visible rhetoric

Today we read Psalm 97.  The same psalm was read on Christmas day at dawn mass.  In fact the 3 psalms read on Christmas were psalms 96, 97 and 98 and they are called enthronement psalms for they focus on God's eternal kingship.  Psalm 97, our psalm today, begins with the call, "the Lord reigns, the Lord is king let the earth rejoice."  When the magi too came to Herod they told him the purpose of their coming saying, "we have come to worship the king." So, is God king?  Did Israel understand what kind of a king is God?  In our day, do we understand what kind of a king is Jesus? I do not know if you are a fan of the movie the Lord of the Rings?  It is a novel by JRR Tolkien.  Tolkien is a Christian writer who wrote his novels using Christian metaphors.  The Lord of the Rings if you remember was a quest not to possess the ring but to destroy it.  It was a ring of power and dominion, a ring that can put peoples in subjugation.  ...

Today we read Psalm 31.  Psalm 31 is a famous psalm because this must have been the psalm meditated upon by Jesus as he hung dying on the cross.  The same is true with St. Stephan, our Saint on this second day of Christmas.  This psalm must have been also in his mind when they were throwing stones on him and when, like Jesus, he too was in the brink of death.  Both Jesus and Stephen recited the fifth verse of this psalm saying, "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." Psalm 31 is a prayer of desperation, Rescue me from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors. Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your kindness. But at the same time its a prayer of confident trust, You are my rock and my fortress; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.   I will rejoice and be glad because of your mercy. .  "Into your hands I commend my spirt" is an act of surrender, never uttered in despair but always in confident trust. 

For the past several days, since I have been celebrating masses in different places and to different congregations, I find it necessary to explain time and again why I focus my reflections on the responsorial psalm.  It started as a way of reminding my superiors that I have been too long already in my present assignment in the seminary, I have finished reflecting on the gospels, and on the first and second readings of the mass.  Now I am reflecting on the responsorial psalm.  Should you hear me preaching the alleluia verse in the future, that's already a sign that things are becoming too much already. This is the 3 rd time I am celebrating Christmas mass in Carmel, and considering the other masses I have said here in all these years I would have wanted to greet the sisters at the beginning of the mass, I am tired of you, and they would have greeted me back, and also with you.  And we could tell the bishop that our feelings are mutual.  Of course, this is not...

For the past seven months, I have been reflecting on our responsorial psalm and so in this mass I would like to continue reflecting on the psalms. (it's not actually from the book of psalm but from Samuel - the canticle of Hannah.) Our responsorial psalm when listened to carefully seems not to correspond to our expectations.   It does not tally with what our mind anticipates.  Allow me to illustrate this with a story. A priest went to the bishop one day and asked the bishop to transfer him to another parish.  Why, asked the bishop?  The priest replied, "Because my parishioners do not like me anymore.  Every time I give a homily, they do not listen and many of them are sleeping.  So the bishop said to the priest, ""Not to worry Father, I will teach you how to give a homily so that your parishioners will listen to you.  This is what you will say to them:  "My dear brothers and sisters, I came to know of a beautiful woman, she is a mestiz...

As has been my practice in this chapel, I have for the past 7 months reflected on the responsorial psalm of the mass.  For those who do not known the reason why, I will repeat it again, but in an abbreviated form, short lang.  I am reflecting on the responsorial psalm because I have already finished the gospels – Year A, B and C for Sundays and also the weekdays.  I have also finished reflecting on the first readings of the mass Year 1 and 2, and I have also finished reflecting on the second readings of the mass.  Now I am in the responsorial psalm.  Actually this is my way of telling my superiors that I have been already too long in my present assignment in the seminary and I need to be transferred, I need to be reassigned.  In fact I have already been too long here in Sto Nino Chapel every Tuesday bilang bahin sang akon seminary duty, I have been too long here already kon kaisa nagasulit-sulit na ang akon homily.  So kaina instead of greeting you...

Today we reflect on Psalm 24.  I have already reflected with you some points in the psalm.  Today we continue our reflection on the same psalm going to that part which say this is the race that seeks you, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.  I think, this is just what I think – this is what Christmas is all about, this is how I would define Christmas, and these are the people who truly celebrate Christmas. In a sermon to the monks St. Bernard of Clairvaux reflecting on this part of the psalm said, there are four kinds of people or races as the psalm calls them.  First there is the people who are unbaptized and who do not seek God.  Probably Bernard is referring to those who do not know God or Christ and because they do not know God or Christ they do not seek him.  There are also those who are baptized but they do not seek God.  These are people who were baptized but their Christianity does not make any difference in their life.  They are C...

