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Reflection: Bearing Good Fruit

Jesus reminds us to be wary of those who make promises they cannot keep. As the saying goes, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” So, too, must we judge who preaches the Word of God, and who promises much but delivers little and often nothing at all.

I am sick of people arguing that someone is a good preacher based on the number of people who are drawn to his events. What matters is not the numbers drawn but the depth of conversion that happens. It is here where we should focus our attention and not to the superficial realities of whether or not a person is a good entertainer. There is a place for a joke here and there when preaching the Gospel, but the most important result—the true fruit of the Gospel—is the conversion of peoples’ hearts to the Lord.

As we serve the Gospel, this should be our focus as well. It is good to put on a successful event as measured in terms of attendees and its cost-benefit ratio. However, much more important than these two considerations is whether or not the Holy Spirit was at work in those who turned up, bringing them to a deeper faith in Jesus. We also have to seek the type of conversion that endures. Sometimes this can happen quickly, but more often than not, it will be the result of a lot of hard work. A life of discipleship will challenge the most committed of us from time to time. Let us pray for the grace of perseverance.

~ Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

Do you tend to be attracted to the entertainment surrounding the Gospel rather than the Gospel message of faith and repentance in its essence?

Holy Spirit, help me to live as a disciple of Jesus, always ready and willing to listen to God’s Word and follow it when I hear it. Amen.

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

… for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!

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Reflection: What’s in Your Heart?

There was this story of a man who loved his money and never for a moment wanted to part with any of it. Nearing death, he made his wife promise one thing: that she would place all his money in his coffin and bury it with him. He thought that it was the best for him, as one successful self-made and wealthy man, to keep his hard-earned wealth close to his heart till the very end.

Now, his wife was a loving and honest woman who would never even think of doing other than what his beloved husband asked her to do. Her husband’s will was her command, and there was simply no way she could ever refuse the dying wish of someone she loved, served, and obeyed all her life.

So she counted all her husband’s money to the last centavo and dutifully arranged for all that sum to go with him to the grave. After getting the total, she carefully wrote a check in her husband’s favor, exactly equal to the amount she had carefully counted, and placed the check inside his coffin.

The man might have his treasure right next and very close to his heart, but his wife sure had her heart in the right place. He got the exact amount close to his heart, for where one’s treasure is, there is his heart too.

The heart stood for the core of the person, the seat of the personality of the person. A person focused on his treasure is taken up heart and soul by his material treasure. All of him is closely connected with that treasure, and never would the core of the person want his heart to be misplaced or waylaid by any other extraneous concern.

He got what his heart hankered for more than anything else. His wife who had her heart in the right place gave what was due to him, but got much more than she ever gave.

~ Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

What do you insist on keeping close to your heart?

Dearest God, temper my desire for worldly wealth. Help mefocus my eyes on the eternal. 

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

... for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!

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Reflection: Why Serve the Church?

It is important to examine our motivations for serving the Church. If it is to draw attention to ourselves and to pat our backs, then we need to pray for a better motivation. When it comes to seeking self-acclaim, we know that we are in the wrong business if we are ministering in the Church. In the Church, all the glory belongs to God, not to us. It takes a significant amount of humility to lead well in religious circles because people are so ready to exalt a good leader and place him on some sort of spiritual pedestal. It does not matter how effective someone is as a preacher. It is never a good idea to exalt him to the point that he receives the glory that rightly belongs to God.

Yes, it is good to affirm and encourage one another in our ministries, but let us keep it to that. It is easy to develop a sense of “I am essential for this work to happen.” Even if it is true, this is only so because God has gifted you with the gifts to perform that ministry.

What should we do when others exalt us more than they should? We should politely decline anything that does not indicate that God is the one being given the glory. We need to be careful not to offend people, but we also need to be always mindful that we direct the glory to God and not to ourselves.

~ Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

Do you have a problem with having delusions of grandeur about your importance to a particular ministry or mission in which you are involved? If so, what are you going to do about it to rectify the situation?

Holy Spirit, help me grow in humility and truth today so that my life will always give to God all the glory and hold nothing back for myself. Amen.

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

… for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!

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Reflection: A Team Exercise

The work of evangelization is a team exercise as it is impossible to achieve lasting results on your own. Jesus gathered 12 close disciples to train them in the work of evangelization; Paul always worked together with other people; and most, if not all, of the saints had many others who helped them in their ministries. The best thing about working together as a team is that someone else can back us up when we cannot do something or we are not so good at it.

