Pope Francis opens in Rome, October 10, the path entitled, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission”. He hopes for “a maximum inclusion and participation, reaching out to involve the greatest number of people possible, and especially those on the periphery who are often...
It happened somewhere in North Cotabato in early 1995. A "baylan", Manobo word for "shaman", a respected spiritual person I was conversing with under the shade of a mango tree. He was telling how good and caring was the priest. He wanted the local office...
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.” (Lk 12,2) With these words, Christ is clearly telling us that there is no point hiding things from God since he knows everything. Neither should we be hiding things...
THOSE gospel episodes where Christ bewailed the self-righteousness of the leading Jews of his time remind us that we really need to be aware of this common anomaly, called self-righteousness, and do everything to fight it. Self-righteousness is a common disease, since all of us have...
WE have to be wary of this common tendency of ours. We are always prone to show externally what we actually are not internally. We easily fall into some kind of political or social correctness without the proper spirit animating it. We easily fall into forms...
WHILE Christ was always patient, compassionate, merciful and the like with everyone, we cannot deny that there were occasions that he showed anger and expressed some lamentations. He even did this with his disciples, and especially with those self-righteous leading Jews of his time and...
THAT’S “strong in the faith” in English. The expression comes from the First Letter of St. Peter (5,9) and is made also in the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (16,13) Both passages are made in the context of our need to be...
It's October once again and for us Catholics it means that we are honoring the Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary as we celebrate Rosary Month. We all know that praying the rosary is not just a repetitive prayer of Our Fathers, Hail Marys...
Today's celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Sunday invites us to deepen our appreciation of their culture. We have to learn a lot from them, especially in the way they care for God's creation and nature. Since they find life in the endowments of the Creator in...
Are you happy? In this time of the pandemic, this question may sound irrelevant. Can we still be happy at this time? Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “happy” is a little more helpful: It is a “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.” From this definition, PositivePsychology.com...