, I noticed a freshly-laden grave with the name "Severino" of the family name of my friend. 

"Was your father's name Severino?" I asked my friend via text message. 

Her reply was vague. 

It could be understood as "no" or "yes" by our dialect. 

But a common neighbor of ours whom I had never seen for years came to our house and I had the chance to ask for the name of the father of our common friend. 

And the reply was: "SEVERINO!" 

Dream thwarted because of prayers? Or is fulfillment still coming in the days ahead?

When you can see some good things to happen in the future, you feel gifted; but when what you see are bad things to happen, you feel cursed. 

You pray hard it won't ever happen - or even ask helplessly other people to join you in prayers. 

That is my reason why I had my dream published here in my blog: to ask for your intercessions. 

A friend, last September 14, tipped me of a telecast news of an airplane bound to our city that returned to its airport-origin because of "engine malfunction" minutes after take-off. 

Good that it returned and landed safely despite the problem. 

Had the passenger aircraft proceeded, my dream would have happened! 

I had a dream of an airplane that exploded upon landing to our city airport. 

I hope, the fulfillment of that dream was thwarted by prayers! 

O God, spare our city from this bleak experience.

More prayers, please, O generous souls!

Michael Jackson, 'Ben' and me

It was probably three days before the end of the singer.

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BEN, THE TWO OF US NEED LOOK NO MORE
WE BOTH FOUND WHAT WE WERE LOOKING FOR.

It was night, I was walking by the street, and I heard the song on the radio.

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WITH A FRIEND TO CALL MY OWN
I'LL NEVER BE ALONE.

I did not know the exact lyrics of the song but it seemed to have a bond in my soul.

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AND YOU MY FRIEND WILL SEE
YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME.

It seemed to be speaking about me. It seemed to be I am he.

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BEN, YOU'RE ALWAYS RUNNING HERE AND THERE.

But I am not running, I am walking "here and there" - and everywhere.

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YOU FEEL YOU'RE NOT WANTED ANYWHERE
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God knows it is the longing of the deepest of me to find a friend who likes and loves me as I am.

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IF YOU EVER LOOK BEHIND
AND DON'T LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
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Yes, many like me because of my "innocence" and "meekness."

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THERE'S SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW
YOU'VE GOT A PLACE TO GO.

But when this "many" know about the "secret," it is better that they have not ever liked me before.

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I USED TO SAY "I" AND "ME"
NOW IT'S "US," NOW IT'S "WE"
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It is better that they leave me alone because, in the end, I will always be alone.

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BEN, MOST PEOPLE WOULD TURN YOU AWAY
I DON'T LISTEN TO A WORD THEY SAY.

I understand why Michael changed color - why the change of the face.

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THEY DON'T SEE YOU AS I DO
I WISH THEY WOULD TRY TO.

It was but to be liked and to be loved.

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I'M SURE THEY'D THINK AGAIN
IF THEY HAD A FRIEND LIKE BEN.

But, Michael, no matter what we do, people will never ever like the thing that is inside of us.

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LIKE BEN
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But when I hear the song, I feel it was not you who sang it for me: but Someone - Who loves every bit of us - and Who can change everything for us.

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LIKE BEN.

And, as I remembered you in the past, I can only pray for your soul to meet Him there.

Another dream: a closer look to a previous dream of an airplane explosion?

The other day, I dreamed again of an airplane explosion.

Was it the city of my birth where I am presently residing, the setting of my dream?

Yes, I dreamed of it again -- this time, I saw the impact of the falling airplane on the ground as I was near the place where the airplane fell and exploded!

Was it a continuation -- or a closer look -- of my dream before?

To read my earlier dream of an airplane explosion, please click the following link:

http://poet-of-soul.blogspot.com/2011/02/airplane-on-top-of-mosque-is-this.html

In my latest dream, the airplane looked like a big stone that fell from the sky; and great was the impact so that the whole city was in a mess!

It was like the aftermath of a war!

Local economy was paralyzed.

All I see was misery.

It was in gray and white -- the vision of the dream.

