WORD ALIVE FR. BEL SAN LUIS, SVD A parish priest happened to meet one of his parishioners in a mall and said, "Johnny, I haven't seen you in church for a long time. What happened?" "Father, I've stopped going to church. There are a lot of hypocrites there." Whereupon, the priest smiled and said:...
WORD ALIVE FR. BEL SAN LUIS, SVD Everybody wants to be happy. But happiness is a very elusive thing. And the reason is we don't agree on what it means to be happy. Some maintain that you can be happy if you have lots of money, including ill-gotten. Others believe in the saying, "Eat, drink and be...
WORD ALIVE FR. BEL SAN LUIS, SVD The gospel of this 5 th Sunday relates about Jesus calling his first apostles — a band of simple fishermen. The Lord must have made a deep impression on them that "they left everything" — their work, their boats, their families — and followed him (Lk 5:11)....
WORD ALIVE Fr. Bel San Luis Once there was a professor in theology at a Catholic university. On his first day, he asked the students to write down what their notion of Jesus was. While going over the papers later, the professor was amused by the many curious answers. There was one that particularly...
WORD ALIVE FR. BEL SAN LUIS, SVD There was once a woman who brought her child to church for baptism. "What's the baby's name?" asked the parish priest. "Toyota," said the mother. Taken aback, the priest said, "Why that name?" " Kasi po Father," she replied, " iyong panganay ko ay...
WORD ALIVE Fr. Bel San Luis A story is told about a Franciscan, a Jesuit, and an SVD who paid homage to the Christ Child in Bethlehem. The Franciscan was interested in the manger to serve as reminder of the poverty and simplicity their Order professed. * * * The Jesuit was more interested to have...
WORD ALIVE Fr. Bel San Luis An elementary school teacher was telling her class about statistics which indicate that more twins are being born these days than in the past. "Why?" asked a little boy. "Because," replied a tiny girl, "little children are afraid to come into the world alone." * * * That...
Word Alive Fr. Bel San Luis The fourth and last Sunday of Advent focuses on the personages surrounding Jesus, the center of our Christmas celebration: Mary, Joseph, and her cousin Elizabeth and Zacariah. * * * Some years ago in a pilgrimage, I had visited the "hill country" called Ein Karem, the...
WORD ALIVE Fr. Bel San Luis The message of this 3rd Sunday of Advent is – “Gaudete,” a Latin word which means “rejoice” or “be joyful.” That’s why the liturgical color is pink. Incidentally, it’s the color of a presidential candidate in the 2022 national election. With the birth...
WORD ALIVE Fr. Bel San Luis Here is a test for you. You are sleeping and then dreaming. A hold-upper is running after you. You turn sideways, but every side you turn to, you find another guy holding a knife coming after you. Too scared, you don’t know where to run to. You’re blocked. How can...
WORD ALIVE Fr. Bel San Luis Today is the feast of Christ the King of the Universe. Is Christ really a king? Standing before Pilate, Christ did not deny it. But then he said, "My kingdom does not belong to this world" (Jn 18:36). Jesus' reply means he was not the kind of king Pilate imagined: a...
WORD ALIVE Fr. Bel San Luis There was a young lady-lector at Mass who was reading the Scriptures for the first time before a large congregation in church. Visibly nervous, she blurted out as she concluded: “This...this is the end of the world” (She meant Word). And the congregation chorused:...
