Filipino Poet, Writer and Educator
by Luis G. Dato Peñafrancia, Peñafrancia, By the river stands thy shrineSanctuary and temple radiant Showering thy grace divine. Peñafrancia , dear dark lady, Far-famed Bikol Patroness, Ever every home and hamlet Of the Bikol region bless. Great thy name…
by Luis G. Dato O why did God that we be cleft ordain, And desolate to wend our separate way? Why did He turn to night the gladsome day When I could not your sweet face see again? Is God…
by Luis G. Dato The leader, what must Catholics possessThat the apostolate may win success?They must be firm, sincere and fired with faithWhose flashes, Phoenix-like, transcend their death. They must be pure, like Galahad of old,Who would return the stray…
by Luis G. Dato The wage of sin is death, the death of man,But death formed not a part of God’s first plan,“Twas Adam only brought woe to our earth,By sins which henceforth coupled death with birth. As not result…
by Luis G. Dato The sacraments present an outward right,They rescue from horrendous moral night,Which Christ did institute to grant the graceThat all the world’s grant sins alone efface. In baptism, God’s vicar uses oil,And water for the sins that…
by Luis G. Dato Act in the living present, poets sayTo make the morrow better than today,Alas! the Catholic apostolateWe let it down to mourn a better fate. Because to meet there is no better world,We hear no call, no…
by Luis G. Dato Knowledge is power, but what and how shall weExplore in cosmos and its mystery?What, where the Key the universe to learn,The wisdom erudite true Christian yearn? Knowledge is power, ’tis what the Scribes did say,But grace…
by Luis G. Dato Pieta, pieta, and study, action, too,These triumvirate of virtue true,They are man’s weapons shielding him from harm,His main defensive and offensive arm. Khayyam once said, “When young did I frequentDoctor and Saint and heard great argumentAbout…
by Luis G. Dato How man has fallen from his high estate,From his straight mandates with his sins deviate,Rejoicing and rebelling from His reignEmprise of Lucifer, like him, all vain. In life, what strange bedfellows sin and grace!The light departs…
by Luis G. Dato God said, I call thee Peter, on thy rockI build my church, My children there to flockFor refuge from the anguish of the vale,Against it Satan’s hosts shall not prevail. The church, it is the voice…
by Luis G. Dato Of old, man had the innate power of grace,Which Adam lost, the father of our race,But from which fall he still himself can lift,Through baptism and penance, Jesus’ gift. And what is grace? it is to…
by Luis G. Dato Related to creation, what is man?To move, to feel, to reproduce he can,But so likewise in life the lower forms,These instincts all posses, the amoeba and the worms. Th trees, the order of the inanimateO prithee,…