And I woke up so sad and exhausted from the feeling of the bleak experience.

A prophet's dream: A steel box opens in the desert

Photo by Michael Hansen

[Blogger's Note: I have a friend by the name of Don Stewart, a non-Catholic minister, who dreamed about me some years ago that came to pass only this year. The following is his dream written in his own words. -Gio C. Tijano.] 

I was overwhelmed by this DREAM. 

I saw a sharply defined picture of a desert for miles and miles. I could see the dry, parched wasteland spotted with cacti and tumbleweeds. 

Further out in the desert were several broken-down cars in need of repair. The cars were parked outside a ramshackle, decaying house. There were signs of termites, insects and rotten wood around the edges. 

Outside of the house, it was as if I saw YOU, Brother [Gio], looking very discouraged.Then, I saw a mechanic with a tool box fixing the cars. 

I saw carpenters fixing the house. 

I saw a cart loaded down with food. 

As I watched, you looked around and didn't know quite what to do. 

Then I saw you take a shovel and start digging and there was a steel box that you could not open up. It was then that I saw a hand reaching down from the sky and opening up the steel box. 

Then I woke up. 

I must tell you what this Prophetic DREAM means, Brother [Gio]. IT IS VERY GOOD. 

[Blogger's Note: Please click this link for the fulfillment of this dream: 

http://poet-of-soul.blogspot.com/2011/07/at-last-opening-of-steel-box-dream.html -Gio.]

I, a complaining toy as Job!

Please, God, don't treat me as though I'm dead.
A corpse that cannot react to any stimulus. 

Though limited is my knowledge, I know I've had enough.
Time and again, You've said, "You have suffered long enough." 

And yet, I'm still suffering. 

You should, please, give me a lift -- if burdened is what You see in me. 

But You haven't. 

Why so, God, why so? 

Is this the lot of those You've given graces? 

Is being special synonymous to being cursed? 

But I'm cursed already -- in fact, piles of curses are upon me because of my ancestral sins. 

To the best I could, I've done whatever You say would release me from bondage. 

But You choose not to set me free. 

Or, is it how cursed my family is? 

But I should have been freed by now -- even from a curse or two! 

Or, is it You Who choose not to give me this freedom? 

Am I Your toy? 

Yes, You can do with me as You please. 

But -- please! -- I ain't as saintly as Therese of the Child was. 

She who gave herself to You as Your Own Toy. 

I, too, am Your toy -- but a complaining toy as Job!

'Rey' and kids: Casting fish nets at the wharf

Seasonal fruit vendor 'Rey' is ready to cast fish nets into the sea at the local wharf here for a night catch.

It's his second time to be photographed while casting nets at the wharf. 

Rey had his first picture taken by a journalist who published the photo at the local newspaper.



He was able to get hold of the newspaper, see the photo and read the caption -- but...

...Rey was a bit disheartened because the caption tells of his unsuccessful catch that night. It reads: 'God, be merciful! All this man got was garbage!'

But with me taking pictures of him this night is different!

With son and daughter and two kid neighbors helping to take entangled fishes from the nets, Rey is game to pose for pictures.

 

 

 

The catch! Fishes of different sizes and kinds!

Rey Jr. takes shelter from the coldness of the night in a docked wooden boat while taking a bite or two of the fish meat they have caught!

Stunts on the ropes: A dream fulfilled in four days!

Photo by Bob Willits

[The following is my diary entry of June 22, 2008, 7:43 a.m., Sunday -- four days after my dream. At first, I never knew that what I was writing about in that entry was already the dream's fulfillment. --Gio C. Tijano.]

Lord, forgive me -- I did not do anything to save a youngster who fell to the violent seas at the seawall last night.

You know that I wanted to rescue him, but I was not in my right mind because nervousness attacked me.

Two men rescued him, but the neighborhood was furious of me.

A man in the distance even got a bamboo pole and struck it on the pavement several times while looking at me. The neighbors persuaded him to stop it, but he was very angry.

It was dreadful.

