Edmund Husserl is the one who developed the philosophical method called Phenomenology. He tried to connect it in all other sciences. He also continued Descartes’ Cartesian Meditation. Descartes had a problem in bridging the subject to the object. Husserl solved it with his Theory of Intentionality.

If Descartes problem is the veracity of God, Husserl’s problem is the veracity of the other.  He has three solutions to solve this problem and these are pairing, concordant behavior and free variation wherein he favored most in pairing. In pairing, my Body is Leib for me while others’ bodies are korper. For the Other, a subject just like me but other than me, his Body is Leib for him and mine is korper. Both our bodies are Leib and korper. Pairing, empathy, and appresentation supports the theory of intersubjectivity, a theory that says all subjects are connected. We are different subjects but we are all interconnected. When there are acts of empathy, intersubjectivity comes in. Emphatic experiences are intersubjective experiences. Both of them correlate.

We are all egos and what is so common in us is that we are different. We have different worlds. The number of egos is the number of different worlds (subjective). For Husserl, we are monads. A monad is an independent, self-sufficient, and a being that is equated to “I and my world.” The problem with this is the objectivity of the world. If I have my world and others have theirs too, what is the objective world? This can only be achieved both by the point of view of the ego and other egos. Others’ point of view is needed for the objectivity of the world. With the ego’s point of view alone, it will only be subjective. Being a monad (I and my world) is leading to solipsism (I alone exist). That is why the objectivity of the world must be settled. In order to settle this, we need other subjects. Being a monad (I and my world) is going out of human’s nature as being social. As subjects, we need other subjects. That is why we need others’ existence. Without them, we will feel lonely. Community is not an option, it’s a need. For me, without others, it will be impossible to live. Maybe we will become crazy and fool. As subjects, we must be social not monads.

In the start of Cartesian Meditation, Husserl’s problem is the veracity of the Other. In the fifth meditation, he proved that other egos exist. With these, it is clear that we are not to be monads and solipsistic. We are persons in nature and persons are communal beings. Now that the problem with the Other is solved, Husserl still has the problem which is ending up to solipsism and becoming monad. If we review Husserl, he is also known in his transcendental intersubjectivity. In this process, the subject who is in the natural attitude, who is in the pre-reflective life world, and who has pre-reflective consciousness while undergoing transcendental reduction will end up in being in the transcendental attitude. If the subject is already in the transcendental attitude, he can only be a monad. If he stops the reduction, he goes back to his natural attitude and in going back to it, his consciousness is the post-reflective consciousness. His natural attitude is different from his old natural attitude. The problem with Husserl and most of the philosophers after undergoing this process is that they forget their pre-reflective consciousness. After reaching transcendental attitude, and in returning to his natural attitude, he cannot recover his pre-reflective consciousness which if we look at, has a big role in going down to the perspective of ordinary people. Without it, the ego cannot go down to the level of others wherein he also came from. He only considers his point of view and perspective. Let us take into example, a teacher giving an exam to his students about the things that only the teacher knows and things where in he has never discussed to his students. How can the students answer it correctly without undergoing the process of being taught about those things which are the content of the exam? The students cannot answer because they are left behind. The teacher can answer it but in answering it, the students will not understand why it is the answer. In order to solve this problem, we will use the solution of Fr. Domingo to this problem which is called “eduction.” Eduction is the going back of the ego to the lower level which is also the ego’s orientation or where “I” came from and lead them to “I’s” phenomenological perspective. Let us always remember that a good phenomenologist is the understanding one, the one who takes the perspective of ordinary people as important as his phenomenological perspective. With that, ordinary people will see that their views are included to us phenomenologists. And so, sociality happens. For example, I am a philosopher-teacher who knows a lot in philosophy. If I discussed using the language of philosophy that I alone can understand without minding that my students can’t understand my lesson, they will not learn. In order for them to learn, the correct approach is that as a teacher, I will go down to their level of understanding and explain to them well what I mean. It is just my guidance to them that will lead them to understand what I mean. In this situation, relationship happens and I as subject have brought my students to my level of understanding. It is just like saying to my students “I know where you are coming from. I was there before. I experienced how hard it is.” On the part of the student they will say “This person is advance but by his advancements he still understands us. He is just like us. Our idea is under him. Hopefully he can teach us.” With this, I as a subject become more a person and social being. I as a monad, opening my windows to others, now become a person. Every person is communal. It is the thickest constitution. The more we become a person, we become less precise because not all of us reach the level of understanding that I have (as a phenomenologist for example), but the less we become a monad, the more we become social and communal and the more we become thicker. On the other hand, if we become a monad, the more we become ideal, the more we become precise but the more we become thinner. Which will you prefer, the thin one, or the thick one?

