Metanoia

Blessed are the leaders who have not sought the high places, but who have been drafted into service because of their ability and willingness to serve. Blessed are the leaders who know where they are going, why they are going, and how to get there. Blessed are the leaders who know no discouragement, who present no alibi. Blessed are the leaders who know how to lead without being dictatorial; true leaders are humble. Blessed are the leaders who seek the best for those they serve. Blessed are the leaders who develop new leaders. Blessed are the leaders who march with the group, interpreting correctly the signs on the pathway that leads to success. Blessed are the leaders who have their head in the clouds but their feet on the ground. Blessed are the leaders who consider leadership an opportunity for service. - Anonymous

Lord Jesus Christ, our hope of glory, You are the fulfillment of the Father’s  plan to save all humanity. You are the mystery hidden from the ages and  from generations past now manifested to us. You abide in your Church in  the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.  As we celebrate the Holy Eucharist and receive your Body and Blood, grant us the awareness that your presence in us urges us to continue your saving mission in the world. Send us your Holy Spirit,  that he may lead us to walk humbly with the poor and the marginalized, in the  company of Mary, your most holy mother and ours.  O Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, to you be all honor and glory and praise in the unity of the Father and the Holy Spirit. One God, forever and ever.  Amen.

In our day to day experience, we sometimes have the difficulty of facing life’s challenges because of the unexpected situations that bring pain and tribulations to us. We tend to surrender in overcoming the hurdles of life and be likely to lose hope. But God, through the people He has placed in our life, has provided for us the kind of help that we need to survive and continue living in accordance with His will. God uses people to reveal Himself and to manifest His intention of saving us from any bondage or form of slavery. We can only experience this unusual event the moment we intimately connect ourselves with Him. The intention of God is to re-create and transform us according to His salvific plans. This is what the scriptural message from the letter of Paul to the Colossians would emphasize, “Christ is the source of all that has life, He served as the fullness of all creation, and the concrete revelation of God’s redeeming grace to humanity”. He is the head and we are all his ac...

I got up early one morning, And rushed right into the day; I had so much to accomplish, I didn’t have Time to pray. Troubles just tumbled about me, And heavier came each task. "Why doesn’t God help me?" I wondered. He answered, "You didn’t ask." I tried to come into God’s presence; I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, "Why, child, you didn’t knock." I wanted to see joy and beauty, But the day toiled on gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn’t show me. He said, "You didn’t seek." by Anonymous

When we gather around the table and eat from the same loaf and drink from the same cup, we are most vulnerable to one another. We cannot have a meal together in peace with guns hanging over our shoulders and pistols attached to our belts. When we break bread together we leave our arms - whether they are physical or mental - at the door and enter into a place of mutual vulnerability and trust. The beauty of the Eucharist is precisely that it is the place where a vulnerable God invites vulnerable people to come together in a peaceful meal. When we break bread and give it to each other, fear vanishes and God becomes very close.  ~Henri Nouwen

Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit and guide me in your way of life, truth, and goodness. Free me from ignorance of your truth, and from deception and moral blindness caused by sinful pride and rebellion. May I love you with all of my mind, strength, and will and seek to please you in all things..

A young man working in the army was constantly humiliated because he believed in God. One day the captain wanted to humiliate him before the troops. He called the young man and said: – Young man come here, take the key and go and park the Jeep in front. the young man replied: – I cannot drive! The captain said: – Well then ask for assistance of your God! Show us that He exist! The young man takes the key and walked to the vehicle and begins to pray…… …He parks the jeep at the  place PERFECTLY well as the captain wanted. The young man came out of the jeep and saw them all crying. They all said together: – We want to serve your God! The young soldier was astonished, and asked what was going on? The CAPTAIN crying opened the hood of the jeep by showing the young man that the car had no engine. Then the boy said: See? This is the God I serve, THE GOD OF IMPOSSIBLE, the God who gives life to what does not exist. You may think there are things still impossible BUT WITH GOD EVERYTHING IS...

In the book of Fr. William Malley, SJ, the term Alethialogy is derived from two Greek words: Aletheia (truth) and logia (study of) which means in simpler terms as the study of truth. In man’s journey towards seeking the truth, he must use his giftedness such as the rationality in order to unveil the truth that he is looking for. But using his rationality can never be enough, man must be able to transcend his level of reasoning into the level of genuine truth – the truth of all the truths. Then, how can man reach to the truth of all the truths? At this point, man is no longer challenge in finding the answer into the physical realms but he needs to go beyond the material world by reaching the uncreated world. This is the world in which man can only attain through spiritualization. Man must be able to communicate to his ultimate maker – the Creator of heavens and of earth. This must be God as what St Thomas Aquinas would try to elaborate on his book: Proofs of God’s Existence. In the b...

Man is created full of giftedness and surprises. He is endowed of rational capacity that helps him to find his ultimate quest/purpose of existence. Part of this quest is to know his importance and to go deeper in the level of mystery on how he came into being and life. Man’s giftedness draw him to journey of finding the truths from all the things around him which are evident and sensible. Man’s prior truth is that whatever can be seen, touched, felt, heard, and smelled considered as his basis of qualifying it as true and genuine. But to the extent of digging deeper to its origin and creator especially in the side of spiritual.  Man find it hard to reconcile the connection and even the relationship of the visible world to the invisible one. Man need some investigation in order to satisfy his ultimate quest of unlocking the truth. According to Fr. William Malley, SJ. , he presented the most helpful book about the Four Zones of Truth and Vitality. For him the first two zones sp...

One of the joys and challenges of serving as spiritual director at a Jesuit retreat house is guiding others through spiritual discernment, a process that leads to God-centered decision-making using the mind and, especially, the heart. In the almost ten years that I have had the honor of walking this journey with directees, the constant need to seek purification of my own heart has become glaringly clear to me. A few years ago, I spent the entire six weeks of Lent praying daily with these poignant words from Psalm 51, "Create a clean heart in me, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me."  St. Ignatius encouraged repetition in prayer and I heeded his advice; I allowed myself to go deeper into this humble and sincere plea. I pondered my own choices, praying that my heart be open and receptive to the movement of God's spirit within me. I prayed that my own discernment, and that of those I was entrusted to guide, would lead us closer to the very heart of Jesus.  One ...