This year, the 6th Sunday of OT (C) is the Sunday immediately preceding Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. It is providential that the gospel reading about the beatitudes and woes of the Sermon on the Plain is presented to us for meditation. It is a reminder that the Christian life is an immersion in the suffering and death of the Lord in view of the Resurrection. Read the relevant article here and use the following as a guide for reflection.

In Luke's account of the call of Simon Peter, we find the evangelist presenting the event within the context of an experience of Jesus as Lord. It is Jesus experienced as Lord, the Holy One of God, who invades the boat of Simon, calls and associates him to his work. The Lord entered Simon's life by invading his boat, and from there, drew the fisherman to himself. Read the relevant article here and use the following as your reflection guide.

The fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C) highlights the prophetic office of the Christian. When we were baptized began to share in the three-fold office of Christ, the kingly, priestly and prophetic office. The prophetic office has to do with the way we witness to Christ: as Christ the Prophet gave expression to the inner life of the Father, so we too are to give expression by our life to the continuing presence of Christ in human history. The Church calls this "evangelization" -- the proclamation of the Good News, the constitutive element of which is Christ Himself, God's Amen to all human longings, the Father's "Yes" to all human quest for Truth and Happiness.

Read the relevant article here and use the following as your guide.

The third Sunday of Ordinary Time C coincides this year with the conclusion of the National Bible Week celebration the aim of which is to help Christian families read the Scriptures as what it is, the Book of the Church. Quite appropriately, the gospel theme for the third Sunday is Jesus' proclamation of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah about the Year of the Lord's Favor. It is Christ who gives meaning to the words of Scriptures, the Word Incarnate that is echoed in many words of men. Read the relevant article here and use the following as your guide.

The third Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C presents to us a selection from the Gospel of Luke that brings together the cover letter to Theophilus and the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Nazareth. The sections between these two selected passages have been read during Advent, Christmas and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The section on the Temptation of Jesus in the Desert will be read in Lent. The Church offers these two selected passages on the third Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) in order to make us aware of three things:

The feast of the Sto. Niño is not and should not become a devotion to "cuteness." The image of the Sto. Niño is patterned after Isaiah 9, about the babe upon whose shoulders the hope of a darkened world depends. The birth of the Christ-child represented in the image of the Sto. Niño when contemplated under the aspect of Augustine's idea of the "Totus Christus" should remind us Filipinos that though we are still relatively young as a Church, we are already invited to participate in the work of our Head. The reading for today's feast about Jesus who tells his parents that he is supposed to be about "the Father's business" is a reminder that being a child of God means sharing in His concerns. Read the relevant article here and use the following as your guide for reflection.

The feast of the Baptism of the Lord introduces to us Ordinary Time. It is a reminder of our own baptism, and of our need to be confirmed in our own vocation to holiness. In a way, we also need to hear the Voice, that says "You are my Son; you are my Daughter." Jesus heard the Voice after his baptism and while he was at prayer. It is in the moments of prayer, in that intimate communion with the Father, when he would confirm his acceptance of the mission He has received. On this feast, the liturgy invites us to reflect on the baptism we have received and our participation in the three-fold office of Christ: priest, prophet and king. Read the relevant article here, and use the following as your guide.

Luke's account of the Baptism of Jesus is a rewriting of the Marcan account in Mark 1:9-11. What Luke does is to give it an introduction (3:15-20) and to modify it in such a way as to highlight the presentation of Jesus as "the Son, the Beloved." What emerges is an image of Jesus who in anonymity has united himself with those who receive the baptism of repentance and who undergoes a disclosure experience from the Father while in prayer.

Like a missionary, Mary hastens to Elizabeth and proclaims to her the Gospel -- the Jesus-Event -- now happening in her life. Elizabeth receives her to her home and the Peace that Mary brought with her. Mary brings the Peace that only Christ can give, and Elizabeth recognized it as such. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth recognizes Mary as "mother of my Lord". Even the babe in her womb jumped for joy at the advent of his Savior in the womb of Mary.

The fourth Sunday of Advent announces the nearness of the feast of Christmas, the memorial of the first Coming of Christ in humility. Mary, Elizabeth and the yet unborn John usher us into the feast telling us that the Gospel is like the seed in Mary's womb, yet invisible but already active and bringing to reality the reign of God among men.

Read the articles you find here, and use the following as your guide for reflection.