As a conclusion, we should recover our pre-reflective consciousness after stopping reduction and returning to the natural attitude. Our post-reflective consciousness cannot be understood by the ones who are still in the level of pre-reflective consciousness. And so, speaking to them what we have achieved in the post-reflective consciousness is useless if they cannot understand. In order for them to understand it, we should go back to their level of thinking by recovering the pre-reflective consciousness while still maintaining the post-reflective consciousness. In that way, we still maintain the preciseness and we are leading them to be also precise. As a whole we become less precise because most us is still in the pre-reflective consciousness. And so, it is our “self-responsibility” to teach them and lead them to be precise. In that way, we become thicker and more social. If we lead them already to the preciseness of our post-reflective consciousness, we reach the end point which is the “social responsibility.” It is being responsible as a community to lead other communities who are still in the pre-reflective consciousness to the post-reflective consciousness. With that, we become thicker and more social.

In this time of the world where it is full of people that are living in a space in the world, many are striving to survive the course of time. There are people that are thinking of their own selves, beings that think only of what is good for their self without thinking of others, as long as they are happy surviving in their own benefit. Morality is slowly being destroyed by these beings, where individuality and survivability is the test of the life. The being that cannot stand on his own is a failure, and will not survive the test of life as the survival of the fittest. This kind of mentality does not differ from of animals. The technology and its negative approach to communication of people, where physical and real connection of the persons who are conversing was turned in to cyber communication. The true meaning of communication is the communion itself of two persons. Communication as person to person communion is the exchange of idea, information, and understanding with the accompaniment of emotions of happiness, sadness and many more. I will tackle in this pare about the philosophy of Max Scheler on the concept of person as Ground for community with a little connection to Kant’s Thing in Itself as applied in the priest hood.

The concept of Max Scheler on Person as Ground for Community tells that the person is always bound to experience, thus others are bound being experienced by the person. It is where all our experiences happened, and in every experience a person is experiencing acts are always present and a priori. A person is continuously acts and these acts depict the person who is acting. Through the acts the existence of a person becomes clear and it makes him/her more person.

The existence of a person can be clarified through actions, and what kind of person he/she is, as act reveals the person.

Every person is unique in his/her different ways, but not only a single person is being tackled here, for the word person in personhood itself is a relational term. Person cannot separate him/her self to others called community. Person is always communal, and with acts that are imbedded in every unique person in the community will create a communal act if united are they. Thus moral act of all person in the community, the moral will the community be, and communion will happened. As like what Scheler said “a person is in the community and the community is in the person.” Kant’s theory of thing in itself if connected to Scheler’s is like this; in the phenomena there will be a noumena which is the thing in itself that is in the realm of ideas. If this theory will applied to a person, the physical body of a person is the phenomena and the personhood of the person is the noumena.

The theory of Scheler and Kant can be applied in the priest hood as Scheler will explain a person, so does a priest will be tackled in this paper be. How a priest as a person connected to other priest? What is the connection of priests to priesthood?, as how Kant would understood. How will a priest be a priest as he always carry other priest where ever he may go, so as other priests will do,? And what is the effect of a single person as a priest to the community of priests?

A person as a priest is bound with his community of priests. Any where a priest will go or whatever a priest will do his brothers or the community of priests, always carried by him. The acts of a priest will always be acts of all the priests, for a priest is in the community always of priests, and the community of priests is always in a priest. If the priest is morally upright and humble kind of priest, then the community of priest may be morally upright and humble as community of priests will they be, in the communion of priests. In Kant’s theory of the thing in itself would cite that the phenomena that is physically present in the world is the existence of the priest. Thus the noumena is the priesthood itself that is in the world of ideas. We cannot know the noumena without the phenomena. Thus we cannot know what is the essence of priesthood without the physical presence of a priest, that will depict priesthood. These two is different from each other. The priest as the phenomena is being driven by his priesthood as the noumena, where through acts noumena will be revealed.


