CLASS WILL AND TESTAMENT
Senior Class 2008-2009

DEAR JUNIORS, few weeks from now, we will be leaving the portals of our beloved Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary. Next school year, you will be called “Seniors” which will mean to you a great opportunity, a big responsibility, and a challenge.

There are many things that we are supposed to do this year, but only the less we have done. We’ve been through lots of trials and thank God, we have survived. We long to stay more in this institution because we cannot afford to leave you. We still want to be around to guide you as your elder brothers but time is so short and we still have to move forward because life is fast that we should always keep our pace with time. There’s nothing left to do except to say goodbye to you… but with this goodbye, you need not to worry because among you are brilliant-minded people who have the will and the guts to continue the work that we have started.

An on the occasion of this JS Prom 2009. WE, the dynamic SENIORS of Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, Class 2008-2009, who firmly believe the will of God, do hereby proclaim and bequeath to our heirs – the JUNIORS of Class 2008-2009 this CLASS WLL AND TESTAMENT.

The leadership of Waldemar Castino to Ryan Montealto and Ruben Cuizon Jr. The mathematical abilities of Zairus Canales, Reymon Virtudazo and Waldemar Castino to Melvin Tajale and Jovanie Leones. The English proficiency of Richard Busaco, Zairus Canales, Emmanuel Gamana, Ismael Magadan Jr. and Waldemar Castino to Melvin Tajale and Jovanie Leones. Garry Nathaniel Guiritan, Ismael Magadan Jr. and Mark John Manatad’s specialty in Arts and Letter Cutting to John Paul Credo and Francis Malikse. The dancing prowess of Garry Nathaniel Guiritan, Carmelo Tandugon II and Reymon Virtudazo to Angelo Salaas, Bonifacio Tariga and Adrian Surigao. Waldemar Castino, Ismael Magadan Jr. and Richard Busaco’s gutsy speaking ability to Jovanie Leones, Jose Abregana, Jeric Daguplo , Melvin Tajale and Adrian Surigao. Floricel Bongay, Josie mar Gudes, Gregorio Duterte Jr. and Ismael Magadan Jr.’s skill in handling guitar and other musical instruments to Angelo Salas, Jay Buno, Adrian Surigao, Francis Malikse and Christoper Aupe.

The athletic ability of Floricel Bongay, Exequeil Paredes and Carmelo Tandugon III to Adrian Surigao, Richard Pongase, and Jay Buno.

The efficient way of handling finances of Garry Nathaniel Guiritan to John Paul Credo. The art of flower making of Jovic Bonior, Garry Nathaniel Guiritan and John Rodel Ceballos to Ryan Cadenas and Jovanie Leones.

Given to John Philip Manlangit the ever-ready-to-help attitude of Darwin Gitgano, Garry Nathaniel Guiritian and Mark John Manatad. Debonair Jovic Bonior, Zairus Canales, Richard Busaco and Floricel Bongay to Melvin Tajale, and Angelo Salas. The religious qualities of Darwin Gitgano and Ismael Magadan Jr. to Richard Pongase. The humble attitude of Darwin Gitgano and Garry Nathaniel Guiritan to Christopher Aupe, Medardo Jumamoy and Richard Pongase.

We are handling down to you these assets for a more successful year to come.

At this point, in behalf of the Seniors, allow me to express my sincerest thanks and appreciation to all the people who are art of our college education.

To our dear Alma Mater, IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY SEMINARY – htanks so much for the good teachings,. To our administrators, Bishop Leonardo Medroso, D.D., Fr. Martin Lupiba and Fr . Crisolito Geangan; to our class adviser, Fr. Absalon Florenosos; to our priest formators, Fr. Irvin Garsuta, Fr. Claverlito Migrino, Msgr. Jess Ligason, Fr. Dong2 Estafia ; to our teachers, Maan Natz Alvardo, Maam Tess Concha, Maam Zia Managaytay, Maam Ann Babera, Sir Oj Cinio, Sir Eddie Managaytay, Sir Tito Cempron, Maam Husain, Fr. Morge Amora, and Fr. Jose Cecil Lobrigas. To our dear parents, benefactors, friends, textmates, schoolmates, and loved ones, whose smiles cheer us up when the road gets rough. Most of all to our Almighty Father, who is the last one to approve our plans.

