Be And Become

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...