“The month of November, especially All Souls’ Day, is a traditional time for visiting graves of loved ones, as is the anniversary of death” (Ordo). But this year, with COVID-19 pandemic, we were forbidden to visit graves on the said day. Does this mean we...
I SUPPOSE everyone wants to have friends. It’s kind of difficult to imagine a person who does not like to have friends, since we in general are wired to be always in relation with others, and that relation, which can take many forms, is basically...
THIS is something we have to be most discerning and careful about. We have to realize that there is such thing as an apparent good, which actually is not good but can look and smell like it is. We should do our best that we...
TO go directly to the point, we can only find our true strength in Christ. There’s no other—no, not in some drugs, therapy, physical stamina, genes, etc. These things only give, at best, some temporary relief. They don’t last for long, and they don’t work...
THIS is the challenge we all have to face if we truly want to follow Christ. We have to try our best to know how to blend the inclusivity of charity and the exclusivity of truth. We know that charity has a universal coverage, such that...
WE have to learn to live with this basic fact of life. No matter how much we try to make our life and the world in general as perfect as possible, we can never achieve it. We just have to contend with the reality that...
DEAREST Lord, teach me to grow gracefully. Help me to see that my community does me no wrong when gradually it takes from me my duties; when it no longer seem to seek my views. Rid me of my pride in all the "wisdom" I have learned. Rid me of the illusion that I am indispensable. Help me in this...
THIS is about people who are close to us but who can betray us, much like what Judas Iscariot did to Christ. Imagine, Judas was already one of the apostles, so close to Christ that he must have directly experienced the goodness of Christ. And...
Most of us say it is difficult to become a saint. It is only for a chosen few. In Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis writes, “The word happy or blessed thus becomes a synonym for holy. It expresses the fact that those faithful to God...
WE have to be familiar with these two terms that refer to two conditions or states that can characterize our life. One is good which we should try to assume, while the other is bad which, of course, we should avoid at all costs. To be...