I am no longer a traditional Catholic. I am still a Catholic. After many, many years of robotic compliance with the teachings of my church I have become a highly critical of nuns and priests. Fortunately, for my many books like those of Neale Walsch and Rabbi Darfour have changed my image of God from an angry, punishing one of the Bible to a God of love.

The Hawaiian Ho’oponopono (definitely not a religion) which I learned from Joe Vitale’s “Zero Limits has been helping me tremendously.
Instead of the burdens from the doctrinal teachings of my church, the Ho’oponopono has made me live up to the teachings of my church: made to the image and likeness of God.

I still believe in the power of the Mass and the sacraments. I owe my steadfast faith in the Eucharist to a book by Bro. James Ebner FSC which I read when I was pregnant with our only daughter and now she is on her early 30s.

I resonate with what a msgr from Iloilo wrote in the Philippine Inquirer “Sacraments Trump Novenas, Processions, Says Prelate.”
It may sound heretical. But my life has been suffused with joy ever since I awakened to the truth that truly God is in me.

The Ho’oponopono videos available in YouTube, sometimes on Facebook as well as on my website remind me daily that life is beautiful. Divinity does what I can’t do by myself.

The Ho’oponopono cleanses our memories or programs as Joe Vitale calls them. I can easily equate the memories/programs with original sin.

Original Sin just like memories are always with me preventing me from hearing God. That is why I do Ho’oponopono cleansing when I wake up and also before I go to sleep. Actually, I do Ho’oponopono even while waiting for my laptop to access the Internet.

The guidance spoken about in Ho’oponopono can easily be translated into the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I pray that soon my church will look kinder upon Ho’oponopono instead of dismissing it as “New Age”.

I think this essay will be an impediment to my canonization1 But I don’t need to be canonized. I’m sure there are more human beings in heaven than those canonized. BDW I have personally observed that canonization can be very expensive.

I was taught in a Catholic school that we celebrate  “All Saints Day” every year to honor those who did not get canonized but are in heaven

My philosophy in my health care is “no size fits all.” After my mild stroke in May 2012, I comply with my doctor”s orders but I always ask a lot of questions and quietly guard my misgivings. i do a lot of research more in the Internet now than in books.

I was surprised when I goggled “tilapia”. I learned from a nephew that eating “tilapia” is equivalent to eating stripsof bacon. Incidentally I learned from Goggle that “Tilapia” is widely eaten in the USA. Goggle used the term “tilapia”.

My doctor pooh poohs good naturedly my complaints about the side effects of his many prescribed medicines. The more I complain the more medicines he adds. I can no longer completely disobey this present doctor because when I did away with maintenance medicines for 16 years I had a mild stroke. By the way my present doctor is connected with another hospital not the one which I frequented in the 90s.

My doctor is vry kind; he doesn’t prescribe a strict diet. He says something about eating even forbidden foods but just a taste! He did not agree with a doctor in the emergency room who prescribed a low salt, low ft diet for me. Interesting1 This doctor is a patient of my present, kind doctor!

In my effort to improve my condition and to convince my doctor to lessen my medicines I have tried juicing as prescribed by many Facebook friends via colorful posts. I stopped because the concoctions meant frequent visits to the toilet.

I tried herbal aids in capsules but they did not lower my blood pressure. I tried acupuncture but didn’t persevere after the 4Th session because of my low threshold of pain.

Now I’m into a special magnesium treatment via a spray that I learned about from Faceook. I feel blessed already having met a kindred soul in the person of Mary Jean Netario Cruz.  The magi spray has improved my walking. I still walk with a cane but with less difficulty since i can lift my left foot a bit higher now.

Through the years, I have personally learned that thoughts don’t automatically manifest as the documentary “The Secret” presents. Some of the personalities featured in “The Secret” have this to say. Joe Vitale in “Zero Limits” gives the Ho’oponopono strategy. Vitale claims that one must not be attached; one cannot want things to go one’s way. Also thoughts must first be cleared by the Ho’oponopono of fear, anger and confusion.

Esther Hicks says: “You have to let go of the struggle, and focus upon the end result that you are seeking”.

Dooley says: “Gratitude is a prerequisite. When you think thoughts of having received, those thoughts seek to come back to you experientially (manifesting in time and space).

Martha Beck (not featured in the “Secret” ) says: “Manifesting requires wordlessness and oneness”.

Here on my website are filed under the “Health and Well Being” category two videos of the Ho’oponopono. At the end of each video are more versions of the Ho’oponopono. There are Spanish/Mexican, French, German, Korean/Japanese versions. A Facebook friend of mine from Russia shows Ho’oponopono is practiced in that country.

I grew up believing that this is a valley of tears: “By the sweat of thy brow….” A book entitled “Dare to Desire” said:
“Starting very early, life teaches all of us to ignore and distrust the deepest yearnings of our heart. Life instructs us to suppress our longings and live only in the external world where efficiency and performance are everything. We learn from parents and peers, at school, at work, and even from our spiritual mentors that our heart – the truest us – isn’t wanted.” While typing this I realize that it is not life itself that misinterpreted things; I would rather believe it was social conditioning. Those who lived mostly according to the flow of life seemed to have fared well.

Reviewing Dr Christine Page’s “Frontiers of Health” has made me realize how doomed we are into lives of diseases because most if not all diseases are due to pressure and tension – not being able to relax. The diastolic reading of the blood pressure is indicative of the individual’s condition at rest. Sadly this is not given as much attention as the systolic reading.

Growing up I hardly heard any attention given to relaxation except for the required daily siesta which was imposed as a kind of punishment for being too noisy around the home. We were 6 active children!

We enjoyed our games because it was natural for children to play even in our dysfunctional family. But adults would send us off to play to keep us out of their way, mostly.

In school and in church nobody spoke of relaxation. It was as though it was not good enough to bring us to heaven! I was old enough to experience Sundays (days of rest) when all the stores were closed. Malls eventually were built and Sundays became “Malling” days with Sunday Mass practically relegated to an option.

Anyhow, my Buddhist books written by Americans and Europeans introduced me into the Eastern way, so kind and compassionate compared to how I was raised and educated according to the Western style.

You can imagine how shocked I was as a senior citizen, to read Ryoho Okawa classifying my religion as one of the religions that isolate humans from God. In my younger years, I abided by the teaching to shun readings that may endanger my Faith. This explains my late awakening.

To go back to diseases make that dis-eases. In my world, the bigger context of dis-eases was the pervading scepter of original sin.I am happy to read many books now declaring that sickness is not a punishment from God though most likely it is a result of an abusive life style either by deprivation or excess.

Today we are lucky because we have choices. However some cynics would qualify that statement by saying, only if you have money.