Posts

TOTAL RECALL

Image
  Today's 1st reading is a call for us to remain true to the faith which reminds me of charismatic seminars like LSS, (Life in the Spirit Seminar) LLS, (Living in the Light Seminar) CLP (Christian Life Program) or whatever they call it wherein people are laid hands on, get baptized and received God's gifts of the Holy Spirit. We all have to recall and not leave to be forgotten the good memories that strengthened our faith the way Paul is doing for Timothy and Titus whose feasts we are celebrating today. Paul one of the greatest apostles did not do everything by himself. He had these 2 greatest collaborators who helped him fulfill God's mission. Timothy and Titus served the church and carried out good deeds in whatever situation they were in even in times of challenges. We are encourage also to stir in into flame the same grace given to them, the laity and all the baptized to participate in the mission of the church. When Jesus called the first apostles who were mending thei...

THE BATTLE IS ON

Image
 We can not deny the fact that we all have a darkness lurking within us. It could be in the form of a sickness, financial problem, stressed relationship with family or a loved one and a work problem that cause heartaches. The good news is that we have already been saved by God. There’s no need to be tied down to this darkness for the light of God has shone. There is hope that the Lord will deliver us from our miseries and bring joy in our hearts. Amen. Hallelujah! Isaiah 8:23-9:3 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. 2 You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as men make merry when dividing spoils. 3 For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, and the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed Brothers and sisters, if we are confident that we are where we are supposed to be and the Lord allowed things to happen in our life the...

NEVER DESPAIR

Image
    David in today's 1st reading was confronted with a temptation. As we go through life, we sometimes encounter similar situations and also end up succumbing to it. These are times in our life when we get caught in the crossfire of life's battles. We need to learn how to handle such situations and learn from the pitfalls of King David. At the time he had this temptation he was in an idle moment. Take note of this specific bible passage which states that while the army of  Israel  was in battle David, however, remained in  Jerusalem . It pays to always be busy doing something for God’s work. As the saying goes an idle mind is the play place of the devil. We must know that one of the things we have to watch out for are these unguarded moments when we become vulnerable to temptation. We must remember and pay attention to these situations that we are in when we fell into sin. We must learn from that experience and know how to overcome it when we encounter it again....

THE HEART AND THE PRAYER

Image
  The purity of desire, cleanliness of intentions and nobility of character all dwell in the heart of man. That is why God does not look on appearance but into one's heart. It is noteworthy that today’s 1 st  reading demonstrates the goodness of David and his upright character over Saul. The Lord wants us to remove all wickedness in each one of us. We can never hide from God because everything that does not come sincerely from the purity of our hearts will eventually be revealed, exposed and people will know about it sooner or later. We should have the same conviction as David in today's 1st reading to stand by what is good. Despite his opportunity to get back at Saul and take his revenge he still did what was right in the eyes of God. David's heart is pure and full of mercy. Though, it may cost him his own life that he spared Saul's life, his enemy who wanted him dead but he still decided to leave it all up to God. Amen. Hallelujah!  1 Samuel 24:3-21   ...

MISSING THE POINT

Image
    David defeated Goliath and fought in service of King Saul but Saul missed the point and was consumed by envy and anger.    He should have been grateful to David for delivering the Israelites from the hands of the Philistines. Let us pray to the Lord that we be guarded from the malice of sin (Pride, envy, lust, anger, gluttony, avarice and sloth) and truly live a life after Christ.  Today's 1st reading also speaks of Jonathan who interceded in David's behalf and thus was spared his life. It demonstrates to us the power of intercession and encourages us to do the same for our fellow brothers and sisters. We are all called to pray and intercede for each other. Even those people whom we never had the chance of knowing personally.  In turn we should also thank God for using people as an instrument to save us from every danger. We can not deny that we have witnessed God's intervention in our life through people that we can consider as Jonathan just like in to...

EVERYTHING IS PREPARATION

Image
    If we will just look back and recall the tough times that we've been through then we can now just laugh it off and shrug our shoulders but way back then was a different scenario. We sometimes wonder how we were able to go through that kind of ordeal. Today's 1st reading tells us of the story of David & Goliath. Everybody knows from the beginning that it was a mismatch and judging from the standard of this world, David does not stand a chance against Goliath. The same is true with our giant problems and concerns in life. Are we faced with our own Goliath?    Take courage! We may have to go up against a very scary giant Philistine in our life. We must not forget that God can deliver us from all our problems and can save us from the clutches of Goliath. If like David we entrust all our battles to the Lord then victory shall be ours. Amen. Hallelujah! 1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51 32 David spoke to Saul: “Let your majesty not lose courage. I am at your service to ...

BE YOUR BEST

Image
    Today’s 1 st  reading reminded me of this beautician who did a home service to a lady. Being the beauty specialist that she is, she made some suggestions to me. She is an expert when it comes to beauty tips and making her customers look their best. I can not blame her and the others who have a good taste for fashion and beauty when they persuaded me to have my hair cut. That time it grew very long already and sometimes left it unkempt. I must admit I am very careless in these matters which I really need to improve on. We know for a fact that there are areas in ourselves that we need to work on for the better. Whatever it may be, it will surely give delight to the Lord if we try to be the best that we can be and do everything sincerely from our hearts for the glory of God. Most importantly is that we should always consult God with our decisions for in today's first reading it is stated that not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD look...