I come from the school where Graciano Lopez Jaena was educated.  I am an alumnus of the same institution and presently I am its rector.  As rector of the seminary and as a formator of seminarians and future priests what interests me in Graciano Lopez Jaena is not so much history but the kind of formation he received that made him the one and only Graciano Lopez Jaena we come to know in our history as a nation.  What made him a hero? And more importantly what makes a person a hero? We are all born with a capacity to become anything.  And along the way we get shaped by our circumstances in life – our parents and upbringing, our life situation, the school we come from, the classmates and friends we had, the significant persons we meet in life - we were shaped by what was happening around us and in our country as we were growing up, and then we form judgements and outlooks, we reason, we allow ourselves to be swayed with either reason or emotion or with both and the...

As we go home tomorrow to spend Christmas with our families and in our respective parishes, we would like to thank you Your Grace for giving us even this short moment to spend with you to greet and to cheer you, our spiritual father, the head and the unity of our bigger family and community which is the Archdiocese.  Today in our archdiocese we end the year of the family and begin the year of the parish.  However our pastoral office have insisted that we are not ending programs to begin another rather we allow the previous program to flow to the next.  And indeed it is only proper that after a year of celebrating the family we celebrate the communion of families which is the parish.  As you go home it is important to reflect and re appreciate these two pillars of the church and even of society.  That as you go home to your family you should not forget your parish, and as you enjoy parish life you do not forget your family.  You cannot appreciate one...

This is the third time this class, the first year college, submitted this program for my approval.  The first program was full of messages, 7 to be exact – an opening remarks, one message coming from each department, a message from the faculty, a message from the personnel, a message before opening the gifts and this message.  And to think that we just listened to a homily before coming down for dinner.  So I told them there should only be one message – it's either me or one of them.  Then the in-charge of the greeting for the archbishop presented to me their program.  Again there are 4 messages including the bishop's and probably to please me they placed beside my name in parenthesis the word optional, which I understood as I may give a message or I may not.  The last time I was not given a part the bishop told me in passing, I thought you will still give a closing remarks.  It would seem that it has been standard practice which falls on the should...

Many times the prayers in the mass are too intellectual, too theological, too heady it does not appeal to the heart.  In contrast the beauty in praying the psalms is that these are personal prayers coming from a broad range of experience – joyful, sorrowful, desperate, angry, in dire need, thankfulness, contrite, misery, hopefulness, deliverance, guilt – all of which are very human experiences.  Psalm 30 is such a psalm.  It is one's experience of God - For his anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his good will.   At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing.  Sing praise to the LORD, give thanks to his holy name.

Frankly I dread this day, the day when our supposedly innocent, child-like, almost childish, budding, tender, fledgling, girlish, boyish, juvenile, fresh, blooming, untried, still developing, green, unripe nephews and nieces are lining up to be married.  I dread this day.  I practically listed down all the synonyms of the word young because the last time I saw them they were still in their school uniforms and very cute with their school bags in tow.  Now they have boyfriends and girlfriends in tow.  Now they are bringing them to the altar.  Have they even aged?  Does that mean that I have also aged? Padre mapakasal ako is ordinary to my hearing, I am used to that, but I still have to get used to the sound of tito mapakasal na kami.    And now one of them is getting married.  The deluge is coming.  And we all know what's next.  We're going to be lolos and lolas in a year or two.

Our responsorial psalm today, psalm 34, is a personal testimony of David, his experience of God in time of adversity, how he was saved from his enemies, and how his life was preserved.  David was fleeing the wrath of Saul who is pursuing him wanting to harm him.  He came over to take refuge in Gath only to realize that its king Achish an ally of Saul recognized him.  So in order to disguise himself nagpabubang-buang sia kag wala sia nakilal-i.  This psalm is a thanksgiving for that event when David experienced for himself the love, the mercy, the protection and the care of God for him.  " When the just cry out, the LORD hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. " This is David talking in the third person.

There are certain things that struck me in the paper of Fr. Doming.  First, quoting Husserl, Fr. Doming writes, "critique of knowledge would assist us in the ultimate completion of scientific knowledge."  Critique of knowledge is an essential part of a complete scientific knowledge.  Without this essential part no knowledge can be complete.  If it can withstand foundational critique then it can be called a science. The problem however, Fr. Doming also noted in his work is the difficulty we have as Filipinos to critique each other's work for fear that the other may take it personally and will thus be seen as disrespectful and even insulting.

