Matthew 10: 17-22 Last Friday, we just celebrated Christmas day. Very interestingly, in our Church calendar, we celebrated the feast of the first martyr – St. Stephen. Three reflections on these two celebrations: Christmas is about the birth of our Savior – God was brought to man. “Because God so loved the world that he…
Category: Mercy & Forgiveness
Eternal Life
In an article at the Philippine Daily Inquirer written in 2012, it stated that the Philippines leads the world in believing in God – 94 percent. This is followed by Chile at 88 percent and then the U. S. with 81 percent. Belief was lowest in former East Germany (13 percent) and in the Czech…
Turning Back the Clock
There was a survey done in the U.S. some time ago, for people 90 years old and above. The question that was asked of them: “If you had your youth to live by again, would there be anything in your life that you would change?” The top three answers were as follows: They should have…
Pearl of Great Price
Matthew 13:45-46 There is this story that a certain General Yamashita during World War II brought most of the gold from the Southeast Asian countries that they controlled to the Philippines with the intention of eventually bringing it back to Japan. Whether this is true or not is debatable, but even today there are many…
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…
3 Ways 2 Your 1 God 