Articles: Writing And Reading the Faith
I Express the Joy of
My Faith In Writing
And in Striving to Live Inspired from what I have written
The Articles you will read here are published in the “Philippine News Today,” a free weekly paper in California. Formerly called Philippines Today, in Northern California, and Philippine News, in the south. They had a merger in 2019. I have been a contributor for about a decade already in the Northern California Edition, and it is being continued. I would like that this Spirituality and Faith based articles be accessed also in our website. I hope you will enjoy reading and be of encouragement also to your own faith journey. God bless you and please pray for our ministry here in the virtual world.
You might notice dear reader and visitor here of our webpage that I have outdated articles. The Philippine News Today free paper has cut-cost; thus, has lessen their pages. Some pages and articles were removed. As of now, I am still trying to redesign and modify this page. Please bear with me. Meanwhile, enjoy some of the last articles until the Sept 6th issue.
Philippine News Today, in California, Column: Aflame the Heart, published, Aug 31 – Sept. 6, 2023
Rev. Jose Pelagio A. Padit, STD. (“Fr. Joepel”)
No Reservation
God loves us so much; we know that from Jn. 3:16. Our Lord Jesus, God’s Only Son, demonstrated it by His dying on the Cross. God gave His Only Son as sacrificial lamb for love of us to reconcile us to Himself. The Son of God in His turn willed to give Himself up totally: “…I lay down my life to take it up again (Jn. 10:17b).” I want to point out that when God loves us or when He relates to us, He fully gives Himself totally. He fully gives His love without conditions; that is why, it is called grace; it is freely given. This is the way we are also expected to relate to God; all is given; giving ourselves fully, no hesitation and no reservation. The fundamental divine command is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mk. 12:30).” We can do it; because He did it first toward us. By loving us unconditionally and selflessly, we are enabled to love God back unconditionally and selflessly.
I remember in playing cards, when the person has best cards to one’s instincts against opponents and confident of winning, the statement is given; “all in!” Everything possessed of that player is put on the table to win big for by his instincts he knows he will win. In our relationship with God, we are dealing with victory and assured of victory. With the Lord is win-win; but we have to put everything we have on the table, nothing must be held back, no reservation, all in. This is the same lesson from the Mt. 13: 44-47: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” The selling of one’s property in order to possess the treasure or the pearl of great price is the demonstration of one’s full choice to obtain the intended precious item. All is given to obtain the highest good. God is the highest Good, the Greatest Treasure of all; hence, it is very much worth it to give ourselves fully without reservation.
The challenge is; is God our treasure? Is God for you and I, dear reader, the pearl of great price? Our spiritual life is our process of discovering and making God as our ultimate treasure and precious pearl of great price. Only when we fully cooperate to the sanctifying actions of the Holy Spirit in us does our life’s transformation truly happens. Our spiritual journey and our efforts in righteousness are our human ways in investing ourselves in what God wants us to become; which is no other than to become like Christ Jesus, His Only Son. Let us never, therefore, be tired of obeying God’s will. Let us never be tired in cooperating with The Holy Spirit’s promptings and guidance. Let us never hesitate to give ourselves totally into prayer, in our going and participating actively in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Penance, in our disciplining of ourselves from bad habits and cycles of sin and sinful ways. We cannot get tired as God Himself does not get tired of blessing us to continually empower us, enabling us, to carve out the saint in us. We are not alone in our endeavors of holiness and sanctification; God is always present; but He requires us not only our best but most especially also the whole of ourselves; all in.
Do not give into the temptations of the devil, dear reader, telling you that you weak; so, you will not be able to fight fiercely. Do not believe the devil telling you; you are alone; because, God has not abandoned you to fight on your own. Do not ever think that you cannot change only because of your bad past; know you are still being transformed. Our spiritual life is a journey of renewal with God’s abundant graces at our disposal. We can fight well and win as well not with our own power but with God’s power; all that is required is to totally submit to Him as the Master. Do not open your heart partly but rather fully to our Lord Jesus, and assuredly, He will bring you to the spiritual heights and will bless you with blessings you never have dreamed of. Give it all to win it all in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Note: If You Happen To Miss To Read A Recent Article Please Check Below And Enjoy It Still In PDF format.
C.S. Lewis: "We Read To Know We Are Not Alone."
Enjoy Reading the Past Articles Below
NewLookSacrifice
Click on the title to read in pdf file; pub. Aug. 24 – 30 2023
“We should take a fresh look at sacrifice to change our usual feeling of repugnance. I would like us to take this play of words: Sacrifice is two words in Latin; “sacri” which comes from sacra, sacrum, meaning sacred; and “fice” from Latin “facere” which means “to make” or “to do.” So, sacrifice would be “to do or to make the sacred.” When we do or make some sacrifice, we not only doing what is hard or difficult or painful, but we are doing the sacred, we are making the sacred in our life.”
JabezPrayer
Click the title to read the pdf file, pub. June 8 – 14, 2023
“Jabez can neither change the experience of his mother nor can he change even his name. He accepted what came to his hands and with optimism believing there is the God of Israel, he lived his life in a way that he would transcend from what his family experienced about him and what people said about him. He lived his life not weighed down by what he was thought or known of, but by what God wanted him to be. By God, no person can be about pain or be in pain, we always have the choice to choose to be the best person we can be, and God’s help in such a journey will not be lacking. And Jabez was said to be “the most distinguished of his brothers” for the way he has become.”
