To my mom: “If there were words beyond ‘I love you’ they are for you”

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” 1 John 4.7-10

Today’s second reading reminds us that a true and real encounter with God is an encounter with love. The first moment in which we recognize such love is the love of our own mother. My mom has been my strength my whole life and has taught me to love by her own selfless example. She has always stood by me and provided for everything I’ve needed in this life and I hope my life can be a gift back to her and I hope that my love will leads her home to the Father. She is God’s gift to me!

God’s greatest gift is his Son whom we receive every Sunday as the Word is proclaimed and as we partake in Eucharist. Christ invites us to remain in his love, to stay connected. After all, it’s only in abiding in Christ in which we are able to have life!

As we abide with Christ, remember our mothers who loved us in the womb and may Mary, the Mother of Christ, always teach us to care for our earthly mothers with tenderness.

six years in the making

Philosophical and Theological studies! Now at the close of my sixth year and all I can seem to do is stand in awe and gratitude before Christ. After all, he is the one who calls, he is the one in charge. So another year has ended and now I look forward to spending on year in a parish to serve the People of God. But before that …. Rome!

O Virgin Mother who guides navigators,                                                                                  guide me as I embark on my journey to the Eternal City. 

Musing graduations

For the seminarian graduating, ceremonies such as those held this weekend mark a time of celebrating God’s goodness working in our lives. It’s a time in which we taste and see the sweetness of God’s love. A time in which we affirm God’s divine plan.

Moments like these are also times in which we realize we are catholic. The term catholic is more than just a reference to geography or the accessibility of liturgy throughout the world. To be catholic is reference to a totality, a totality to the mission of the one Christ who came to unite all things by his saving work on the cross. Therefore, graduation is a reminder that we share in the complete and total mission of Christ. Congratulations to my brothers on their upcoming graduation. This weekend, the mount from which we have descended will become your alma mater. Here are some of their faces:

And in a very special way, I give thanks to the Father for Ate Pia. 

I remember when Ate Pia first stepped foot onto the mount as a student. I still cherish those memories that I have shared with her on the hill. She was my partner at the coffee shop, a fellow collaborator, but above all she is a dear friend and a fool for Christ! Ate, I’m deeply proud of you and I join you in spirit as you celebrate this milestone in your life and as you continue to share in the mission of Christ in serving the local Church. My standing ovation joins you with loud shouts of praise, a hearty laugh, and a cup of coffee from a quiet pew in San Francisco to you in the pew as the Abbey fills with pomp and circumstance this weekend. Congratulations Ate and thank you for sharing your life, faith, and joy with us who have descended from the mount! You are indeed a blessing!

Remain in Me

“Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches” (Jn. 15.4-5).

The first time I heard these words of our Lord was in my renewal many years ago as a young teenager. The image of the vine and the branches remind me that coming to Christ is not an individual matter, it is communal. There is never a single branch bound to the one vine. We come to Christ together as community.

The NRSV edition uses the word abide which suggests a personal communion with our Lord, we must be deeply rooted and connected to the source of our existence and we do this through His Church in the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacraments. Through such a connection we echo the words of the psalmist, “I will praise you Lord in the assembly of your people” (Psalm 22). We cannot live separated from our Lord because there is no existence apart from him.

In our busy lives, we must make time for the Lord to speak to us. He is already abiding in us and we must be attentive to his creative action. By doing so, we find the fulfillment and the joy which the world can never give.

One Year Later

One year after his beatification and still very loved, especially by the young. This particular semester, I focused on Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II and I have come to a deeper love of this pope who taught us the beauty of being made in the image and likeness of God. Pray for us Blessed Pope John Paul II.

A Jubilee for our Shepherd

Today, Archbishop George H. Niederauer celebrates his 50 years as a priest of Jesus Christ. The Archdiocese honors him and joins him for a Mass of Thanksgiving with William Cardinal Leveda, Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, as homilist.

Thank you, Archbishop, for your fifty years of ministry to God’s people. A special thank you for being our shepherd in the local Church here in San Francisco. May God continually bless you and grant you many more years of ministry. Blessed Jubilee!

Click here for the Special Commemorative Section honoring His Grace.

Sheep and the Call

Pope Benedict XVI calls vocation the gift of the love of God. God calls us first and foremost to holiness and from there to a particular vocation. This gift of love has nothing to do with us. Rather, it is a gift because God desires to be in communion with us. He desires to delight in us.

God’s love is rooted in an absolute freedom. God graciously gives love without anyone’s permission or consent. In this love he calls us to himself, raises us up to something greater than what the world subscribes.

Listen carefully to God’s voice and what he is asking of you. In that dialogue we find fulfillment. When we give our lives over to the Good Shepherd we will never long for anything for we trust that he will always provide for us and never lead us astray.