From a homily given exactly a year ago todayby Fr. Jet Villarin, SJ Back when we were kids, our parents made us do the house garden on weekends. We had a smooth carpet of bermuda grass which had to be tended because unsightly weeds would crop up every now and then in our front yard. … Continue reading Weeds
Not In Vain!
Originally posted in BobbyQuitain.Com for Easter Sunday, this year. Because we all need a good reminding. by Bobby Quitain Almost two decades ago was the classic fight of Filipino Onyok Velasco for the Olympic Boxing Gold medal. I remember waking up at three o’clock in the morning just to catch the fight live on TV. … Continue reading Not In Vain!
Joy
Adapted from the homily given during the Easter vigil at the Church of the Gesu, Ateneo de Manila, 8 April 2012by Fr. Jet Villarin, SJ When we were novices, we led a structured life. We woke up at 5am, prayed, went to mass, ate, studied, worked the fields, played, and prayed again till the sun … Continue reading Joy
Miracles
I missed it before, I didn’t miss it this time around. Maybe you missed it yourself. It’s just a word. Oftentimes unnoticed. Glanced over. Not minded. But it’s there. Please read the passage above and see if you find it.
Love and Time
Thus, I rejoice with the first gift that is my beloved’s arrival—her existence and time. That she exists, and that she exists in this time, not the past nor the future, but is thrown together, simultaneous, co-incidental with me.
The second gift is her second arrival and that is our crossing of paths—that she not only existed and not only existed in this time, but that also she existed and she existed in the exact time and space as I was.
The Legacy of the Two Aquinos
Today, Corazon Aquino, eleventh President of the Republic of the Philippines, first female President of the Philippines and of Asia, the Woman who took over the Presidency after a 20-year dictatorship, the wife of national hero Ninoy Aquino, mother of five, Mother of the nation, will be sent to her final resting place.
On Gratitude and Hope
There is a blessed word in Greek which continues to escape any adequate translation in English. Anamnesis is almost synonymous to remembrance or calling to mind but both fail to render justice to the reality which anamnesis signifies. In liturgical parlance, it means much more than psychological recall. Anamnesis connotes making present in the ‘now’ that which is being recalled from the ‘past’. Such is how we speak of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, as the making present of Christ himself, and his words and actions, making possible the communication of grace to us.
The Game of Love
Housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome is the life-sized marble sculpture of Apollo and Daphne made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Prominent during his time, Bernini is known to have possessed the unique ability to capture in marble, the essence of a narrative moment with a shocking dramatic realism. A viewer can readily perceive this gifted ability by gazing at Apollo and Daphne, one of his famous works.
