PAN DE LA SEMANA

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 3 rd Sunday of Advent Year C December 13, 2015 DISTANCE & APATHY, VERSUS NEARNESS & ACTIVITY Our times seem to lead us to being apathetic and uncaring. The world has seen too much misery, too much violence, too much corruption from among people in high places that hardly anyone now seems to care enough to change the way things go. People are jaded, their hopes faded, their spirits sagging and their energies plummeting faster than the water tables underground are drying up. Without doubt, the next president of the country where I live will   again be a minority president, as most of those who don’t care anymore most likely will leave the elections to those who have learnt that it can be an alternative way to make money without really trying very hard, at the expense of an enlightened democracy, courtesy of moneyed politicians who are out there to serve the best interests, not of the common good, but of big businesses...

2 nd Sunday Advent – B December 7, 2014 LORD, LET US SEE YOUR KINDNESS! Bible-based epic movies are usually shown right before or during Lent. The current hit “Exodus: Gods and Kings” is obviously an example, opening just around the 2 nd Sunday of Advent. I agree with Christianity Today that the movie is somewhat “biblically irreverent,” something else, which is positive. But my topic for second Sunday of Advent is not about Exodus, nor about the cinematographic masterpiece that it actually is, at least for me, but about a God whom the whole Philippines now addresses with a plaintive prayer and plea, besieged as it is now by a potentially catastrophic super-typhoon that is “Hagupit,” that comes just a little a year after “Haiyan” wrought death and destruction to a wide swath of Central Philippines. Well over 19 million Filipinos, who will be directly affected by the typhoon, can well place themselves in the same footing as Mose...

--> November 30, 2014 1 st Sunday of Advent Year B WATCH FOR THE LIGHT! I borrow my title from a book of readings for Advent and Christmas by Plough Publishing (2001). Where I am, Christmas lights are beginning to take center stage everywhere. Advent just happens to begin today, but we Filipinos have little appreciation for waiting when it comes to Christmas. We are, by and large, a very patient, and even, long-suffering people, but Christmas simply is not something we wait for … No … we celebrate it well in advance, with malls and music halls taking the lead. Why, Christmas has begun in the airlanes yet last September! We may have one of the most expensive power rates in the world, but we sure know how to splurge when it comes to lights well before the Feast of Lights actually comes around. We very literally, and figuratively, watch for the light. Drivers all over the country know what this means. Defensive driving means, among many o...