THAT is the message of the gospel reading for Ash Wednesday. (cfr. Mt 6,1-6.16-18) “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them,” Christ said, “otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.” Then he continued by describing how we should give alms and
March 5, 2025
THIS is what Christ proposed to his disciples, and now to us. We need to be poor, to be detached from earthly things, so we can be filled with what truly enriches us. (cfr. Mk 10,28-31) “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or
March 4, 2025
LET’S use some legal jargon to bring out the truth of our faith about how Our Lady can help us to be docile to the Holy Spirit. Whereas, God always intervenes in our life through Christ in the Spirit because he is our Creator and Father who will always be with
March 3, 2025
THAT’S from a passage in 1 Corinthians 9,22. It’s the ideal condition for us to pursue. It’s what would truly identify us with Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, who is the very embodiment of this ideal. Though each one of us is supposed
March 1, 2025
SINCE life is like a game, where we play hard to achieve something, we should not be surprised that there will be times when we win and succeed, and times when we lose. We should not be surprised and be unduly affected by this fact of life. If we are guided
February 28, 2025
THESE are words of Christ. (cfr. Mk 9,49) What he wants to tell us is that to keep our true Christian identity and dignity as we go through the drama of life here on earth, we should be willing to lose a hand, a foot or an eye, if these would
February 27, 2025
IT’S, of course, a given. Prayer is basic in our life of piety because that is our personal effort to get in touch with God. All other acts of piety would be of no value if they are not done as prayer or, at least, accompanied by prayer. We need to
February 26, 2025
I SAW that phrase in one of the daily prayers for priests, the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Breviary. It struck me immediately since it reminded me of how charity should be. It should be ardent, never cold, and blazing, never like a dying ember. Indeed, charity which is none
February 25, 2025
CHRIST himself made such description and definition of a true Christian. They strike us as something strange from a purely human point of view. But given our wounded condition and our ideal status as children of God whose essence is pure love, the Beatitudes give us the proper frame of mind
February 24, 2025
WHY oh why did Christ command his disciples so? (cfr. Lk 6,27) The quick answer is that despite our unavoidable differences and conflicts, even the very serious ones, in the end we are all brothers and sisters, we are all children of God, and we just have to love one another
February 22, 2025
WE have to realize that we all have a mission in this life. It’s a common mission to seek personal sanctity that always goes together with doing apostolate. It starts with oneself, then in the family and eventually should cover as far as possible in the world. We can somehow draw
February 21, 2025
IF there’s one aspect in our life that most needs a sporting spirit, I would say it should be in our spiritual life, in our relation with God and with others. It’s there, in the game of life, where we should play our best, knowing that regardless of how the earthly
February 20, 2025
