Dear Family!

We are both followers and leaders at the same time. A wise man once stated that the ‘Leadership is the ability to articulate a vision and get others to carry it out.’ As leadership continues to be in a constant threat under priesthood these days, I am almost at the verge of finding a grip in the efficacy and relevancy of priest-leadership in the modern world.

Dear Family!

There is so much pressure on young people to develop an image of faith in themselves. Most of their friends do not go to church anymore; their parents are either divorced or not practicing Catholics; there is always a Sunday Sports in the morning (as Taxpayer, you cannot question the system). The young are forced to create their own excuses such as ‘headache, body pain, homework’ and the like.

Dear Family!

July 4th brings in a lot of memories of ages past. The Declaration changed the meaning of American freedom forever. Eric Foner in his book, "Give Me Liberty" writes, “It completed the shift from the rights of Englishmen to the rights of mankind as the object of American Independence. No longer a set of specific rights, no longer a privilege to be enjoyed by a corporate body, liberty had become a universal entitlement.” Those words are prophetic indeed.

Dear Family!

In funerals, at times in anger and depression, we feel, “God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges or was that guild edges?” (Shack p. 66)

Dear Family!

Understanding Divine Providence is beyond the powers of human reason. In the First Reading we see Job faced with the reality of how his own suffering and the conversations he has with friends challenges his faith. Job’s challenges at times make us wonder how little we know and understand the will of God even with great faith. “Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” (Job 42:3b-c)

Dear Family!

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers! We thank God for placing fathers in the family as a sign of God’s enduring love and constant protection. May fathers everywhere be faithful to the examples shown in the scriptures: steadfast in love, forgiving and sustaining forces in their families by caring for those in need. We ask God to grant wisdom to fathers so that they may encourage and guide their children.

Dear Family!

As God created Adam and Eve in the original condition of holiness and justice (Catechism of the Catholic Church 375), we ask a genuine question as to what original holiness was as God intended. The catechism also teaches us that the Original Holiness was ‘friendship with his Creator’, based on sharing ‘divine life’ (CCC 374-375). And the Original Justice as intended by God is the harmony that existed ‘with himself & Eve, and with the creation around him (CCC 376).

Dear Family!

A wise priest once said, “when man stands before the throne of God... all joy is restored, then there is nothing else for him to offer but to give thanks. Hence, the Eucharist or “thanksgiving” is the state of the perfect man. The Eucharist is the life of Paradise.” Happy ‘Corpus Christi’ Sunday to all of you!