SIGNS, WONDERS AND MIRACLES

    God rewards those who are holy. Stories about saints whose bodies are not subject to corruption after their death, is not new to us. Today's 1st reading is proof of this reality. The more we strive to know more about Jesus the greater our awe and amazement of the things we discover about Him. There are moments in our lives when we encounter and witness events that make us utterly amazed at how things ever came to be. Given the circumstances we have, we can sometimes predict or project the outcome of the things ahead of us or in the near future. Although sometimes things do not happen as expected because we are not capable of seeing the exact future we can only hope in God who does. Today’s 1 st  reading mentions the prophecy of David which is taken from today’s psalm reading. The time gap between these scriptural readings is almost 1000 years. No matter how long and far apart they are, God could still make things fall into perfect place. Heaven and earth will fail but His words

    What further proof do we still need in order to truly believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior? We must come to this point where we achieve the peak of our faith and be truly confident of the deep meaning of what Easter celebration is all about. Bottom line, it's about love, care and understanding no matter what activities we engage in and people we spend time with, as long as it's all done with these 3 things then Easter is always a reality in our lives.  What a privilege to be one of God's chosen witnesses. Everyday of our lives should be directed toward this goal that we may someday come face to face with God and be able to stand in His presence. Today’s 1 st  reading also reminds me of my reflection several years ago about my visit to the Getty museum. As a Christian we must believe that there is no such thing as coincidence only divine providence. I could still remember when we (Sisters Bernadeth, Lucy, Marcy, and Rose) spent the entire day at the J. Paul Getty Museum

    We should never ever reduce our dignity as human beings to anything less than what God made us to be. In today’s 1 st  reading we find the reason why we must submit to God's will. We are created in his "image and likeness" (Gen.1:26-27) and our ultimate end is to be with God. We are in this world but we are not of this world. We came from God and we all go back to Him. That is what our life is really all about since all of us will die someday and each day that passes should be thought of as a day closer to God. Since our end is God we should all know how to relate with God. In the beginning God created everything to be in harmony, man, the land and all creatures. But man sinned leading to a rupture with God, one’s self and others. We have to go back to where God had intended it to be. If everything happened by chance there is a tendency for us to wane in our resolution and our responsibility is deemphasized. The understanding that a Creator made the world leads to a f

    Sometimes when we encounter difficulties in life we have a tendency to blame it on God and picture Him as a punishing God. Though most of the time we suffer due to our own doing we don't realize that His love for us made Him undergo all the pain any human person could ever imagine. These past few days of the Holy Week has become a great occasion for most Catholics to celebrate with great honor and devotion the faith we all have for the Lamb of God that was slain and took away our sins. We've finally arrived on this day when God saved the world. A day like no other in which an act of great love that surpasses all other is made known to all. Throughout the course of time, we've been constantly told of this and as we move on may we be reminded always of this sacrifice that God's Beloved Son offered for our salvation. Amen. Hallelujah! Isaiah 52:13-53:12 ...for those who have not been told shall see, those who have not heard shall ponder… it was our infirmities that he

     I have always been fascinated by the dramatization of this particular bible passage in Exodus of the Passover. I bought a VCD of the Prince of Egypt and my 2 sons and I used to repeatedly watch it. I can still remember the look on the child's face, wide eyed and scared, in that particular scene of the movie during the Passover when the Israelites were instructed to mark their homes with the blood of the lamb and all homes bearing the blood were spared.  When I was just new in the Catholic Renewal I used to hear my brothers and sisters always say this prayer, "Jesus, cover us with your Most Precious Blood". As days and years go by in the renewal my understanding of this became broader and deeper. Baby christians whine and cry often about their situations not realizing that the blood of Jesus have them covered. As a child christian, maybe it has improved to that same wide eyed and scary look on the face of that child in the movie but no more of the whining and crying.

     There is power in the familiarity of the cross. These are the words of a priest in his talk about pain and suffering. He said that there are no shortcuts although what he went through he wouldn't wish on anybody and what he is doing right now he won't be able to do if he hadn't been through what he went through. God permits evil for a greater good. He said that on the day after the wake of the 9/11 tragedy there were no records of any abortion in  New York  at that time. The pain of the cross is essential and can't get away or escape from it. When we look at the Son of God crucified on the cross we see evil and cruelty but through it we were all saved. The gate of heaven was closed when our 1st parents (Adam & Eve) fell into sin. In Gen 3:23-24 "The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. When he expelled the man, he settled him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and t