This reflection is on mercy as a crucial quality of a virtuous life. Let’s begin with you. I mean, you as you are and me as I am. Specifically, you and me as believers, we, as people, granted the grace of faith, people called in love to communion with our…
Not too long ago, we started the season of Lent, with the celebration of Ash Wednesday. On that day, the Church invited us to start a forty-day journey of preparation for the celebration of the feast of feasts: Easter! Forty days can be a long time. Along the way we…
Family expresses the love and relationship shared by husband and wife, and their children (if they are blessed with children). It is a love that is rich in patience, forgiveness, care and concern for one another. These characteristics also exist when we refer to the Church as the family of…
In today’s first reading, Prophet Ezekiel exhorts us to stay on the straight and narrow path, following the Lord. Even if we fail and fall into temptation and sin, we can rise up, beg for forgiveness through the sacrament of Reconciliation, and be in God’s graces again. The thought of…
A friend narrated how he once rushed a seriously sick man to a nearby general hospital, but upon reaching the hospital he found that the doors were securely closed and sealed. The reason was that the hospital staff was on strike. The sick man would have died if not that…
We see in today’s first reading that God was ready to destroy Ninevah because of the evil that was occurring there. Jonah was called by God to prophesy to the people that the city would be destroyed in 40 days. The people took this prophesy seriously and began to fast and…
My dear friends, as we have entered the Lenten season, we should have an increased emphasis on prayer and Penance. Today in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus sets the pace of prayer. He gives the guide, a pattern and a model of prayer to his disciples when he said to them:…
Ever since I was a kid, my number one goal in life was to be a Major League Baseball player. I wanted to play the game of baseball at its highest level, make millions of dollars and befriend other successful people. Funny thing is, the older I got, and the…
One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. The verse before the Gospel presents to us a reminder of the spirit of Lent, i.e., the word of God is spiritual food, but it cannot be “assimilated” without repentance (therefore,…
Tax collectors were reviled among the Jewish people in Jesus’ time, not only because they aided the financial efforts of the occupying Roman force, but also because they associated with ritually unclean Gentiles in doing so, and because some collected more than the law required. Despite that reputation, Levi—also known…