Luke 17 5:10, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time I. Perhaps as we begin a new academic year after our summer holidays, we do well to spend some time reflecting on all the experiences we have had during our break. You might have had the grace of rest, the pleasure of being in the midst of…
Category: Season: Ordinary Time
Losing Faith – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 17:5-10, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time People who know me well also know that there was a particular stretch in my life when I served as my parent’s quote-unquote “marriage counselor”. Even as a little child, I’d know dad and mom fought again because they’d be killing each other with silence. So when I…
Increase our Faith – Rudolf Horst, SVD
Luke 17 5:10, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time We all admire the heroes of faith like St. Francis whose feast we will celebrate on Tuesday. Absolutely nothing stopped him in his pursuit of God’s glory. When, during the Crusades, he was captured by the Saracens, St. Francis challenged the imams to a duel to prove…
wru – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 17 5:10, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time When our date does not arrive at the appointed time, we text or call. Before cellphones, what did we do? We waited. Now that email connects us almost instantaneously, we are pressured to respond just as instantaneously. What did we do before email, when we had to…
Heaven and Hell – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 16:19-31, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Well-meaning Catholics through the years have understood today’s Gospel as an authoritative description of heaven and hell. This image of heaven and hell has lasted us for centuries: that between heaven and hell yawn a dark, final chasm that God leaves un-bridged for all eternity. To a fault,…
The Ultimate Test of Character – Mark Lopez, SJ
Luke 16:19-32, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time I sometimes wonder how many people will actually be allowed into heaven. And I wonder, what if, just what if, we were to be judged according to ways that we behaved in circumstances we thought didn’t really matter. For those of us who can drive a car, what…
What is Wealth for? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
Luke 16:19-31, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s…
Home – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Matthew 9:9-13, Feast of St Matthew the Apostle Did you ever notice this detail—that soon after Jesus calls tax collector Matthew from where he sat at work, Jesus eats at his house. Whenever I reread Matthew’s vocation story, I miss this detail because I race towards Matthew being the tax collector that he was, and…
Instant – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 16:1-13, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Let me read to you a text I received recently from a dear friend. He says, “Arnel, can you remember in your prayers my son who is frustrated in his job? Very talented boy, as you know, but gets frustrated easily. He already quit two jobs, same reason….
The Lost Sons – RB Hizon, SJ
Luke 15:1-32, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time My first assignment as priest was as a prison chaplain at the national penitentiary in Bilibid, Muntinlupa. It was had work. There were days when I said as many as six masses, heard confessions for hours and just listened to many painful and horrible stories of violence, loss…
The One that Got Away – Johnny Go, SJ
Luke 15:1-32, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Today’s Gospel is about the one that got away. We all have such a person in our life: Somebody we used to care for deeply, someone somehow entrusted once to our care, someone who inhabited our universe once upon a time and–for just that brief fairy tale moment–made…
Closer to God – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 14:25-33, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time A few years ago, my younger brother and his family flew over for a visit. They came to San Jose Seminary where I live. So I gave them a tour, which culminated in showing them my room. They entered, and looked up, down, and around in unusual silence. It…
One Lost Sheep 