Matthew 5:1-12a, Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time To be alive is to be fed at varying frequencies. Take breathing. We need to bring in fresh air every few seconds or so. We cannot skip breathing for longer than several minutes. After an hour or so, we need to drink water. After a quarter of a…
Category: Author
Galilee – Jett Villarin, SJ
Matthew 4:12-17, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time The first time I went to Disneyland, I was a young adult. This was in the mid-80s. There were the usual rides but the one that has been memorable is the refrain of the song, “It’s a small world after all”. It’s a world of laughter, a world…
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten – Munching de Guzman, SJ
Matthew 18:1-5,10; Feast of the Sto Niño “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” What’s with Children that heaven is promised to them? Years ago, I read a book titled “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum. It’s about a writer…
Nudge – Bros Flores, SJ
Matthew 2:1-12; Solemnity of the Epiphany Over the years, many of us have learned that New Year’s resolutions rarely last. Instead of making bigger promises, people of our age are turning to something simpler—a nudge word. Psychology helps explain why this works: a word can gently gather our attention, shape our choices, and orient how…
The Pursuit of Happiness – Mon Bautista, SJ
Luke 2: 16-21, Solemnity of Mary, Holy Mother of God Today, the first day of the New Year, reminds me of this young Singaporean doctor. His name was Dr Richard Teo. By the age of 30, he already had everything he wanted in terms of money, material riches, professional success and achievements. Initially, he was…
Family – Jett Villarin, SJ
Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23; Solemnity of the Holy Family The Holy Family is Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and not just Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Holy does not mean flawless and so holy is for every family. Our parents are not perfect any more than we children are saints. And speaking of saints, in the words of…
Our Smallness – Arnel Aquino, SJ
John 1:1-5; 9-14, Christmas Day Every Christmas Eve, for over 10 years, Fr Nemy Que SJ organized a small choir of scholastics to sing in Mrs Cory Aquino’s house, where he celebrated mass for the whole family. After the mass, we had supper. Mrs Aquino’s daughters, Pinky, Ballsy, and Viel always dutifully and cheerfully served…
Prepare – Jett Villarin SJ
Matthew 3:1-12, Second Sunday of Advent Let’s try not to short circuit Advent to get to Christmas. The four candles here are for the four weeks of Advent. We are now entering the second quarter of this time of preparation. Listening to John the Baptist is part of this preparation. He tells us today to…
Powers – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 23:35-43, Solemnity of Christ the King First we learned addition, then subtraction. After that, multiplication, then division. Then we learned exponents, the so-called powers. That little superscript to the right of a number we soon learned was a power. It had power to make any number big. And so two raised to the power…
Buntong Hininga – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 21:5-19, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time I had my routine blood test last Tuesday at our Health-Development Office on campus. When it was time to pay, the kind lady said, “Father, charge to Arrupe House po?” Sabi ko: “Lagay n’yo po ‘jan: charge to Zaldy Co po.” She and the nurses hanging around laughed….
We are Church – Arnel Aquino, SJ
John 2:13-22, Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica If the pope is the bishop of Rome, then, he must have an official cathedral, right? Well, he does. And it’s not St Peter’s Basilica, like I thought for a long time. It’s St John Lateran Basilica. It was the first-ever Christian basilica, so it’s…
Appreciate the Appreciation – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 17:11-19; 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time The leper couldn’t have thanked Jesus the same day he was healed. Jesus asked the lepers to show themselves to the priest, remember? He wanted them to still follow due process. For ostracized lepers to be reintegrated into society, the clean bill of health had to be “official.”…
One Lost Sheep 