AnswerSuffering
Click on the Title to access the PDF file, pub. June 15 – 21, 2023
“In truth, no one can explain in totality why there is suffering and what is it for; even if, we could have some idea of the why or for what purpose. There are these experiences of suffering that we totally cannot fathom and all the more the experience of suffering increases. Our Lord Jesus suffered His Paschal Mystery because it was His mission. He chose to do it for the sake of all. He suffered for the sins of others; the Innocent One for the guilty, the Son of God for the ungodly. Sometimes, we can be gifted of this kind of suffering, innocent suffering, we do not know why; we know we have not done wrong, but just the same we suffer. We may have questions but there is no escaping from it when it comes. However, Jesus on the Cross can be a consoling image of such moments of suffering.”
StandErectNotBent
Click the link to read in pdf file, pub. June 22 – 28, 2023
“When we allow God to touch us, when we allow the teachings of the Lord Jesus to work and transform our life, we stand erect. Standing erect; because we have anchored our life in God above. We stand erect, because we face forward and eyes directly ahead to our Lord Jesus whom we are following; and not downward to the preoccupations of the world. We walk straight because we are standing straight, as living righteously in a heaven-oriented life.”
DarknessBlindness
Click on the Title to access the PDF file, pub. June 29 – July 5, 2023
“Darkness in blindness is like a prison that constrict the movement of the person, darkness becomes like walls around the blind. It prohibits the person to see the beauty of creation around as God wants His creation to be enjoyed in its grandeur and magnificence. How much more the moral and spiritual darkness and blindness. Moral and spiritual blindness is deeper darkness than the bodily one. In such darkness, the person suffers in deep misery, for in that state he is lost in himself, he is lost from God. We are taught that sin is darkness; separation from God is true darkness. And committing sin and remaining in sinfulness is blindness. Would we want to remain in sin and sinfulness?”
TheMuteSpeaks
Click on the title to read the pdf document. Pub. July 6 – 12, 2023
“If we use our power to speak in the way of goodness and truth, speaking can be our ally against the evil one; and thus, it does not want us to speak. Not speaking can hide the truth, and the devil being a deceiver, it does not want the truth to be told. Whenever we hide the truth, especially in situations that require us to speak of it; then, we are being mute by the evil one. When we lie; then, the enemy is our inner-me, that we ourselves have decided to tell the lie rather than the truth. By faith, we are commissioned to be bearers of Christ’s teachings, and so we can teach others by our actions and by our words. Failing to speak when the situation demands that we speak is being mute.”
LightUnlikable
Click the title to read the pdf document, July 13 – 19, 2023
“Firstly, we do not like the light; because, it is truthful. Light has nothing as “half-light,” and so, there is no such thing as half-truth or half-good or half-godly. Since there is the sense of strictness, we do not want that; for we have the tendency to hide things, to hide our motives, to hide our truest intentions, to hide even our actions or behavior. There is what we call hypocrisy, because truth exposes the person’s truest behavior and intentions.”
ToBeInControl
Click on the title to access the Article in pdf format, pub., July 20 – 26, 2023
“There are things left for us to do; but never be mistaken, we are not the ones doing everything, God is. We want to be in control, since the dawn of creation. We want to know all, but our heads are not big enough. We long to possess all, but our hearts will not contain all it wants. We want to hoard many things, yet our hands and arms are not capable of holding them all. Our very physical or bodily structure can reveal who we are not; we are not God and we are not in control.
We are obsessed with control because we are emboldened by the many progresses in science and technology, progress in nature, in medicine, economy and so on. However, we should bear in mind, these progress and development of many things and in many areas in human existence are already known by God.”
KeepInTouch
Click the title to read the pdf file, pub. July 27 – Aug. 2, 2023
“We cannot consider our life as a single entity in creation but must be seen with relationships. Being in touch or to be in touch with others is sharing; sharing of life’s ups and downs, its hopes and aspirations, its joys and achievements, its possessions and treasures. When we are in touch or in relationship with other people, we let other people’s lives enter our life’s stories; just as, our life too become part of their stories. There is beauty and wonder in relationships and friendships that we make in life.”
ItisTheLord
Click on the title to read the pdf file, pub. Aug. 3 – 9, 2023
“For, if a person truly believes in the Lord, he must accept that his life is no longer governed by his own specifications but by the specifications and expectations of Jesus, whom He believes as His Lord and Savior. We cannot separate the teachings of the faith and the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot separate between the truths of our faith in God with God Himself; for faith is not only about ideas of faith but primarily also life itself that we live daily; for faith is relationship with God in our Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit.”
Summer&Faith
Click the title to read the pdf file, pub. Aug. 10 – 16, 2023
“How do you plan out and live through your vacation or summer time, dear reader? If our faith is important, would we not make our summer vacations ways to radiate the presence of God in our lives? Many times, summer vacations are taken as if moments left to our devices; which means, we can do anything we want and be anywhere we want even if it would be inconsistent with the teachings of our faith.”
Judgement&choice
Click the title to access the Article in pdf file, pub. Aug. 17 – 23, 2023
“God loves and cares for us all the time. That is why, even in the midst of our stubbornness and hardheadedness, He continually calls for our repentance, conversion, and change of heart. He gave us ways and means to access His graces and blessings in order that we be enabled to live and behave pleasing to Him; we have the Holy Eucharist; we have the Sacrament of His Mercy and Confession to regularly clean ourselves from our sins; we know, we can pray with the grace the Holy Spirit in us; and yet, many times, we take these for granted. Someday, we will be held accountable. May the Lord not judge us one day unworthy of Him and be separated from Him for eternity.”
CLICK the icon to access the New American Bible, the Catholic Version
This leads to the Vatican Website
Click on the button-image and it will link you to the website of the Holy See - the Official Website of the Catholic Church.