Love Letters to Lukewarm Souls

Written and posted last year on social media, February 24th, 2020. I was watching Voltron in Netflix with my son (and my wife too!) and was already on season 2. In its 2nd episode entitled "the Depths", there's a clip that shows a dialogue between Voltron's Blue Lion pilot and the jellyfish mer-people. The latter abducted the pilot in order to ask for his help to stop their alleged evil Mermaid Queen, because she was believed to be responsible for controlling and brainwashing their mer-men and merwomen's minds.  When the Voltron pilot asked them why weren't they brainwashed by the Queen like the others were, the jellyfish people told the hero that they are jellyfishes, they don't have brains, so you can't brainwash something you don't have. When I heard it, I said, well, that's a quotable quote if you come to think of it. I can't help but thought of some people I knew in social media (i.e., the Atheists/Agnostics) that say Chris...

In light of the recent sex scandal that surfaced around the late Ravi Zacharias,  one of the finest and respected modern Christian apologists of our times in the Protestant world,  I RAISE THIS ISSUE NOT BECAUSE to goad readers or shame Protestant pastors/leaders as bad people, as some do against Catholic clergies if it's the other way around. But this is simply my hope and invitation to Anti-Catholics (who, every now and then, frequently demonized the Catholic church for sex scandals, cover-ups, etc.) of how we are to logically ponder everything into perspective whenever these Christian sex scandals (Protestant or Catholic) arise in the news. What then do we as Christians make of this monstrosity? My own two cents is: 1. No matter what institution or organization we are in, as long as it is managed, governed, or run by Human Beings, sinfulness and bad apples always abound until the end of time. This is the reality of us men and women in a fallen world. This i...

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 ...

Whether you are red or blue or in between, I like to share what Dr. David Anders from EWTN said that, for me, succinctly articulated my political philosophy in the hope it may help enlighten those of what as a Catholic should decide, even for a little bit.   "The CHURCH has maintained always that no ideology, whether conservative, liberal, capitalist, socialist-- no political ideology is adequate to really capture the essence of the human person or of human flourishing, because people are transcendent beings, body and soul, made in God’s likeness and image and we have a transcendent destiny, and so there’s no material construction of civil society that is adequate to man’s transcendent end. There are however some basic natural law principles, things that we can know naturally about human flourishing that have to be respected in any civil society. And one of them, Pope Leo XIII made this point very plainly in 'Rerum Novarum'--the first of the social encyclicals--is the ri...

"JUDGE NOT." Probably one of the most misused Bible verses taken out of context. Now, popular culture has found a way of also utilizing and politicizing it in political discourse to dismiss or discourage partisan criticism in this growing revolution of the cancel culture. I recently got a piece of the "citation" first-hand from someone when I made a social media post over a vandalized political signage I saw in the nearby street and made a remark to say that it seems rampant and consistent to be coming from one side of the political ticket than the other (taking into account multiple church vandalism, riots and looting the past several months). It appears it didn't sit well with the person and dropped the "Judge Not" wisdom on me, saying that (or should I say "judging") I was being judgmental. The person raised the following issues and premises: 1.) My rhetoric suggests I'm picking my audience with opposing political leaning or viewpoints...

How Catholic Worship (aka Mass) Is Different From Non-Catholic's "Worship" (aka Service)     One time in a party, I introduced a family new to our town to an old friend of mine. As we were all having nice conversation of pretty much anything the family needs to expect as newbies, my old friend (a fallen-away Catholic and now an active member of a certain evangelical ecclesiastic community) brought up in the conversation that they have a new pastor in their church that is smart and charismatic, and invited the new family to come and attend their worship service sometime. Now, as a Catholic, I always admire our Non-Catholic brethren's enthusiasm of inviting other people to their church. They always seem to make evangelizing so easy and natural than a Catholic would do the inviting. We can always learn from them, we grant them that. However, I also wonder how come is it this way? How come for some reason inviting someone to a Catholic Mass does not seem to have the sa...

This was an exhortation I gave last June 14th, 2019 on a Christian community in one of the prayer meeting session I led. It was edited and revised for the purpose of this blog. © Copyright 2019 Photo by  Letters to Lukewarmers Before we begin, I wish to show you one of the items (above photo) you see in our kitchen wall at home. It's a coloring work last October my 6-years old daughter did in her 1st grade faith formation class. The teacher gave them an activity, to write the name of a person who helps them grow close to Jesus. And "DaD" was the 1st person she wrote down. When she brought it home for me to see, I was so delighted and proud of her and was touched by the implication that daddy and mommy talk and show her Jesus. I sincerely hope and pray that she will continue to instill in her heart and mind her love for Jesus and that she will carry on her faith and relationship with the Lord deeper as she grows up. Now why am I sharing this? (Besides my daughter mak...