Mark 1:21-28, Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Are you afraid of God? Israel was. They were deathly afraid of God, afraid to hear his voice directly, afraid to see the “great fire” of his presence. They had had enough of these direct encounters and they somehow sensed that any more face-to-face meetings with the divinity…
Category: Evangelist: Mark
Dependent – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 10:-13-16; Feast of the Santo Niño As soon as dad turned 80, which was seven years ago, I’ve been flying home to Davao first thing every January to visit him and my family. Thank you, God, that dad is still with us. He’s relatively healthy. His blood chemistry is better than mine, kuya’s or…
Grounded – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 1:1-8. Second Sunday of Advent From 1968 to the 1990s, archaeologists dug up several purification pools around wherethe Temple of Jerusalem once stood. Mikvoth, they were called, the precursors of our holy waterfonts today. For the Jews, the Temple was the holiest place on earth. You didn’t just waltz into itlike you and I…
Opposites – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 8:14-21B, Tuesday of Week 6 in Ordinary Time Don’t you find it interesting that into that ark Yahweh asked Noah to build, walked opposites. Not just opposite genders, mind you, but also opposites in purity and impurity. “Of every clean animal, take seven pairs; and of the unclean animals, one pair. Likewise, every clean…
Summer – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 13:24-32, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Winter is coming. I know. The egrets are here again on campus. They are here for the warmth and the light, to escape the cold and dark of the north. Their visitation will only be for a few months. Come summer, they will be gone. Winter is coming….
Loving God with all Our Hearts and Minds – Manoling Francisco, SJ
Mark 12:28b-34, 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time The Shema, from the Hebrew word, “Hear”, is the fundamental Jewish prayer made up of three scriptural texts from the books of Deuteronomy (6:4–9, 11:13–21) and Numbers (15:37–41), which devout Jews recite upon rising in the morning and before retiring at night. The Shema is to the Jews…
Wisdom – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 10:17-30, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Come to think of it, that question asked of Jesus by the rich man in the Gospel today is something I would ask our aspiring presidential candidates. In campaigns and political debates, people will ask our candidates what…
To Be Really Catholic – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 9:38-48; 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time When we were kids, on the way to Mass, we would often drive past nice-looking churches. I’d ask, “Bakit ‘di tayo ‘jan magsimba? Ganda ng simbahan ‘o.” Then, my mom would say, “’Nay, hindi ‘yan Katoliko!” with a shudder! So, I grew up with the impression that non-Catholics…
Who – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 8:27-35, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Of all the questions that begin with what, where, when, who, why, and how, the most difficult are the why ones, the ones children learn to ask early on. Why should I eat my vegetables? Why do we have to stop playing? When I was six, I remember…
Your Heart Today – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 6:30-34, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Please allow me to tell you about a memoir I read over my retreat last week, entitled, Fr. Joe: The Man Who Saved My Life, by Englishman Tony Hendra, a prize-winning satirist, famous in the US and the UK. He created the National Lampoon Magazine, wrote for comedy…
Prophet – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 6:1-6; 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Part of my work with many others is to predict climate change. For more than two decades now, we’ve been telling people that the sky is indeed the limit, and that the sky is, well, falling. We do not relish this role of messenger. No one wants to…
No Bother – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Mark 5:21-43, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time The late Fr Archie Intengan was always very busy. Fr Archie was never a man of half measures when it came to his responsibilities, especially in taking care of us. We have funny stories of how quirky Fr Archie could sometimes be, precisely because of his intensity and…
One Lost Sheep 