And to you my dear JUNIORS, thank you too. With your company, our journey becomes more meaningful and enjoyable. Keep up the good work. Continue the task that we have started to do. Be good in your studies and most of all follow the seminary rules and respect our formators. Go on spending one more fruitful year with our Alma Mater.

Lastly, let us pray for one another. We may be walking in different paths soon, but hopefully we will all met in one point all crowned with laurels of success.

In testimony hereof, we affix our signature on this 24th day of February in the year of our Lord two thousand and nine at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, Taloto District, Tagbilaran City.


Signed:

SEM. WALDEMAR B. CASTINO
President, Ingenuosus Class
S.Y. 2008-2009


SEM ZAIRUS O. CANALES SEM. EMMANUEL R.GAMANA
Vice-President, Ingenuous Class Secretary, Ingenuosus Class
S.Y. 2008-2009 S.Y. 2008-2009

An Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living

When I was young, my parents trained me to become a God-loving child. They taught me the prayers and the right manners. Consequently, I had a very nice childhood. I was the favorite of my parents as well as my grandparents simply because I was cute and good. Furthermore, I could never forget when my grandmother told me that she wanted me to become a priest in the future so that someone will pray for her dear soul when God will withdraw her borrowed life. Right then, I had always wanted to become a priest. But when I was in high school where I was introduced to the marvelous world of computers, my dream of becoming a priest seemed to subside because I yearned to know more about computers. So instead of going inside the seminary to study, I took up Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering at the University of Bohol.
As I go over my college days, I found out that I just ventured into this new frontier hoping to discover broader and brighter horizons. Discover, I did but it seems to be that I don’t know where my life was heading.
My college life has been a mess. I have learned a lot of bad things including skipping classes and drinking liquors among other things. I was afraid that one day I’ll be seeing myself all filled up with mundane happiness and my soul will be malnourished as I go with the trend. Moreover driven by circumstances such as problems in financial matters, I was pushed to reflection about my life. I was thinking what things really matters and what are those things that can really make me happy. Gradually, I found out that I should use my God-given faculties for the greater glory of God and not for bad things so that I may able to attain peace of mind which I consider to be utmost essential. I also found out that what really makes me happy is to make other people happy most especially my dear family and God. So I decided to pursue my childhood dream of becoming a priest. As a result, I am already 25 years of age and still a third year philosophy student of IHMS. Somehow there is a room for regrets on my part. Had I entered the seminary directly after my high school, I might be an ordained priest next year.
These things make me realize the value of reflection in ones life. It seems to be that I lacked the proper reflection that turned me to be a rolling stone who gathered no moss. When we are so much occupied with mundane concerns, we fail to appreciate the things that really matters. As a result, we’re heading to an unknown path, without future and direction. Thus it is essential to reflect in some points of our lives so that we will be guided and we could keep ourselves tracked with the passing of time.
We should also consider that God has his own way of telling us what his message is for us. We only need to be sensitive enough to distinguish these messages in form of signs so that we will be able to live our lives well. We need to reflect on every pages of our history so that all the opportunities are grabbed and feelings of regrets are lessened. Moreover, we need to pray to God to open up our understanding regarding the things that happens in our life.
Life is indeed a mystery. We will never exhaust the reality of life even if we will encounter death. But what really matters is that we did to our best in pondering the messages of God through reflection wherein we love and we have loved and we spend most of our time in doing things that brought more meaning to our lives.