I felt I was white as ashes.

But I mustered courage when realization came to me that I did nothing bad, and so I thought, "Why should I be afraid?"

I walked towards the group that was having a drinking spree.

I faced them.

I was oozing with courage -- I know You were with me at that very moment.

The bamboo-wielding guy was, suddenly, out of sight.

The men fell silent at my presence.

I know my heavenly friends surrounded me at that moment.

I talked to them.

Somebody said I shouldn't be frequenting the seawall as I do not know how to swim.

I replied, "But I am only sitting on the seawall, and not on the waters!"

He fell silent again.

Maybe, what he was driving at was that, he was ordering me to stop frequenting the place.

But I just came from there this morning.

O my God! -- the fulfillment of my dream! I realize it only now.

Slanted ravine, the slanted seawall... skilled rescuer, the adept man in the dream... three guys forming a chain to help rescuer and the victim get on top of seawall, the ropes in the dream... I was on top of seawall as I watched in amazement at their adeptness, especially the human chains...  The  people  there applauded the rescuers; and I have become the talk of the neighborhood because of my display of courage in the midst of furious men... I was alone... A  stranger in the place...

"WHEN THE enemy SHALL COME IN LIKE A FLOOD, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD SHALL LIFT UP A STANDARD AGAINST him." --Isaiah 59: 19.

 

Stunts on the ropes: A dream in 2008

(From the album 'Bigtec Day Out.' Photo by Tara)

[The following is entry from my diary of June 19,  2008, 8:18 a.m., Thursday. -Gio C. Tijano.]
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I had a dream last night.

I found myself on top of a slanted ravine.

I was holding a special kind of ropes fastened to the trunks of coconut trees on the slope.

In the middle of the ravine was also a man having ropes on his body, somersaulting in the air and other stunts to the applause of people below.

I never knew what to do with the ropes; but as I grasped and held to feel it, realization came to me that I could do it.

Then, I found myself standing on the ropes and somersaulting in the air and landing my feet on the ropes again.

People applauded my stunts to the bewilderment of the adept man because he himself learned it after a long time of practice.

[Blogger's Note: This dream is symbolic. And four days after the dream, what it symbolizes happened to me. I wrote this experience in my diary entry of June 22, 2008. I will post that entry in my next blog post.]

Low tide between the Island City and the Big City



The mountain of the Island City and the Big City's black-sanded beach and the low sea in-between and a young man being chased by another through the waters of low tide.

The boys playing on the beach amidst remnants of pillars of sea houses.

And the men wading their way through waters for home after a 'plunge' to the low waters. (Photos by Gio C. Tijano)

One of my dreams happening: 'Pac-man' wins over 'The Golden Boy' in 2008

The smiling Manny 'Pac-man' Pacquiao with trainer-coach Freddie Roach

A showdown was in the offing.

A bout between a son of a small torn nation and a son of a great one land.

As it neared, seven thousand and more islands trembled. And fifty and more States triumphed at the coming event of the clash.

A fight of fists of a David and a Goliath! Of island-born "Pac-Man" and mainland-born "The Golden Boy!"

I, too, am a son of islands and seas and I began to do something for a brother -- daily, I prayed; daily Masses, I heard.

And on the seventh day, a vision came to me in a dream.

A clean and fresh-faced, a fair and pinkish-skinned, a smiling and chinky-eyed, a focused and faith-oozing Manny Pacquiao!

Seven more days and the fight would begin.

And so the fight was on.

And the rest is history -- his story.

Seven and one rounds were more than enough proof.

And a towel fell from the camp of the giant, Oscar De La Hoya!

WBC lightweight champion Manny Pacquiao throws a left to the head of Oscar De La Hoya during their welterweight boxing match in Las Vegas, Nevada, Dec. 6, 2008.  (AP Photo)

A dream of a desert: a personal new beginning in 2011?

Photo by Kim Tien Huynh

Of late, I had a dream.
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A dream I was in a desert.
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A desert of the greatest test of one's life.

