Today’s Gospel passage is a part of the dialogue of Jesus with Nicodemus, a Jewish Pharisee and religious leader, who had come to Jesus expressing a sincere belief from his very heart.
During my first year in the seminary, in my Religious Education class, our teacher challenged the class and asked if there was anybody who would be able to recite aloud all the Ten Commandments as written in the book of Exodus.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. In today's Gospel Jesus gives us a clear view of how to be a good disciple of Jesus.
Happy New Year! And, with the New Year we are blessed with three occasions for this day. First, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary as Mother of God. Second, we also celebrate the Octave of Christmas and lastly, we celebrate the beginning of the New Year.
During the first three centuries of persecution, Christians didn’t celebrate the Christmas feast in the same way we celebrate it today, reflects Fr John Quang SVD.
They celebrated the feast of Emmanuel, God-is-with-us. That’s the essence, the crux of Christmas. It is not so much about a birthday, but rather about God the Creator becoming human like us in flesh and dwelling among us so that we may be saved. The word Jesus means ‘God saves’. As a result of God being among us and becoming one like us, we are saved.
The SVD Australia Province has three new Provincial Councillors to help provide collaborative leadership over the next three years.
The new Provincial Councillors were recently appointed by the SVD Superior-General, Fr Budi Kleden, following their nomination at the local level.
There was this story of an old but sick man who won a huge prize from lotto. The relatives were afraid that if they broke this news, he might have a heart attack and die.
When seeing his chosen people turning away from Him and worshipping the golden calf made of their hands, God was full of wrath, dressing down Moses, “Your people whom you brought out of Egypt…” sounding like God is disowning his people.
This Sunday’s Gospel is surely at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. It begins with Jesus instructing his followers how to pray. He says those words that Christians cherish, the Our Father, and then he talks about asking for things and receiving what we need.
This Sunday, we celebrate the feast of The Most Holy Trinity, one of the most foundational doctrines of Christianity. This is a celebration not as a theological discourse to be understood completely, but rather good news to be celebrated and enriched by.