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A Walk in The Spiritual Realm

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Allow me to take you with me on a spiritual realm trip. Many a time we experience life and not know that most of the things that happens in this life have its origin in the spiritual realm. The Bible tells us that King David’s problems started in the spiritual realm. He couldn’t control himself and let his fleshly desires get the upper hand. We see this same scenario with King Herod. Wherever he was spiritually was not good: he was frightened and was pushed to murder innocent children. It prompted God to chart a new path for Joseph and Mary because the life of baby Jesus was in danger. Now depending on where we are spiritually in our own relationship with God, some people are sensitive to God’s move, they sense things in God’s realm. Joseph had a dream about it. He knew his family’ safety depended on obeying God’s voice. Obviously not all of us get to have that kind of insightful dreams, but the truth is, many people do not pay attention and therefore end up missing God’s clues in the...
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Christmas Reflection 2024

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Instead of a 5-star hotel or a royal nursery, it was rather away in the manger that the King & savior of the world would be born. In all of Bethlehem city, there was no room left, in the same way that there is still no room for him in many people’s hearts. We all have often said publicly that we’ve been busy with other things (created things), and we said we had no time for God. But God spoke to Isaiah about the coming of the Good News! Sort of saying: “ Worry no longer with your busy schedules and lifestyle! Relax, a Savior is about to be born unto you .” God had hoped that we would abandon everything else we thought was important and return back to him. He reached out to us with a gift: His only son coming as a baby in the manger. His plan was to fight the world’s darkness with his light. We are encouraged to consider what it means to bring the light into our homes. Perhaps in your household, you could consider an activity that give room to Jesus. Tonight, we are given an oppor...
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A Proper View of Repentance In God's Kingdom!

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A beautiful message arrives from God to Israel saying: “ Take off garment of sorrow and affliction and put on the beauty of the glory from God, put on the robe of righteousness .” Israel had been through a lot. When they felt like they had no breath left, God sent a message promising a return from exile; that Salvation was coming and indeed is at hand. Can you imagine how you would feel during a bad flood like NC just had, you are on top of your roof, someone shouted out loud: a helicopter is coming to rescue you ! God’s word comes to us like that. It creates faith and hope within us. In fact, God used this same word to create the Cosmos. There is power in God’s word. Luke’s Gospel also emphasized this idea pointing to Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah’s coming; the Savior of the world. Funny enough, the writer used the language of road construction: “ Every valley will be filled and mountains made low, crooked paths made straight and rough ways made smooth …” The message begins with J...
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Happy Thanksgiving Day!

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Time goes fast! Don’t take any second of your life for granted. It’s a privilege to spend time with those we love and cherish! Today shouldn’t be the only day we are reminded of that. I am hoping to show our gratitude to God every day. We are here indeed to show gratitude! It is the name of the Holy Eucharist: To give thanks! First for the gift of life and also for every resource that the Lord has placed in our lives. This is a day for me to be grateful: A day to re-imagine where I came from and where I am today; a day to discern where the hand of the Lord miraculously transformed my situation. A day to discern when we are facing God’s appointment, and become patient in adversity so that in due time, God would fight for us. I am grateful for those times in my life because they taught me to rely on God at all times. It’s not an encouragement to be passive in life with a fatalistic view of life, but a courage to admit to ourselves that God is ultimately in charge no matter what. Therefo...
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The Truth Cannot Be Hidden Forever

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Today’s feast of Christ the King presents us a face-to-face meeting between two very different kinds authorities. Some authorities can be very oppressive and others are soothing. We have a meeting between two different authorities: Jesus and Pontius Pilate. The trial begins. Jesus is ushered inside the Governor’s palace and the accusing party, a.k.a, the Jews remained outside because they couldn’t get in and be defiled. Pilate said: “ Are you the King of the Jews ?” Jesus answered: “ Do you say this out of your own accord or did others say it to you about me ?” P: Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the Chief priests have handed you over to me; what have you done ? J: My Kingdom is not of this world; if my Kingdom was of this world, my servants would have fought that I might not be handed over to the Jews. P: So, you are a King? J: You say that I am a King. For this I was born, and for this I have come into this world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my v...
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Be Forward-Looking With Divine Hope

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We humans are fascinated by grandiosity. What I mean by that is exploits that are spectacular by human standards. Humans have always wanted to do the impossible. Think about Genesis 11 they said let’s make a tower that reaches the heavens and make a name for ourselves! Think about World Guiness Records. The first human to reach the moon, the first human to climb Mount Everest, the first human to reach the bottom of the Marianna trench. It is the summit of human Art and achievement just like the tallest building in the world, it is to invite us: Come and be fascinated! And we respond: "Wow, this is amazing!" And Jesus was unfazed . What we deem important in our world and think is worth of great admiration, doesn’t even get a 1% admiration from Jesus, the author of life. That in itself, should teach. Now about the magnificent and precious Temple that was built even before Jesus was born by Herod the Great, Jesus simply replied: “ Not one stone will be left here upon another, a...
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Lord Increase Our Faith!

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Today’s Scriptures have one thing in common: It is the profile of a widow. In ancient times, widows needed protection, otherwise they would suffer terribly without help. On one hand, in the OT God commanded the prophet Elijah to be fed by a widow. It turns out as we would expect, she was on her very last meal, yet this is the person God was entrusting his servant to, for his sustenance. It doesn’t seem to make sense right? We usually expect to send a guest to a home that is well to do, instead of one that is poor/ lacking. God does nothing, without a clear purpose: His servant was sent in that household for a reason: to save her and her son. What a clear picture of the character of our God reaching out into the world, to bring Salvation and deep healing into our lives. We also see this same divine care/compassion for a poor widow in the NT: Jesus was in observation mode in the Temple. There she was: A poor widow simply putting two coins in the Temple treasury, which btw was everything...
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