Lights, Camera. Action

Most of us want to become popular because it is nice to be known as somebody. That is why many want to become an actor or an actress. This is the shortest way to fame because all you have to do is to give your best in acting.
Acting is derived from the Latin word agere meaning to do; this is precisely what acting is. In acting an actor suppresses or augments aspects of his personality in order to reveal the actions and motivations of the fictional character he portrays within a particular moment. Thus, the actor is assuming the role of another, usually for the benefit of an audience. Aside from benefiting an audience, acting can also bring a sense of art satisfaction on the actor because it helps in expressing the aesthetic sense of a person.
For me the very first thing you must do to be effective in acting is to develop an interest on and love on it. Without interest and love, acting will come out strained and artificial. With love and interest, acting will become spontaneous and satisfying both to the actor and the audience. Once you learned to love and to develop interest in acting, you cannot do it without passion. You will be passionate enough in justifying your character and many will notice you for your exceptional acting prowess.
The next thing that you have to do is to read the script. In reading the script, you should try to understand the story behind it. Then re-read the script, and this time try to focus on the role assigned to you. It is not important to memorize your lines word for word. What is essential is that you understand the flow of events. You can even inject adlibs as long as the situation allows you.
Then go on internalization, the process of putting up all your emotions and imaginations to the scene. You should consider that acting is a work of imagination. If you are rich in imagination, wonderful things will come out. Thus it is an edge if an actor has a well-developed imagination. Moreover, an actor should also have the ability to analyze and understand dramatic text so that he will be able to justify his character or role. To do this, true feelings and true objectives must be involved.
During the acting proper, an actor must retain the same level of concentration and emotional intensity from one shot to the next. He must be able to recall, in minute detail, the exact sequence of the character’s emotional response, often at a moment’s notice. This requires enormous concentration and mental coordination.
In acting, actors are generally expected to possess a number of skills, including good vocal projection and clarity of speech. These would give an actor the advantage to be better than his contemporaries. You have to consider that a well-delivered speech in acting would lead to an easy comprehension and clarity of the message the story tries to impart. Other things that an actor should possess are physical expressiveness, a good sense of perspective, and emotional availability.
If an actor has the capacity to express physically what the scene asks for, he would become very effective. Good sense of perspective would also help the actor to be professional even if he will commit mistakes. An actor should be very innovative and should have the guts to make wrong things right. Moreover, he should also have the emotional availability, which would allow him to show a specified emotion fitting to a certain scene. Emotional availability is very important because it enables the actor to do his role with justice. Acting is having the emotion that best fits the scene. A good all-round actor is able to convey a wide range of emotions, with the development of movement and vocal skills.
On the other hand, a very important thing that an actor should learn is the principle of leaving and living. He should have a total abandonment of his own personality and should live with the new personality his character requires. Thus to become a good actor, he should have no awareness of self. He must not allow himself to go back to his past because it leads him to be aware of himself.
Well-rounded actors are often also skilled in singing, dancing, emotional expressiveness, imitating dialect and accent, observing and emulating, and performing classical texts such as William Shakespeare’s. Many actors train at length in special programs or colleges, which have a wide range of different artistic philosophies and processes to develop these skills.
Thus it is essential for an actor to be equipped with all the necessary principles so that he will be confident enough when the director shouts, “Lights, Camera, Action."

