The complete wording of last week's Shalom was, "No one and nothing matures to perfection without pain or something similar to pain". This principle of personal transformation is also applicable to transformation of society since society is composed of or constituted by individual persons. From the...
There are several expressions in English which have the same meaning from the Christian perspective as the title of this reflection. They are: "There is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday"; "There is no life without death";."No authentic Christianity without the Cross", etc., etc. They...
When I told this story to Msgr. Nardz Vicente of San Pedro Cathedral last Good Friday, he gave a surprise reaction saying, "First time I hear that. You should have written about it before Holy Week." He is right. People should know the little history....
For many of us Catholics the joy of Easter Sunday is symbolized by the Sugat or Salubong rites at early dawn around 4 o'clock in the morning. The rites include the two long men in procession carrying the statue of the Risen Lord meeting the...
This is not a discussion on the semantics of the English language. I am still in the subject of Spirituality of Transition, the topic in last week's column on paschal mysteries. The words in this column's title are frequently used by two sectors of society as...
This is a follow-up, a deepening rather, of previous reflections on the paschal mysteries. In those reflections I kept repeating the meaning of the word Paschal as originating from the Hebraic word Pasch which gives the idea of passover or passing over from one condition to...
"Paschal Mysteries", these words often appear in many liturgical texts and in countless articles on the liturgy. Their popular Cebuano translation would be, "mga misteryo sa pag-antus, kamatayon ug pagkabanhaw sa Ginoo". To emphasize the importance of the Resurrection Mystery or Easter Mystery the Roman Missal...
This title is in our Catholic tradition. We learned it in our catechism class. It is maybe part of the so-called APOCRYPHA, a body of stories based in the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph which are not found in the gospels of Sts. Matthew,...
I am referring to the Lenten observance of not eating meat on Fridays of Lent and on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Historically, when the Church required Catholics from eating meat, it was understood that since meat was a daily need in those days especially in...
Last Wednesday, March 6, was Ash Wednesday. This day begins the Church's traditional observance of the 40 Days of Lent or Tempus Quadragessima in Latin. It is commonly called in English, Lenten Season. On Ash Wednesday the young and not-so-young adult Catholics below 60 years of age...
