ADVENT is a time of waiting for the celebration of Christmas to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. And as I wrote last week, it’s also a time of waiting for the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom when Jesus Christ will come back in His glory to judge the living and the dead. As a period…
it’s Advent season — a period of preparation for two “comings”! First, we’re preparing for the coming of Christmas, the celebration of God becoming incarnate in His Son, Jesus Christ. Second, we’re preparing for Jesus Christ’s Second Coming, not the end of the world, but the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom on earth. In this sublime…
FR. Patrick Mbazuigwe shared the following ancient legend in a sermon about the beauty of gratitude. It’s from Kiran Kumar Roy’s blog. A young man while roaming the desert came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet that he filled his leather canteen so he could bring some back to…
WE can spend many years of studies, read many books, travel to many places, hear from both simple and erudite people, and learn lessons from the experiences of life, but we can’t have all the answers to many existential questions. We may have unwavering faith in God, but we still grapple with many mysteries of…
THE Scripture readings this Sunday present stories about two widows. The first one is from the Book of Kings. Thirsty and hungry after a long trip to the city of Zarephath, Elijah the prophet asked a widow he met for a cupful of water. The woman immediately responded to Elijah’s plea. Then Elijah asked the…
MY recent Marian pilgrimage to Fatima, Lourdes, and the other Marian shrines in Spain convinced me even more of the importance and the urgency to bring back Catholic fervor in our homes and families. By “Catholic fervor” I refer to the intense practice of our Catholic faith, which we can show through our authentic love…
AND as he was leaving Jericho along with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, son of Timaeus sat at the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him…
“If Jesus, the Son of God, was hated and killed, what excuses do we have, mere human beings, from not also being mocked, attacked, belittled, and put on the cross while we serve our church?” I HAVE a friend who became involved in parish leadership. One day she called me to complain about the conflicts…
A YOUNG man ran up to Jesus and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not…
THE Gospel this Sunday (Mark 10:2-16) begins with the Pharisees asking Jesus if it is lawful for a husband to divorce his wife. Jesus responded by reminding them of the sacredness and indissoluble union of marriage as written in the Book of Genesis: “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female….
ON World Youth Day in 2014, Pope Francis challenged young people with this message: “Do you really want to be happy? In an age when we are constantly being tempted by vain and empty illusions of happiness, we risk settling for less and living ‘small.’ Instead: Think big! Open your heart! As Blessed Pier Giorgio…
SOME people are not religious, but they possess genuine human qualities of compassion, kindness, empathy, and care for other people. They are people who may not always go to church or are not even part of any religion, but they have a deep sense of shared humanity. They’re not easy to judge other people because…
“The boat may be sinking, our doubts may be lurking, but should we not stand firm to save our church?” ONE day, as Jesus was walking toward the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ”Who do people say that I am?” They responded, “John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others say one…
THIS Sunday’s Gospel presents Jesus’s miraculous healing of a deaf man (Mark 7:31-37) . As Jesus took the deaf man off by himself away from the crowd, he put his fingers into the man ’s eyes, spat on the ground and touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and he said,…
IN this Sunday’s Gospel, Peter remarked to Jesus, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Such is Peter’s testament of unwavering faith and fidelity to Jesus. Can we also express the same faith and sentiment, especially in times of difficulties and challenges? Many of us would say that we…
ONCE again, Jesus insists on claiming to call himself the “bread of life” in this Sunday’s Gospel (John 6:51-58). “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world, ” he remarks….
“My health may fail, my body may age, but my love, faith and hope in God will remain frim and strong.” WHY do I keep believing in Jesus Christ and his teachings? This is the question that would sometimes arise in my mind. Is it because of the way I was raised and educated? Is it because of…
“We are what we eat.” THAT’S the tagline that we’ve heard for many years. Proper nutrition has a lot to do with the way we feel, with our physical and emotional health. Take for example the advice that we hear from doctors, nutritionists, and health coaches: “Don’t overeat food full of sugar and bad fat….
“BORDERS? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people,” Thor Heyerdahl, the famous Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer, once said. Heyerdahl is known for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific in a hand-built raft (balsa) from South…
A PRIEST flew thousands of miles to spend a month with the community of Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India. He was in a stage of discernment for God’s further purpose in his priestly life. On the first morning that he met Mother Teresa, the pious nun asked him, “What do you want me to pray…
THE poetic words of Psalms 85:11-12 strike a chord in many of us today: “Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven.” In a time when we seem to have lost civility in government and society, and have regressed…
YOU must be bold and brave to exercise your prophetic role nowadays. You must be willing to suffer, to undergo hatred, condemnation, ridicule, and persecution. For your beliefs and principles may not go along with the popular ones, with any political party or religious leanings. They may not even be in congruence with the views…
KEEP praying to God. Keep praising him! See what He has done for you through the years. Bless him for guiding you, accompanying you through life’s challenges. Rejoice for God has granted you your wishes and prayers. The more that you see His graces makes you become freer to live a distracted and self-indulgent life. Speak of God’s sovereignty…
“WHAT, then, will this child be?” It was the question that Zachariah and Elizabeth’s relatives and neighbors asked one another at seeing God’s hand working in the life of this elderly couple. In their old age and through their persevering faith, God finally blessed them with a son. The relatives and neighbors could not help…
I”LL say, let the seed flow from your hand into the welcoming soil and allow God’s nature to take its course. Trust that the seed will break in due time and will gradually bring out life. A branch, a leaf will suddenly appear. Wait for several more days and you’ll see it becomes a small…
I HAD many prayerful, powerful and learning experiences from my recent retreat in the Holy Land. One of them was at the Church of Dominus Flevit, while we were celebrating Mass at this traditional site where the Lord Jesus lamented for Jerusalem. In the Gospel of Matthew we find that as Jesus was walking toward…
GREETINGS rom he oly Land! I write this article overwhelmed with gratitude to God for bringing me once again to the land of Jesus at the start of my sabbatical. This time, I’m spending my journey here not as chaplain of a pilgrimage but as a participant of a retreat organized by the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago. …
THE Book of Jeremiah presents the most powerful passage regarding the role of a prophet. In Chapter 20:9 of the book, Jeremiah confessed that he could not be silent to speak in God’s name: “I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes…
“And they all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” Acts 2:11 WE celebrate Pentecost this Sunday, the birthday of the Christian Church. Pentecost comes from the Greek word pentekoste, which means fiftieth. Hence, we celebrate it on Sunday 50 days after Easter….
IN the four years that I’ve worked in the seminary, I would always tell people of my gratitude to God for granting me the privilege and the blessing of preparing men to become priests. And even though I miss being a pastor, I find my work at the seminary profoundly fulfilling because of my indirect…