Making a Difference

Many of us lose our identities because we tend to go with the flow. We cater to what is popular and we are very much conscious not to deviate from what is normal as dictated by the society. As a result, many of us become dishonest simply because many are dishonest.
It is very discouraging to note that many are shocked by honesty and a few by deceit. We are shocked when we hear stories like a taxi driver returning a big amount of cash. Some of us might say, “Is he out of his mind? He is not using his brain. He should be practical.” Such remarks uttered by those in the mainstream society suggest that most of us are willing to sacrifice honesty in exchange of personal gain. On the other hand, when we hear politicians doing electoral frauds and deceits in the government, we just act as if nothing happens; our response to such event will not be a shock. Some of us might say, “That is not NEWS. It is normal because many people are doing that.” We fail to realize that what is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular. If such mentality and line of thinking continues, what kind of future will we have? Probably, things will worsen to its optimum and we will find ourselves living in a society where dishonest people dwell. What a disaster!
Dishonesty is very rampant in our society. Many of us become dishonest because we tend to look after our own welfare only and thus we become selfish. What matters to us is our own interest and needs that somehow push us to do injustices.
Dishonesty is common among politicians. They have lots of promises during the campaign but they always forget all of these when they already take their seats in the government. These people are supposed to act as good models because they are the leaders of our nation. And as leaders, they must catch the confidence of their followers because a leader cannot be one unless he has followers. Leaders should also consider that the only way to have their followers’ confidence is through their unquestionable integrity. A leader must keep his word. He must fulfill his promises to the people. He must do what he has said and must stand firm in his decisions no matter what. But it is sad to note that only a few of our government leaders are able to maintain their integrity. If only all of our government leaders have integrity, our nation might have resurrected from poverty which prevails in our society.
It is sadder to note that dishonesty is not limited only in our government. Even the Church has its own share of dishonesty. Some clergymen are excellent in their homilies; they can even make their parishioners laugh and cry. They are like saints in the pulpit that could touch one’s heart. But when they live their own personal lives, their actions do not anymore reflect the words they utter. Some of them are so strict that they almost forget the Christian virtue of compassion. Worst, some of them are living scandalous lives.
The only consolation I could draw as I look at this reality is the fact that the Church is flawed only because the people composing it are flawed and imperfect. However I think that we must not try to justify our misdeeds and lapses by our nature as imperfect beings. We must try to make a difference by staying firm with what we believe and by doing according to what we say.
Yes, words are powerful. But actions speak louder than words. Actions are more emphatic; they convey a message that cannot be contained in words. Words are always deficient because of the limitations of our language. It cannot capture the innermost yearnings and longings of our souls. We should always remember that well-done is better than well-said. Thus words and deeds should be complementary, congruent, and united. If that is the case, we will become persons of unquestionable integrity and we will be making a difference.
Though in making a difference we will encounter oppositions and negative feedback from the mainstream society, we should still stand our ground with the belief that we are just doing what is right. We should maintain our integrity and should be honest even if others are not, will not, and can not. Had not Jesus Christ made a difference by dying on the cross for the salvation of mankind, then we could have been eternally damned.

My Loving God (Song)

Intro: G A D A
I
D F#m E
Lord God, come fill me with your presence.
G Bm D
Cleanse my soul and renew my spirit.
Em F#m Bm
You alone can heal me with my impurities.
D E A-A7
And I seek healing in Your name.


Chorus:
G(A) A(B)
I know You’re good and forgiving,
F#m(G#m) Bm(C#m)
Loving God til the end.
Em(F#m) A(B)
You still love me despite my past.
D(E) A(B)
And showered me with Your blessings.

G(A) A(B)
You filled me with Your power
D(E) Bm(C#m)
To live my life.
Em(F#m) A(B)
And in You alone, Lord
D(E) - A
I put my trust.


II
D F#m E
I’m not worthy to stand before you, Lord.
G Bm D
For my soul is filled with evils and scars.
Em F#m Bm
So I ask You, make my soul clean.
D E A
Heal me for I am wounded by sin.


Repeat Chorus
Repeat Chorus 1 step higher


Coda:
F# B
And In you alone, Lord
E
I put my trust.

