PAN DE LA SEMANA

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary September 8, 2008 Readings: Mi 5:1-4a or Romans 8:28-30/ Mt 1:1-16, 18-23 There is delight every time we speak of birthdays. All over the world, the birthday of someone close to us is a red-letter day, in most cultures. A birthday celebration is an opportunity for others to take delight in the gift of personhood of someone loved. But a birthday also offers the celebrator to take delight in the riches of his or her personhood, including the possibility of celebrating the gift of people who love him or her. A person’s birth is a day of delight and rejoicing. It is a day full of promise, full of hope, and a guarantee of the best that budding humanity can offer. The Church’s calendar that commemorates the birth of our Lord on Christmas Day, is one such day par excellence – for reasons that go far beyond what I just wrote above. For Christ’s birth is not just promise. It does not merely bode well for humankind in a vague, simplistic way. It...

Novena in Honor of the Most Sweet Name of Mary Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica Hagatna, Guam 9th Day: September 6, 2008 Based on 1 Cor 4:6b-15 / Lk 6:1-5 N.B. I am posting this ninth homily for the ninth and final day which coincides with the fiesta celebrations, although I will not be able to deliver it as I have to be at the airport at the time of the Mass. I take this opportunity to thank Archbishop Anthony Apuron, Msgr. Benavente, and all of my newfound friends on Guam! Hafa' Adai! Suffering is not a very easy topic to talk about to a postmodern culture deeply steeped in the collective desire to get suffering out of the way, push it under the rug, or just something that one would simply wish would go away. George Weigel says that it is one of the hardest facts of life to face or understand. I’ve got something to share with you … suffering is something that we all need to deal with. I don’t know whether that sounds to you like good news or bad news, or just plain realit...

Novena in Honor of the Sweet Name of Mary Dulce Nombre Cathedral-Basilica Hagatna, Guam 7th Day: September 4, 2008 Based on 1 Cor 3:18-23 / Lk 5:1-11 Yesterday, we spoke about something that sounds so earthly and at the same time so heavenly, literally and figuratively – Mary, the star of the sea, stella maris , a title so old and yet so new, so ancient and yet so relevant, as I tried to explain yesterday. I would like to add a few more ideas related to this title of Mary, Star of the Sea. First and foremost, the gospel passage today refers to an incident right beside a body of water, the Sea of Galilee or Lake of Gennesareth. It is really a relatively small fresh water lake, but which the Jews back then called sea of Galilee, around which the daily lives of people then revolved, for the most part, and around which many incidents in the Lord’s life revolves, too, this gospel incident included. My reading of this passage is rather simple. It is a confirmation of what we said in respons...