Good evening..   Every year we give our seminarians their day on stage as dramatis personae.  We alternate this yearly activity with a stage play prepared by each class, and a major production prepared by the whole community.  Last year they competed by class usually producing original stage plays – from Grade seven to 4th year college in a two-day festival of plays.  You can still see the Theater Posters which they themselves made in the lobby of this hall with the winners having the privilege of being framed and displayed in the same lobby for two years.  This year however the best among them have put their heads and acts together to come up with a musical entitled calle cuartero.  It is not a calle which you can pinpoint in google map. It can be any calle, it can be your calle, it can be mine, for calle cuartero is the story of one community struggling to become a Small Christian Community or a Magamay nga Kristianong Katilingban, an MKK.  Starti...

In this double celebration, the 5 th wedding anniversary of Jack and Katrina, and the baptism of Vic Florenz and Maria Katarina Elia, I invite you to reflect with me on God's word, specifically on our responsorial psalm today Psalm 80.  This is basically a psalm of lament and it calls on God to do two things – to restore and to shine. First, the psalm calls on God to restore.  To restore means to ask God to change the circumstances of his people, to change the bad to good, the unhappy to a more happy situation, the imperfect to something more perfect.  And more than just simply pleading for help from God, the word restore speaks of an incapacity on the part of man to do something about his situation.  There are situations in man's life in which man despite his power cannot do anything about.  Only God can do something about them, only God can restore.

Today we read psalm 80.  In this psalm God is depicted as a shepherd and a gardener.  We have heard a lot of times why God is a shepherd to his people, but why is he a gardener?  "Take care of this vine,  and protect what your right hand has planted."  Israel, God's people is the vine and so God is the gardener.  I believe the college know what gardening is all about and what a gardener does to make the plant productive.  A gardener does so much to make the land fertile and to make the plant fruitful.  The gardener has to till the land, fertilize it, plant the seed, nourish it daily with water, be sure that it has enough sunlight, and guard it against pests and diseases.  The gardener does a lot.  God does all these things for us.  But the plant must also do its part, the seed must dare to grow, it should aim it roots down the soil and it leaves high above to reach the sunshine.  It must absorb the nutrients of the soil toget...

Today as we celebrate the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, God does to ____ what God has done to Mary in the womb of her mother St. Anne.  This is the reason why this place in the church is also called the womb for this is where our children in the parish are given their second birth, this is where they become not just the sons and daughters of their mothers and fathers, not just the son of ____ and ___ Salazar, but the son/daughter of God, a brother and sister of Jesus, a child of Mary, a brethren to every man and woman on earth. Baptism may be a short sacrament but it means everything to every person.  Allow me to explain why.

Today psalm 98 is read to us.  The psalm exhorts us to sing a new song.  Why should we sing a new song?  What has prompted the psalmist to exhort us to sing a new song.  We sing a new song because God did something new.  A new reality must have a new song.  The new reality was something never heard before.  Jesus did miracles, he healed the sick, he cleansed the lepers, he even raised the dead.  So are these the new things needing new songs?  No.  These are not new.  The prophets of long ago also did these things.  So what was new?  Jesus multiplied the five loaves and two fish to feed a hungry crowd?  Is this new?  No.  The prophet Elisha also did that before.

Today we reflect on psalm 103.  This psalm calls us to bless the Lord.  To bless the Lord means to thank the Lord.  Now what should we thank God for?  The psalm says bless the Lord, or thank the Lord, forget not all his benefits - remember the good things God has done, don't forget what God has done. What has God done for you so that you will bless him, so that you will thank him.   The psalm says, God pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills; he crowns you with kindness and compassion.  These are some of the reasons why we should thank God – God's faithful love.

Today we reflect again on psalm 96.  Today we are called upon to sing a new song.  If you notice as you grow older you like to sing old songs – the old songs that became a hit when we were in high school or in college.  And we call these songs our songs because we sung it then and we can sing them even now.  Last week when we had our alumni homecoming we hired a band that can sing our songs because we like their style and their choices of songs. Today however our psalm is asking us to sing a new song, not an old one but  a new song.  This new song can only be understood in the context of the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 42 when the prophet also invited the people to sing a new song.  Why because in the verse before the invitation to sing a new song, the Lord said, “See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.”  The former things have come to pass, we have become a new people, we have received a new identity, thus the old...

Today we reflect again on psalm 96.  Today we are called upon to sing a new song.  If you notice as you grow older you like to sing old songs – the old songs that became a hit when we were in high school or in college.  And we call these songs our songs because we sung it then and we can sing them even now.  Last week when we had our alumni homecoming we hired a band that can sing our songs because we like their style and their choices of songs. Today however our psalm is asking us to sing a new song, not an old one but  a new song.  This new song can only be understood in the context of the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 42 when the prophet also invited the people to sing a new song.  Why because in the verse before the invitation to sing a new song, the Lord said, “See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.”  The former things have come to pass, we have become a new people, we have received a new identity, thus the old...

