Jethro

It starts with a hope, or a thought that things can be better than they are now. Then, exploring how that might happen. Accepting that we do have the power to make change. It’s doing this versus dwelling on the negative, blaming others, shutting down new ideas, thinking it’s not worth the effort, or whatever other negative self-talk may be taking place. All those things cause us to be stuck. You control the dialogue with yourself. If your response to everything is “I can’t, I can’t,” you will stop change from happening. I admit–I’ve been guilty of this before. What I needed to do was turn that around. To really believe the “change starts with you” mantra. It’s usually a pretty strong reaction to something.  This is when change makes you, because you are confronted with something–stress, or a specific situation. In order to make change at any level of “stuckness,” you have to identify a small action you can take and from there gain momentum. This is, in part, what I...

The Vigan City Fiesta is held every January 25. It is celebrated during the feast day of the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. St. Paul is Vigan City’s patron saint. Before his conversion, St. Paul was known as Saul, a zealous persecutor of Christians. After he was touched by a personal encounter with Jesus Christ on his way to Damascus, his name was changed to Paul and he endured a lot of hardships and danger to spread the word of God to far places. Vigan’s main church, the Metropolitan Cathedral is dedicated to St. Paul and it stands at the core of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia. The major Catholic educational institution in Vigan that stands beside the church is also dedicated to the patron, the St. Paul College of Ilocos Sur. The Vigan City Fiesta usually lasts for several days. It includes within the period the celebration of the anniversary of the cityhood of Vigan, which is commemorated every January 27. Biguenos from all over the country and even abroad return to...

  To everything that is part of our old nature—natural pride, love of sin, reliance on works, and our former opinions, habits and passions. Most significantly, what we loved has passed away, especially the supreme love of self and with it self-righteousness, self-promotion, and self-justification. The new creature looks outwardly toward Christ instead of inwardly toward self. The old things died, nailed to the cross with our sin nature. Along with the old passing away, “the new has come!” Old, dead things are replaced with new things, full of life and the glory of God. Our purposes, feelings, desires, and understandings are fresh and different. We see the world differently. The Bible seems to be a new book, and though we may have read it before, there is a beauty about it which we never saw before, and which we wonder at not having perceived. The whole face of nature seems to us to be changed, and we seem to be in a new world. There are new feelings toward all people—a n...