REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Mark 16:15-18 The Church celebrates the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on Jan. 25, the only one of a kind in the liturgy. There are other “turnabouts” that have left an indelible mark in the history of Christianity — e.g., Emperor Constantine’s...
Photo from Pixabay The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is set to roll out the First 1,000 Days of Life (F1KD) conditional cash grant to some 80,000 household-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) starting this month. “Beginning January 2025, we will...
REFLECTIONS TODAY After ministering to a vast crowd, Jesus goes up the mountain to commune with the heavenly Father. After praying, he summons those he wants to be with him, and selects twelve to be his intimate companions. Later on, these will be known as a distinct group — the Twelve (Greek:...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Obviously, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. But for the Pharisees, doing good refers to observing the practices of the Sabbath like resting from work and attending to the synagogue services. It excludes what Jesus does—healing a man with a withered hand—which is a...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Hebrew shabbath means to cease or to rest. The Sabbath day commemorated God’s day of rest after he finished the work of creation. It was a sign of the covenant between God and his people. “Remember the Sabbath day—keep it holy,” God commanded his people (Ex 20:8). And...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The only fast prescribed in the Torah of Moses was that of the Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement (Lv 16:31). Regular fasting became common in later Judaism when pious Jews fasted twice a week out of devotion. Some occasionally fasted out of grief. However, some fasted for a...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Matthew 18:1-5, 10 Bible scholars note that Matthew had gathered Jesus’ teachings in five discourses or “books,” probably after the “five books” of Moses or the Pentateuch. The fourth book is often called the “Church Order” discourse, but rather than...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Mark 1:29-39 The Jews and other Mediterranean people in Jesus’ time were patrilocal. As norm, the woman would stay in her husband’s house, or in the house of her married son, not with the family of her married daughter who now belonged to her...
Photo from Pixabay The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has released the guidelines for the distribution of the First 1,000 Days (F1KD) conditional cash grants under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), which will begin this January. The guidelines are outlined in...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The first thing that Jesus does when he starts his mission of proclaiming the reign of God is to call two sets of brothers: Simon and Andrew who are casting their nets into the sea, and James and John who are mending their nets after fishing. These are fishermen plying their boats...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 In Israel, the portal by which a male child joins the covenanted people of God is through the rite of circumcision, done on the eighth day after birth. When it is done on the “first day” of the week, the child becomes a “new creation.”...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Today marks the close of the Christmas season. Fittingly enough, we hear of the final witness of John the Baptist. John’s Prologue says of him, “He came for testimony, to testify to the light… He was not the light, but came to testify to the light” (1:7-8). John...