Today we continue our reflection on the responsorial psalm of the mass, in particular, we reflect on Psalm 72.  Psalm 72 is a royal psalm.  It is a royal psalm because it speaks of the role of the king, his relationship with God and how God works in his people through the person of the king.  The prayers however of Psalm 72 is too idealistic, too unrealistic even one would say this is not possible humanly speaking.  That is why royal psalms like our psalm today psalm 72 were interpreted by the Fathers of the Church as Messianic psalms.  They refer not to kings but to the king of kings – they refer to Jesus who was after all a descendant of the royal line of David. Today in the psalm we pray that Jesus the king of kings would come to bring justice to his reign.  " O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king’s son; he shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment." What is this justice? ...

Today we reflect once more in our responsorial psalm, specifically psalm 27.  David who wrote this psalm was afraid.  If he was at war with other nations he was afraid of their enemies encamped against him.  If he was not at war he was afraid of his own people and even of his own family who tried at least once to grab power from him. This is David's psalm - The LORD is my light and my salvation;   whom should I fear?   The LORD is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?

This psalm, psalm 118, is one of those psalms labelled as the Egyptian Hallel.  Hallel means praise – so these are psalms in praise of God because of the freedom from the bondage of Egypt.  This is an exodus psalm and is sung especially during the Passover. No wonder this psalm is also used during Easter.  This is sung as a responsorial psalm during the vigil of Easter after the eighth reading, remember.  This is sung just before the solemn intonation of the alleluia.  In a way this psalm is sung during the passover of Jesus, when he passed from this life to the next, when he passed over from death to life, when he passed over from the passion and cross to the resurrection.  This is in a way the psalm of Jesus as he rose from the dead. What is evoked in this psalm?  What is he praising?

Today we continue our reflection on the responsorial psalm of the mass, in particular, we reflect on Psalm 72.  Psalm 72 is a royal psalm.  It is a royal psalm because it speaks of the role of the king, his relationship with God and how God works in his people through the person of the king.  In particular, psalm 72 asks God for two things – that he endow the king with justice and with righteousness so that he can govern his people with justice.  However as we go along with the psalm we notice that the prayers cannot be all true.  It is too idealistic and surely Solomon to whom this psalm is dedicated or any other king cannot and could not have fulfilled it.  For example it says that i n his reign "there will be profound peace and his justice shall endure until the moon be no more.  His rule will be from sea to sea until it reaches till the end of the earth.  And all kings will bow before him."  It cannot be possible, it is not humanly possi...

Twice already this Sunday I have been reflecting with you on why the pilgrim is so glad at hearing the news that he is going to Jerusalem, why he is so glad upon entering and standing within the gates of Jerusalem.  First, he is glad because he is going to meet God who dwells among his people in the temple.  The temple is the house of God, where all Jews come to worship.  It is also there where the ark of the covenant, God's presence, is enthroned.  It is therefore a joy to worship in God's holy temple in Jerusalem. Second, the pilgrim is glad because going to Jerusalem is not just going to God, he is also going to the place where the tribes of Israel go up to gather, he is to gather with his community, he is to gather with his people. 

Today as we begin advent and as we begin the first day of the triduum to our Lady of the Miraculous Medal whose feast we will celebrate 3 days from now, I would like to reflect with you Psalm 122, our responsorial psalm today.  Yesterday I have already reflected with you on the first stanza when the pilgrim received with gladness the news that he will go up to the temple of God.  Now this pilgrim enters the gate and contemplates this beautiful and holy Jerusalem and he praises it for it was built as a city strongly compact – it is secure, it is stable, it is the symbol of their unity as a people, the unity of the twelve tribes of Israel.  For the Jews Jerusalem is not just a place of communion with God.  It is also a place of communion of brothers and sisters from the different tribes - a communion with one another.  This is what it also means when the pilgrim says Jerusalem is built as a city strongly compact.

Let us reflect on our responsorial psalm – Psalm 122.  It is entitled a psalm of ascent, meaning it is a psalm, it is a song of pilgrims as they are climbing up, in this case they sing as they climb up to Jerusalem to the temple of God, to the house of God which is located on top of a hill called Mt. Zion.  " I rejoiced because they said to me, 'We will go up to the house of the LORD.' And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem." I do not know among the sisters if they can still sing while climbing up.  Some of us, and that includes me, can only sing up to a certain point, but I don't think I can sing all the way.  You are young, meaning you can still sing all the way to the top. 

