1st Sunday of Lent                           It is said that sin gets its power by persuading me  to believe that I will be happier if I follow it. (John Piper) Lust, for example, is pressing me to believe that I will be happier if I give in to my sexual desire. Indeed, the power of temptation … Continue reading THE TEMPTATIONS OF ‘ISMS’

1st Sunday of Lent                           Thomas à Kempis, the author of The Imitation of Christ, said, “No one is so good that he is immune from temptation.” “We will never be entirely free from it… There is no order so holy, no place so secret where there will be no temptation.” Jesus himself was not … Continue reading EMPOWERED TO RESIST TEMPTATIONS

Saturday after Ash Wednesday                    Suppose you are not feeling well. You go to your doctor and after a thorough examination he tells you that you have a severe case of diabetes. You must go on a very strict diet. You have to give up most of your favorite foods. Drinking (alcohol) is out of … Continue reading JESUS, OUR PHYSICIAN

Friday after Ash Wednesday                        Today’s first reading and gospel reading talk about fasting. It would be good to ask once again: Why do we fast?             Giving up certain foods is a way of reclaiming self-control in our lives. We live in a very self-indulgent culture where priority is given to satisfying all physical … Continue reading SELF-CONTROL

Thursday after Ash Wednesday                   Jesus, in today’s gospel reading, tells us that he must first suffer and endure physical death before entering into eternal life through his resurrection. It is a proclamation of his paschal mystery.             According to Charles Miller, the paschal mystery, put as simply as possible, means that in God’s plan … Continue reading PASCHAL MYSTERY

Ash Wednesday              “Return to me with all your heart.” This is God’s desire expressed in today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Joel. To return to the Lord “with all one’s heart,” means taking the path of conversion. Conversion goes to the heart of the matter… and the heart of the matter … Continue reading MATTER OF THE HEART

Tuesday, 6th Week in Ordinary Time                           In 1988, Raymond Arre and I spent our summer pastoral exposure in the southernmost part of Palawan – in the town of Bataraza – for a month-long summer immersion. Practically, the only arrangement that was made for us is the place – a very poor parish – where … Continue reading TRUST IN GOD

Monday, 6th Week in Ordinary Time                           “Why does this generation seek a sign?”             The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus. What else in the way of a sign can they conceivably expect from Jesus? They had already seen miracles in every imaginable type: the blind see, the deaf hear, the … Continue reading SEEKING A SIGN

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time                         I have a friend who proudly and fondly calls herself a “plain housewife and housemother.” When people ask her if she does not get bored being a “fulltime house worker” she would always say, “Anybody will get bored anywhere she or he works if she or he does not … Continue reading FOR THE GLORY OF GOD

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time                         There is no one who likes to be left out or excluded. We do not want to feel like outsiders, that we do not belong, and worse, we are rejected and ostracized. Maybe you have felt like that at one time or another. When I first arrived here in … Continue reading OUTSIDERS AND EXCLUDED