SIGNS, WONDERS AND MIRACLES

 The word holy has become confined to the narrow mindset of some people. There is a tendency to qualify as holy only the things that are obviously related to it. But God in His broadmindedness and vast goodness can always see in its entirety and qualify what is truly holy in the godliest sense of the word. The time is now to answer God's call to holiness. We are all called to a universal love. We should work for a heart that does not harbor ill feelings and dwells on retaliation and revenge. This is something we all struggle with because human nature wants to retaliate and take vengeance. It is not a Christian attitude that we want to get back at the person, talk about them and delight in their vices and misfortunes. Although talking about our heartaches can help us bear our burdens it should be with a view to get beyond it and not just sit on it nor cherish a grudge as to make much of it. When we nurse resentments and retell the story of what has been done to us we are just tortur...

   Man has a spirit and a body that are equally important. But having a spirit sets man apart from all other creation. Everything else has a body, but Adam received an infused knowledge of God and self consciousness that can make us distinguish one thing from the other and transforms it to experience. God created the garden with the tree of good and evil. Man is a person and is subject to God but we are invited to experience a relationship with God unlike any other beings. Man has the glory of being on top of creation. We are called to respond to this privilege in order to participate with God and enjoy being good, submissive, obedient, humble and all other virtues. It is just sad that this is something that sometimes we all don’t do. We still suffer from the weakness of original sin. As in Romans 7:19, For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. We have been given the tree to make a choice to do right or wrong. That is theoretical and practical as we exp...

      We need to observe the Sabbath and not just follow our own pursuits. People are into a real busy work week and do not even go to church. Do we make time for God? Do we reflect on God and worship Him? Are we endlessly just trying to do as much as we can in order to have as much as we can? We need to realize that once we recognize God’s law then we quickly recognize our need for grace that brings us to prayer life. There is a constant force of the culture, the temptations to live an extravagant and impure life, and the force of our fallen human nature that make us give in to sin. We better recognize sin in our life. Things can get difficult and we can not do all in our strength. We struggle with sin most of the time. Our sins isolate us. We’ve got to change, admit to ourselves and then to a priest. We should avail of the sacrament of confession and do away with fear of what the priest might think. This is our human nature. Confession is a beautiful experience when we ...

     This Lenten season we may want to think of ourselves on a spiritual journey. We should travel very lightly and take no baggage at all. In this so called journey we might want to consider also how each of us has been planted with a seed. We should develop but must not miss the fact that in the parable of the sower it didn’t all grow. All developments grow in a hostile environment especially if we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Life is a battle with evil that we can see in our own selves, in the world and the principalities. The   kingdom   of   God   suffers violent assault as   St. Paul   puts it and uses the army of salvation (Ephesians 6:10-11). It helps to make use of these analogies. We must keep in mind that those who are not willing to battle for good in this world may not accomplish anything. Although it is also written that those who take the sword will perish by the sword but there are battles in other forms that we clearly s...