The priesthood of a priest is very significant to his being a priest, that a single priest should be a good person so will as a good priest and with that he carries the whole community of priests. This is very true here in the Philippines one of the great controversies is the donation of SUV’s given by the PCSO to Cotabato Arch Bishop Orlando Quevedo. The issue here now is “if Bishop Quevedo asks the help from PCSO to give him vehicles for his own benefit. This issue was commented that it is not for the personal use of Bishop Quevedes, but for the use of the vehicles for the social action apostolate of the Cotabato City. Thus it is not lawful for a government to give money or benefit to a specific person. Thus for Bishop Quevedes is also a priest all priest and the bishops are being connected and affected by this issues.

Priests must be very careful on the things they do to protect priesthood as they are being one of that priesthood. Purified ways of helping others as in helping one must be in the good intention and selfless way of helping to create a selfless community of priests being concerned to the flock they shepherd. The purification of all acts only happens in the formation of seminarians. The seminary should have good form of formation program to form its seminarians to act in accordance to the goodness of God. It is the task of the priests as their future brothers to see them and guide them in the formation. For the true essence of community is being a church.

I can’t imagine myself living alone or don’t have relationship to any individuals in the society. I don’t think so if how long I can survive it or maybe I can’t. As persons, we are created by God not to be alone in this world. If that was His purpose before, He never mind to make Eve for Adam.  He made Eve for Adam, because God noticed that Adam needs to have a partner wherein he can union so that he will not feel alone and empty. He made Eve in the likeness of Adam so that they can be truly partners. God wants us, His children, to gather as one in Him, because we can only attain His promised kingdom if we are in union with one another and living the life that He wants us to have.

Max Scheler, on his theory of Person and Community describes that “Person” is universal. Therefore, by the term itself it is grounded to others or the community. For Scheler, the nature of person is always “communal” and he can never separate his self from the community because the community is already part of its essence. There are two parts that makes the personality of the person. The first part is what we call the “Phenomena”. A Phenomena means the actual or the outside appearance of the person (the way he looks or the structure of his body). But it is not only the Phenomena that could tell who really the person is, but it is also the “Noumena”. A Noumena means the ideas or the perspective of the person. It is more on the inside of a person. We can never say that the person is kind if we will just base it on his Phenomena. In knowing the person we should focus on its “Noumena”, because it serves as the very core of the person and usually the “Phenomena” will just follow it. For example, we can know that a person is a happy person (Noumena) when he is always smiling (Phenomena). The Phenomena is the reflection of the Noumena. These two are very important because they play an important role from one another. We can’t know the Nous of the person if we don’t have first his Phenomena and we can only know the person not only because of his Phenomena but also with his Noumena. Scheler also gives importance to the acts of the person. The effect of the acts is the revealation of the Noumena. And the proper act of person is relation or relating. The person is person only at the time of the act or when he is aware that he acts. Human person is a thinking relation and he must relate to other thinking person (community). The fruit of the thinking (the act) of the person is that he learns how to value or to label things around him. He knows his “likes” and “dislikes”. Since man is a rational being, he is expected to focus more on the highest value which is the Spiritual, because the higher the value that he perceives (acting morally), the more person he becomes.

Scheler would like to emphasize that a “Person” is grounded in the “Community” and he can never escape from that reality, because it is there in his nature to be communal to others. So I would like to relate this idea of Scheler in the context of the Seminary Formation. Here in the seminary we are living as one community. Therefore, everyone of us here is correlated to one another and to the rest of the community, as a whole. I can never say that, “I belong to the seminary community but I don’t want to correlate with them.” If I discriminate myself from the others, there will be no communion that will happen between me and my community.  And there must be a problem within us if we are dividing ourselves from one another. Here in the seminary, a seminarian is not being formed to become a self-centered person, but he is formed to develop his communal thinking and to become an integrated person. Why? It is because we are living as one community. I can never say to myself that, “I am the seminary” but rather I will say, “We are the seminary”. I can never have a seminary formation if it is not because of my priest formators, my lay teachers, my classmates, and the rest of my seminary community. For all of them are parts of my seminary formation. They are my seminary formation. Since we are living here as one community, it would also mean that whatever I did, whether it is good or bad, has an effect or will affect the whole community, because I’m a part of this community.