Manly works are foreign to me; 

but, in the midst of the sand plains, I found myself test-driving, maneuvering, for the first time, a newest model of 4X4 vehicle.

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I did it exceptionally well, though I knew not car-driving in real life -- until the vehicle was out of control; and I had to jump out of it to save my own life. 

And I did that as an expert stuntman would. 

.

And the dream ended. 

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Am I going to experience a fresh, new thing in my personal life within 2011?

The boy and his seafood harvest: the island and the beach

I was aiming my camera to the mountain of the Island City of ***** here in the Philippines while trying to include the sea and a portion of the beach of the Big City of my hometown when, suddenly, a boy appeared in the scene -- rear left.

My gut told me to give it a shot.

A minute later, the boy passed by me and I took a picture of him and his seafood harvest. 

Only then did I understand what he was doing in the first picture: 

He was draining off water from a basin containing seafood he harvested from the seabed (it was low tide!) just off the beach. 

He was with his mother and some neighbor friends with their own seafood finds.

That 'they may be one'?

Benny Hinn and Pope John Paul II

The strength of the Catholic Church is the Holy Eucharist; the non-Catholic Christian groups, the preaching of the Scriptures.

Sermons of most Catholic priests are limited while preachings of most non-Catholic evangelists are Spirit-filled.

Non-Catholic Christians only believe the Bread as symbolic of the Body of Christ.

Rightly so because they are not anointed to turn the bread and wine into the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.

But the Catholic priests are anointed for that purpose.

That is why the Catholic Church believes the consecrated Bread and Wine as the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ both symbolically and in reality.

What a good vision it is when the two unite!

One's strength filling the other's weakness.

Could it be the starting point of the realization of Christ's vision?

That "they may be one"?

Blessed Pope John Paul II visits me in my dream after his death

It was night. 

I was having a dream. 

I had a visitation in my sleep.

A visitation of a papal figure days after he died. 

Clad in his light, creamy-yellow papal vestment, the fatherly pope visited my little soul in my poor, lowly hut.

Facing each other, we were on a simple, wooden bench of the balcony connected to the house, sitting.

As a father to a son, we were talking: his eyes looking into mine; my eyes looking into his.

We were not "talking" as the physical world does: we were "talking" in the spirit -- soul to soul -- without words -- without action.

 Only by simply looking into the eyes in Love communication.

And I found myself sobbing; I woke up sobbing like a longtime yearning of my soul has been fulfilled.
Was it his way of saying "thank you" for the chaplets of Mercy that I had been graced to say unceasingly on his dying moment until he breathed his last?
Or, was it a gift or a spirit transference that took place between our two souls as between Elijah and Elisha?
If so, then, am I to love as he had been gifted with to love?

A bird perching, preening, praying on the branch of a guava tree

I was walking one morning on my way home when I chanced upon this bird on the branch of a guava tree, PERCHING... PREENING... PRAYING!!!

A BIRD PERCHING ON THE BRANCH OF A GUAVA TREE.

A BIRD PREENING ITS FEATHERS ON THE BRANCH OF A GUAVA TREE.

A BIRD WITH ITS HEAD TILTING UP TO HEAVEN AS IF PRAYING ON THE BRANCH OF A GUAVA TREE.

The Perfect and the imperfect: a perfect combination?

I am an imperfection.
Perfection is a need and a want in my imperfect soul.
I, who am imperfect, cannot perfect my own self.
He Who is Perfect knows it.
So much so He came into the world: to where imperfection is.
For, truth is -- only One Who is Perfect can perfect that which is imperfect: I.
And I welcome and accept His Coming into my life.
And I go to where He is often: to admit and confess my imperfection.
And touch Him with my tongue and swallow Him into my system.
Perfection is not an overnight thing.
Living faith and constant communion with One Who is Perfect everyday will eventually lead Him to perfect me.
He Who is Perfect knows I'll fall along the way.
He has a "wishing" well built for me.
He loves it there where I confess my misery, my imperfection.
For, He is drawn closer to my need, my want.
He Who is Perfect is the fullness of I who am imperfect.