Working together as a team means knowing one’s gifts and recognizing that we need the help of others to accomplish something worthwhile. While we may be able to manage many things on our own, there will always be something we are not competent at. This is why understanding the nature of the Church as the Body of Christ is so important. Feet without hands might be able to move the body from point A to point B, but without the hands to carry things, nothing can be brought with the feet in their travels. Conversely, our hands are not able to move between two points without our feet. We need to learn to work together in the mission of the Church if we are to successfully accomplish the command of Jesus to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Let us do our best to discern the gifts of the Spirit that we have been given and then humbly offer them for the work of the Church and the communities to which we belong.

~~Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

What are your gifts? What can you contribute to the work of the Gospel? How well are you in fulfilling the promise you have made through the gifts that God has given you? Are you exercising them at all?

Holy Spirit, show me the gifts that You have given me so I may exercise them for the sake of the Gospel and the work of evangelization. Amen.

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

... for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!

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My photography.

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a sitting platypus

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Fontainebleau State Park, Louisiana by Lana Gramlich

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Flowers greet the night, Torino, Italy

emanuele_boffa

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Singapore (by Eugene Kaspersky)

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Play time!

thesilentwanderers

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Atlantic Puffins. The adult puffins return to the cliffs around 21:00 to bring food back to the nests, and the golden hour light is perfect for photographs.

photos by me. 2025-06-07, Runde, Norway. Our trip was so, so wonderful.

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Cloudscapes & storms courtesy of Mother Nature

adamkylejackson

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Cânion Itaimbezinho Trilha do Cotovelo, Brazil by Gabriel Ramos

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Reflection: Poverty and Generosity

When I was in the midst of fundraising for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda (internationally known as Haiyan), I also went to Bohol to do relief work for the victims of the earthquake that occurred a month or so before the typhoon. I was incredibly moved to see how the victims of the earthquake were gathering—from among their remaining meager possessions—an offering for Yolanda victims. If there was a better example of the widow’s mite than what they showed, then I have not come across it.

There is never an excuse not to be generous when it comes to our faith and our love of God and other people. It is a truism to say that there is always someone else who is worse off than you are, but it is true indeed. It all depends on our point of view. If we realize how generous God has been with us, then we will never tire of giving to others. Let us stretch our capacity in giving so that we can witness the greater provision the Lord has for our lives. This might seem to be splitting hairs, but our attitude matters when we give. If we give with joy, as advocated by Paulin his Letter to the Corinthians, it is far better, infinitely better, than giving begrudgingly.

Saint Paul’s exhortation is expressing the truest response of gratitude to all that we have freely received from God. Let us be faithful to his words.

~Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

Are you a cheerful giver, or do you give while being full of regret? Are you willing to change your attitude so that you might better reflect true gratitude to the Lord for His goodness to you?

Jesus, You have given Your life for me! May I always be willing to express my gratitude for Your love, mercy, and blessings by freely giving myself and all that I have in the service of the Gospel.

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

... for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!

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The man whom I have to wait for so long to see so shortly.

I pray that in our next life… the wait will be short, and the meeting shall be long.

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Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

Reflection: Truth that Edifies

Many of us know somebody who just recently finished their academic courses and graduated from school. And as always happens when we end a stage and begin a new one, we take stock of what we have accomplished. We make a quick scan of what we have completed or left undone, the twists and turns we have made along the way.

The First Reading today is precisely this—and more. Paul’s words remind me of a valedictory address. As we all know,  the task of the valedictorian, as the word implies, is to say “goodbye,” as distinct from the salutatory address, which means to greet and welcome everyone.

Paul “boasts humbly” of what he has accomplished. First off, he claims to have truly “lived among the people” he ministered to. Secondly, he attests to the fact that he had “served the Lord with all humility.” Third, despite all the “tears and trials,” he did not “shrink from telling [them] what was for [their] benefit.” Fourth, he “earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in [the] Lord Jesus.”

In short, Paul has done his duties thoroughly and well. And by boasting humbly, he does no more than state the truth that not only is incontrovertible, but truth that edifies.

As an educator, I have heard so many valedictory speeches. As a priest, I have taken leave of so many tasks, duties, and responsibilities, and left so many people and places. As a man, I have been tempted at times, too, to boast but, admittedly, “humbly” can hardly be used as an apt qualifier.

Humility, they say, is truth. Paul’s boasting adheres to truth—something that the people he ministered to knew only too well. He told the truth not to glorify himself.

It was plainly truth designed to edify. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

What tth can you share that would help edify someone?

Dearest Lord, open my mind to see and enable my mouth to speak the truth that can be shared to help someone in need. Amen.

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

… for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!