Pope Francis’ Suggestions For Fasting” – Time To Fast Every Single Day Of The Year!

At about 6:40 AM today, Thursday, 06 March 2025, I find myself reading the Facebook post “Pope Francis’ Suggestions For Fasting,” Surprise! Even as an Editor In Chief for 51 years, I was surprised by the richness of the language suggested by those 35 words – endless possibilities of grace!

Wikipedia says about “Ash Wednesday” (en.wikipedia.org):

“Ash Wednesday is traditionally observed with fasting and abstinence from meat in several Christian denominations. … Many Christians begin Ash Wednesday by marking a Lenten calendar, praying a Lenten daily devotional, and making a Lenten sacrifice that they will not partake of until the arrival of Eastertide.

“Many Christians attend special Ash Wednesday church services at which churchgoers receive ash on their foreheads or the top of their heads, as the wearing of ashes was a sign of repentance in biblical times. Ash Wednesday derives its name from this practice, in which the placement of ashes is accompanied by the words, "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or the dictum "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations.”

On Facebook, Crossworks says:

“We have been working hard these past days and as we enter the Holy Week, we also prepare ourselves spiritually. Fasting is one of the things we offer during the Lenten season and even if it's to an end, we still have a few days to apply the following suggestions from Pope Francis about fasting. We may apply these in our every day life at work and in our personal lives even after the Holy Week.” (image above)

I say, “Pope Francis has just blessed us with astounding greetings that implore us and at the same time bless us, whether we are Roman Catholics or not.

I elucidate the greetings:

“Fast from Sadness & be filled with Gratitude.” However, whichever, whoever, wherever you are in life, don’t give up to sadness! Be Thankful always and ever, whatever the circumstances. Me, I thank God twice a day, with my prayer before I close my eyes to sleep in the evening, and after I wake up in the morning – “Thank you, Lord, for another day/night of blessings….”

“Fast from hurting words & say kind words.” When you are angry, almost automatically you curse the other person. But remember, when you are angry at someone but decide to “keep your peace” anyway, you are at peace! You owe it to yourself to be at peace with the world no matter what!

“Fast from Anger & be filled with Patience.” It seems the best way to learn Patience is to check yourself when you are angry. Remember this: When you are angry, the first person you hurt is yourself!

“Fast from Pessimism & be filled with Hope.” It’s so easy to lose hope. But when you are able to check your Pessimism, Hope comes to visit and blesses your soul.

I hope you’re listening! This is not only for Catholics like me.@517

Agriculture – Is Sustainable Regenerative, Or Is Regenerative Sustainable? Surprise – You Can/Can’t Have One With The Other!

Both the images above are from Pexels (pexels.com) when I searched for images “sustainable agriculture” – my selection of 2 qualitatively different images from the one Pexels great collection of images shows that, truly, “sustainable” is not differentiated by people from “regenerative”! People, I mean, including the agriculture experts.

Columnists, including leaders in agriculture in the Philippines and abroad, mostly talk about Sustainable Agriculture (SA) – but seldom if ever talk about Regenerative Agriculture (RA). Simply put, “sustainable” means “can be maintained” while “regenerative” means “can reproduce the original.” 2 distinct un/natural propositions.

I subscribe to RA. I note that RA takes the original as the “natural fertility of the soil” that which is sufficient in itself, while CA takes the original as the “current fertility of the soil” that which needs adding to every cropping season.

When you irrigate your rice crop, that is Sustainable Agriculture – can be done and redone. When you instead build-into the soil a natural waterholder in the form of decaying organic matter, that is Regenerative Agriculture!

In my title I ask: “Is Sustainable Regenerative, Or Is Regenerative Sustainable?” The fields they are differently applied on may look alike, but they definitely differ in meaning:

Sustainable – maintained with addition of source/s of richness.
Regenerative – maintains itself, as it can reproduce its own kind/s of richness.

We must also talk about biodiversity. As I understand, Sustainable Agriculture (SA) measures sustainability more as “harvests maintained” or even improved – Regenerative Agriculture (RA) measures sustainability more as “species maintained” along with their productivities.

Above – I think that the best examples of SA in my country the Philippines are the mountainsides of Benguet and Ifugao with rice terraces. If those rice terraces were instead treated and maintained as Regenerative instead of simply Sustainable, we Filipinos would revolutionize the whole world of agriculture with examples of RA in the mountainsides, and adorable at that! That would then radicalize agriculture as well as tourism!

Not only that. SA is the cause of so much trouble in farming because of those aggie chemicals when used generate so much greenhouse gases (GHGs) as they are applied! With RA, there would be zero GHGs and that would contribute much to the reduction of the havocs created by chemical agriculture!

In 2020, I wrote (“PH School & Home Gardens – How Good Are They? ComDev Vs DevCom Views,” The Editor In Chief, blogspot.com):

…Both fall short of their avowed ultimate goal of sustainable development, which has 4 aspects: (1) technical feasibility (2) economic viability, (3) environmental soundness, and (4) social acceptability.

Even gardens, in school or at home, should be part of any overall campaign for regeneratability.  And that means sustainable agriculture is out of the question anywhere!

Earth.org says there are “5 Challenges The Agricultural Sector Faces And What We Can Do About It” (earth.org): (1) Climate Change, (2) Insufficient agricultural land, (3) growing population, (4) biodiversity loss, and (5) low investment in agriculture.

Chemical Agriculture exacerbates Climate Change while Regenerative Agriculture reduces it – I am happy with that!@517