“Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air." This stanza describing a beautiful imagery is from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" written by the great American poet Thomas Gray. It is one of the poems we studied in high school English Literature. In this vast universe created by God there are numerous things of beauty other than gems lying at the b

It has been ages since I attended a reunion of my high school (now a college) class. Many of my classmates have either passed away and the exact whereabouts of those still living are not easily known, despite the aid of social media. Many of us have gone away from the hometown, where our high school was, where we had dreamed our dreams and talked about them with our best friends. The pure distance of where we have settled down, some of us at the other side of the globe, and

Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, the Church invited us to look at Jesus in the desert where he was tempted three times by the devil, and where Jesus emerged victorious. It is a picture of the humanity of Christ. This Sunday the Church presents to us a completely different picture of Jesus – one which shows His glory and splendor, and where God the Father announced Him as His dearly beloved Son, which thus proclaims His divinity. The gospel tells us that Jesus took thre

One of the classic poems we learned in high school English Literature class is one by the great American poet, William Cullen Bryant, published in 1817. As the title sums it up, it is a poem about a view of death (Thanatos – death, opsis – view).* As such, it is good material to meditate on this Lent. The last stanza of the poem gives a picture of what one must undergo when that fateful time comes: that is, to join other people moving to a mysterious place where each one has

Monsignor Nestor, who was pitching in for our pastor, recounted a story of how a man knocked at the parish office door to ask for monetary assistance due to a pressing need. The monsignor had earlier been made aware by the parish staff that it is not uncommon for dishonest people to come to the parish office pretending to have an urgent need. After talking to the person, the priest decided to give a little sum from his own pocket. The good monsignor told me that if the man wa

When St. Augustine was a young man, he had a wayward prayer: “Lord, make me chaste (sexually pure) – but not yet.” Luckily for him, he turned away from his sinful ways at the right time and eventually became a saint. However, many are not as lucky. Their lives end when they do not expect it: heart attacks, fatal accidents, drowning, fires, attacks from evil persons. Our own life is not within our control. Death is the end of everyone and the life of man quickly passes away li

Someone commented on a previous blog ("Imitation") that although the idea of having a model in life is a good one, imitating Christ is a tall order. A tall order is a task that is very hard or even impossible to accomplish. In that sense imitating Christ is truly a tall order. Jesus also said: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48) That is also a tall order. I think that in both cases, Jesus does not expect us to complete the perfection or the imitation w

Book 1 Chapter 1 of the Imitation of Christ by Thomas a'Kempis HE WHO follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord (John 8:12). By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ. The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden mann

In minor seminary, in a subject called "Poetry" we were taught how to write good prose and poetry (mostly prose). In a subject called "Rhetoric" we were taught how to write good mini-speeches and deliver them interestingly. The teacher gave us model paragraphs/pieces written by good writers and he asked us to write our own using the structure and development of the model paragraph or piece, but putting in our own ideas and content. The exercise was meant to develop in us g

First, it was Pope John Paul II who mumbled at his death bed: "Let me go to the house of the Father." He was declared a saint several years after his death. Now, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in a letter to an Italian newspaper which wanted to know how he is spending this last period of his life said: "I can only say that with the slow decline of my physical forces, interiorly, I am on a pilgrimage towards Home." Two men who have served God's people well. Two men with the same