THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Last week, a friend told me: "I don't know what's happening to me. I’m constantly stressed and always tempted to be angry. Before the pandemic, I knew exactly who I was. But now, I'm turning into someone I don't want to be." When I told him I...
Going viral the past few days is a surprise for a building's cleaning lady. The video starts with Rosa reporting to work, entering the elevator. She is being escorted to the elevator with two guys. One of them was taking the video, while the other one was showing calling-card size notes about what...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. The gospel reading today narrates that when Jesus called His first apostles, they left everything to follow Him. Discipleship seems very easy, like a walk in the park, but is it? Responding to God's call always entails suffering. And perhaps, the...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. A recent SWS survey shows that 91 percent of Filipinos welcome the year 2021 with great hope for the future. I am tempted to ask: "How will this hope come true?" The media bombard us daily with news about muggings, kidnappings, robberies, rapes,...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Two days ago, we celebrated Christmas. If preparing for it was tiring, the post-Christmas days are even more exhausting – cleaning the mess after the visitors have left, looking for ways to settle the unpaid bills, calming frayed nerves due to lack of...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. In English, it is all right to say: apple, pear, or grape. It is also correct to say in Spanish: manzana, pera, uva . But if you notice, our Filipino names for these fruits always appear in the plural form: mansanas, peras, ubas . I'm sure you haven't...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. There should be a law banning the use of Christian words to name commercial products. When Christian words are used for marketing purposes, they lose their original meaning. The power and influence of the realities they symbolize are diminished. For...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Many men subscribe to an extreme notion of masculinity that emphasizes aggression, brute power, and machismo. They project themselves as brave men who don't cry, don't run from a fight, and can instill fear in others by an implicit threat of violence....
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. The pandemic has made the Internet an indispensable source of spiritual nourishment of believers. The sad thing is, although online worship cannot fully manifest the incarnational reality of the Mass and the sacraments, many Catholics have grown content...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. First the good news: According to a study released by the Pew Research Center in America, there are more people attending Masses online than those who surf for sites devoted to gambling, banking, and trading in the stock market. This indicates that many...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. For many people, nothing is more empowering than the sense of being a victim. They use victimhood as “the right disadvantage.” For instance a wife can have a wicked delight in being battered by her husband because she controls him through his guilt....
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. The word ALMOST is an incredibly sad word. It usually denotes a crushing sense of failure, disappointment, and regret. I once watched a race where the fastest runner was clearly ahead of his competitors. But as he approached the finish line, he slowed...