As I reflect about it, I can say that it is really important in our formation here in the seminary to develop our sense of being communion with others. Why? It is because when we became priests already, we will serve as the image of “Communion of God” to all the people that we minister.  We can never say that we can only be a priest for ourselves. Priesthood is not only for the sake of oneself. It is for everybody. In fact, it was a gift shared to us by Christ so that we could share it also to others. It is never ours alone. It is for the people whom we will serve later on our ministry. It is because of the people that we will become priests. If it is not because of the community, why will I become a priest? To whom I’m going to deliver my homily? How can I evangelize if there is no one who needs my evangelization? Who will be with me as I celebrate the holy eucharist? The good thing about communal thinking is that it promotes unity. If we develop it here in the seminary we can eliminate the existence of selfishness and ignorance about the others. And if that will be granted, I think our community will really progress in every areas of formation and maybe we can add more things in our formation that will help us to become a good community and institution.

Communion is innate in our constitution as persons. If we are not in communion, there must be something wrong that is happening in us, because it is not our nature to be divided from one another. And if this would happen it seems that we also forgot our essence being a person. We are in communion not only because we want to gather as one but we are gathered because we want to share from one another all that we have and we would to partake with them ourselves to become also a part of their lives. 

“The person is in the community and the community is in the person.” The person makes the community. The essence of the community is the human person. He is communal in nature. He has already a community even he is still in the womb. He is a relational being, a social animal. Because he is a relational being, he cannot isolate and separate himself in the community. He will always be part of the community. For part of the essence of the person is his community. His community proves and tells that he is a true and real person. His community is the source of data and ideas about who he is. As long as he is in the community, the level of his being a person increases, however when he isolates himself, it decreases. For him to know himself better, he has to relate with others. Because the deeper the relationship he has in the community, the deeper and clearer he knows himself. Because of the better understanding of the concept of the community, he has a better understanding of himself.

The proper act of person is relation. Every act of man is relational. It has something to do with others. Whatever he does as long as it affects others, then he is considered to be a person. And if the person is not doing any action, then he is like a body without a person. His life would be useless and meaningless because anyone who does not act is not a person. Speaking of act, it is the action of the subject in the community. Meaning you act with the community. You communicate, relate, interact, move and unite with others. You are always in communion with them. By doing this, little by little you are able to develop a healthy and bonded community. You have a closer relationship, for I believe that action is the self-revelation of being. The more you act out and commit yourself in the community, the more you reveal and expose yourself. The person attains his personhood through the process of actual action as self-revelation of his being. Thus, in the seminary community, in order for us to really know each other and develop a healthy relationship, we have to show our true selves to expose something in us and we have to get out of our own shells and caves. There should be always a community-act for it to function well, an active and alive movement within the community.


Person in itself is good. As human being, he is expected to do good. Person is characterized only as rational being. He is naturally endowed with reason. This helps him to become true person. He knows what are the things that a real person should supposed to do. morality happens when a person relates. In order for him to be real and true person, he has to relate and act good and morally towards others. If a person acts well, he is a moral person. However if he acts immorally, he becomes lower than animals. It seems that animals are better than him. We have to remember that only human beings can act morally.  Thus, in our seminary community, we have to maintain a healthy relationship. We have to avoid hurting each other. We have to deal and act morally towards others. We have to live a virtuous and holy life. We need to act as true seminarians.

In the seminary, one of the aspects of our formation that we value most and being emphasized is our community life. Each one of us in the community is important. Every one of us has its own involvement and contribution. We affect each other. We are living in one community. We make our community. Because we are in a community, we act, live and do together. No one has to live alone and isolates himself. It is not good for a member of the community to separate always himself in the community. It is not also proper if we are going to outcast anyone in the community. Because, even if that seminarian separates himself or being isolated, he is always be part of the community. One cannot move away in the community because the more he moves away, the more he is accountable with his community for the community is in him.


The seminary envisions us to be an integrated human persons, Christ-centered, apostolic proclaimers and contemplative pastors. We are being taught to live a righteous and moral life, for us to be good and holy ministers of God. This can be attained through our moral acts.  However, as what I have observed in our community, many of us act immorally which is not proper to a seminarian. We are becoming wicked, insensitive, unkind, impious, brutal and malicious toward our brothers in the community. We are fond of teasing others, making fun of them, throwing bad words or false accusations and even hurting them physically. We act as if we are not true persons. We are not animals, we are human beings.  We are the only ones who can act morally. Thus, as long as we stay and live with the community, we have to share, spread and continue doing things morally. We have to share our love, care, concern, support and encouragements with one another. Above all, we have to develop a closer relationship with our God. By doing these, we are building and creating a sanctified community. By maintaining this kind of blessed life as seminarians, there will be a production of good and holy priests. By this, there will be no more scandalous and disgraceful happenings and incidents take place in the Catholic Church.

