A letter to my former students who are now young ladies

Today is International Day of the Girl Child. Please remember that you were once girls, too. I am privileged to have been a part of that time in your life.
Wherever you are, and in whatever state of life you may be, please be proud of being women. Do not sell yourself short by allowing yourself to become objects and agreeing that it is okay to disrespect and to treat girls and women as second-class citizens.
Learn to respect yourself and remember that you are valuable for who you are because you are created by God in God's own image and likeness.
Your worth  doesn't depend on people, so do not disrespect yourself by giving up your values and principles just to be accepted and popular. Beauty, riches and popularity fade. People will come and go in your life, even the ones closest to you. In the end, the only person that will stay with you is yourself, so be sure that when you look at yourself in the mirror you can do that with peace in your heart.
Know that I always care and pray for you. Please keep me in your prayers, too.

From a distance

Only with distance can we have a better perspective.

Holy Ground

Every person that we meet is holy ground, where we meet the Divine.

Wings

To look up is to recognize that there is a higher power, God.
People of faith are people of hope, because they know that this present moment is not all that there is to life.
Trust God. He will give you wings, not to escape life but to discover new paths that lead to seeing life's meaning.

Because you believed!

You didn't seek fame or greatness, but now every generation calls you blessed.
You said yes even if it was not easy for you to imagine how it could be possible, and your faith was strengthened to the point of saying to others "Do whatever he tells you!"
You gave up your only son to be about his Father's business, and now you are invoked as "Mother" of people from all races, from generation to generation.
What was your dream, o Mary, when you were a little girl? I bet it wasn't like how your life turned out to be. God, indeed, is infinitely more creative than us. God has done great things in your life. Blessed are you who believed!

Is it lawful? Is it kind?

In today's Gospel, we hear the same question we often ask ourselves when we are in a dilemma: "Is it lawful?".
Personally, I realize that I ask this question when something within me, an intuition, an inner voice, makes me doubt the course of action I am about to take. It is as if an affirmative response to the question would appease my doubt or the nagging feeling I have.
So much has been said against deciding on the basis of our feelings; that maturity means being able to make a logical decision. But I believe that it is important to listen to our feelings.
There is something raw, something sincere about our initial feelings. To listen to them is important in enabling us to own responsibility for our choices. Then we will not hide behind and take comfort in legalism or in being right.
The voice that comes from the core of our being is not self-centered or egoistic, because what is at the core of our being is something that unites us with the rest of humankind. And the only question that remains to be asked is, "Is it kind?"

To gather the pieces and form the puzzle

Prayer is a necessary ingredient, like air, itself, to life. Without prayer, life is a collection of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without any hope of discovering the picture that they form