Salamuch

A personal note to you, my dear followers, fellow bloggers and everyone at WordPress on the occasion my seventh year of blogging, 06 June 2025

After a funeral Mass in the province yesterday, this greeted me in my notifications yesterday afternoon. Immediately, it brought a smile in me, a sense of inner joy and fullness.

Salamuch is the only word I have for you all.

From the Filipino word “salamat” for thank you and “much” from thank you very much, salamuch is literally “maraming salamat”. Double that to “maraming, maraming salamat” it becomes salamax but I rarely use the term because they remind me of Betamax and its sexual connotations…

I have been reading some blogs by friends via Facebook long before I joined WordPress.

It was purely accidental, like Facebook too. A friend created an account for me here at WordPress seven years ago while we were having a meeting about communications. At first I protested because of my toxic schedules in the parish on top of my teaching load in the seminary and a radio program in our Catholic station. Then I realized this is exactly what I have been teaching to future priests – the need to write and communicate the Gospel in the internet. Since I have been writing my Sunday homilies way back 2003 sending them to some relatives and friends, I started posting them here at WordPress.

I was totally ignorant of everything about blogs… but WordPress is so kind with dinosaurs like me. Most of all, there were so many other bloggers so generous and helpful in sharing me their knowledge about blogging.

That is one great thing about WordPress that I like: it is a community, a family.

I found new friends who helped me grow spiritually. Their diverse views on everything even so different from my own have so enriched me that indeed, reading and writing can take you anywhere around the world, even into the other worlds!

This may sound unusual but, I love WordPress so much because this is where I meet God every day. Not only among the writings by its bloggers but primarily with what WordPress does to me every day: you remind me of the need for me to always pray and whatever I have felt and realized, those are what I wrote and share.

It is funny that as I pounced the keys of my laptop daily and nightly for my posts, it has actually become more of an inner journey than an outer one. Every piece I write is always a journey inside my heart and soul. The same thing happens whenever I read prayers and poems, essays and expositions as well as look at the stunning photos… these have all invited me to look inside me and think what I can share in return.

I have grown because WordPress brought out the gifts I never thought I have.

Salamuch, WordPress in bringing out the good and the best in me always. Indeed, among you I have felt so true Vatican II’s declaration that “Communication is more than the expression of one’s thoughts and feelings. At its most profound level, it is the giving of self in love…” (Communio et Progressio #11). We all read and write here at WordPress simply because we love which is communication in itself. No love, no communication.

Salamuch WordPress for the seven years of love and here’s to more years with you all! God bless!