REFLECTIONS TODAY Once a fellow priest took me to buy groceries. While passing through a moving conveyor belt, we passed by a stranger, a woman struggling to push her cartload of stuff bought from the stores. As if by instinct, my companion helped her push the cart, and immediately the ice was...
REFLECTIONS TODAY It is worth noting that Jesus specifies what kind of impurity the Pharisees have in their hearts. He says that their hearts are full of plunder and evil. We are made aware that these men who follow strict external observances are not disciplined internally, for letting...
REFLECTIONS TODAY An anecdote tells of a group of women whose modus operandi revolves around pretending to be friends with the owner of the restaurant in order to make waiters cater to their whims. Once, they entered a restaurant and attempted to throw their weight around based on that pretense....
REFLECTIONS TODAY There is this biblical idea that the Word of God is so powerful that whenever it is uttered, it creates and transforms. Isaiah declares that God’s Word will not return to himself empty-handed (Is 55:11). It has to do something after it has been issued from the Lord’s mouth....
MEDIUM RARE As the 2025 elections loom, and it was time for our group to meet again, a group proudly apolitical, we sat down in a Chinese restaurant for lunch. As it turned out, out of the six present, two will be actively involved in the elections, in different degrees and for different reasons....
REFLECTIONS TODAY To divide and conquer was the motto of the Roman Empire when it came to expanding their territories. They would sow discord among the inhabitants of the land they were eyeing to subjugate in order to weaken their strength and capabilities. When people are united, they do not...
REFLECTIONS TODAY I heard from a father how he trained his daughter to trust him when she was young. He would put the little child atop the tall refrigerator and tell her to jump. She hesitated at first, but her father coaxed her to push through. The father caught her every time, and after a...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Some beginners in prayer life are afraid to start because they do not know what to say. They do not know what to speak to God or how to approach him. A simple mnemonic device is often taught to the incipient: ACTS, which stands for Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Who does not recognize Martha and Mary as the personifications of the active and the contemplative life, respectively? In saying that “Mary has chosen the better part” (v 42), the Lord does not mean to trivialize the importance of working for the Kingdom of God. He only wishes...
REFLECTIONS TODAY First Reading • Gal 1:6-12 Brothers and sisters: I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the Gospel...
REFLECTIONS TODAY I was doing a walking pilgrimage when I met an elderly lady. We had the same goal and destination, since she was also doing the same pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. When she learned that I am a priest, she poured out her difficulty in living the faith. She narrated how she...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Apostles’ experience of the new power they possess after being commissioned by Jesus definitely must have filled them with amazement. The powers described are simply beyond the ordinary: treading on serpents and scorpions, vanquishing demons or unclean spirits. It is all too...
