OLICP - Kabataan ni Kristo

27/05/2021

07/05/2021

Nahihirapan man..ikaw pa rin ay paglilingkuran..
Mananatili at magpapatuloy pagka't si KRISTO ang siyang laging lakas!☝️❤

29/04/2021

John 13:16-20
Thursday, Fourth week of Easter.🙏

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of yesterday’s Gospel. Jesus realizes that his time on this earth is very limited. He needs to prepare the disciples for his departure. Jesus wants his disciples to continue his ministry. He desires that they serve one another, even if it means washing each other’s dirty, dusty feet. They are to do what Jesus has done. Jesus taught them, served them and loved them deeply! Now the disciples are to love, serve, teach and wash the other’s feet! Their call is to continue Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus clearly emphasizes the importance of serving others. He tells them: “Whoever receives the one I send receives me and they also receive the One who sent me!” Yes, Jesus wants his disciples to love God and one another. However, they also are to love each person they meet, even if they do not particularly like that individual. They are to love and serve everyone, just as Jesus did. No one is to be excluded from their service and their love.

What a challenge this is for us. It can be very tempting to pick and choose the people I want to help or serve. The reality is we naturally feel more comfortable with our friends and people we like. However, if we truly desire to follow Jesus, we also need to reach out to every individual who needs care, attention, patience and support. When we care for others, in a sense we may be “washing their feet.” Jesus does not want us to exclude anyone. What a challenge that can be!

Today, I invite you to reach out to someone you normally do not interact with. It simply may be stopping and having a brief conversation with this individual. Or you might send someone a greeting card or let them know you are thinking of them and also praying for them! There are many ways to “wash another’s feet.” How will we do that today?

23/04/2021

John 6:60-69
Saturday of the third week of Easter.🙏

Today Gospel is the completion of the Gospel we read yesterday. John writes: “Many of Jesus’ disciples heard Jesus speak and they said to one another: “This is too hard for us to understand.” Jesus realized that his disciples were grumbling to one another and he questioned his followers. Finally Jesus asked them: “Does this bother you?” He then said to them: “What if you see the Son of Man go up to heaven where he came from? The Spirit is the One who gives life. The words I speak to you are spirit and life.” Jesus then says: “You cannot come to me unless the Father wants you to come. That is why I have told you all these things.”

Take a moment and put yourself in the disciples’ shoes. How would you respond if Jesus were saying all of this to you? Would you be overwhelmed, excited, frightened, or elated? John tells us: “Many of Jesus’ disciples turned their backs on Him and went back to their homes.” However, Simon Peter approached Jesus and said: “Lord, there is no one else whom we can go to. You alone have the words of eternal life.” Peter then affirmed his belief that Jesus truly was God’s Holy Son!

Imagine the impact Peter’s profession of faith must have had on Jesus. A few minutes before, a good number of people who had been following him turned away from Him. He was not acting as they had expected Him to act and they had walked away from Him. Yet, here was Peter boldly professing his belief in Jesus as the Christ. Peter’s strong faith and deep belief in Jesus must have bolstered Jesus’ spirit. Jesus was divine, yet He also was human and thus he experienced the same emotions we experience.

Peter’s deep conviction that Jesus truly was the Lord was pure gift to Jesus. How deep is your conviction that Jesus is the Lord? I invite you to take a few moments and reflect on that question, then go to Jesus. If you truly do believe in Jesus, profess your conviction and your commitment to Him. If you are uncertain, take your uncertainty and doubts to Jesus. He will hold your hand and lead you closer to Him.

We all have doubts in Jesus at times. Often these are the times we distance ourselves from Jesus. Yet these are the times when we need to approach Him and talk with Him. We may question Him or perhaps simply sit in His presence and allow Him to wrap us in love and light. We are the ones who leave Him. Jesus will never, ever leave us!

22/04/2021

John 6:52-59
Thursday, Third week of Easter.🙏

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of yesterday’s Gospel. After listening to Jesus preach to the people, the Jews began to argue among themselves. How could Jesus possibly give them his flesh to eat? This was not only was ridiculous, it was not at all appealing. Who would even think of eating human flesh?

Jesus then tells the people that they will not have life within if they do not eat his flesh and also drink his blood! However, if they choose to eat Jesus’ flesh and blood, they will have eternal life and they also will be raised up on the last day. Jesus then tells them that they also will have eternal life. He adds that anyone who eats his flesh and drinks his blood will be with Jesus in eternity. They will live forever!

In this reading, the words “flesh and blood” are a Hebrew idiom referring to the whole person. When Jesus speaks of His “flesh and blood,” He is not speaking literally. Rather, He is speaking metaphorically. Jesus wants us to understand and believe that when we receive the body and blood of Christ, we truly encounter Jesus in a deeply personal way. When we receive the body and blood of Christ, we truly are in communion with Jesus!

