Inspirations at your Fingertips!

Can we make our own Lenten mission statement?  Certainly, Christ did.  He would suffer greatly, be killed, but on the third day, he would rise again. Our mission statement should lead us to life.  But what is true life?  Jesus said, "He who wants to save his life will lose it.  But he who loses his life for my sake shall find it."  We may be saving our lives here on earth, but we are actually dying.  Notice the signs of death around us.  If we choose real life, we need to offer ourselves to God and others so we may all live in God.  A parent who denies himself or herself of all material comforts to prove a point to his or her children that life with the Lord really matters is actually a source of life for the children. Let's celebrate Lent by entering into the death of our own selfishness so that through our sacrifice, all may life as Christ did.

The one killing us is our notion of ordinariness.  We think we are just ordinary human beings with ordinary needs and wants just like any other.  Meanwhile, we let others control our destiny. Our lives are not ordinary; we are living witnesses of our world today.  Either we do what we are supposed to do or rue it all. Our children our growing, the clock is ticking, and we have only one life to live. If we are to decide to act accordingly, pray, that it be fruitful - not only do our families benefit but all people; not only do we think of our own generation but the next; and finally, not only do we think about our stay in this world but what is to come - eternity in heaven with God.  It is God whom we should reflect.  It is Him whom we should serve.

Week 1, Thursday It is surprising that a leper who in dire need of healing would not impose himself on Jesus.  But he would ask him: "If you want to, you can cure me." Yesterday, Samuel said, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening" and "Here I am, Lord.  I come to do your will."  The reading reflect God's will and our will. A factor that enables us to be like the image of God is our freedom to choose on what we want. Unfortunately, we also use that to come into conflict with what God wants. God's will brings out the good in us.  His will causes us to be free.  His will causes us to be fruitful.  Think about the opposite of this and we end up doing our own wills.  And we dare not impose our wills on God. May our prayer then be, "If it is your will..."  We would surely hear our Lord saying, "Of course, I want to!"

As New Year ushers in, we reflect on blessings as proclaimed in the scriptures.  May even our hurts turn into blessings. From the Hebrew Beraka, which means "to bend the knee in worship and praise", blessings become due to God rather than his gifts.  "We bless you, Lord God Almighty."  Rightly so, because we kneel in praise and honor to the Source of all gifts. From the Greek "eulogein", which means "to speak well of" or "to praise", blessing becomes a social reality of recognizing persons as gifts. Everything becomes a blessing, even hurts.  And we bless, we give what is due to others and to God.  We can convert hurts to blessings if we allow God to bless us so we can see how He would heal us. Life is indeed a blessing!

"That which we have heard from the beginning, that which we have touched with our hands ..."  Whoever could get more concrete than these?  But these are the marks of an original witness to Jesus.  And these marks were passed on to the present in an unbreakable bond. The original experiences translated into words and life, coupled by experiences of those touched by the Holy Spirit.  These are the marks of a true Christian, the signs manifest in his very own life. This Christmas, may our our lives become mirrors of the saving power of Jesus Christ.

In a few hours, we shall be celebrating The Solemnity of Christ's Birth.  As parish priest, I feel truly honored to share this mystery and prepare the People of God to this great meeting.  Because of this, a great responsibility has dawned upon me and I would like to ask for your prayers and blessings. God must have wanted us to prepare so much to the detail so that we who receive Jesus and the world may finally obtain the salvation we are seeking for.  That is why there is the vigil mass, the midnight mass, the dawn mass, and the day mass. In the mystery of Jesus' birth, we hope to also be born in him; for God's judgement in us to be changed from "forsaken" or "abandoned" to "Delight" and "wedded".  Right this moment we shall be wedded to God. In the gospel of the vigil mass, let us recall the family lineage of Jesus because we are part of that one family that existed ever since the beginning of time.  All we have to do is to a...

As we approach Christmas, everything is in place … heaven is gearing up for its ultimate preparation before the definitive coming of Jesus Christ.  Have we also prepared enough? In Isaiah, people who following God are greater in number and force, as in the barren as compared to the wedded.  Widowhood and barrenness are no more.  The Lord God comes in His glory.  His love never ends. In the gospel according to Luke, he invites us to take a closer look at the manifestations of Christ in the world today.  Where is the messiah except in the least of all which is the greatest in the kingdom of God?  Jesus allows himself to be the "least" in the kingdom to show us that even the greatest in this world has to power over him. It is time to break the world we have created for ourselves.  It is time to let Christ in and to let His work be ours and His cause, our cause.  It is time to start with the smallest and the weakest and come up teeming with life in...