TO gloat is “contemplate or dwell on one's own success or another's misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure.” It’s never a good thing to do, yet nowadays many people often fall precisely into that. They flaunt their achievements, they strut their stuff, they even show off...
IT would certainly be naive of us if we do not expect and prepare ourselves somehow for disasters and calamities to come our way. They are actually unavoidable, given the way we and the world in general are. Nature itself has its limitations which can...
NO, it’s not the Visayan way of pronouncing the word, “upscaling.” It’s really a legitimate word, coined, I suppose, recently in view of the many new developments around, especially in the digital world. It means “to teach additional skills” or to upgrade one’s skills. It is...
THE season of Lent is meant for sharpening our skills in spiritual warfare. This should be foremost in our mind as we go through the highly recommended acts of penance and mortification during these days of Lent. We cannot deny that our life here on earth...
WITH Ash Wednesday, we enter a new season of Lent. In spite of the gloom and austerity usually associated with it, there’s actually something new and bright to it. That’s because Lent involves a certain dying to ourselves so we can be born again in...
GENUINE sanctity, and not just the many forms of apparent and fake holiness sadly proliferating in the world today, will always require heroism. And it need not be lived and achieved in some extraordinary situations. It can be attained even in the very ordinary things...
THERE’S no doubt that if we want to survive in our increasingly complicated times, we need to be flexible, adaptive, versatile and innovative. This should be our constant mindset. We should not get stuck with the modes and ways of the past that while helpful...
ALREADY for a number of years, I have been preaching and also being preached to. I thought of sharing my experiences for whatever they are worth. First of all, preaching is definitely not just a performance, although we priests should try our best to perform as...
ESPECIALLY in our prayer that plays a crucial role in our life, we need to learn how to turn distractions into enhancers. We cannot deny that very often our prayer is hounded by all sorts of impertinent and stray thoughts that would practically annul the...
EVERYONE should learn to be contemplative. We are actually meant for it. Equipped and wired for it, we reach our ideal situation when we manage to become contemplatives even in the middle of the world. We have to start with ourselves before we can dare...