Do we believe and trust that when we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, do we understand and believe that in that moment, we truly are receiving Jesus? Or do we simply eat the bread and drink the wine but we do not choose to encounter Jesus our Lord? Receiving the body and blood of Christ is not a “magical” action! Every time we received the body and blood of Christ, Jesus is there! However, we need to be awake and aware of whom we are receiving. If we are on “automatic pilot” when we receive the body and blood of Christ, if we are not awake and alert, we will miss being in full communion with Jesus. What loss that is for us!

Today and every day, may we be alert and awake to the many ways that Jesus comes to us! He is with us every moment!

19/04/2021

John 6:30-35
Tuesday, April 20,2021

One of the worst things you can do when you're thirsty is to try to drink seawater. In this Gospel reading, Jesus says that He is the true bread of life. ... He is the true bread which can satisfy our hunger, He is the true drink that can quench our thirst.

18/04/2021

John 6:22-29
Monday, April 19,2021

Shortly after the feeding of the 5,000 people, his disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea. The next day, the crowd of people that was gathered realized that Jesus had not gotten into the boat with his disciples. Where had Jesus gone? They were anxious to find Jesus and to hear him teach. Did they also hope that Jesus might perform another miracle and once again feed them?

When the people realized that Jesus was no longer in the area, they got into boats and crossed over to Capernaum. They hoped to find Jesus there, and Jesus was there. The people asked Jesus: “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus did not answer their question. Rather, Jesus challenged the people. He said to them: “You are looking for me not because of the signs and wonders I have done. No, you have come to me because you ate until you were satisfied.” Jesus then tells them: “Do not work for food that will spoil. Work for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you!” The people then asked Jesus what they could do to accomplish the works of God? Jesus replied simply and succinctly: “This is the work of God: believe in the One God sent.”

Do we truly believe in Jesus, the One God sent to us? Do we believe in Him with our whole hearts and our whole beings or do we simply believe with our minds? Our minds have the ability to accumulate a great amount of information and understand it. However, belief comes from the heart. The heart may understand and believe a truth that the mind simply cannot comprehend.

Belief is not logical. Belief cannot be proven. Belief requires us to trust what our hearts know and understand. Belief and faith are the greatest gifts we ever will receive! Do we appreciate those gifts?

16/04/2021

Happy 94th Birthday Pope - Emeritus Benedict XVI

Mga Kalakbay, ating alalahanin sa ating mga panalangin ang ating Papa Emerito Benedict XVI na nagdiriwang ng kanyang kaarawan ngayong araw.

Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Joseph Ratzinger, was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Germany. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1951. His father, a police officer, came from a traditional family of farmers from Lower Bavaria.

He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein and was called into the auxiliary anti-aircraft service in the last months of World War II. From 1946 to 1951, the year in which he was ordained a priest and began to teach, he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and at the higher school in Freising. In 1953, he obtained a doctorate in theology with a thesis entitled: "The People and House of God in St. Augustine's Doctrine of the Church". Four years later, he qualified as a university teacher. He then taught dogma and fundamental theology at the higher school of philosophy and theology of Freising, then in Bonn from 1959 to 1969, in Münster from 1963 to 1966, and in Tubinga from 1966 to 1969. In 1969, he became a professor of dogmatic theology and of the history of dogma at the University of Regensburg and Vice President of the same university.

In 1962 he was already well known when, at the age of 35, he became a consultor of the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Frings, at the Second Vatican Council. His numerous publications include the 'Introduction to Christianity', a collection of university lessons on the profession of apostolic faith, published in 1968, and "Dogma and Revelation," an anthology of essays, sermons, and reflections dedicated to the pastoral ministry, published in 1973.

In March 1977, Pope Paul VI named Fr. Ratzinger Archbishop of Munich and Freising and on May 28, 1977, he was consecrated---the first diocesan priest in 80 years to take over the pastoral ministry of the large Bavarian diocese. Paul VI elevated him to the College of Cardinals in the consistory of June 27, 1977.

On November 25, 1981, he was nominated by John Paul II to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals on November 6, 1998. On November 30, 2002, he was elected as Dean of the College of Cardinals.

He served as President of the Commission for the Preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and after 6 years of work, he presented the New Catechism to the Holy Father in 1992.

Following the death of John Paul II on April 2, 2005, and his funeral on April 8, Cardinal Ratzinger presided over the conclave to elect a new pope as dean of the College of Cardinals. The conclave opened on April 18 and Cardinal Ratzinger was elected as the 265th Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church on April 19, 2005. He chose the name "Benedict" and became Pope Benedict XVI.
(https://www.usccb.org/offices/general-secretariat/biography-pope-benedict-xvi)

12/04/2021

Be reminded! ❤❤❤

05/04/2021