May 5 Monday Gospel Reflections on John 16:29-33

Instead of just the Gospel, we'll also be reflecting on the reading for today.

Today's reading is a beautiful fusion with the Gospel. St. Paul "entered the synagogue, and for three months debated boldly with persuasive arguments about the Kingdom of God."

The Gospel on the other hand says, " Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived
when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone."

St. Paul proceeds with the prophesy of Jesus as he continued to stay in the synagogue and preached the Good News with fervor.

The gospel and the reading challenges us to hold fast to our faith and what we believe in the Gospel. There are millions and one ways that will tempt us to leave God alone but this is just a challenge. We have to be conscious with what we say and do always.

Read the gospel and the readings here.

May 4 Sunday Gospel Reflections on John 17:1-11a

Today's Gospel is a very moving prayer of Jesus to His Father. It's a homage to the power and glorification of God's might. The oneness of Jesus to His Father is also emphasized here.

But more importantly, we get to see how Jesus Christ prays to His Father.

He doesn't demand for anything. He doesn't ask for things...all He has to say are the things that He has done for His Father.

We are also challenged to do this way. I've seen an saying in the street that says "When you pray, don't give God instructions. Report for duty."

At the end of everyday before we go to sleep or anything that we usually do, we ask the Father to bless us in the things that we do. Maybe it's the right time that we tell Him what are doing in His name. Today's world is a very challenging to us Christians so God has continuously challenged us to spread His name in the face of all these obstacles.

Read the gospel and the rest of the readings here.

April 24 Thursday Gospel Reflections on John 15:9-11

Our Gospel today is very short but has a very powerful message for us.

God wants us to be with Him and the only way for our Father is to live by his commandments. It's simple, practical and straight to the point. If we live in His love the kingdom of heaven is waiting for us.

There is common knowledge that we have to offer a lot of sacrifice just to be with our Father in heaven. We have to endure a lot of suffering and we have to be against the world at all times.

But that's not what the Father wants us to be. We still have to achieve happiness in this world while we are aiming to be with him.

The challenge for us in this gospel is that we have to find happiness in everything that we do. There are a lot saints today who gave us the idea of happiness. In every little way that we do, we have to find God's purpose and happiness.

You can read the gospel and other readings here.

April 23 Wednesday Gospel Reflections on John 15:1-8

"You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you."

This phrase from the Gospel today is very true when you think about the situation of the Roman Catholics during the persecution days. By the mere fact of being identified with the Catholics means gruesome death.

Today, we obviously don't experience that situation. But a new persecution is happening in our Church today. Because of the scandals in the Roman Catholic Church particularly on the sex abuse of the priests, we are being persecuted in the sense that we do not do anything about it. We strongly abhor these actions and do everything to prevent them.

On the other hand, we are also dubbed as anti-modernization because of our ideas about abortion and gay marriage.

But these are just challenges for us. We have to be steadfast of our faith and tradition as these are the strongest foundations in our belief. God has called us again to hold fast to our beliefs.

Read today's readings and gospel here.

April 22 Tuesday Gospel Reflections on John 14:27-31a

This part of the gospel is pretty special for me since I remember well a song tied to the following phrase:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you."

Although the actual lyrics are a little bit different (probably from a different version of the bible), the chorus takes on a different route. The chorus tells you that love is all you need and love is very important to all of us.

Which has led me to think the relationship of peace and love. Peace is not removing the bad things in our society but peace is a situation where people care for each other, where they love each other. We can't say our society is at peace because there is no war. Peace is never the absence of evil but the existence of understand, love and care for everyone.

Read the gospel here.

April 21 Monday Gospel Reflections on John 14:21-26

Today's gospel has a message for both the preachers and the faithfuls of the Christian world.

Reliving the words of Judas in the Gospel, " “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

As preachers of the Gospel, we have to remember that God has revealed the Gospel not only to us but also to the world. We have to be humble enough to accept that fact that most of our faithfuls are even more convinced of the word of God compared to us. There are actually people who gives more to the church than what we do for God everyday. The gospel is a challenge for us to preach and to support our flock more so as to lead them to heavenly kingdom Jesus has prepared for us.

As the faithful who follows the shepherd of God, let us help them through our prayers and any support that we can. The world provides us with a constant challenge to preach the good news in anyway. Although most of the time we can't be missionaries, but we can help spread the gospel through our small ways everyday.

You can read the gospel and the rest of the readings here.

April 20 Sunday Gospel Reflections on John 14:1-12

Today's Gospel is basically the Gospel of Friday and Saturday combined. This Sunday, the idea of Jesus as the "Truth, the Way and the Light" is highlighted and supported by the previous readings.

The first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles and the second reading from the letter of Peter. These readings wonderfully chronicles the devotion of the Apostles to our Father and their affirmation to His greatness.

In the Acts of the Apostles, new disciples were chosen to work with the people. The reason is that the Apostles have to spend some time praying and although they work with the poor, they should also spend some time praying.

There are times that we are very busy with our daily activities that we forgot to pray or be still to communicate with the Father. It is only through prayer that we examine ourselves and our goals as well as communicate these goals to Jesus. A few minutes a day is always encouraged to talk to Jesus. He is always with us - waiting for us to talk to Him. Our struggles, our triumphs and even the most simple things in life could be shared with Jesus. He is our friend and our savior that will help and bless us in any endeavor that we do in life.

Read the readings and the gospel here.