OUR PARISH PRIEST

CATHOLICS MUST RETURN TO THE BIBLE Ordinary Time - 4 I used it often in grade school to fulfill my class assignments. I was so fascinated by it in high school that I gathered my cousins to share about it. In college I truly fell in love with it after I joined a Catholic Charismatic group. In the seminary, I formally studied and analyzed it. As a priest, it was my constant and daily companion. This year, I have received a great gift, a rekindled love affair with it that I want to savor it again from beginning to end in one year! Let me introduce to you… my Bible! Last week we started the celebration of Bible Week and today we bring it to an end. As Catholics, we must remember that the Bible is our book. Our forebears in faith wrote, preserved, protected and delivered it to us in this complete form today. There is nothing here against the Church for it is the book of the Church. In the gospel, the people are blessed to encounter Jesus, th...

LISTENING TO HIS VOICE Ordinary Time - 3 How easy is it to follow the Lord? Jesus was walking along and he sees two fishermen and he says: Come, follow me. They follow him on the spot. Walking farther along, he meets two other working men and he calls them too. They follow immediately, without question. If Jesus appears to you today and calls you that way, will you abandon everything and follow him? The truth is, Jesus continues to call us even now. But why is it that churches are not full to overflowing? Why do people continue to live in sin and hurt each other? Why is it that many people are losing faith rather than committing themselves to it? In the time of the Lord and the early disciples, it was quite simple to follow because it was easy to hear the voice of the Lord. There was less noise around and within people. There were less blocks that came between the Lord and men. The voice of God was clearly received and therefore easily respond...

IN THE IMAGE OF THE CHRIST CHILD! FEAST OF THE SANTO NINO (2ND SUNDAY - ORDINARY TIME) Today is one of the merriest, noisiest, fun-filled religious festivals in the Philippines. Carrying the image of the Holy Infant Jesus, locally known as Santo Nino, the Cebuanos cry out: Pit Senyor! (We call on you, Lord!), the Ilonggos shout: Hala Bira! (Go for it; do not be afraid!), and Manilenos intone: Mabuhay, Viva Santo Nino! (Long Live the Christ Child!). We celebrate this feast so close to the heart and the Catholic imagination – the Feast of the Christ Child. While other countries resume the Sunday of Ordinary Time, we have a special permission to recapture the Christmas spirit by dwelling on the divine childhood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And just a few days back we saw the hordes of devotees in the procession of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo, an ancient miraculous image of the Suffering Christ. Now, suddenly why the focus on these images? On the o...

THE GIFT OF SELF Epiphany 2012 We love to receive gifts. But we also enjoy giving them away. I plan my gifts by the middle of the year and I still give gifts until Epiphany. Today is Epiphany, locally referred to by Filipinos as Three Kings. It is said that gift-giving started with the Magi, the wise men we heard from today’s Gospel. Learned men from the East, who studied the movement of the celestial bodies, they were brought to the Christ Child by the guidance of a mysterious star. When finally they encountered the Child, they brought out their celebrated gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh – the first recorded Christmas gifts. The Magi were however acting on impulse to an earlier movement, a prior gesture. They offered their presents only because they felt they have received something even greater. The gifts were an acknowledgement of the person of the Son of God, now revealed to them and through them, to the entire world. The first gift...