John 10:1-10; 4th Sunday of Easter These days of quarantine, we find ourselves fenced in. Fences are supposed to protect us. We are accustomed to fences. Some fences are topped with barbed wire or broken glass, some even electrified. Long before COVID19, we were already gating our communities, insulating and quarantining ourselves from the grime…
Author: ninangdeb
The Good Shepherd in Us – Fr Noel Elorde
John 10:1-10, 4th Sunday of Easter A usual afternoon after a private mass in the sacristy is spent watching the neighborhood from the third floor of the parish rectory. The parallel streets display a sprawl of rusty corrugated sheets in haphazard and unintelligible configuration, the scampered power lines loosely stretched from post to post resembling…
The Voice – Fr Harold Parilla
John 10:1-10, 4th Sunday of Easter The word “voice” is constantly repeated in the Gospel Reading for today. The sheep hear the voice of the shepherd; they know his voice, but the voice of strangers they do not recognize. When I think of the word “voice”, I am reminded of one of the features of…
Were Not Our Hearts Burning Within Us? – Nemy Que, SJ
Luke 24:13-35, 3rd Sunday of Easter Today’s Gospel reading belongs to the Easter stories that abound soon after the resurrection of Jesus. That same day Jesus rose from the dead, two disciples were making their way to a village named Emmaus. They were talking about the events that took place during the past days. Like…
Emmaus and the Church in Distress – Fr Harold Parilla
Luke 24:13-35, 3rd Sunday of Easter It is now the third Sunday of Easter but the atmosphere is strangely quiet. The streets are not as crowded and the malls are closed. It feels like the Holy Week of my childhood except that the churches too are inaccessible. Donagh O’Shea said that the Emmaus story featured…
The Gift of Emmaus – Johnny Go, SJ
Luke 24:13-35, 3rd Sunday of Easter “We had hoped….” We can hear the disappointment in the two disciples’ voices as they spoke to the stranger on the road. “We had hoped…” In other words, they no longer did. What’s striking, however, is that these two had already heard of the empty tomb found not only by the…
Our Emmaus:Walks, Meals and Runs – Pat Nogoy, SJ
Luke 24:13-35, 3rd Sunday of Easter Some walks can be hard and long. Especially for those whose hopes and lives have been shattered to pieces. Robbed of life’s coherence, two disciples can only return and make their way home. Home is a familiar and comfortable place where they can somehow piece some fragments together into…
Keeping Easter Alive – Pedro Walpole, SJ
John 20:19-31 How has the week gone for you? Last Sunday, for a time, we emerged from the Gospel passion narrative, from the suffering in life around us into deep desires and hopes, sharing in the resurrection, the loving mercy of God. Yet the world in the last week has not changed. How am I…
God Hopes in Us – Junjun Borres, SJ
John 20:19-31, Divine Mercy Sunday The Gospel reading today reminds me of an incident that took place some 23 years ago. One morning, I got a call from my sister who used to work at a school about half an hour drive from New Bilibid Prison, where I served as a volunteer chaplain. She said…
The Anatomy of Healing – Pat Nogoy, SJ
John 20:19-31, Divine Mercy Sunday Today’s readings and Gospel are about peace. Peace is not easy to come by nowadays. I am thinking of families that are suffering from hard misunderstanding, deep feuds, or have, in time, drifted far apart from each other. In my mind are couples who had relied on a relatively stable…
Despite Closed Hearts – Ro Atilano, SJ
John 20:19-31, Divine Mercy Sunday How is your heart doing? Each of us is called by God to have a heart that is always open and available for others, a heart that is magnanimous enough to love God’s people. However, there are times when the door of this heart is closed. And there could be…
The Truth of Easter – Mon Bautista, SJ
Easter Sunday 2020 My dear friends – in the world of art (particularly, in the world of paintings), art experts would tell us that there are a lot of forgeries – a lot of imitations, mere copies of original, priceless masterpieces. Thus, in the international art market today, we can find so many fake masterpieces…
One Lost Sheep 