WORD ALIVE Sometime ago, a news item in Divisoria, Manila, related about how burglars broke into a shop. This would not have raised eyebrows at all since the incident took place in a notorious place. What made it amusing was that it happened to a company that manufactures burglar-proof glass...
WORD ALIVE Once a politician organized a group of businessmen to talk about world hunger and how to remedy it. “Millions of people in the world are starving. They eat barely once a day,” he said. The guests were dismayed, however, seeing a sumptuous dinner served with overflowing laureate menus...
WORD ALIVE Once there was an elderly monk who prayed many years for a vision to strengthen his faith, but it never came. He had almost given up hope when, one day, a vision of Jesus appeared. The monk was overjoyed. But then, right in the middle of the apparition, the monastery bell rang,...
WORD ALIVE One Sunday morning after saying Mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Kamuning, Quezon City run by SVD confreres, a couple approached me. "Father, we're from this parish," they greeted. “We’re lay missionaries working in Papua New Guinea and we're presently on vacation." Then...
CAUAYAN CITY, Isabela – A Person Deprived of Liberty (PDL) who fled the provincial jail to exact revenge and murder his live-in partner's lover was killed in a shootout with the police in a manhunt operation in Barangay Ditumabo, San Luis, Aurora, on Wednesday, October 4. Police Col....
WORD ALIVE In the gospel of this 27th Sunday (Matthew 21,33-43), we read Jesus' parable how the heir of the vineyard was badly treated by the tenants. * * * The parable refers to the servants as the earlier prophets sent by the vineyard owner (God) to collect the harvest. But they were not...
WORD ALIVE A man died and went to heaven. At the Pearly Gate, St. Peter welcomed him then gave a tour around. As they were entering a big hall, the man recoiled with fear, seeing so many tongues hanging inside. “St. Peter, how weird this place is! Why are there so many tongues hanging?” the man...
WORD ALIVE The gospel in this 25th Sunday relates about the envious workers. In Christ’s parable, the workers who were hired in the morning complained and protested that they were paid the same wage as those hired in the afternoon. “A gross injustice,” they grumbled. * * *...
WORD ALIVE The topic of this 24th Sunday is forgiveness. In Jesus’s parable, the king represents God who wishes to write off our debt of sin completely. However, there’s a condition. That is, we should also forgive our enemy. * * * It’s not easy to forgive. One time, when I was a...
WORD ALIVE One woman said to another: “You know what? My neighbor is always criticizing her husband. But look at me. My husband is irresponsible, lazy and a drunkard; but have I ever said anything bad about him?” (Look who’s talking!). In the gospel of this 23rd Sunday, Jesus says, “If your...
WORD ALIVE A lot of love stories end with the words: “And they lived happily ever after.” Is that really true? There’s a guy who got married expecting to have lasting marital bliss. After a couple of years, he was asked by the priest who solemnized his wedding how things were getting...
WORD ALIVE This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the two greatest saints —Saints Peter and Paul. In the beginning, the two were far from perfect. Paul was never a God-fearing, gentle person. Harsh and cruel, he relentlessly oppressed the early Christians, imprisoning them and even...