Every person in the community is important. Everyone has an important role and involvement in the making of the community. That is why we have to value one another. We have to develop a sense of togetherness. We have to be true and transparent enough in revealing ourselves. We make and create our community. We are responsible of it. If we are living in harmony, with love, understanding, peace, friendship and most especially having a deepened spirituality or faith, for sure we will be having a healthy, united and blessed community.   

As far as I know, every human being who has been living here on earth has asked themselves questions like this, what do I live for? What is the purpose of my life? Has my life worth living or not? At most these questions have also been mingling through the thoughts of the people who have experienced the “near death experience” who had been given a second chance to live .But no doubt neither do I, have asked the same questions within myself.

As I accept wisdom and deliberate my thoughts what life and its purpose is all about, I pray and discerned. And this is what I have in reflection. To find what life and its purpose is all about, one has to examine himself before others on hand. Examining oneself is indeed a great start to know what life is and its purpose since it us who knows the within us. It is good to know if we could define ourselves, coping up to the progressing living world. If the things we do are true it can and will bind us with the satisfaction of happiness. If one blinds himself of not knowing how to live, he blindly just do life in routine or what is dictated to him (similar to a robot), you let others maneuver your life. Unexamined one does not even know how to repent or correct his mistakes. He just goes with the flaw and suddenly feels frustration and burden. Hence, even an optimistic disposition in life can greatly motivate and affect our way of comprehending things. When something frustrates or burden us, having an optimistic attitude can somehow ease us and turn us to being satisfied. Concisely, it is how a person foresees a rainbow after a heavy storm.

When one needs to seek then it’s a struggle of finding something. Continually seeking what life is about makes one encounter a lot of answers and in the end we know that the best awaits us. Similar to having a relationship, in our adolescent age, one cannot simply deny the fact that we seek acceptance. We get involve in being infatuated on young love. We commit in risking knowing if that individual is meant for us or not. But not all takes everything in one chance of winning. So then we rise up again with our gathered strength and try again. Despite of the hurts and pains we are aware to encounter, it couldn’t stop us of seeking what best awaits us. It was proven in my life, that life is not smooth sailing. We need to undergo challenges that could shape out the best character within us.

It is not only ourselves we need to examine but even our society which includes the people who we have interacted with and will being interacting with. Indeed our society can somehow affect our way of thinking. Without our society, we alone cannot define our stand here on life. Certainly, man cannot separate himself from others; he cannot survive on his own or commonly known as, no man is an island.

In conclusion, “Unexamined life is not worth living” if we don’t know how to examine ourselves and our society. Examining not only helps us find happiness but we even gain knowledge. If one knows how to examine his life, he has reasons to struggle, seek and wake up each morning for what life has to offer. He can make it through with any endeavors, his wearies and burdens. He has something to live for.  Thus life must be lived and loved for it is given only to us in one chance. No one knows when our lives will end but while we still have it, it is within us to make the most of what life has to offer.

An unexamined life is not worth living. What will be your life if you don’t enjoy it? What will be your life if you don’t explore things around? What will be your life if you don’t examine or question anything about it? What kind of life would that be?


We, human beings, have only short period of living here on earth. We come and go. We are given life, but our death is soon to come. Well, that’s the nature of life itself. Our existence is not stable in this world. But it doesn’t matter at all because what matters most is that how we lived our lives when we are still living. We should live our lives to its fullness. We have to make use of all our talents and abilities. Life can only be meaningful if we will examine it and find out its true beauty.

I chose the line “An unexamined life is not worth living” by the famous philosopher, Socrates, as my point of reflection on Plato’s work, Apology, because it is a very meaningful line for me.

