Luke 10:1-9, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Towards the end of World War II, my grandparents had to flee from Silay, their hometown on the island of Negros in the Philippines. During the first years of the occupation, Lolo Cardo (my grandfather) was among the few whom the Japanese trusted enough to allow him to…
Category: Season
Less Stuff, More People – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 10:1-9, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Fr Hernando Maceda was one of the most cheerful Jesuits I’ve ever known. He was a small guy, not much taller than I, but he had the biggest smile that I felt went from his face down to his good heart and back! Fr Maceda was from a wealthy…
Harvest – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 10:1-9, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Sometimes I wonder what that means. I look at our own nation, and I say, indeed, the harvest is great, and yet the potential of…
Why is God so demanding? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
Luke 9:18-24, 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time On Sundays, the First Reading is chosen carefully to mirror certain themes in the Gospel. A tip if you want to go deeper into the Sunday readings: Before the Mass, read the Gospel, then go through the First Reading looking for connections (a good website is: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings). After…
Love: The Antidote of Sin – Jojo Magadia, SJ
Luke 7:36 – 8:3 (11th Sunday in Ordinary Time) A sinful woman enters the house where Jesus is, bathes his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, kisses them, and anoints them with the ointment. In response, Jesus makes two statements which are related, yet different. The Lord points out that because of…
Bump With Love – Willy Samson, SJ
Luke 7:11-17, Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time People bump into each other everyday. According to one study, at an average of 78 years lifespan, and assuming that we bump three new people daily, at the end of our lifetime, we should have met a total of 80,000 people. Think about it. Just imagine the potential…
Fullness – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 7:11-17, Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time “You haven’t lived.” That’s what I say to people when they tell me they’ve never climbed Mount Apo or done the whitewater of Cagayan de Oro. It’s only an expression I know but a line I hope that pauses people (including myself) and makes us ask about what…
Holy Food – Mark Lopez, SJ
Luke 9:11b-17 (Solemnity of Corpus Christi) When was the last time you tasted love in your food? Not during those rushed, 15-minute lunches at the office cafeteria, I’m sure. But maybe on your last visit to your favorite restaurant ? On an auspicious day, perhaps, when the chef felt more inspired than usual and added…
So what if God is Trinity? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
John 16:12-15 (Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity) Catholics and members of most other Christian denominations believe that there is only one God, and God is Father, Son, and Spirit. St. Augustine expressed this conviction in another way: The one God is Lover, Beloved, and the Love between them. So what? Revealed in these terms…
Inhale, Exhale – Ulysess Cabayao, SJ
John 20:19-23 (Solemnity of the Pentecost) One way to think about the Pentecost is to think about how we breathe. One of the biblical metaphors for the Spirit is breath—it is known as ר֫וּחַ (ruach) in Hebrew, πνεῦμα (pneuma) in Greek, and spiritus in Latin. The association of breath with spirit is not unique to…
Default – Arnel Aquino, SJ
John 14:23-29, Sixth Sunday of Easter I once had lunch with a dear friend sometime ago. As we got settled in our seats, I asked her straightaway, “O, how’s name-of-husband doing?” See, a few weeks before that, I received a text from her that said, “Arnel, please pray naman for name-of-husband. He’s becoming really cranky….
Learning – Jett Villarin, SJ
John 14:23-29, Sixth Sunday of Easter We see things fall to the ground and we matter-of-factly say gravity. Think about it. What is it about the mass of an object anyway that attracts another object with mass, the way we were taught in elementary physics? What happens with “massless” and speedy stuff like light, which…
One Lost Sheep 