Good morning.  My task this morning is to welcome you and at the same time to give a brief introduction on what vocation is. We are gathered here this morning to celebrate Vocation Awareness Month.  In his letter Pope Francis  emphasized to us that vocation grows in the community –   it is discerned, it is encouraged, it is nurtured, it is made to mature and it is supported in the community.  This is the reason why we gather. We are here to help each other listen to God's voice as he calls us to each one's mission and purpose in life.  So welcome to the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary – our venue for today. What is a vocation? In its broadest sense vocation is a call – it is God's call for each one of us – how we live our lives, how we can contribute to make a difference in the world around us.  It includes what we do, who we are and how and what we choose.  This is not just a profession, this is not just a means of living, although sometimes t...

Today we reflect of Psalm 84.  I have already reflected with you about this psalm especially about the birds mentioned in the psalm, the sparrow and the swallow which find a home in God's house. If you look at your bibles, the composers of Psalm 84 are mentioned.  They are the Sons of Korah.  If you remember your bible Korah is the leader of the revolt against Moses.  He led 250 men to revolt against him so that they can change Moses as leader of the exodus to the promised land.  But God punished Korah and his men.  The ground on which they were standing opened and they were swallowed by the earth.  The few that survived, the so called sons of Korah were spared but they were assigned to become servants of the sanctuary.  So it was their task to maintain the temple – to be its door keepers, the janitors, the cleaners, the carpenters.  And so we can appreciate the psalm better with this background especially when it says "one day in your tem...

Today we continue to reflect on our responsorial psalm, psalm 100.  If you notice the stanzas alternate from invitation to praise and exult God, then to the reason why we praise and exult God. Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; serve the LORD with gladness.  Why?  Because the LORD is God; he made us, his we are.  Then it starts again, Enter his gates, Give thanks to him; bless his name.  Why?  Because he is good: his kindness endures forever. Knowing God must lead us to exalting God. Knowing the truth about God should lead us to love God.  Learning must lead us to doing.  Education becomes a failure if it does not lead us to love, to care and to make a difference in our world.

During these last days of the liturgical year leading to the season of Advent we are bombarded by readings which speaks of the end, frightful readings which speaks of persecutions, of being seized and handed over even by one's parents and of being sent before kings and governors to be judged and condemned, and of being sentenced to death.  The message is morbid and frightening.  And yet if you notice the psalms these days, and in particular our psalm today, psalm 98 tells us to be joyful, to sing a new song, to join the rivers and the seas and the mountains and the whole cosmos in praising God.  It seems that these days our psalms are particularly chosen so that they can counteract in a sense the fear which our gospel and first reading may have engendered in us, to balance so to say the extremes of fear that leads to hopelessness and the other extreme of indifference, of doing nothing that leads to apathy in the face of the challenges which God is giving us. 

Today we continue our reflection on the responsorial psalm of the mass this time Psalm 96.  If you notice, there are so many things in the psalm that are not really true at the time it was composed and even now in our time.  How can one say, "The LORD is king. He has made the world firm, not to be moved; he governs the peoples with equity."  What equity is the psalmist referring to in a world torn by strife, where powerful nations and powerful men do what they will on smaller, weaker nations and weaker men?  On what part of the world now and even then, does the Lord have real kingship, where he rules with justice and love, where his followers are loyal and true?  Where in the world is that?  And so, many assertions of the psalms are not really true, at least today.

Today we continue our reflection on the responsorial psalm of the mass this time Psalm 96.  If you notice there are so many things in the psalm that are not really true at the time it was composed and even now in our time.  How can one say, "The LORD is king. He has made the world firm, not to be moved; he governs the peoples with equity."  What equity is the psalmist referring to in a world torn by strife, where powerful nations do what they will on smaller, weaker nations?  On what part of the world now and even then, does the Lord have real kingship, where he rules with justice and love, where his followers are loyal and true?  Where in the world is that?  And so, many assertions of the psalms are not really true, at least today.

Today we read psalm 24.  Today our psalm asks the questions:  Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?   or who may stand in his holy place?  What does it take to become presentable to God, what makes us holy and thus worthy to stand in God's holy presence?  The psalm offers several answers but let us just take one for the day.

Today we read psalm 24.  Today our psalm asks the questions:  Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?   or who may stand in his holy place?  What does it take to be presentable to God, what makes us holy and thus worthy to stand in God's presence?  The widow in the gospel was praised because she lived what psalm 24 teaches. First and most importantly the need to acknowledge that everything belongs to God and all we have are gifts of God to us. " The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it."  Let us start each day with this mindset – everything that I have is God's gift, I should be filled with gratitude and I should use them for his purpose.

Today as we celebrate Christ the King we reflect on Psalm 122, one of the so-called songs of ascents because it is sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.  Able-bodied Jews are mandated, they are obliged to go to Jerusalem to worship God several times a year and this is their song, a song filled at once with gladness and excitement, even from the time the invitation is made, to the time when they have already arrived at the gates of Jerusalem, finally setting foot on that beloved land. "I rejoiced because they said to me, 'We will go up to the house of the LORD.'   And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem." Then as the pilgrim contemplates this beautiful and holy Jerusalem, he praises it as a place built as a city strongly compact – it is secure, it is stable, it is the symbol of their unity as a people, the unity of the twelve tribes.  And this city is not only a center of worship but it is also the place where the thrones of judgment, the ju...

