It is better to be alone than in the wrong company.

Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl. But, if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights. A mirror reflects a mans face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses. The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate for the good and the bad. The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that dont help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that dont increase you will eventually decrease you. Consider this: Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Dont follow anyone whos not going anywhere. With some people you spend an evening; with others you invest it. Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life. This is dedicated to people all around the world who dared to step out of their comfort zones and use their God given talents and abilities, realizing that God did not have time to make a nobody just a SOMEBODY. To be successful in this life, you need: enthusiasm, discipline, willingness, determination, and appreciation of others. Its often said there are three kinds of people in this world: 1) those who make things happen; 2) those who watch things happen; and 3) those who wonder what happened. Its your birthright to have anything you want in this life. The choice is all yours!

Lesson Plan Developmental Reading Prepared by: Precious M. Paglinawan Course/Year/Sec: BSOAd 4B CoEd I. Date: October 12, 2011 Professor: Maam Ampongan

Objectives: At the end of the discussion, students should be able to: a. K b. K c. K

d.

e. HAPAG NG PAG-ASA (Table Of Hope) f. Quiz The Lords Prayer

g. July 18, 2007 by ordinary guy

h.

I came across this picture from the original painting while I was at CANA two weeks ago. It reminds me of the Last Supper our Lord Jesus Christ had with his Apostles. Only that in this picture, it depicts the story of poor homeless children, despite the despair and poverty that surrounds them, still carrying on their lives with Jesus as their only hope. The next time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist in the cool airconditioned comfort of our church with good sound system and sufficient seating capacity every Sunday at Mass, perhaps we can spare a thought for those who do not have such many opportunities to be at our Lords table. May we realise the blessings that God has bestowed on us, our families and loved ones. Below is an article about the painting titled `HAPAG NG PAG-ASA meaning `Table Of Hope.

i.

HAPAG NG PAG-ASA
AT 3 A.M. By Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J. The Philippine Star 04/21/2007

At the entrance of the Major Seminary of the University of Santo Tomas, in Manila, you will see a painting. It is the Last Supper of Joey A. Velasco. It

portrays poor children from Metro Manila, all between the ages of 4 and 14, at the Last Supper with Christ Our Lord. He has called it Hapag ng Pag-asa, the table of hope. To start with, it is not really a table. It is a big delivery box, knocked apart and nailed together again as a table. Joey Velasco himself has said: This painting reveals a story of greater hunger than a plate of rice could satisfy. What these children are starved for is love. Realizing that his little models were real persons, he investigated the life of each of them, and wrote a book, telling their stories. The title of the book came from a young woman who was mentally handicapped. She studied the painting and said: You know, these children are not really poor. They have Jesus. So he called the book: They Have Jesus: The Stories of the Children of Hapag. To me, the most fascinating was the story of the child, in the painting, who is under the table, eating the crumbs that have fallen to the floor. Joey says: The child under the table is ME! The model for this child was the Pulitzer Prizewinning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan Famine. It shows a starving child who collapsed on the ground, struggling to get to a food center in Sudan , Africa , in 1993. In the background, a vulture is stalking the emaciated child, waiting for him to die. Three months later the photographer, Kevin Carter, was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in Johannesburg , a suicide at 33. His red pick-up truck was parked near a small river where he used to play as a child. A green garden hose attached to the vehicles exhaust funneled the fumes inside. Im really, really sorry, he explained in a note left on the passenger seat beneath a knapsack. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist. I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses, anger and pain, of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners. The Doll of Tinay is the story of a five year old girl whose mother is working abroad as a domestic, and whose father is a philandering drug addict. She is the only child, in the painting, who looks straight at Our Lord. She is hugging her battered doll, but Tinay is more battered than the doll. She was raped by her father. Dodoy, eight years old, lives under a bridge. Joey Velasco was touched by the courage and cheerfulness of his mother, Vivian. They could not stand up in their little cubicle, because the roof was only four feet from the floor. But the mother worked hard as a lavandera. The whole family did all they could to send Dodoy to public school, though they could not afford books, or pens, or paper. They smiled; they hoped for a better future; and they prayed. When he gets to the cheerful little home of Jun and Roselle , which is a squatters shack, Joey begins to crystallize his thoughts on the poor. They have a firm trust in God as a compassionate, loving father. They have nothing. They really live a hand-to-mouth existence. But they smile and say: We live on the mercy of God Nabubuhay kami sa awa ng Diyos. These poor people hold on to the truth that God will never abandon them, even if the walls of the earth crumble down. They begin and end their sentence with:

j.

k.

l.

m.

n.

o.

p.

q.

kung may awa ang Poon If God will have mercy on us. They inherited this phrase from their old people from past generations. These are not merely words. This is their real life! r. Jun and Roselle are poor children but they are rich in faith. They have what we call abundance in scarcity. Their house is filled with love and understanding. They enjoy each other. Nothing not money, power, or fame, can replace family and friends, or bring them back once they are gone. Our greatest joy is really our family. s. Whenever you try to help the poor, you always get back more than you give. You learn the meaning of courage. You learn the meaning of sacrifice, you see the beauty of love. Above all, you feel the strength that comes from faith, and hope, and trust in God. You realize the power of prayer. t. The strength of this country is not on the top. It is not in the politicians. It is not in the military, or in the police. It is not in the big businessmen.The strength of this nation is in the squatters shacks. Though we do not say it, our real power is in our courageous poor, praying under the bridge.

Reference: http://aquietmoment.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/hapag-ng-pag-asa-table-of-hope/