The Gift

A gift is always undeserved; otherwise, it would be called a prize. What makes something a gift is, it is unconditional; otherwise, it is an exchange.
This Christmas, let us pause for a while and think whether the gifts that we give or the gifts that we receive are truly gifts. Are they unconditional?
Christmas shows us what a true gift is: God, choosing to assume human nature, and choosing the most helpless and the most marginalized form of all: a little child, born of poor and ordinary parents, in a foreign land.
We don't deserve this gift, but it comes from the abundance of God's love for us. We don't need to work for it. That's just how God's logic operates.

Pray

Pray ... pray ... pray ... 
Prayer helps us remember that we are not at the center of the world. The world has existed before us and will continue to exist long after we're gone.
Prayer reminds us that, though we may seem small and insignificant, we are a part of something great. Prayer helps us to care and to be concerned about something other than ourselves.
Prayer gives us a solid ground to navigate the uncertainties of life. As we address ourselves to Someone (up there, or deep within, or ever-present in everything), we experience a companionship with Someone (to be grateful to, to bombard with our complaints, to share our struggles and doubts).
Pray.

Keep it within

What Mary did not understand, she "kept within her heart".
Our life is made up of events and circumstances. What makes them a story is the memory of the heart; for it is only the heart that can weave into a story seemingly random and unimportant events and instances.

Autumn

The bare branches echo the call from within to let go.
The fallen leaves reflect the burden of the non-essentials that eventually I will have to let go.

Ties of the heart

The ties of the heart last longer.

Religion

One of the pitfalls of religion is that often it is more about men than about God. The focus is more on the code, the norm, the customs and traditions, than a personal relationship with God. Religion gives the impression that for as long as all the do's and don't have been complied with, I am "okay" with God.
This is very much what Jesus is against. God doesn't need our perfect rituals or our unblemished conscience. God doesn't even need our good works. It is we who need those good works because they are expressions of how "the mind and the heart" of Jesus have become our own.
What does God want of us? A contrite heart and a humble spirit; that is, an acknowledgment that all that we are depends on Him. God wants us to live in gratitude and trust. These are not negative qualities of dependence, but a realistic acceptance of the truth.

Harmony

Harmony is only possible when there are differences.

Jesus

If we think that Jesus takes away our joy, we haven't met the right Jesus.

Laughing at oneself

Maria

Mary is the human creature closest to Jesus, flesh of her own flesh.
Mary is the human creature closest to what God designed His human creation to be.
Mary is the human creature closest to us, humanity on a journey, as we go through the ebbs and flows of life.

Consequences

To act without accountability is not an expression of freedom. Indeed, every decision we make has a consequence, sooner or later. The consequences may affect us directly, but the consequences of these consequences will surely affect us in the long term.
It is a paradox but, in order to act free and to stay free, we have to choose to be responsible.

God's mediation

In today's Gospel passage about the "Rich young man", I cannot help but see in him the face of many young people.
Young people have such great desire to find their life's purpose. They engage in pursuits that they think will help them find that greatly desired but seemingly elusive purpose, that "polar star" that will orient their life.
It is not easy to see the Polar star when there are other equally, or even brighter stars that catch our attention.
Perhaps, we adults, are also at fault. Young people don't, or rarely, see in us people who have found the Polar star, that purpose that drives us to embrace a journey that is often characterized by solitude and the leaving aside of all our securities.

Keep right

Mary and the song in my heart

Spirituality

Freedom of expression

My God

"Truly, this was the Son of God"

Come to think of it, it was an outsider, a pagan, an "enemy" to recognize that Jesus is the Son of God.
Lord, open our eyes to see you as you are, without expecting you to conform to our expectations. Free our eyes of blinders and our hearts of our prejudices so as to recognize your presence in our everyday life: in people, in events, anywhere you want to manifest Yourself.

"Wash each other's feet"

I love this Sieger Koder interpretation of Jesus washing the feet of one of his apostles. As Jesus bends down to wash the person's feet, we see reflected His own face.
When we bend down and wash the feet of another person, we come face to face with who we are.

Rainbow, sign of God's covenant

The rainbow has taken on a lot of meanings.
Let's not forget the rainbow's original meaning:
"God spoke to Noah and his sons, 'I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come, and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth. And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth. And this', God said, 'is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word, all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things'." (Genesis 9:8-15)

Then how come all the disasters and natural calamities? I don't have an answer to that. What I know is, life is more than just this earthly, terrestrial life. God is faithful to his promise that all his creation is destined to eternal joy and life.
However, God needs our cooperation. How come? If  God is God, He doesn't need me. Yes, God doesn't need me; however, God chooses to respect me and the freedom which He gives to every human being. I think God believes so much in us that He roots for us and He believes that we will always choose what is good.

The rainbow is for me God's reminder that I have it in me to take the high road.

Faith

"Jesus saw the faith of these people, he said to the paralytic, 'My son, your sins are forgiven'." 
(Mark 2:5)
Faith is always personal, but it is not "something we acquire by ourselves".
Faith is a gift of God and a gift of others, the Christian community. It is not something we have because we deserve it.

"And Jesus said to the paralytic, 'Stand up, take up your mat and go home'. The man rose up ... he took up his mat and went out." (Mark 2:11-12)
Then the faith that we have received is called to mature, to be the soul that gives life to our thoughts, words, and actions.

A healing touch

Jesus heals the leper by touching him.
Jesus could have easily accomplished the same miracle by a word, but He chose another way.
And thus, Jesus healed the leper of something much deeper than leprosy: isolation.

God bless the child

As I continue basking in the Christmas experience, I realize that it takes a simple and attentive heart to recognize God's manifestation of Himself. He couldn't have chosen a more ordinary way than that of a baby.
And so I learn that this is God's favorite way of "encountering" me - in the ordinary.

Touched by mystery

"Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen". (Lk 2:19-20)

Our experience of God is something to keep and ponder in our heart first of all because it is not something to be consumed right at that moment. A God-experience is not meant to burn, rather, it is meant to warm the heart, freeing it of all self-centered and egoistic concerns.
Only then can we be like the shepherds who glorify and praise God from the heart. We don't force others to accept God; rather, we share our experience of God.

Grateful

As I grow old, I am not too much into making New Year's resolutions anymore. This for several reasons, one of which is that long before January ends, I realize that I just cannot be faithful to them. Perhaps I have made them with so many unrealistic goals in mind.
I am still being torn within myself as regards making New Year's resolutions. Perhaps I will let this day pass so that I can think more clearly after the euphoria of New Year's day.
There is one thing, though, that I would like to take up with more awareness: to be grateful.
Gratitude is to acknowledge that everything is a gift. No matter how hard I work in order to control everything, there is always that one (or even more) factor that depends on the kindness of others. I want to start the year believing this.