Today we reflect on Psalm 15.  Psalm 15 actually begins with a question asked in two different ways.  We cannot find this in our responsorial psalm today, only the answers.  But I believe it might be good to know the question so that we can better appreciate the answers.  So what is the question – Lord , who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain?  In David's time there was no temple yet.  The ark of the covenant, the presence of God was placed in a tent or what the Jews call the tabernacle.  The tabernacle was a tent.  Who may dwell on your holy mountain.  This holy mountain refers to Mt. Zion, the temple mount where the tent, the tabernacle was located.  So who can be admitted in the presence of God, who are worthy of climbing the Temple Mount to come face to face with God?  To be admitted to the tent means also you are a family member, you are a very close friend, you call God Father and he has admitted you...

Today we continue to reflect on our Responsorial Psalm.  The psalms as I have said are prayers par excellence because when we pray them we pray with the heart, with the mind, with the words and even with the emotions of God.  Today we reflect on our Responsorial Psalm, psalm 37.  This psalm teaches us how to pray, it teaches us the secret so that our prayers will surely be answered by God.  The Psalm says, " Trust in the LORD and do good, that you may dwell in the land and be fed in security.   Take delight in the LORD, and he will grant you your heart’s requests." I would like to dwell on this stanza because many times we get things mixed up in our relationship with God, in our prayer to God.  What do I mean mixed up?  Yes, the Lord wants to grant what our heart desires, yes, the Lord wants to heed the requests of our hearts.  But do you also know that God wants first and foremost to shape the desires of our hearts, that before he answers ou...

As we celebrate today All Saints Day the church reads to us psalm 24.  On the day when we ponder the questions what makes a saint, what makes a person holy, the church reads to us Psalm 24.  This is an appropriate psalm for Psalm 24 speaks to us about the sources of holiness.  In the three short stanzas that were read to us, each stanza is proposing to us for our reflection a source of holiness.  What makes us holy, what keeps us holy, what aids us to become holy? The first stanza, " The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it."  TO be holy it is important first and foremost to acknowledge that everything I have is not really mine but the Lord's.  Everything belongs to God.  All that I have are gifts from God to be manage by me in order to do God's purpose.  We can be helped to become holy when we start with this mindset every single day of our lives as we wake up in the morning – everything that I have is Go...

I have been reflecting on the Responsorial Psalm for months now and I would like to direct your attention to our psalm today, psalm 145.  "The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works."  Pope Benedict XVI calls this verse in psalm 145 as the divine portrait.  Kon mamangkot ka who is God, describe God to me, give me a picture of God, Psalm 145 will say, this is the picture of God, this is who God is:  "the LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works."  Actually, it is not just the author of the Psalm who said this is who God is.  God himself said the same about himself, when he revealed himself to Moses in the book of Exodus saying "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."  And I believe this is th...

Our gospel for today’s blessing of this house tells us two things about what a home should be: First, why did Luke mention Zacchaeus climbing a sycamore tree?   Why not another tree – perhaps an olive tree, an apple tree, a guava tree, whatever.   But why a sycamore tree?   It is said that no matter how short you cut a sycamore tree it will always grow back.   No matter how short, it will always find its way to grow back.   I think that’s the first quality of a blessed home – it should be a place of second chances, third chances, fourth chances, fifth chances.   A home is where you know people will never give up on you.   A home is a place where you will always be given another chance. That is the first quality of a home.   It is like a sycamore tree – no matter how short it is cut, it can and it will always regrow.

Today we direct our attention to psalm 119, our responsorial psalm.  Again this is a continuation of what we called the longest psalm with 176 verses – 22 stanzas in all, each stanza with 8 verses.  The subject of this long psalm is love for God’s word. The psalmist may have used words like word of truth, ordinances, precepts, law, commands, statutes, but these refer only to one thing, God’s word in the bible.   “Take not the word of truth from my mouth, for in your ordinances is my hope.   And I will keep your law continually, And I will walk at liberty, because I seek your precepts.” Often times we look at laws as a burden we are forced to carry.   We often see laws as limitations to our freedom.   I must do this even if I don’t like it because it is the law.   I cannot do what I want because I am constrained by laws.   But this is not how the psalm looks at God’s law – he sees it as a delight and a joy and when one seeks to obey God’s laws ...

