Be And Become

May is a month dedicated to Mary, our Mother, and so I write some thoughts about her. Photo by Fr. Jboy Gonzales SJ   I have to admit that there was a time in my life that I did not accept Catholic teachings about Mary. Although I was educated in a Catholic school ran by religious men devoted to Mary, I did not pray the rosary (unless I was required) and took for granted Mary’s role in the Church. To me, a devotion to Mary was non-essential and the rosary was a dull and ineffective way of prayer. All of that changed a few years ago while I was traveling back home from a business trip. A year before that my youngest daughter, then six years old, gave me a gift for my birthday. It was a small rosary made out of ten beads laced with a string with a small cross made of woven grass.   My youngest child loved giving us small gifts on special occasions, so I kept it in my backpack, not knowing that someday I’d be using it. That day came when having nothin...

Do we really need to go on a retreat? We must see a retreat as a need. Just as our bodies need water and food to survive, we also need spiritual nourishment to grow and all we need to do is to receive this spiritual nourishment when it is offered. But how do we receive it?  The first step is always to respond to God’s invitation. Remember Mary when the angel of the Lord came and told her that the Most High has favored her? Did she say, “I am busy, let me try that some other time” or “I do not have the resources to raise the child” or “let me ask my mother or Joseph first before I decide to accept the offer”? There was no excuse and no hesitation on Mary’s part when she responded to God’s call and said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.” It was an absolute yes borne out of her trust in God, for in her heart Mary knew that it was God calling her. And her response gave all of mankind the opportunity to experience God’s ...

I was reading the newspaper this morning and the front page was filled with stories about St. Pedro Calungsod.   My thoughts drifted around this person as I tried to get to know more about him. I learned that he was around 14 at that time he joined Fr. Diego Luis de San Vitores SJ on a trip to the Ladrones (Marianas today) Islands on June 16, 1668.   They were on a mission to the islands when some of the natives attacked them.   Instead of running for his life, he protected Fr. Diego and was killed in the fray. He died because he was protecting a friend. In essence, he died protecting the mission and gave his life to save another person. Such selfless act is indeed admirable. Pedro died on April 2, 1672. My thoughts then turned to another person whom I personally knew way back in my college days who also did the same thing. He died saving others and who knows, perhaps someday he, like Pedro Calungsod, might become another Filipino Saint. ...

When nothing else matters Note: I borrowed this article from Fr. Tito Caluag's article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer July 19, 2011 issue. A Jesuit friend once said that if you find something that moves you, keep it (or stay with it). It's God's way of communicating with us. I kept this article because it has moved me. I share it so that it may also move you in some way. THERE IS a story about St. Thomas Aquinas that I heard in a homily back in 2003 on his feast day . The presider at Mass in the Jesuit Chapel in Gonzaga University shared a story that in the middle of St. Thomas’ writing of his definitive volume, he simply stopped. When his community and colleagues asked him why, he supposedly said that he had encountered God, and that was all that mattered. How does one account for this? A man whose writings continue to influence philosophy and theology to this day, in the middle of his definitive work, his magnum opus, stops dead in his tracks because he had encounte...