Category: Articles

Mary of Nazareth

She has been called by many names: the mother of Jesus, Theotokos (God bearer), and the virgin Mary, but her real name is Mary. Her significance has been diminished due to the beliefs of the Christian denominations that have come forth out of the Reformation, putting her to the side to give all glory to Jesus. But even though this simple women is not spoken of that often, we can realize, basing ourselves in scripture, that Mary is a sign of the Church since even before it's founding by her son Jesus.

Women in the New Testament

Firstly, it's clear that the jewish men in Jesus' times thought of women as things. The jewish men could never imagine a women as an equal, they were considered impure in almost every way. For the Jews, the Law was God and the Law was oppressive to women. Who was he to go against God? That's what the jewish men believed, and their beliefs guided their thoughts and actions without giving them the freedom to develop their own point of view. The Gospel of Jesus offered a liberation to women from three fundamental things: purity of the body, sexuality, and religious office.

The Lord Opens Doors

Today, upon some reflection and after some prayer, I began to make an important realization about God's blessings. God is almighty and God is love. But we as humans fail to grasp the presence of His blessings in our lives. It is God who provides us with opportunities for greatness and happiness, but it is we who are responsible for standing up and taking action.

The Preacher is My Teacher

Last week on the way to Mass after dropping off her mother at her protestant church, my wife and I were discussing our “issues” with the church, as trivial as they may seem to some. She presented her argument that it seems as if some of the priests these days do not put forth much of an effort to reach the parishioners in their homilies. Having accompanied her mother to a women's retreat at “her” church the day before, she acknowleged the overwhelming passion that the pastor had in preaching the Word. I reassured her that not all priests are professional speakers, and although they have given their lives to God in a marriage to the Church, they are not perfect.

Positivity or Peace

I think one of the most important parts of my conversion, which you can read in detail here, occurred after I was laid off from my lucrative job as a web designer. It was my dream job and it was the perfect setup, I could work from home with no commute and get paid a nice amount to do a job that was fairly easy for me. When I lost that position which I thought so highly of, in the middle of the recession, I felt unsecure for the first time in my life. With no one to bail me out I felt alone, but then I turned to God.

John: Jesus and Women

In biblical times, women had almost no rights. They lived under the power of men as property, whether their fathers or their husbands, and they couldn't even speak to another man in public or be condemned to death. It was a patriarchal society where men were supreme to women. Enter Jesus. The Messiah came with a new attitude towards women. It seems that John gives more attention to the problem of male chauvinism than the other evangelists and he gives us many examples of Jesus's relationship with women.

John: The Beloved Disciple

It is common to accredit the fourth gospel to the disciple John, even though there is no mention of his name in all of the book. The only thing that we know es that the gospel is self-attributed to the "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21, 24). It has been the tradition of the church that the beloved disciple was John and that John was the author of the gospel. Obviously we cannot be sure that it was him, because there is no proof that indicate it without a doubt. There is a principal question that allows to reflect over this topic. Why didn't the authors of the sinoptic gospels speak of this beloved disciple?

Learn from Your Difficulties

This morning after a long-overdue moment of prayer and after reading the homily of Father Andrés Pérez Díaz of the Archdiocese of Ovieda, Spain on the third Sunday of Advent, I have realized something that I want to share with you. I will leave a link so you can visit Father Andrés' blog and read his homily in it's entirety. Father Andrés Pérez Díaz

Parables and St. Matthew

Jesus was a teacher. He continues teaching us today and forever his message of love, service, and fidelity to God. There are many ways to learn from Jesus and the examples that he has left for us. The parable is a short fictitious story used to compare two things. Jesus made many comparisons to the Kingdom of God and he did it to help his followers to understand his message. Many people believe he should've spoke literally to them. This is not true because utilizing parables Jesus proclaimed his message in an easy to understand manner that was difficult to forget. So even the the story was short, simple, and relative to all, the message was instantly etched in the memory of those who had heard it.

What Do You Do for God?

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with a good friend who was visiting from Spain. This man is a true servant of the Lord. While we are all tired of our jobs and complaining about our financial situations, he is traveling to places like Peru and the Phillipines sharing his faith and love just as Jesus asked of us 2000 years ago. He told me the story of a prostitute preaching to give motivation to a drunk homeless man that wanted to die and also of the thousands of people living in the streets of the Phillipines that don't understand the word "future." These are things that the majority of us will never even see with our own two eyes in our short lives, but it helps us to realize the situation of the world today and the need that exists.