SIGNS, WONDERS AND MIRACLES

   If we are just going to look back and recall all the things that have happened in our life then we can never deny the presence of guardian angels as spoken of in today's gospel. God always makes His messages known to us in various ways but He confirms them to us too. God is assuring us that there is no need to be afraid because He directs us always to the right path and if ever we are led astray He constantly searches for us to lead us back to Him. We should remain eternally trusting in our faith in God as a child is with his/her parents. It is faith that must become the foundation of all that we do. If we are just going to look back and recall all the things that have happened in our life then we can never deny the presence of guardian angels as spoken of in today's gospel. There is this very interesting detail I read with regards to the instinctual behavior of oriental breed sheep whenever they get lost. According to this study, upon sensing such a misfortune, they stop t...

  I could still remember very well how my mother used to mention to us how God made all things possible for us especially at that time when my father suddenly died and we were just very young, aged 4, 3 and 1. Job is her favorite bible character, because he is the one whom she would always mention to us and whom she admired most. It could be due to the fact that like Job she almost lost everything when my father died because she was very young then. She and my father were just starting out as a family and then all of a sudden he died. She would always say that what was most hurting is the fact that my father had been a very good husband to her and good father to us which made it even more difficult for her to lose him. In addition to that was the fact that she was left all alone to carry the burden of the responsibilities of our family. It was just before my father died that we had our home built and got a big loan in the bank. She could have married a rich man whom I heard wa...

  We should always hope to see all people come to know and believe in God. If this happens then this world will become a much better place to live in. We should remove jealousy and ill feelings toward one another. At the slight hint of these negative feelings we should at once put a stop to it. We are all guilty of it one way or another because we all have this tendency to be self centered but if we closely guard ourselves against it and really make an effort to be self conscious of this very destructive attitude then we can be as firm as Moses by not succumbing to this self centeredness and sincerely hope for the betterment of all people. Amen. Hallelujah! Numbers 11:25-29 ... “Moses, my lord, stop them.” 29 But Moses answered him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!” It always pays to be watchful and alert at all times. Although we sometimes fail to measure up due to our own sh...

    Life is too short to waste on things that will only bring grief and trouble. We should be careful on how we live our life and be responsible for our every action. If we can not undo some things, we can certainly make things work for the better. We have been equipped by the Lord and let us no longer become ignorant of this. We are able to tap into the ever flowing stream of God's Holy Spirit which bears endless fruits of love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. Amen. Hallelujah! Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:8 ...Ward off grief from your heart and put away trouble from your presence,... We are destined for much greater things than we can see right now. Thus we should set our goals higher than what people normally aim for in this life. Let us not reach the end of our lives regretting what we should have done or not and do what we have to do right now. We marvel at the capability of the human mind to function the way it was made to be bu...

    We may be going through some kind of difficulty at this time and there seems to be no end to it. It may feel like everything has turned against us and there is no way out. When things are looking bad it is always good to focus on this very popular statement of Fr. Gerry Orbos from the  Philippines , "There is a reason and a mission and everything is in transition wag na makunsumisyon." The last 3 words in Tagalog can be translated as "do not fret."    God answers all our prayers and never ignores us. He will never leave us confused and groping in the dark. There may be days when we have been getting sure ball and direct messages from the Lord but we may also have a lot of things going on in our mind and we can't help having some regrets and think if we had not done what we've done, did otherwise then things may have been different. We start to doubt whether we did the right thing and it may even cross our    mind, we should have been better off if ...

   I have often heard a similar line from today's 1st reading in the movies, stories that I read and even from people in real life. These are words of desperation of a person after having worked and done everything and yet in the end nothing seems to amount to anything at all.    When we give in to despair, a defeatist attitude and forget the truth that God can always make everything work for good then we can also ask ourselves the same question. Why do we work so hard and for what is it all about. Is it just about the money, the fame, power, sense of self fulfillment or just for the sake of being useful and doing something. Nothing is wrong with all these things for as long as we keep the balance or not let it rule over us. As we go through our life we find that we live like most people do. Living a good and abundant life is what we ought to do. This is what God wants us to have so as to reflect His goodness. As in John 10:10, " ...I came so that they might have lif...

    The 1st reading today reminded me of the bible study we had in St. Lorenzo Ruiz with Fr. Tony Astudillo. He illustrated to us the ushering of Jesus Christ in the New Testament by establishing a time line from the time of Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, the time of Exile until the birth of our Lord Jesus. He also mentioned Ezra as one of the prophets after the exile who were considered as ministers who promote the rebuilding of the temple and obedience to the laws. There is a trend that follows the period of exile. Prophets before the exile were giving warnings or forth telling instead of foretelling so as to avoid the worst circumstances if they continue to disobey God. In exile, the prophets presented the existing situation as a product of their disobedience but gave hope to the people that God has not abandoned. True enough during the time after the exile, prophets like Ezra and Nehemiah who are considered as historical books in the bible, with a nationalist...

    I am reminded once again of the vision I saw many years ago at St. Martha's Church. It was the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It appeared to me, as I looked at it a few meters away, like Jesus was extending his arm offering His heart on his hand. So I asked Tita Piling who was with me at that time if that is a statue of the Sacred Heart because I had never seen like one before with the heart of Jesus being offered in His hand, and she simply nodded her head.    To my surprise when I came close to the statue the day after that was when I realized that it was indeed the Sacred Heart of Jesus on His chest but not as I had seen. A lot of people may find it hard to believe that I had seen Jesus holding His heart on His extended hand but the eyes of my faith can not deny but proclaim God's miracle for His greater glory. I really felt God's love being offered to me as symbolized by His heart held on His extended hand. It is indeed very consoling. I felt so relieve...