We know that Socrates was very famous during his time because of the way he thinks and teaches his students, especially the young generation of Athens. This was the reason why other teachers like him were so every envious to him. They made false accusations against him, putting him down in other people by making stories that destroyed his image as a good teacher in the society of Athens. But the good thing about Socrates was that he never mentioned anything ill against his accusers. He never condemned anyone of them. Instead, he showed to them what is real about his person and he has a good intention why he teaches other people. Socrates wanted to tell everybody that he never did any wrongs against his country. He served as a good countryman and servant of the city. Therefore he doesn’t deserve to be put in trial in the front of the judges and the people of Athens. He is just a teacher who wanted to give a correct knowledge to all his students and those who are listening to him every time he teaches everywhere. Socrates valued knowledge more than any material things, which made him a very passionate teacher. He received freely the gift of knowledge from God, so he also gives it freely to others. Socrates was really a wise man, because if not, he was not able to examine his self as being a good person, he will never face up all the accusations against him, and he was not able to reveal the truth against all the false accusations to him. If he didn’t examine his self, maybe he was persuaded by the stories that his accusers are making against him. But fortunately, Socrates knew his self very much and his very purpose, because he really examined his life very well. That’s why he was able to counter all the arguments of his accusers and he voiced out what is the truth about him.       

Before, I always asked myself, “Ngaa pirme lang my recollection man? Ngaa kinahanglan gid nga mag retreat before mag start ang school year?” These were my questions before, which I’ve already found the answer. In our world nowadays, we are always concern about our time and it seems that we are always in hurry, because we really value every minute that we have. We prefer always to do our “works” at a single moment. But I discovered that it is different in the context of the seminary formation. It is a formation that nurtures the vocation to the priesthood. The priestly vocation is a vocation that needs a deeper reflection and intimate relationship with our God. It is not like a race that we should hurriedly rush into its finish line. It is really important for us who are discerning to follow Christ to take time being with Him, praying to him, and listening to every word that He speaks in our heart. That’s why priestly formation must be taken slowly but in a very productive and meditative manner. Rather than rushing ourselves to be ordained as a deacon or as priest and then later on we will realize that there are still things that we would like to do when we are not yet ordained or before our ordination. But it will be too late already. So, Seminary Formation must be taken in a very meditative manner. We should examine ourselves so that we can truly know what our heart desires and we will never be regretful in the end.

The most striking line Socrates said in Plato’s Apology was “An unexamined life is not worth living”. I choose this line of Socrates to reflect with not because this is his famous line but because this is really applicable in real life. Life is a matter of choices. We have choices for we have freedom. God gave us freedom but that freedom is not absolute. There are realities in life where in we cannot control or we have no freedom at all. Best examples are the face we have, our skin color, our parents, to be born in a rich or a poor family, to be born in what religion and where or in what country to be born. We have no choice in these things. I agree to Lady Gaga’s song “Born This Way.” That is why we have no right to criticize others whom we think ugly because on the first place it is not their choice to have that face. The one who gave that face to them is God. Criticizing them means criticizing God the Creator.

If there are things in life where in we have no freedom at all, there are also things we can control. We can control our fate. We are not destined to be failures. We can change our life and be successful. If you are born on a poor family, work hard and someday you will become rich. If you feel you are the most evil person living, you can still change and get converted. It’s a matter of choice. There was once a famous poet who said “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” I agree with him. We are the ones who make our fate. Who we are in the present is the product of who we are in the past. Who we will be in the future is both the product of our past and the present. Our past is important but our present is more important. The wrong decisions we have done in the past cannot be change anymore. The present gives us the ability to change our self and our life. The wrong decisions we have done in the past are mostly product of our failure to examine our self. There are times where in we examine our self but still we enter into a wrong decision or maybe it is just the product of our not examining our self well. That is why it is important for us to pause, take time to go deep within our very self and examine our life (Duc in Altum). It is in silence, focus and intentionally taking time for examining our self where in we encounter our true self and God.

An unexamined life is not worth-living as Socrates would say. I can say that He is really an intelligent, God-fearing and a person with high morals because of that line. In life, we have to examine our self for us to know where we are in the present. I mean we become aware of who we are in the present. In that way, we will be able discover both our good and bad sides and we can find ways in changing our self. It is also in examining our self where in we will know what our passions in life are and we will discover the things that make us happy, complete and fulfilled. That is why in the seminary, there are pauses after prayers and there is silentium magnum for us to reflect and discern for our true vocation in life and for our future. Through reflection (with silence and focus), we will be able to know our self more and more and we can have good decisions in life. If we have no time in examining our life, for sure we will not be taking the good path, make wrong decisions that we will surely regret in the future and we will find life meaningless.

