IT’S amazing that Christ had to excuse himself from his very busy schedule in order to pray. He is God himself. He should have no need to pray. But as the gospel many times say, he had to go somewhere to talk to the Father.
As the gospel narrates, “Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” (Lk 6,12) Why did he have to pray, we might ask. And the answer, to be blunt about it, is nothing other than that Christ is also man who needs to be always in vital and constant connection with his divinity.
He is actually showing us that we as man, created in the image and likeness of God, and meant to share in the life and nature of God, also need to be vitally and constantly connected with God. And this is what prayer is all about.
Prayer is the most basic thing we ought to do to be with God who is be-all and end-all of our whole existence. All the other necessities we have can only be attended to properly when this need for prayer is first met. Otherwise, everything else would just be waste of time.
We need to pray, and at these times, we need to pray more than ever, given the increasingly deteriorating conditions of humanity. Prayer, of course, is our sublime act of worship, of thanksgiving, of asking for pardon and favors. It is what keeps us spiritually alive, vitally connected with our Lord, and in a very mysterious way what keeps us properly linked to everyone else.
What eating, drinking and breathing do to our physical organism, is what prayer does to our spiritual soul which is the more important component of our humanity. It animates us, since it exercises our faith, hope and charity that are the lifeblood of our soul. Without these theological virtues, we would just get lost in life, left kaput spiritually and morally.
When we pray, we dispose ourselves to receive the wisdom and power of God, so important as we cruise through our very confusing world and contend with the frailties of our flesh, the wiles and temptations of the devil, the sweet but deadening allurements of the world.
The challenges of the times simply urge us to pray even more. A quick look around already gives us very sobering thoughts and compelling appeals for prayer.
If understood and done properly, praying actually gives us joy always. It enables us to see and understand things better. More importantly, it helps us to have a glimpse of God’s will, where everything starts and is governed and led to its proper end.
Praying processes and finds the answers to all our needs. In good times and bad times, when we are healthy or sick, when we enjoy successes or suffer defeats or are tempted, praying comes as our natural way of coping with everything that our spiritual life needs just like breathing does with our bodily needs.
To those who are afraid that praying just gets in the way of our human activities and concerns, the contrary is true. If anything at all, praying tremendously helps us in putting our activities and concerns in another level so they acquire a spiritual, moral and supernatural value, which is proper to us, since we are God’s image and likeness, and children of his.
This truth should be spread out quite widely these days, since many now are the factors and elements that tend to deny the indispensability of prayer in our life.
Sneak Peek to RA 12009 (NGPA)
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR III
Fabulous and erudite, the discussions were not only mindful and demure as she said, its awe inspiring. It was a vivid description of Atty Rowena Candice M. Ruiz, LLM , CESO I the Executive Director V of the Government Procurement Policy Board -Technical Support Office.
The existing law on government procurement or Republic Act 9184, is slowly yet surely transitioning to the New Government Procurement Act which is Republic Act 12009.
The said law was approved July 20, 2024, the date of publication was July 29, 2024 and Date of Effectivity was on August 13,2024. The Implementing Rules and Regulations are on the works and soon, it will be a new way of doing things.
Atty Rowena Candice M. Ruiz , LLM , CESO I the Executive Director V of the Government Procurement Policy Board -Technical Support Office is on its 3rd day of a Master Class Focused Procurement Reform and Policy Discourse as part of the Gabay sa Paglilingkod Batch 50 as sponsored by the Career Executive Service Board.
Fabulous and erudite , the discussions was not only mindful and demure as she said , its awe inspiring.
Usec. Ruiz emphasized the need to make things better for all. Although, she also emphasized that things are constantly changing that is simply one reason why the RA 9184 must be changed to keep abreast with the times.
The NGPA, boosts of Sustainable Procurement with some projects not only inclusive of the purchase of goods but also the disposal, According to USec. Ruiz, new efforts to have Procurement Practitioners, one that can be trained and regulated by the Professional Regulation commission. She was adamant about Agility of leaders to change ways to make procurement ahead of the collusion and corruptors.
Further the Governing Principles still includes Enhanced Transparency, Improved Competitiveness, Increased Efficiency, Proportionality, Enhanced Accountability, Participatory Procurement, Sustainability and Professionalism.
In all, the new law is still in transition, and it was emphasized that the old RA 9184 is still in effect until 2025 or whenever the new IRR is out.
But we see the best times for Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability coming our way due to the new NGPA. We are looking at the end of the days when the 35 percent lost to corruption in our government must be put to stop.