One Sided Love

It is a very nice feeling to fall in love. A person who is in love is always on the brink of mirth. Everything seems to be full of life and color. Thus it is a noble feeling to fall in love. However, it hurts so much when your love is not reciprocated. When you are experiencing what we called as one-sided love.
I have my own share of this feeling. The feeling that this special person means everything to you. There are times when I am always thinking of her, reminiscing every memories that we have shared and enlivening every moments that we spend together.
My beloved is not perfect. I know she has lots of flaws and lapses as a person. But I do not know why I love her with all her being despite of all her imperfections. I have learned to love her whole being. I love to hear her voice, to see her face, to feel her body next to mine and even to smell her perfume.
There was a time that I even told her how I feel, that I tenderly love her. But she did not believe in me. She thought that I was just kidding. She just looks at me as a plain friend and nothing more. I have been obsessed to her. I even get jealous when I saw her with other men and it lacerates my heart to the fullest.
When I am with her, I felt like I am in heaven. I have done everything for her. Even if it takes sacrifice just to make her happy. But it hurts to know that she does not love me the way I wanted her to feel for me. She makes it clear that we are just friends.
However, I have been thankful to her for being honest and for being real. She does not play with my heart. She did not prolong my agony by letting me know the real score between us. Now I know where to situate my self in her life. I am just her friend – a dear friend and I have to accept it.
I realized that I have been too much impractical. I was blinded with foolish love. I keep on insisting to go through a single door when in fact here are lots of doors to go through. I am just focussing on a particular person, demanding her to love me the way I want but she didn’t. However, the only consolation I have is that I have loved even if I was not loved the way I want it.

The Wonders of Love

Love. We are born out of it. We are by-products of the love shared by our parents. Many people say it is what that makes the world go round. I also have the share of this feeling. I’ve fallen in love the first time when I was in high school, but that love is not reciprocated. It just makes me cry. And I have found that I am not lovable maybe because I am a silent type of person and very boring to be with. During my college life at University of Bohol, I again experience the beating of my heart. I then did enter into an intimate relationship but as the passing of time, I found out the infidelity of my beloved. I am not the only one but we are two in her life. She’s just using me as his servant when it comes to paper works. With the turn of events, I began hating to fall in love and I promised myself never to fall in love again because it will just cause me heartaches.
Ever since I become a seminarian, I never experienced to have a special someone. I tend to focus myself on my studies and my vocation. I realized that only God can give me reciprocated love. However, lately, a special feeling developed in me as I know this special person in my life. I began to wonder how it really feels to be in love and be loved in return.
Lately I proposed my feelings for her and she gladly bestowed the most beautiful words to hear. But she is always reminding me that she does not want to become a stumbling block to my desire of becoming a priest. Besides she feared that my family would get angry to her. But is it my fault that I fall in love with her? Am I indispensable with the feeling of falling in love to somebody? Can my family dictate me what to do in my life? Can they dictate me as well how to feel? If so, then I began to wonder why does God allowed me to fall in love. Why is it that this feeling still exists in me? Have I not learned from my past? You see, I am very troubled this time. A lot of people are expecting me to become a priest and I have done my best to meet their expectation. But now I feel I am sandwiched with the flow of events. I even entertained the thinking of stopping in order to discern more about my vocation. But I guess having a girlfriend even with my status as a seminarian is not abominable per se as long as we did nothing immoral.
These turns of events helps me to wonder about love, its existence and its meaning in my life. It is indeed a reality that the most obvious, ordinary and simple are hard to answer. I really do not know what love is. Yet it is most important to know what love is. However a lot of questions groveled my mind. What is really love? What is the role of love in life? Is it really necessary to fall in love? Is love a feeling or a decision? With regards to my feelings, am I certain that this is really love or just some sort of infatuation? How sure am I that I’m really in love? Do I have a proof or an evidence to say that I am really in love this time? Well, the only proof that I could draw out from it is the unexplainable and mysterious feelings that overwhelmed me when I am with her. I can’t explain it. When the new generation would explain it, It’s here eh.
I really wonder why I fall in love. Perhaps I have not really fully known myself. You see, it is really essential to have a deeper knowledge of self. I never thought that time will come that I will feel this way. I thought that I have already discerned about my vocation, but now I doubt it. Perhaps I have to settle things first before going ahead so that I will have no regrets. However, I am open to possibilities and I know that I have to face whatever the consequences that is twinned with any actions that I have to act in the future. Somehow I may need to gamble.
My wonder about love will lead me to search more about its reality. In its process I am sure that I may get hurt. But I believe that pain is part and parcel of living, it’s just the way we grow. So I just condition myself. I just hope that after some time I will be able to satisfy my wonder.