Dear Family!

We are Easter People, who worship the Easter God, and Alleluia is our song. We have just been to a funeral and cried bitterly. The blood-filled cross and the occupied tomb though initially brought fear among the friends; they gave them hope that resurrection is imminent. I wish you all a very happy Easter! Dear friends who rarely come to church! We remember and pray for you today that you be strengthened by our community of the faithful. We struggle with you in faith that our opportunities to pray together may increase in the days to come! Let us build the church of Christ together…

Dear Family!

As we begin Holy Week 2024, let us be reminded that we strive to be holy in both word and deed as holiness is overwhelmingly internal. We see Jesus marching into Jerusalem and people welcoming Jesus with palms in their hands as palms stand for victory. They want Jesus to win a war! Little did they know what he is waging the war against! We may be preoccupied with palms that we may forget the presence and importance of the donkey.

Dear Family!

We are just one week away from Holy Week. Jeremiah 31 has some of the prized treasures of scripture in the whole Bible. The establishment of the New Covenant is one of the pivotal moment in our history of salvation. The Torah (Old Covenant or Testament) was supposed to have found its way into the human heart, but sin took hold of our hearts.

Dear Family!

‘Laetare’ (Rejoice) Sunday (In Advent we have ‘Gaudete’) is a mid-point of reference to look back at our Lenten Journey and thank God for those moments of purification and enlightenment and ask God’s grace to give us more opportunities to see the Light of Christ in the remaining weeks of Lent. As there are two kinds of blind people - physically and spiritually, there are two kinds of people who can see!

It is interesting to note both Laetare and Gaudete come from Latin root which are principally used to express joy. "The difference between the two is that Laetare reflects a joy that is manifest outwardly whereas Gaudete reflects a way of rejoicing internally” (The Mouth Piece). The Rose color of ‘Gaudete’ is a softening of violet; it is violet approaching white. It anticipates the pure white of the Resurrection of Jesus.

Dear Family!

God’s laws are the outward expression of the covenant. Most human laws have limitations and loopholes. There are and will be different ways of interpreting those human laws contrary to its original intent. There have been and continue to be many attempts to turn and twist the original intent of God’s law that have been handed down to us. That is the reason Prophet Jeremiah longed for a better way to communicate God’s Law: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts.”

Dear Family!

As Year A, B and C in Lent reflected on ‘Temptations of Jesus’ on the 1st Sunday of Lent, Year A, B and C in Lent on the 2nd Sunday we reflect on the ‘Mystery of the Transfiguration of Jesus’. One of the focal points that caught my attention is the journey of the disciples. Peter, James and John were fishermen. They were used to the depth of the ocean, chillness of the water and softness of the sand. They were guided by Jesus to experience something so contrasting and different to an average fisherman. On their way up the mountain, they experienced the towering height of the mountain, the heat on the rocks and the hardness of stones and thorns.

Dear Family!

Many see Lent as a ‘Service Check.’ Though this imagery is very fitting, it is not the total picture of Lent. Lent is not a temporary adjustment that we make for a period of 40 days; nor it is a hibernation period for ‘hypocrites and tax-collectors’. The season of Lent is called the ‘Season of Grace’ since the season of Lent brings in a sense of urgency and utmost importance to be near God.

Dear Family!

The general focus of the readings today is Love. Popularly we hear that love involves more than one person. Aristotle thought of love as a union, saying “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” Annette Baier in her book ‘Unsafe Loves’ writes of love as not just an emotion people feel toward other people, but also a complex tying together of the emotions that two or a few more people have; it is a special form of emotional interdependence.

Dear Family!

As we continue to count our blessings, this week especially we reflect on the blessing of our children. We are one of the blessed parishes with a Catholic School as part of a parish ministry. And in fact, we are the only Catholic School in our county. In his special letter to parents and guardians our Bishop reminded us that “Catholic Schools Week is not just a week-long event; it is a reminder of the commitment we have made to provide a Catholic education that nurtures the mind, body, and spirit of our young learners.

Dear Family!

In the last three Sundays the Church reflected on the baptism, Mission Statement of Jesus, Jesus as the Word (Word of God Sunday), and we see today how Jesus puts those elements in His ministry as ‘The Prophet like Moses’ (1st reading). His announcement of the Kingdom of God was accompanied by God’s love to each and every one of us.

Dear Family!

The Universal Church celebrates, as the Church teaches, “The Sunday of the Word of God, instituted by Pope Francis and to be held every year on the third Sunday of Ordinary Time, reminds us, pastors and faithful alike, of the importance and value of Sacred Scripture for the Christian life, as well as the relationship between the word of God and the liturgy: “As Christians, we are one people, making our pilgrim way through history, sustained by the Lord, present in our midst, who speaks to us and nourishes us.” (Dec 17, 2020, Congregation for Divine Worship & the Discipline of the Sacraments).

Dear Family!

We just concluded the Season of Christmas. What did we experience as a praying community? “When we assemble for liturgy in the Season of Christmas, then, we are a church haunted by a child with many faces. Each of us brings to the assembly the image of the child within, whether that child be possibility or prison. Each of our local communities brings the images through by our devotional arts, whether those images be of past childishness or future maturity.” (Jennifer Glenn) Thus the sentiments of Christmas expressed in our liturgies proclaim the spirituality of all the Baptized.

Dear Family!

It was wonderful to start the year with the celebration of the feast of the Motherhood of Our Lady. May the blessings of our Lady be upon us throughout the year. As part of the Christmas Season, we celebrate the feast of Epiphany today. The word ‘Epiphany ’ means ‘to appear or shine’. Epiphany refers to the divinity of Jesus ‘shining upon ’the earth. Epiphany refers the manifestation of the Divine Nature of Jesus.