priest

Lucas 14:25-33 - The Cost of Discipleship This is the Gospel for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother... and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." - Lk 14:26-27 1. Introduction - The Crowd Problem My dear brothers and sisters, Luke tells us: "Great crowds were traveling with Jesus." They were fascinated, excited, following because of the miracles, the healings, the free bread. And Jesus turns around and says something that sounds terrible: You must hate your father and mother. You must renounce everything. Why? Because Jesus does not want fans. He wants disciples. A fan follows when it is convenient. A disciple follows to the Cross. 2. What Does "Hate" Mean? A Common Misconception to Correct In our Hebrew way of speaking, "to hate" does not mean to despise. It is a Semitic expression of prefe...

Bills of Materials After the Morning mass, I asked Michael de Guzman, the parish architect, to draw me the plan and bills of materials for the Roof of the multi-purpose hall. We are undergoing construction of the multi purpose hall which started more than a year ago and still unfinished. We rely on the generosity of the faithful to finished this project. Personally, there are two reasons for the said project. There is a need for the place for meetings, seminars and other functions. Second to bring up and enliven the Christian the spirit of the people that we could aim for higher things for the good of the community and of the parish. The parish is one of the oldest parishes of the diocese. We have only 27,000 population though we have celebrated 402 years of Christianity. It has the biggest land area of any existing municipality of the province of Laguna. The church was destroyed in the 1970's by strong typhoon. It was hurriedly built to conform the modern standard almost wiping al...