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Homilies

Goodness and Surrender by Fr. Joe Quilongquilong, SJ

  Homily of Fr. Jose V.C. Quilongquilong, SJ on the first day of the Novena to the Blessed Trinity through the intercession of St. Therese Couderc 17 Spetember 2012 My dear friends, the message of our gospel today is very appropriate as we open the novena of masses in preparation for the coming Feast-day of St. Therese Courderc on September 26. The message of our gospel captures very well the two characteristics of the spirituality of St. Therese Couderc: goodness and surrender. Our gospel reading described how Jesus was amazed at the faith of the centurion. We can say that the centurion’s faith was characterized by goodness and surrender. First, the centurion’s faith was characterized by goodness. He was a good man. He showed “cura personalis” – personal care for his slave (doulos in greek). The Jews in the area also recognized his goodness as they begged Jesus to help him. They told Jesus: “He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.” In other words, the centurion was a “benefactor” (bene facere), someone who did so much good to others. His goodness transcended cultures and religions. The centurion’s goodness was also marked by great humility. He considered himself not worthy to be visited by Jesus. His humble words are what we say now before taking communion: “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof…” We have here a person who embodied goodness. His goodness was the foundation of his faith. Second, the centurion’s faith was characterized by surrender. He was helpless before his sick slave. He was a man of great authority, a commander of 100 soldiers, but he was powerless as he sought the healing hand of Jesus. He relied on the help of other people to communicate to Jesus about the condition of his slave. He sought the help of Jesus but he felt unworthy of his presence. He believed that only the Word of Jesus was sufficient for healing to happen. He surrendered to the power of God’s word—Dabar Yahweh.   Thus, the gospel story of the centurion reminds us of the spiritual experiences of St. Therese Couderc: her spiritual experiences of goodness and surrender.   I believe that St. Therese must have perceived the goodness of this centurion as coming from the goodness of God. In her experience she perceived “the goodness of our God, who has communicated to them something of his infinite goodness, so that we may meet it in everything and everywhere.” If St. Ignatius exhorted others “in omnibus amare et servire Domino” (in everything to love and serve the Lord), I believe that this would be the exhortation of St. Therese for us: “in everything is goodness of the Lord!”.   St. Therese must have also resonated with the centurion’s experience of surrender. She knew the power of God’s word as described in the following: “How he (GOD) communicates himself to the one who seeks him sincerely and has known how to surrender herself. Let them experience it and they will see that here is found the true happiness they are vainly seeking elsewhere. The surrendered soul has found paradise on earth, since she enjoys that sweet peace which is part of the happiness of the elect.” We say the following before taking communion: ‘Lord I am not worthy to receive you but only say your word and I shall be healed”. We can adapt this prayer with St. Therese: “…only say your word and I shall be happy.” Truly, our Mass today is a fount of so much goodness and surrender!

Programs and Retreats

What Do I Want? Praying the Desires of My Heart (Sr. Bubbles Bandojo, rc)

October 6-7 We are a mesh of desires.  Often we dismiss these desires because they seem to be inescapably linked to the world.  But we need to listen to our desires, to treat our desires with the respect they deserve.  Our desires mark us.  They identify us.  They tell us who we are as persons in relationship.  In the deepest of our longings, we realize it is God we seek.  And in our seeking, it is God who finds us. God meets us desires for desire.  This weekend retreat is an invitation to pray the desires of our heart and to see the ways in which they relate with discernment and spirituality.

Soul Food

Solid Places

Wisdom, it is often said, means remembering what we have always known as children and have forgotten as adults.  We forget, unfortunately, because the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” have made us acquire a crustiness about life which we mistake for “worldly wisdom”. No wonder the Lord told us that we have to become like little children to enter the Kingdom. It is not permission to regress to immaturity, but a call to see the world anew. Like children, we must re-learn to go off on adventures to look for hidden treasures, the kind that takes us inwards into our hearts. Then we shall find — in the midst of all that is elusive and fleeting in this world — some real, solid places.

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Retreat House

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Welcome

Welcome

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Soul Food

The Gaze of God

July is St. Ignatius de Loyola’s month, so to speak, since we celebrate his feast on July 31.  So much has been written on his Spiritual Exercises and what I would like to share is just a very small aspect of my experience of making it year by year.  I am struck by the method of prayer called “contemplation.”  In prayer we are asked to “contemplate” a mystery in the life of Jesus, for example.  For me, it means to enter into the mystery by gazing on the scene, by listening and looking. Contemplation invites us to gaze deeply and profoundly into the event.  Thus it is not just to look, nor to see but to GAZE.  When one gazes at something, the “gazer” becomes affected by the object of the gaze.  As when one contemplates something happens and the process transforms.

Soul Food

Praying One’s Suffering

Who among us has not drank from the cup of suffering? It could be an unexpected illness, an accident, psychological difficulties, troubled relationships, betrayal, loss of meaning, death of a loved one… The question we spontaneously ask would be something like:  “Why me?”  As we reflect on the reality of suffering, maybe we can also ask ourselves: What is God’s invitation to me with regard to my suffering? How am I to bring this experience into my relationship with God?

Soul Food

Back To The Basics

New year is always a good time to begin something new.  It is not a severance of the past though, but a continuation.  I like to see my journey not as a straight line but a spiral going up.  What better way to prepare for the coming year than by reviewing my planner and journal entries to know how I have spent the months, days, minutes and hours of the past year.  I find it so ironic that my days were packed with significant experiences yet I felt that the days have gone by so swiftly.

Homilies

Goodness

Homily of Fr. Jett Villarin SJ during the Perpetual Vows of Sr. Susay Valdez 27 Dec 2008 Our Lady of Pentecost Parish Good has many senses which can reflect the many moods and movements of our life. You can say that the moods of Susay or of anyone here can swing about these many senses of good. One sense of goodness is that of “goodness gracious.” I’m sure Mother Superior Meny here and the sister have gone through this mood many times. “My goodness” has nothing to do really with goodness; it is an exclamation or sigh of exasperation, of surprise or wonder over nothing good or gracious at all. You can also understand goodness in terms of being “good at something,” that is, being competent, clever, or skillful. I’m sure that Sister Susay is professing the vows not because she is an expert in poverty, chastity and obedience. On our own, we’re never really good at these things. They are an invitation to shape a life patterned after the Christ we profess to love.

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