Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

Today, we recall the murder of children two years old and under, by the command of King Herod the Great. They are considered as martyrs since they gave up their lives so the Baby Jesus could live. If Herod only saw the Child properly, he would not have been so brutal. The Child only wanted to be king in our hearts. He had no plans of usurping Herod's throne. In fact, Jesus only wanted to help save...

We celebrate today the feast of St. John, who was called the one Jesus loved. The point that our holy Mother the Church wants us to learn from him is appreciated in the first reading of the mass today. They--St. John and the rest of the Apostles--received from their close contact with Jesus such knowledge and faith that they were so filled to give to so many others. We are challenged today to carr...

Today, we celebrate St. Stephen's Martyrdom and witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yesterday, we remembered His birth. Today, we recall His first servant to imitate Him in dying. This proto-martyr or first martyr is a great example to us in terms of being faithful to the teachings of Jesus and of being courageous to withstand even the reality of death to give witness to this faith.

Christmas is the birth of a Baby! He calls us to pay attention to Him. Our selfishness is burned in the process. Fall into the process of eliminating our bad selves for the love of this divine Infant!

The texts of the three lessons of today's mass cap our preparations for Christmas. David plans in the first reading to construct an appropriate dwelling of the Presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant. But God tells him to consider whether God should dwell in a house built by human hands. God wanted to tell us that He was planning to establish His Kingdom on Earth. The second reading brings us u...

The text of the first reading of today's mass tells us again about the Precursor, St. John the Baptist. His example underscores the Church's insistence that we prepare for the Lord's coming by being humble as creatures, as children are, and fallen creatures that we are. He need to behave and to accept what we are and act accordingly. We have to ask for pardon for our sins. We need to acknowledge G...

We are presented in the first reading of today's mass--on the 22nd of December--the story of Hannah. She had prayed a lot to have a baby and the Lord granted her request. In thanksgiving, she brought the baby to the Temple and presented him to the priest Eli. They brought a bull and slaughtered it to express gratitude to the Lord. They wasted it since they killed it and thus, have no more use for...

The first reading of the mass today gives us a text taken from the Old Testament's Song of Songs. It is interesting that the Church provides for our spiritual food today with this text that tells us of a lover bounding mountains, looking for His beloved. He loves us. Hence, He wants to become a man. With the symbolism of human love, the Church teaches us that God is like a lover in love with His b...

Today, the 20th of December, we read the account of Isaiah about Ahaz and his lack of trust in the Lord. He wanted to form an alliance with a Gentile kingdom, not mindful of the grave danger this would mean for Israel. In fact, Judaism was modified to the chagrin of God. It became syncretic, meaning they began to mix with their religion other pagan and superstitious practices. Ahaz lacked trust in...

We are preparing for Christmas. Samson's story will help us.

Elijah is the star of the first reading of the mass today. He is famous for his word's power and call to repentance. This latter made the Israelites think that St. John the Baptist was Elijah come again. The first characteristic awed everybody. He commanded a famine to strike at Israel to get them to focus back on what was essential, i.e., God. Do we need a calamity to get us back on track in our...

The Church is about to begin the Novena for Christmas. These a special masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary said at early dawn. These are different from the usual Advent Masses for the specific day before the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Mother the Church encourages us in this way to pay attention to Our Lady. There is no better way than to stay with Her to welcome Jesus. Imitating Her is t...

God is coming! God is with us since He is Emmanuel! Despite how sin rendered us puny and dirty, useless and damned, the Savior will raise us up to glory and unlock our true potential for eternity. We will be able to go beyond this worldly existence of great achievements and do something of eternal value to fulfill our deepest aspirations. Come Lord Jesus! We are eager for you to come to fix me. He...

Isaiah writes in the first reading of the mass today about the God of the Heavens, contrasting Him from the gods that littered the Babylonian landscape. He wrote this during the Babylonian Captivity of the Israelites.

Today we celebrate the feast of the Our Lady of Guadalupe. We spoke a bit about her during the memorial of St. Juan Diego a few days ago. The most moving thing that Our Lady said to this Indian convert was about what he thought about her. She asked him rhetorically. The reply to her queries was a resounding yes. She wants us to remember that we are her children and she is our Mother in Heaven.

We are happy to the extent that we have hope. If our hopes are squat and lowly, i.e., limited only the good things of this world, then we have ample reason not to be that happy. Only when we keep our sights on our faith and that we hope in the eternal prize, then we shall be joyful.

This would be the best way to prepare for the coming of the Lord, i.e., for the commemoration of His first coming on Christmas Day and for the second coming of the Lord, when from His seat at the right hand of God He would come to judge the living and the dead.

We need to work on this preparation for the coming of the Savior. We need to want to receive Him as our Savior. Otherwise, God is rendered helpless to help us. He does not force us to do what we do not want to do. This especially applies to being brought to heaven. We simply need to be open to Him, to His action and His Will. He cannot save us unless we want to be saved.

We celebrate today the memorial of St. Ambrose. From him, we should realize our responsibility with the words we use relative to the people around us. We may inspire, discourage or hurt the others depending on the words we use. St. Ambrose was the bishop of Milan in the middle of the fourth century. St. Augustine used to love listening to him. He was instrumental in St. Augustine's conversion.

Isaiah tells us in the first reading of the mass today to celebrate the memorial of St. Ambrose to be deserving of availing the protection of the Lord in His fortress. He enumerates them in a list consisting of uprightness in following God's Laws--and when we fail to, we could still get up as many times as needed by being sorry for our sins and making clear resolutions of amendment--, steadfastnes...

We celebrate today the memorial of St. Nicholas, Bishop. He is said to be the origin of the gift-giving tradition of Santa Claus. This kind-hearted bishop heard of a poor man who could not raise the money for the dowry for the marriage of his three daughters. The good bishop resolved their problem by leaving in the premises of this family three small purses with enough money for the marriage of th...

We learn in the first reading of the mass today about the characteristics of the Savior and what He has in mind to establish among us. It is amazing how the hagiographer uses analogies that paint peaceful and fraternal relationships, in our world.

Last 28 November 2023, we celebrated the 41st anniversary of St. Pope John Paul II act of establishing Opus Dei as a Personal Prelature. It ended Opus Dei--The Work of God, in latin--as a secular institute since this last juridical recognition did not exactly fit the charism received by St. Josemaria Escriva on 2 October 1928. To accurately acknowledge that charism an evolution of thought had to h...

God descends to our altars every time the words of consecration are said by the priest in mass. This is like what we prepare for during Advent season and later on Christmas. He is Emmanuel, i.e., God with us. The Eucharist is exactly that since God is truly, really and substantially present after the consecration. We may even stretch this further. The Holy Mass is the liturgy of the Church in wors...

Our Lord's coming is an invitation to all of us to stay under His wings to be protected from anything evil. As long as we follow or strive to follow His will and His dispositions, we have nothing to fear. We know the remedy for our sins. That is contrition and confession. We learn His teachings, and we will never go wrong. We stay within the dispositions of His Holy Catholic Church and surely we w...