GOOD number of readers wrote to tell me that the release of the prisoners involved in the Aquino-Galman case was a good, humanitarian act by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

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After languishing in prison for many years and the mastermind is not yet known, it’s unfair and un-Christian that those Avsecom soldiers should serve as scapegoats.

Kudos Madame President Arroyo!

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I received an e-mail from a friend in the USA saying how hard life there has become. "I'm a walking economy here. My hairline is in recession, my stomach is a victim of inflation, and both of these are putting me in a depression!" he joked. "Good for you people there," he added. "You’re not so hard hit."

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Fr. Romy P. Zantua, founder of the community Disciples of Hope whose charism is to minister to the spiritual needs of the seriously sick and cancer patients, writes: "Have you heard of a traveling eagle-owl? Well, there’s one named Maxxy. I don’t know whether it’s a male or a female bird," said Ben Cecilio, the original owner of the bird.

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"Maxxy moves from its daytime cage to a collapsible one that can easily enter any ordinary single room door. Its nocturnal cage has wheels so that it can move close to patients suffering from chronic and/or terminal illness, who often cannot sleep at night.

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"But why should Maxxy need to travel at all, any way? Since Maxxy is always awake, it can serve as a companion at night to the elderly. A human caregiver can doze off, but not Maxxy who never blinks.

"Its wide round yellow eyes, characteristic of the Philippine species, are always open, always giving its full attention to others.

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"If God sent a raven to deliver food to the starving prophet in the Old Testament, why can’t He send a Philippine eagle-owl to a suffering insomniac?

"Maxxy reminds each one of us, in health or in sickness, in youth or in old age, to be constantly on the watch.

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"God created every wild or exotic bird for a purpose, no matter how humble that purpose may be. And we should be able to discover what that purpose is.

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St. Jude Novena. Tomorrow is Thursday. Join our novena to St. Jude, Saint of the Impossible, at the Divine Word Shrine, Christ the King Seminary Compound on E. Rodriguez Boulevard, Quezon City at 6:30 p.m.