Love Letters to Lukewarm Souls

This was an Advent talk I gave last year, December 2019, in a Christian Charismatic Community that I am a part of, e dited for the purpose of this blog. May it help you prepare your heart to Jesus this Christmas.  I was asked to share perhaps a personal reflection or insight as we approach this season of Advent. Well, before anything else, I must confess the past few months I've been feeling, as the saying goes, "down on my luck" lately. Work has been kind of slow, and discouraging. And it distressingly affects me emotionally and makes me lose interest in doing things. And so, as I pray on what the Holy Spirit wanted me to share to you as we prepare ourselves for the season of Advent given my said despondent disposition, I was reminded about the gift God had shown me during my 1st deeper conversion of faith back in high school many eons ago, that helps recollect my spirit in times such as these. And it's a timely reminder for me because it's also something we are ...

This was an exhortation I gave last March 1st, 2020 in a Christian community where I led a prayer meeting session, some portion were edited and revised for the purpose of this blog.  The very 1st Christian community I had been with was back in High school. It was in a group called Opus Dei (perhaps some of you might have heard of it or familiar with it. It was even mocked and fictionalized in the popular book and movie by Dan Brown years ago called the DaVinci Code). Photo courtesy of Juniverse © 2020 Opus Dei was founded by St. Josemaria Escriva and it is a Latin phrase which means "Work of God". The basic precept of Opus Dei is for laypeople like you & me to foster and aspire for holiness in our everyday ordinary circumstances and profession. Wherever you are or whatever you do, whether you are in school, at work, at home, washing dishes, doing the laundry, even doing number 2 (jokingly speaking, but you get the point: Everything you do), all of our activ...

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. I know the kids are all eager and excited to go trunk or treating this afternoon. So I will try to make it as short and sweet as I can. I’m pretty sure all parents would agree and can relate to this. That children, especially toddlers are utterly free. They don’t worry about anything. For example, my 2 year old son, or even my daughter for that matter, when we go for a ride in the van, they get in their car seats without asking "Where are we going, Daddy?" They fall asleep in those car seats and wake up somewhere else and never wonder what happen last night. My son loves to climb tables, chairs, and shelves like all typical boys do, he even loves to play in the stairs heading down the basement. On a couple of occasion, while he was playing on the stairs, he suddenly threw himself up in the air towards me without warning, catching me off guard. Good thing I caught him, or else I would have been in trouble. So kids are utt...

Last Tuesday, we had our Cell Group meeting. Our point of discussion was about Sacrifice. We were sharing what are the sacrifices we can offer so that it may enrich the lives of others, in our family, our work and the community we are in. I felt it was a productive and fruitful discussion as it drives us away from ourselves for once and focus on living sacrificially for others more instead. In a similar sense, whenever we have a community gathering such as today, as I approach worship time, I like to put into heart what St. Paul wrote to the Romans in the very 1 st verse of Chapter 12: “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.” Worship entails we sacrifice something. Without sacrifice, we are merely venerating or adoring somebody like we do the saints or our Blessed Mother Mary. If you are in a bad day of coming here today (where your heart and your body are in two...

Good afternoon. Before we begin. Short story. You know my 2 kids, they like to watch YouTube for Kids. (I know bad parenting, right? Give us parents some slack sometimes). Usually what I'll do I cast it on TV using the smartphone, so that they can watch it on TV instead of my phone. Few weeks ago when we were watching while having our meal, the clips that time were from Super Simple Songs (bunch of kids songs, nursery rhymes and original music, animation pretty good, professionally done). And one of the clips that came up was from a song called "The ants go marching". You know how the song goes... The song also teaches kids how to count. It will say one by one, two by two, etc. and they would show ants marching accordingly to those respective numbers. When the song hits seven, the lyrics went: "The little one stops to pray to heaven..." When my 5 year-old daughter heard the words, she laughed at me and said "Ants pray to heaven??" And asked me ...

Good Evening brothers and sisters. Few times I heard over the radio, a 42 year-old evangelist Chris Stefanick, once recount he and his wife had a fight. He said, after a fight with his wife, he was complaining to God "Why does this have to be about her?" "Can it be about me?" and God spoke to him in his heart. GOD said: "You have every right to make it all about you, to put your own needs 1st, you have every right to be average, to be ordinary and not to become a Saint." Suffice to say he retracted his prayer and in retrospect he think God wasn't only calling him to Holiness but to happiness. I think it is a good reminder for me being in the community as well, especially whenever I find myself complaining in my service, why do I have to sacrifice my family time and personal life for others, why cant I just do the bare minimum and just sit on the sideline? I always have the choice to make it all about me, to be average, to be ordinary. Come t...

© 2003 Excerpt from "I Can Serve": A Community Journal written on 2003, 7th of June For us trying to lovingly draw our dear friends deeper to God, we may hear these responses: “I’d rather rest than spend time in church or join a Christian community.” “I know people from a Christian community who are not good examples. They don’t practice what they preach. They still live in sin. They get angry, they speak bad words, they hurt people. Why should I join?” “I’m also a member already of a sorority (or a fraternity or a club). They’re all the same as yours. We help the poor, we conduct self-development programs, etc. sometimes even more extensive and financially-organized than Christian communities.” “I’m ok and happy with my life. Why should I complicate it further by spending on spiritual affairs inconvenient and a waste of my time and schedules. I help out my friends in need better than they do.” Many of our friends and relatives right now, as I speak...