In my parish, I often meet people who remind me of those I knew during my diaconate training in Noble Park and Keysborough.
One day, I was reading my Facebook page as I always do at certain times of the day and I saw this beautiful quote, “God doesn’t say NO to our prayers. God has three answers, either he says, 'Yes, at a later time,' or 'I have a better idea'.
How did you encounter Christ? This was a common question when I was a seminarian when we were asked about our vocation story.
If you enter in any Filipino house, the first thing that the owner will ask you, and it is almost like a greeting, is, “Have you eaten?”
One of the most frustrating things for a farmer is to have weeds in the fields. They steal whatever nutrition is there for the grain. Sometimes, when I’m in the garden, this is really a headache and I try my best to remove them and be careful that it won’t affect the other plants. Otherwise, I just have to leave it.
Today, all the readings invite us to have trust in and totally lean on the Word of God. As a matter of fact, the Word of God is Truth and God Himself.
Dear brothers and sisters. I would like to begin with few questions. The first one is very simple: Are you Jesus’s follower? Okay, I am sure you will say yes. Very good.
Second question is: Do you have any symbol to show you as a follower of Jesus? In today’s Gospel Jesus said: whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
“Do not be afraid.” This is the message of Jesus in today’s gospel. Yet, right now all over the world there are many things that we are afraid of, including war, political upheaval, violence, outbreaks of disease, and so much more. All we have to do is watch the News each day to see all of this in the world around us. So, it’s really difficult to say that we shouldn’t be afraid.
Karma is something that a lot of people ask me about, as to whether it is a Christian belief or not. Well, I would politely say that it is not. For us Christians, we believe that retribution or judgment will be happening not in this life but in the next.
The gospel for this week, which is pretty long, is about knowing who Jesus is from the efforts of the woman at the well. And as we read along the gospel, we will learn that the woman at the well slowly discovered who Jesus was - from a Jew, to a prophet and then a Saviour.
