"Fruits" of prayers from the Spiritual Exercises

tonight, our brothers from the AMPO class shared their experiences during their recently-concluded spiritual exercises of st. ignatius, a thirty day silent retreat that is often considered as a "turning point" in a josefino's life. their sharing reminded me of my own experiences of god's grace some four years ago when i myself underwent the long retreat with the ATABAY class. at this point where a lot of things have been happening from within and without, listening to testimonies about god's love and how he continues to call us despite our iniquities serve as fresh air to these dying lungs of mine.

i want to share some of the artworks i made during the long retreat. i consider them as fruits of my prayer exercises for in a way they served as a "review" of the various prayer experiences. honestly, i am not an artist (hindi pa nga aabot dun, "maarte" lang siguro... hahaha) and i make pretty sloppy artworks as in the past, but i appreciated art as an expression of self and even as a medium for prayer during the spiritual exercises.

there are still several works that i made but i failed to take a snapshot or something. but i consider these as personal favorites, so to speak, because they seem to capture the various experiences therein.


principle and foundation
from one of the first prayer matters during the retreat. in layman's terms: to seek, to find, to belong to god. but why is there a man and a woman in the picture? my answer is quite simple: why not?

here without you

done during all soul's day, it was a concept inspired from the "superman: day of doom" graphic novel. but why is there a guy in an unbuttoned alb and 17 graves? the answer remains: why not?

the devil made me do it

title taken from a song by chicosci. it reminds me best of the meditation on hell where i encountered the devil at shn cemetery. creepy? not really. it's just a shadow of the wall and the plant vase from behind.

funeral for a friend

another title from a superman graphic novel, but it was inspired from a scene in "day of doom." there are six men carryinh my casket. who are they? 3 KMUers, the remainder of midnight cabinet, and a josefino.

take me out of the dark

cartoonish work, fruit of the meditation on the "two standards". well, where's the darkness? there is a guy in black, stranded in a sea of green and reaching out for the blue ray of light. oh, sounds familiar?

huwag ka nang umiyak

that sugarfree song might be a favorite, but i made this one after having my "general confession." the father has long been waiting for the return of the prodigal son, wondering about his son, and exlaiming with much joy upon seeing him from the horizon. it can work both ways, actually.

happy birthday, dad

given during the birthday of fr. junjun during the second thematic week. it is a portrait of the holy family before the "lost and finding of jesus at the temple" episode. cartoonish but i'm quite convinced with it.