Dear Family!

Reflection: This weekend the Universal Church celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This marks the end of our Liturgical Year, and we welcome a New Liturgical year with the 1st Sunday of Advent. As Pope Benedict beautifully teaches us that Christ’s Kingship is not based on ‘human power’ but on loving and serving others. It reminds me of the wise saying of Carl Jung, “Where love rules, there is no will; and where power predominates, there love is lacking.”

Dear Family!

Reflection: As we are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, let us be mindful of all God’s blessings for us. God has blessed our land with countless blessings: clean water, abundant food, opportunity, education, employment and the additional thousands of blessings which not many other countries are blessed with. Our blessings can be compared to the ‘Talents’ that the employer entrusts with his servants. We are blessed to receive the ‘Most’. As a country that has been blessed and entrusted with the responsibility, how we respond to that ‘vocation’ matters today and now.

Dear Family!

Reflection: This Sunday’s Gospel passage (Mt 25:1- 13) invites us to prolong the reflection on eternal life that we began on the occasion of the Feast of All Saints and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. Jesus recounts the parable of the ten virgins invited to a wedding feast, symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ is the Bridegroom, and we are like the virgins awaiting his return to begin the wedding feast of heaven.

Dear Family!

Reflection: We have just celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of All Souls day. I want to thank you for taking part in these beautiful liturgies especially praying for the dead and praying with the families who have lost their loved ones. The Bible teaches us that it is actually a holy thing to pray for the dead. Ecclesiastes 7:2 says, “it is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for that is the end of every mortal, and the living should take it to heart.”

Dear Family!

Reflection: People take up the subject on ‘Pro-Life’ mostly during the election time and use it for or against a presidential candidate. ‘Pro-Life’ must be understood in the context of our love and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ without whom we have no life let alone ‘Pro-Life’. How ‘Pro-Eucharist’ you are determines how ‘Pro-Life’ you are. Your love for the Eucharist, longing to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus through which we receive ‘Life’ in fulness, compels us to honor and respect our Godgiven, free gift of life.

Dear Family!

Reflection: On the 15th of October 2023, the Pope published another Apostolic Exhortation in honor of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. In the 1st part the pope reflects on God’s merciful love and forgiveness. In the 2nd part he invites us to trust in God in moments of joy and also in difficulty. In the last part the pope invites us to share our trust in God with others.

Dear Family!

Reflection: The readings remind us of our duty to be partakers of the banquet of the Lord. Isaiah’s time has seen poverty of people who could not afford great banquets. Banquets were organized by the kings for political reasons or for victory over enemies. ‘Banquet’ like a wedding feast is the biblical image of the encounter of love between the Lord and Israel. ‘Banquet’ is also the symbol of happiness in the time of the Messiah. It is the ‘banquet’ that unites us with the Kingdom of God.

Dear Family!

Reflection: The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, "The Church is a cultivated field, as tillage of God. On that land, the ancient olive tree grows whose holy roots were the prophets and in which the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles has been brought about and will be brought about again. That land, like a choice vineyard, has been planted by the heavenly cultivator. Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ, without whom we can do nothing" (CCC 755).

Dear Family!

Reflection: The readings this Sunday focus on repentance and humility. They are the sure ways of our salvation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that Jesus' call to conversion and penance does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil. At the same time, it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. (CCC 1430)

Dear Family!

Reflection: Saint Pope John Paul II in meditating on the distance between God’s perspective of things and ours dedicated a whole encyclical in teaching us,“The desire for knowledge is so great and it works in such a way that the human heart, despite its experience of insurmountable limitation, yearns for the infinite riches which lie beyond, knowing that there is to be found the satisfying answer to every question as yet unanswered.” (Fides et Ratio, 16, Pope John Paul II)

Dear Family!

Reflection: From the 18th Sunday on we have been closely reflecting on the personality of Peter in the Gospel Readings: Peter played a huge role in the multiplication of loaves (18th), walks on the water (19th) intercedes for the Canaanite woman (20th), declares his confession and conviction that Jesus is the Son of God (21st), learns from Jesus to take up and carry the cross (22nd), learns about community building (23rd) and learns the secrets of happiness and peace to be shared with the community in the readings for this this Sunday (24th).

Dear Family!

Reflection: In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, ‘Forgive us our trespasses’, that forgiveness is prayed for after food which is life’s necessity. Saint Ambrose taught us, “For when the Lord forgave all sins, He made an exception of none.” Yes, God forgives everyone without exceptions. Forgiveness indeed brings blessings from God. As Saint Faustina once said, “He who knows how to forgive prepares for himself many graces from God. As often as I look upon the Cross, so often will I forgive with all my heart.”

Dear Family!

Reflection: Happy Labor Day to you! When Saint Augustine said, “You are my Lord, because You have no need of my goodness” we understand a little about the vastness of God, but it doesn’t empty us of our responsibility of the command of Jesus, “Be holy as your Father is Holy.” Certainly, as Scott Hahn puts it, ‘God disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.” How would a Christian react to our tough situation? How would a leader, a prophet, the Church respond to the suffering, pain and misery that threaten our holiness? When we face underserved suffering, it is wise to approach it as a test that requires great faith.