As future priests someday (as presumed because I am a seminarian in behalf of all seminarians), it is important that we can make a good homilies in our masses for us to inspire people. It is also important that as priests, we can make good decisions concerning our parish and parishioners and we will only achieve them if we will have a good reflection and examination of what is should and what is ought to be. We will have a good reflection if we examine our self well. Remember, an unexamined life is not worth-living, an examined life is meaningful.

Indeed, life is a very precious gift from God. This is the great that we have to be thankful and grateful for. For we are the chosen ones, who have given the chance and privilege to see and witness God’s creation, to enjoy and savor the beauty of nature, to interact and to befriend with others, to experience having a family and a true friend, to experience how to fell in love with someone so special to you, to laugh and above all to embrace and fell God’s immeasurable and overflowing love for us. Indeed, we are truly blessed. That is why it is our mission and greatest responsibility to value, to care, to respect and to love our very own life.


“The unexamined life is not worth living”, Socrates said more than two thousand years ago. Yet how many of us really examine our lives, our beliefs and values, perspectives in life, opinions and world views. How many of us have convictions that we cannot even logically defend? How many of us question why we get through and experience this kind of difficult problems that come in our way? How many of us question why there are so many crisis and troubles in our society? How many of us question why we become disappointed and dissatisfied of our life? Many of us become willfully ignorant of what are happening in ourselves, in our society. We don’t question things, but rather we just believe and believe without thinking and looking for the evidence and real truth. This is a call to all of us that it is important to examine ourselves deeply for us to live a life which is meaningful and worthy. However, it would not easy for one alone to answer and explain what the meaning of life is. Yet, our life is monotonous if it is meaningless, and it is not monotonous if it has a purpose, a target to go. That is why, Socrates is really true to his statement that, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” In order for us to make our life becomes worth to live, this famous statement strongly addresses that we must examine ourselves first and then others in the society to find the meaning and happiness in life.

           

We must examine ourselves every day to find the meaning of life and to live a worthy life. Thus, it is important for us to know who we are, what we are doing. Because if not, we would not be able to live a good life. Without examination, we would blind and lie to ourselves. We don’t know what we are doing is right or wrong. However, nobody is perfect. All of us commit mistakes. If we don’t examine ourselves, we would not be able to realize and fix our mistakes. However, when we do examinations do not fully mean that we are living a worthy life. To some, examination is a thought of doing things with bad purpose or harm to others. On the other hand, for a virtuous person, examination is to gain knowledge, to seek for the common good. We would be able to live a good and worth life or find happiness if our examinations are based on our virtue. Without examined life, there was no point in living. We are just like a man living in a cave alone, separates from others, lack of sensitiveness to the real and the truth of life. If we are living in that way, our life would have no intentional destiny, purpose and ideal. It is full of dullness and mediocrity. We would end up living with illusion and imagination. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I learned that the goal of Socratic interrogation is to help achieve genuine self-knowledge even if it often turns out to be negative in character. In this of Socrates, he is saying that, he would rather die than to give up reality. For him a life of imprisonment was nothing more than death to which he was sentenced. A life in which he could not explore and examine the world around him was ultimately useless. Because for me, he felt that if he was unable to examine life, he would not be really living. According to him, living means being able to question the world around him. I believe that Socrates is a hero. He was sentenced to death because of his beliefs.

In conclusion, this statement, “The unexamined life is not worth living”, reminds us that without the meaning of life examination there was no point in living. Life examination helps us either our personal and spiritual growth. We are unable to grow toward greater understanding of our true nature unless we take time to examine and reflect upon our life. Thus, one's life is worth living when he virtuously examines himself in order to find the meaning and happiness of life.

The life of Socrates was an inspiring life, where we can learn about how he fought for the truth and the wisdom of his teachings to the youth of Athens. It is where we can find the conviction of Socrates how he defended or, the right term is how he corrected the accusations of people who would like to bring him down. There were many accusations that brought him in to judgement and having a sentence of death. Socrates is a philosopher of himself who did say his is indeed wise because he had recognized that he “know that he does not know” he recognized that there were things that others did not recognized or did not affirmed that they do not know all things. In the apology, Socrates had said many phrases that are rich in contents and full of insights where we can ponder and reflect. I will focus more in the statement of Socrates “it is not difficult to escape death; it is more difficult to escape wickedness, for wickedness runs faster than death.” Socrates had said this for his accusers.

