Friday, March 29, 2024
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
– Matthew 7: 1 - 3
Each life is a story,
every person his own role to play.
There's a reason why they're the way they are,
very distinct character yearning to be understood
Think about these…
before judging anyone.
Never judge by your own standards.
Every journey leads to different paths,
yet everyone is making their way home…
in the way they know best.
Pray then for one another…
to find the right way,
possess the truth,
and someday earn the life of everlasting bliss,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Dan Quetulio Brizuela
Holy Week 2024
"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”
- Colossians 3:23
The common concept of work is in terms of pay, salary or monetary profit. It is often in terms of temporal gains. Of course, work is the primary means by man earns his keep. Yet, there is much more in it than earning a living. There is something in work which makes man like God. There must be something in it which is more than mere grind or sweat.
There is nothing as absurd in the meaningless toil, haphazard & random labor. While we are ordained to work in providing subsistence, moreso to sustain our aspiration for individual progress & the quest for the noblest purpose in life.
Work has been taken as too much of a burden since the fall of mankind from Divine grace when God, the Almighty Creator, destined man to work; “By the sweat of your face,” God said to Adam, “shall you get bread to eat until you return to the ground from which you are made.” (Genesis 3:19)
Indeed, work without the creating & liberating element is unpleasant, drab & perhaps depersonalizing. None of us will remain human if we are either treated no more than an element of production or the extension of the machine we uses. And no human being would appreciate & enjoy work if his attitude towards it is reduced to what he gets from it.
From the beginning, work was supposed to be liberating, creative activity through which man found joy in being God's co-creator, until sin disrupted this order. Man afterall was appointed by God to have authority of all creation, having the capacity to subdue the earth & exercise “dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on earth.” (Genesis 1:26 – 28)
It is our fervent prayer, for the time to come when each of us would no longer be driven by greed and lust for possessions when we do work. Perhaps we would come to realize to see our respective jobs or business, as not just a manner of earning money, to be rich or amass wordly power, but as an affirmation of our dignity as stewards of the earth, to serve one another as Jesus Christ, Who labored the hardest to gain for us eternal salvation.
Dan Quetulio Brizuela
Holy Week 2024
Sunday, March 24, 2024
In our Holy Week observance, we particularly focus on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His Gospel and the redemptive power He offers us. In this verse from the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53, gives credence to salvation history, that God in His infinite mercy has given His own Son, Jesus Christ as a ransom for our transgressions.
This is the great message of Holy Week, as the Creator established the universe in 7 days, so does the Christ renewed the world in a week, to restore grace to mankind.
Let us pray then for one another, to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and humbly ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us, keep us faithful, to encourage us in hope and for love to constantly abide in our hearts.
Dan Quetulio Brizuela
Holy Week 2024
"Out of the lips of babies and infants you have built up praise because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the rebel" - Psalm 8:2
As we go through reflective silence in the observance of Holy Week, please kindly meditate on the scriptures as it is the supreme universal force that sustains life. Its transformative power form our souls towards salvation. St. Francis de Sales warned us, "Never forget that souls are poisoned through the ear as much as bodies through the mouth".
Let us then guard our senses and mind by reading, hearing and sharing the Word of God. Moreso, live by it through the grace of the Holy Spirit. In our pursuance of righteousness we will gain eternal life earned for us by the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for whom this holy season we celebrate and proclaim.
May our Lenten reflection on silence, enriched everyone of you to begin experiencing new heart and spirit in things of God and humanity.
Dan Quetulio Brizuela
Holy Week 2024
Sunday, December 25, 2022
It is imperative to understand the annual Christian celebration of Christmas is more than a commemoration of the birth of the Savior named Jesus over two millenials ago. It is moreso an anticipation to His second coming as a fulfillment of what was promised from His first coming. It is a foreshadow of the greater event, that is the establishment of the Kingdom and reign of the Almighty as prophesied throughout the ages. In this premise hence gives credence to our faith in Christ born on Christmas day.
- Dan Quetulio Brizuela
#ChristmasReflection2022