Luke 10:38-42, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time If you haven’t read Gary Chapman’s book, I’m sure you’ve nonetheless heard of his “5 love languages.” Chapman is an 81-year-old pastor and spiritual director. After long years of shepherding his flock and counselling married couples, he concluded that from the many ways we express love, we could distill five chief ways of what he calls, “languages,” of loving,namely: (1) giving gifts, (2) spending quality time, (3) saying words of…
Category: Evangelist: Luke
Peace – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 10:1-9; 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Boomerang is supposed to be a crazy pose of you that loops your motion on camera. It’s meant to be a fun alternative to the usual static photographs we post on social media. Boomerang is also what happens, Jesus tells us today, when you offer peace to an unpeaceable person….
Accept and Choose – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 9:51-62, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time There’s one priest from the probinsya who, whenever he arrives in Manila, he takes the airport shuttle to LRT 1, gets off at UN Avenue, and walks to Pius XII Center. Many diocesan priests from outside Manila usually get a room there when they visit. I don’t think…
Embrace – Fr Harold Parilla
Luke 9:11b-17 A story is told about a Jewish boy named Mortakai who refused to go to school. His mother decided to take him there herself. He cried, screamed and protested on the way, and when her mother left, he ran back home. This scene played out over and over again for several days. His…
Meal – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 9:11b-17, Solemnity of Corpus Christi Let’s call them, “Tita Em” and “Fr. Sea.” Tita Em was the mom of Fr. Sea. She was very well loved and remembered not just by her own family, but also by her extended family—that is, Fr. Sea’s brothers in his religious community. When Tita Em was still alive,…
How Can We Be More Connected? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
Luke 9:11b-17, Solemnity of Corpus Christi Today, the Feast of Corpus Christi, Catholics thank God for the gift of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. We believe that in the consecrated bread and wine, Jesus is truly there. When we receive the Body of Christ, it is indeed Jesus we are receiving. This may conjure…
Cowering – John Foley, SJ
Luke 15:1-32; Fourth Sunday of Lent Watch the dog hang its head when it is scolded. It grovels. It tries to wheedle its way back into good graces. To us humans it looks as if it is saying, “I’m really, really, really sorry for what I did and please, please, please, please forgive me. I…
Will We Always Have Second Chances? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
A caveat: This reflection does not guarantee warm and fuzzy feelings. To stress this warning, let me share with you this essay’s working title: “Are You Ready to Die?” In the first part of our Gospel today, we hear about “the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.” Some scholars…
Prayer Beautifies – Bishop Ambo David
Luke 9:28b-36, Second Sunday of Lent This story of Jesus transfigured before his disciples is also in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. But only Luke tells us that he was praying when it happened. In another passage, in chapter 11, Luke tells us the disciples were spying on him as he went into solitude…
A Dose of Astonishment – Johnny Go, SJ
Luke 9:28-36, Second Sunday of Lent It’s not every day during his earthly life that you see our Lord bathed in heavenly light. In fact, such displays of divinity are quite few and far between. Unless my memory fails me, this so-called Transfiguration of the Lord is probably the only recorded one aside from the…
Marked for Life – Fr Harold Parilla
Luke 4:1-13, First Sunday of Lent Welcome to our liturgical celebration of the first Sunday of Lent! As we very well know, this special season begins with Ash Wednesday, famous for its ritual of the imposition of ashes. What is the meaning of the ritual for us? I believe we can say that the imposition…
Triggers – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 4:1-13, First Sunday of Lent In the past couple of months on different occasions, three friends of mine told me that they finally deactivated their Facebook accounts. The latest one was a priest-friend, a very eloquent and dynamic professor of theology at their seminary in the province. “I’ve finally taken myself out of Facebook,” he said. “When it’s the online bickering for and…
One Lost Sheep 