Psalm 139 our responsorial psalm today answers the questions who am I, who are you, who are we?  The answer to these questions are the basis for my identity, it is the basis for every morality.  Change the answer, gloss it over, belittle it, apply it to some and not to all, and we will have a totally different world, a totally different morality, a totally different society. Who am I, who is every man woman and child?   I am created by God on purpose and with love. You have formed me; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully, wonderfully made; When I was made in secret, when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth you know me. We are all made by God, we are not accidents of nature, there is a purpose why God made us so and it is up for us to discover and fulfil it in our lifetime.   God owns us, he owns our life, he alone can give it, he alone can take it back.   It is my task, the task of each person who were fearfully and wonderfully made b...

Psalm 111, our responsorial psalm in today’s mass begins with an invitation to give thanks to God and ends with a summons to praise.  The reason for this thanksgiving and praise are the works of the Lord – great are the works of the Lord exquisite in all their delights – to praise God for his many interventions in the lives of his people especially in establishing a covenant that bound him to his people forever. In a way this psalm is inviting us to discover the many good things that the Lord is giving us every day of our lives.   Think of the life God has given us, the gift of family and friendships, the gift of sustenance such as food, work, health, the help and assistance of friends.   Many times however when we pray we focus only on the negative things in our lives – our lack, our regrets, our mistakes, what we need and what we don’t have.  

Psalm 95 our responsorial psalm today is referred to as the Invitatory Psalm by the church.  Those of you who pray the liturgy of the hours (as priests, nuns and monks we are obliged to pray the liturgy of the hours) are familiar with this psalm because this is prayed daily, in fact this is the first prayer of the day.  As we wake up, as we begin the day, some of us still sleepy, still yawning perhaps, some of us struggling with the pains of arthritis, but as we start the day we are made to pray, “ Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us; Oh, that today you would hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” This is the first prayer and it is invitatory because it is inviting us to live in the presence of God; it has the task of making us aware, making us conscious that today, this very day, now, and every day - we live in God’s holy presence.  

Today on the memorial of the saint, St. Jerome, who said, Ignorance of scriptures is ignorance of Christ, let us reflect on psalm 139, one of the most beautiful psalms, a subject of so many beautiful hymns in the church. Psalm 139 speaks of two qualities of God – omniscience and omnipresence.   God knows everything and God is present everywhere. God knows everything.   In just one stanza he uses the verbs – you probed me, you know me, you understand my thoughts, you scrutinize me, I am familiar to you.   That’s how God is to each one of us.   He knows us intimately. God is also present everywhere.   He is always with us, always there by our side.   God will always be there for us. God is omniscient and omnipresent.

Today the church continues to read to us Psalm 88 which I referred to yesterday as the saddest, the most dreary, and even the most pessimistic psalm.  Today we are now on the second part of the psalm when the psalmist says “ I, O LORD, cry out to you; with my morning prayer I wait upon you. Why, O LORD, do you reject me; why hide from me your face?”   St. John of the Cross wrote about what he calls in spiritual life as the dark night of the soul.   It is a time in our relationship with God when we can no longer sense his presence, we can no longer feel that he is listening to us and even much less that he is answering our prayers.   There are no more consolations even in our prayer or in our mass.   The dark night happens when we feel that God is no longer there.   This is also what the psalmist feels.   But this is not punishment or abandonment.   In fact in the dark night God is inviting us to grow in our faith.  

Today we read the saddest of all psalms, psalm 88.  There are other sad psalms in the book of psalms but these sad psalms at least end with a high note – with hope and optimism.  But Psalm 88 is different – it begins with, “ by day I cry out before you and at night I clamor in your presence;” and it ends with, “my companions have become darkness.” So why is it that such a dreary psalm made its way in the bible, why is it that this pessimistic, seemingly hopeless psalm be accepted as one of the psalms, one of the prayers of the church, a model prayer?   Why?   Because sometimes in our life we have to approach God in darkness.   Sometimes we also come to God in the dark.

Our psalm today, psalm 17 is an honest and earnest plea for God’s help in the midst of great torment and suffering.  And the psalmist argues to God that even in the midst of so much trial he remains faithful to God, he remains loyal and obedient to God’s laws.  He said, “ your eyes behold what is right; though you test my heart, searching it in the night, though you try me with fire, you shall find no malice in me.” If you notice we are most vulnerable when we are in great trial, our faith is most vulnerable when we are in crisis.   I remember the first ever Filipino monk who abandoned his vocation when he became sick and was confined in the hospital.   I also remember so many Filipinos with marital problems abandoning their catholic faith in the midst of a crisis.   I also remember priests losing their vocation because of midlife crisis or husbands and wives separating because of financial problems and difficulties.   Crisis is always a time when eve...

