The essence of examination is not only to test the students’ understanding of learned material, but to help them grow in their knowledge. And a teacher will always identify a good student from the way he/she approaches the question and from his/her answer. As a way of strengthening the students’…
As I celebrate a milestone birthday today, it is also a time to reflect on my past and what is to come in the future. Today’s reading from Ecclesiastes is a famous one, beginning: “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man…
Self-contentment is a special virtue that inclines one to be satisfied with whatever one has. The contrary is that of never being satisfied but always complaining and endlessly asking for more. Greed and avarice are born of insatiability. It leads to grasping and extortion and self-centeredness. The readings of today…
Recently I was able to attend a gathering in which many friends I have made over the years were attending. I have been to a few of these gatherings over the years and was not thinking much about how I would spend my time, except to generally be with friends.…
Often at eulogies, we hear families and friends express how lovely their beloved ones had been before passing on. They share those experiences as legacies they remember about the deceased, and that would always be evergreen in their memory. The peculiar qualities, characteristics, and good deeds the person is known…
But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. Mark 9:32 Understanding our faith can be complex! I would hope that I am not just speaking for myself. During my years of college, I wrestled with the teachings of the Catholic Church among many other…
‘Follow me’ He only spoke two words to me. He had never cursed me, as others did, when he saw me sitting at the tax collector’s booth. And he had passed me there often, without a word. I had seen him walking by with his disciples. I knew I was…
When Jesus says, “It is finished” (John 19:30), he speaks the truth in a qualified manner. The suffering aspect of Christ’s atoning sacrifice was completed through his Passion and death, and yet, to show the world he had definitively defeated sin, death, and the devil, Jesus needed to rise from…
Today’s readings remind us of the need for reminders. Saint Paul summarizes the kerygma in his letter to the Corinthians: Christ suffered and died for our sins, rose from the dead, purchasing our salvation and freeing us from the clutches of Satan. He reminds us to hold fast to this…
Everything begins and ends with love. It all comes down to this. I recently read a short story by an author I enjoy very much, What Men Live By by Leo Tolstoy. While this is a work of fiction, Tolstoy has some interesting points and left me thinking about them…