SIGNS, WONDERS AND MIRACLES

       If we take time to study about the bible and our faith then we will discover things we never knew existed before. We will come to a deep and profound understanding of it which will bring us to greater heights in terms of our knowledge of God. This will lead us to love and service in a very meaningful way. Do you know that there is a commandment before the Decalogue or 10 commandments of God? Yes, there is and it is called Pre-Sinai. It is noteworthy that today's 1st reading points to the reason behind this. I learned this from a Lenten Retreat. When the people of Israel complained to God, He sent them quail and manna as their food in the desert. Every morning they gathered food from the ground and whenever they get more than they could eat for a day they discovered the following morning that the excess got spoiled or rotten. The moral lesson of this commandment is social justice. We should remove greed in our midst and learn to care for others. We should also...

    We have some fairly easy questions in life that we can answer right away but the committing part is the one thing we all have difficulty in doing. In this regard we can start by heeding the warning in today's 1st reading. We have to abandon all our hurts and injuries to the Lord, be turned to compassion for those who have caused us so much pain and forgive. God who is full of mercy and love is the one who did it first for us and we ought to follow. We must surrender and abandon everything to the Lord especially when we go through suffering and trials. We will do well to learn the basic thrust of this reading and apply it in our lives. Amen. Hallelujah! Sirach 27:30-28:7 30 Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. 28: 1 The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. 2 Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. 3 Could anyone nourish anger against his fellows and exp...

 What a strong statement from Paul in today's 1st reading. He reminds us not to become 2 face or in tagalog "doble kara" We've got to make a stand on which side we really are. Sometimes we have this notion that we can continue doing what we do even if there is something wrong with it and just compensate by offsetting it with something good. Eventually things will toll up on us and would have to make a stand so that we don't end up losing everything. We must consider everything that we do as an offering to God just like bread and wine. We offer to the Lord the work of our hands and consider it a communion and participation in the Body & Blood of Christ. We go through life without realizing this truth in today's 1st reading. We end up missing the whole point and not reaping the benefits that we are supposed to get from it. The Holy Eucharist is at the root of all holiness. How many saints have advanced to holiness through the Eucharist? Holiness has always f...

  An experience I just couldn't forget is looking at the birds in an aviary. It was very fascinating to watch this mother bird that never leaves her nest not even for a single moment. I find it very interesting that in the several times I had been watching it, I never saw it anywhere else but perched in the nest. This was why I can hardly see her young just its little head when it peeked out of the nest. During that time I looked intently at the mother bird and told her as if it would understand me, to show me her baby bird. To my disbelief the mother bird as if it understood me flew a small distance away from the nest and exposed her young. It was not just one but 2 baby birds. This incident made me remember this article I read in the August 2010 issue of Reader's Digest entitled, "Amazing Pets" It was about the different kinds of pets that people have, showcasing their extraordinary abilities and most especially the bond and relationship they have developed with the...

     Paul in his letter to the Corinthians from today's 1st reading reminds us to set our goals and priorities right. We may be living our lives without knowing what we are primarily created for. The purpose of man's existence is very clear in the Baltimore Catechism. There are 3 things we ought to do as we answer this question. Why did God make you?    Number 1, God made me to know Him, 2 to love Him, and 3 to serve Him in this world, so we could be happy with Him for ever in heaven.    "In him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28) We are all aware of the wonderful feeling of being chosen and qualified and the other way around.    Let us get these 3 things, straight in our minds so as to be happy and not find ourselves disqualified in our final day here on earth. Sometimes questions cross our mind and our thoughts wonder why people need to succumb to feelings of loneliness. We fail to grasp the meaning of why people have to be a...