5TH SUNDAY OF LENT B

-
-->
HEART TO HEART





When Ash Wednesday fell on the same day as Valentine’s Day this year, many people found the coincidence amusing. People wondered how lovers would celebrate the day. Will they hold their celebration the weekend before or the weekend after Ash Wednesday? Some opined that Catholics would forego romantic expression on Ash Wednesday while others guessed that Catholics would forego their religion in the name of love!



Thinking about this happy coincidence, as Christians, we can really find a natural affinity between the two celebrations. Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, is really a reminder to us of the greatest love of all. Valentine’s Day, festival of lovers, is actually the right moment to consider the act of perfect love, the true offering of self, and the practice of sacrifice symbolized by the Cross of Jesus.



Lent is really God’s extended Valentine’s day. Our reading from Jeremiah 31 speaks of the covenant God established with his people. More than a formal agreement of belonging, fidelity, and solemn oaths between God and Israel, the covenant is about the heart. The Lord says: I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts… I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.” But for many of the Israelites, the covenant became binding as a legalistic and oppressive system, that turned a living faith into a religion of fear and judgment.



This Lent Jesus is asking for our hearts. Processions, devotions, pilgrimages, and traditions are indeed helpful. But they should not move us off track. The Lord speaks to our hearts and so we must respond with our hearts in prayer, sacrifice, and charitable deeds done out of love. For many Catholics Lent comes and goes as a season of practices and customs done externally and does not lead to charity and kindness to neighbor.



Before Holy Week comes, let us pray for a heightened sense of love for God as we pray, go to Confession, receive Communion, and participate in the sacred rites. Let us open our hearts to love of neighbor, especially the poor and suffering in our homes, offices, schools and communities, and reach out to them as if they were Jesus himself. Above all, let us allow God to love, forgive, and transform us. Let us feel the love!!!



By the way… Easter this year coincides with April Fool’s Day!!!

Popular posts from this blog

HOLY MASS IN FILIPINO (TAGALOG)

-
Image
ANG BANAL NA MISA PAMBUNGAD NA AWIT Pari:    Sa ngalan ng Ama, at ng anak, at ng Espiritu Santo. Bayan: Amen P.         Sumainyo ang Panginoon. B.        At sumainyo rin. P.         Mga kapatid, aminin nating ang ating mga kasalanan upang tayo’y maging marapat sa pagdiriwang ng banal na paghahaing ito.             Sinugong Tagapagpagaling sa mga nagsisisi,             Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami. B.        Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami. P.        Dumating na Tagapag-anyayang mga makasalana’y magsisi,             Kristo, kaawaan mo kami. B.         Kristo, kaawaan mo kami. P.         Nakaluklok ka sa kanan ng Diyos Ama para ipamagitan kami             Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami. B.         Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami. P.         Kaawaan tayo ng makapangyarihang Diyos,             Patawarin tayo sa ating mga kasalanan,             At patnubayan tayo sa buhay na walang hanggan. B.        Amen. GLORIA/ LUWALHATI
Read more

SIMBANG GABI DAY 1: READINGS AND REFLECTIONS

-
Image
FIRST DAY: DECEMBER 16   (from the book: Where is the Child?by Fr. R. Marcos (Makati: StPauls);  pls responsibly acknowledge source when using publicly)   fr tam nguyen's photo First Reading: Isaiah 56:1-3, 6-8   Thus says the Lord: Observe what is right, do what is just, for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.   Hay is the one who does this, whoever holds fast to it: Keeping the sabbath without profaning it, keeping one’s hand from doing any evil. The foreigner joined to the Lord should not say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people”; Nor should the eunuch say, “See, I am a dry tree.” And foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, to become his servants—All who keep the sabbath without profaning it and hold fast to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will
Read more

SIMBANG GABI DAY 2: READINGS AND REFLECTIONS

-
Image
SECOND DAY: December 17   (from the book: Where is the Child?by Fr. R. Marcos (Makati: StPauls);  pls responsibly acknowledge source when using publicly)   fr tam nguyen's photo   First Reading: Genesis 49:2, 8-10   Jacob called his sons and said [to them]: “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob, listen to Israel, your father. “You, Judah, shall your brothers praise—your hand on the neck of your enemies;the sons of your father shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s cub, you have grown up on prey, my son. He crouches, lies down like a lion, Like a lioness—who would dare rouse him? The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and he receives the people’s obedience.”     A.             Short Background on the First Reading   1. Who was Judah? Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob (or Israel). Jacob was considered the father of the nation of Israel and his twelve sons were cons
Read more