What’s one word that survived thousands of years and has been adapted to hundreds of languages and dialects without any modification to its meaning?  Sometimes it may be pronounced a little differently but it is discernible all over many languages.  So what is the word? If you said “Amen,” then you guessed it right.  Amen. But what does Amen really mean? The word amen is related to a word in the first line of our responsorial psalm today, psalm 146, “blessed is he who keeps faith, or blessed is he who keeps truth forever.”   To keep faith, to keep truth means God is blessed because God is trustworthy, he is credible, he is reliable – we are affirming what we believe.   And so when the priest says “the body of Christ” and you respond “Amen,” it means, “it is, it is indeed the body of Christ.”   Or when the priest prays and ends it saying “we ask this through Christ our Lord,” and we respond saying “amen,” it means “God is trustworthy, God is faithful,...

Psalm 144 is a psalm prayed in the face of battle.  The first verse which was not read in mass is a thanksgiving to God for teaching the psalmist to fight – “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.”  Thus he then calls us with terms used for the military – God is a fortress, a stronghold, a bulwark, the deliverer and a trusted shield.  In the communion of the saints there is the church triumphant – referring to those in heaven; there is the church suffering – those in purgatory; and there is the church militant referring to all of us here on earth.   Militant – the word connotes struggling, fighting, doing battle.   I believe it is important to be reminded by the psalm of this imagery of earthly life.   Of course not in the physical sense but in the spiritual sense – that life is a battle against evil forces up to destroy us, that life is a struggle against the temptations of greed, the temptations of lust, ...

Today in this feast of the evangelist St Matthew we hear Psalm 19 proclaim – “the heavens declare the glory of God;   and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” Our psalm today invites us to open our eyes and see God’s creation around us for they speak of God – his grandeur, his goodness, his power, his love, his beauty.   Nature – created things speak of God. Months ago I was invited to see a mountain range so big and so vast and a forest which went as far as the eyes can see. The place was advertised on a bus saying:   come and see how little you are.   To be there and to say to God in prayer Lord you are so big and I am so little, so tiny in fact if I consider that the earth is just a tiny speck of this vast universe.   Lord you allowed me to experience your grandeur and majesty.

Today we allow once more our responsorial psalm to guide us in our meditation.  Psalm 119 may have used a lot of words like law, precepts, commands, ordinances but these refers only to one thing - God’s word.  And the verbs he uses in relation to God’s law are - to walk in it, to understand it, to meditate on it, to choose it, to discern it, to observe it, to be led by it, to keep it continually and to delight in it. Today in our gospel Jesus puts before us the real reason why Mary is Blessed.   She is blessed not because she bore him in her womb, not because she is Mother of God, but because she listened to God’s word to her and acted on it.   St Augustine himself said “ Mary heard God’s word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God’s truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb.”

Today we reflect on Psalm 15.  Psalm 15 can be likened to an processional or entrance song – pilgrims would sing this song as they enter the temple in procession - who shall be admitted to your tent, who shall live on your holy mountain.  Every religion has a requirement before one enters a sacred place – there may be ablutions or washings, or the putting on of sacred marks on the forehead, or it can be the putting on of the required dress or clothing.   In this psalm the requirement for entering the temple is spelled out.   To those who enter a clear conscience is demanded.   The person who worthily enters the temple is a person who does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart, he does not slander nor harms his fellow man, he does not lend his money on usury and does not accept bribes.

In our reading today Paul prays that we his readers will be given strength, wishing us to rely not on our own strength but in the strength that comes from God.  Paul has reminded time and again elsewhere in his many letters that man is in no way good enough, that we are not good enough but that we need the strength, the grace that comes from God.  If you notice Paul does not say here be strong, or be stronger.  No, for we can never be good enough.  Instead Paul calls to God to give us strength. In this same prayer Paul also prays that we may understand, the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of his love for us.   Paul includes all three dimensions that can be known by our senses immediately - how wide, how long, how high, except how deep .   We need to bore a hole to know that.   In saying so Paul then prays that God will give us understanding beyond what we have, not dependent on our mental capacities but understanding beyond what w...

Allow me to share some few thoughts.  Unlike other gatherings for prayer which almost always start with an opening song and the sign of the cross, the rite of baptism starts instead with a question, what name do you give your child?   Now you may take this question and its answer for granted or you may even take it as stating the obvious by the fact that this has been already established a fortnight ago in their birth certificates.   But this first act in the ritual of baptism is very important.   It defines our purpose today, it establishes the intent of our gathering, it summarizes and therefore simplifies the varied actions in this long ritual into something that is both simple to understand and at the same time expressive of our longing for this child. What name do you give your child?   To be baptized is to be defined – to be baptized is to establish who you are and who you will become.   Thus the question - What name do you give your child?