Illuminations: Life and Its Passages

By Armando S. Baltazar and Franco M. Patriarca

GOD. LIFE. LOVE. BEAUTY & ART. JESUS.

"One is not surprised to learn that this book was originally not primarily meant for publication. Throughout the years, Armando Baltazar would jot down in a 'note-book' the thoughts that would come to his mind in moments of meditation. He wrote them down more to follow an impulse to put his feelings into words, possibly to further reflect on them some other time, than to have them 'public-ized.'

"We are now glad that some friends of 'Balty' have prevailed on him to have his innermost thoughts published in the form of a book... In this book we find the elements of a true faith, the faith of a man who has put his life entirely in the hands of God and has discovered the joy and comfort of such a complete commitment."

~ Virginia Benitez Licuanan

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304510877

Book preview

Illuminations: Life and Its Passages

Illuminations:

Life and Its Passages

by: Armando S. Baltazar

Photography by: Franco M. Patriarca †

GOD. LIFE. LOVE. BEAUTY & ART. JESUS.

One is not surprised to learn that this book was originally not primarily meant for publication. Throughout the years, Armando Baltazar would jot down in a note-book the thoughts that would come to his mind in moments of meditation. He wrote them down more to follow an impulse to put his feelings into words, possibly to further reflect on them some other time, than to have them public-ized.

We are now glad that some friends of 'Balty' have prevailed on him to have his innermost thoughts published in the form of a book. Many, like me,will now be able to share one man's life-long relationship with his God and, like me, be inspired by it because it is a faith that is profound as it is simple. Devoid of rites and ritualistic symbols it is a direct one-on-one, twenty-four-hours-a-day relationship that needs no ceremonies nor intermediaries. In this book we find the elements of a true faith, the faith of a man who has put his life entirely in the hands of God and has discovered the joy and comfort of such a complete commitment.

~ Virginia Benitez Licuanan

If I were to put a sub-title to this book, I think it would be, God is not just for Sundays.

Copyright © Armando S. Baltazar

2006: First Edition (printed)

2013: E-book Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author or photographer's family.

Book Design by Patricia Perez Patriarca

E-book editing & publication by Bong Saculles

To all those

who may find in these pages

some good seed for reflection–

May they say a prayer

for all those

who had something to do

with this little book.

FOREWORD

Souls Crossing

We worked together on a College Yearbook a long time ago when he was a student and I was a teacher.

I wrote the verses, he laid out the pages.

And then our lives went their separate ways.

Forty-seven years later, just a wrinkle of time away, our souls' paths crossed, or converged, again.

A sprinkle of thought-seeds from me, a gift of photographs from him, brought together by his daughter Patricia.

Flashes of thought from my mind, slivers of light and shadow from his artist's eyes.

His name was Frankie Patriarca. He managed to reach out from a now-another life, and bring our life's works together.

In this book of Words and Images.

In a tribute to the Lord of Life and Light.

-Armando Balty Baltazar

9 September 2005

Introductory Prayer

As I sit here and listen to your subtle inspirations,

As I sift and gather what you have whispered into my ear,

Help me to share your good gifts.

That those who read these writings may find the friend in it

that is You.

That through it they may find the Lite that You came to give them an abundance of.

That they may find through it the masterpieces of themselves that you created in the first place.

Let this work touch their minds and hearts that they may find You and the Father, and the Holy Spirit in it.

That they may learn to love not only You, not only themselves, but also others –

those others that are all reflections of Your Glory.

That thereby they may give Joy and Delight to the Father...

and that He may find Jesus

"...playing in ten thousand places

through the features of men's faces."

LIFE... AND ITS PASSAGES

Life

"The path of the just, as a shining light,

goeth forward, and increaseth even unto perfect day."

-Proverbs, iv, 18

This is life.

And this is destiny.

That men should grow unto the fullness

Of the promise planted at their birth

And dreamed for them in the mind of God

From all eternity.

Be ye perfect, Christ said,

as your heavenly Father is perfect.

And this is all creation.

For from God we come, and to God we go.

And in between our nothingness and our Beatitude is the time of GROWTH.

Growth in wisdom and age and grace

With God and men.

Childhood

"And Jesus, calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them and said:

Amen, I say unto you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

-Matthew xviii, 2-3

This is the beginning of fulfillment:

The emptying of oneself.

That God may take possession