The Butchering of the Redemptorist Trees and Green Lung

Last July 29, 2011,
I wrote with so much joy, reverence and awe
of the Redemptorist Trees at the Cebu Redemptorist Parish Grounds
that make up, what I call-
the Redemptorist Urban Green Lung,
one of the few remaining in Cebu.

I often say to myself that-
Nature is my Religion and Earth is my Temple,
but every Sunday,
my mother who is a perpetually self-professed missionary
and chief church proselytizer  unfailingly prods us
to go to church---
so, in the hope of attaining world peace,
(they say peace begins at home)
I faithfully, but not blindly abide...

And so every Sunday, we go on a renewed quest
for a Catholic Church that can nourish our souls
and provide us with some sensible, relevant
and meaningful preaching of the Good News,
we often end up frustrated...

but just before we give up and surrender,
we always end up at the Redemptorist Church,
its a weekly compromise agreement-
as, in Cebu, and in my book of truth,
the Redemptorist Church
is the only one that comes closest to my motto-
Nature is my Religion,
and on Earth, the Redemptorist is my Temple,
at least the Trees on the Redemptorist Church Grounds
and when an occasionally awakened Redemptorist priest
shares how he has encountered the Divine
in creation- people, animals, trees...

This Sunday, Jan 27, 2013--
as I made my weekly pilgrimage to my Earthly Temple,
I was shocked to see the TREES that surround my Earthly Temple-
severed, butchered, maimed, and mutilated....
as if some mad-lunatic  run amok-
and went on a mindless, uncontrollable rampage of environmental destruction...

decades old acacia tree mindlessly pruned to protect a prayer room????

another tree in the back was mindlessly pruned

the trees by the rectory were not missed by the pruner

shadows of a green past, no more bird and wildlife habitat

they got tired of the fresh cool air the trees brought to their rooms

They call this trimming or pruning????

I am not a linguist nor an arborist....

So I looked up the definition of these words:

it means- to cut off dead parts 

or living branches of a tree,

to improve shape or growth-

if by improved shape-

they wanted the trees to look like skeletons 

and dead ghostly figures-

then the pruners and their mastermind have greatly succeeded....

despite my disappointment at the Cebu Redemptorist community

for allowing the butchering of these Trees,

I continue to have faith in Nature-

that it is resilient and regenerative

despite the ignorant acts of its stewards...

yes, Nature is My Religion,

and the Earth is still My Temple

i rest my case....