Narrow Gate

Last year there was a seminar at the University of Santo Tomas on Exorcism. This was participated by over 100 priests and over 100 lay people involved in the ministry. If you heard the talk, there are things that would have crossed your mind: The devil is real, hell is real and the devil will…

Forgiveness

John 20:19-23 One of the most difficult things to live with is when you know you have wronged or hurt someone. The worst scenario is when the person you have hurt passes away. I was once at a funeral wake and before the start of the Mass, a sibling of the deceased came in and…

Love One Another

How often does it happen to families that when the patriarch and matriarch are gone, the children go their separate ways? Even worse, they fight each other over property. We have all heard stories and can just shake our heads in disbelief about what a sibling can do to another sibling. Jesus was about to…

St Therese of the Child Jesus

One thing beautiful about Children is how they trust their parents. I was once in a boat and the ride became very turbulent. The waves were high, the winds were strong and water was getting into the boat. The two children in front of us began to cry. What their parents did was to simply…

Taking Advantage

John 2:13-22 Whenever we read the Gospel, we realize that Jesus, who is 100 percent God and 100 percent human, has a soft spot for the poor and the sinner. While society would judge these people, Jesus would not. In fact, he even mingled with them.  Yet, there were things that made even Jesus angry….

Meaningful Death

Once I attended a wake. While the relatives were very sad that their mother passed away, their greatest consolation was that she was prepared. She picked the dressed that she would wear in the coffin. She had a list of priests who would celebrate Mass for her for the three days of viewing. She picked…

Anger

Often people confess Anger as a sin. It is explained that Anger, per se, is an emotion. When parents get angry at their children because they are not studying, it is not a sin; When a boss gets angry at an employee because she has not performed well, that is not a sin. When citizens…

Love for Children

During the time of Jesus, he had a preferential option for the disadvantaged: the poor, women, the widow, the sinner, the prostitute, and yes, the children. Children during the time of Jesus were treated as second class citizens. Hence, they were closest to the heart of Jesus. That is why he scolded his apostles for…

Fault Finder

Once, there was an experiment made. A white sheet of paper with a small block dot in the center. When people were asked “What do they see?” the most popular answer was the “black dot.” Not the white sheet of paper, but the small black dot. We human beings are not perfect. We have all…

Holistic Healing

One day, I anointed two elderly women. The first one, the son said, “please keep open your evening schedule for mommy’s masses. The doctor says she can go anytime. It has been a month already and she is still alive. No respiratory, no dialysis, no extraordinary measures”. The second one just came from a stent…