Here Socrates would like to say in his statement “it is not difficult to escape death,” not that we can escape death, yet we cannot but all die thus we can prevent to die earlier. It is not difficult to escape the tendency to die early or escaping the occasion of death. Death is the end of our bodies, where we cannot do any physical actions and interactions to other beings. Death is the loss of our capacity to live in the world and get in touch to create relationship. We can make sure not to die earlier if we take extra care of our lives and escape from occasion of sickness. We can live a healthy life by eating nutritious foods and exercise to be fit. Curing illness is easier to be achieved than to escape wickedness. We must accept that we are bound to die in this earthly world, a world of physical and material bodies. All of us are afraid to die may be those who are not prepared but somehow we do not know what will happen to us if we die. Where will we go after we die? Do we have consciousness? or can we be aware as if we have mind after death? These are the reasons why we are afraid to die.

The statement of Socrates that it’s not hard to escape death but it’s very hard to escape wickedness because it runs faster than death; it would like us to reflect and be aware and beware of our tendencies to be bad persons through unfair and evil doings. We know that evil is always present in our surroundings, often times we recognize more the evil one than God and worse we dwell and do evil things. It is because of the devil that is provoking our selfishness and let ourselves be controlled by the devil why we became wicked. It is very hard to escape wickedness such that it attack first our weak points and that is to be above or to be powerful than the others thinking of our selves. Wickedness affects many people it can destroy a person, a couple, a family a community and most of all it can kill the life of an innocent and the life of the person who is devoured and being controlled by the devil. Thus it is not difficult to escape wickedness of others, and the devil who would like to devour and hold you in its arms to be a wicked person, for wickedness may be outwardly testing you or internally devouring you.

We are all made by God as his people, created in his likeness made through his love. Thus we should be living like Christ, how he lived in this earth, being loving people of god and loving one another as how God loved us and be good persons as we are naturally made through love. We must be always aware and recognize the presence of the devil and more, we need to appreciate the ever presence of God to devour evil and conquer it. We can only defeat evil and escape always wickedness if we are all in communion and in understanding under Gods guidance. Thus we need not to escape death or be afraid to die if we know that we will be with Christ if we die.

In this paper, I will point out the importance of language in our lives and how do I treasure language. I will also tackle the connection of communication and understanding. Here communication and understanding are very close to language, these three are very significant to each other. Language is very important in the survival of the people in the world of communication, and human beings as social beings in the building of common and understandable language. Understanding has its responsibility to the communication of language. Language will tell us that it is that we cannot keep them, thus it will escape from us and in every word we speak our identity follows to the words we utter as Friedrich Hardenberg would like to point out in his monologue. We are the people with God given common gifts that will and make us one as we use it as our common communication to be in communion with each other.

Language connects people all over the world through communication with the understanding of parties, the speaker and the recipient or the hearer or the one the speaker talking with. One can make his/her own language if there is also someone who could understand and speak what the speaker is telling. Language is very important in the communication process. Language is being used as a statement, as a question or as an order. Language may be communicated through oral or signs and more... communication is a process that will make us sure that our language is being understood by the person we are talking with. In the process there should be a speaker, a hearer, the language that the speaker will say or words he/she utter, and the response of the hearer as the recipient of the language being communicated by the speaker. Communication will be successful if the recipient will give his/her response or comment to what the speaker said. Understanding is also very important to the process of communication. Understanding will give the go signal for the hearer if he/she will understand the speaker. Communication will occur if the speaker and the language he use will be understood by the hearer. And there the hearer will give his comment or response. If the speaker and the hearer communicated successfully, then they under stood each other and they have the common language and they unite as one in one understanding in the common language they use. The many the people is using the common language or have the same common language and successfully undergone the process of communication then how many those people may be they unite as one.

In the monologue of Friedrich Hardenberg language has its own world that why in the process of communication language has its own sphere that without it communication is not possible. Language has its own world that if we utter or we said something we are freeing the word itself and we cannot say any more that we control or those words are ours. The article entitled monologue by Friedrich Hardenberg because every one of us as we speak, as we say is in the monologue that the things or the words or the language that are inside of us are ours. If we do not utter them it’s ours. As we say something, our selves depicts to the words we utter. It is also said there that language are just play of words thus we must not be very affected to others who are telling us especially those who say bad things to us or muck us because it is not us who they telling of their words it’s actually themselves. It is better to say or to communicate for the reason that it is necessary to and there we do not affect our words with our selves or our own biases.