“We should like to hear you on this some other time.” – Acts 17:32

         “I don’t know what to do anymore. I’m hopeless!”

       My friend cried inside the coffee shop. Just a few minutes after the office hours started, she was already sobbing in front of her computer. Then I received an internal message from her, “Can we talk?”

       We weren’t that close. We would go out once in while but that was it. She thought I was the religious kind because I’d invite her to Mass or prayer meetings. But she would always say, “Next time.” So I was surprised when she opened up to me. She had hit rock bottom with a breakup and a financial problem. I listened to her until she calmed down. Her ending question startled me. “Can I join you at Mass tonight?”

       She did. She also attended our prayer meeting. And long after I left that job, I learned that her relationship with God continues to grow.

      I realized one thing: People will reject teachings and sermons, but they can never resist love. Once they experience Jesus in us, it’s impossible for them not to come home to Him. Love has the power to win people back to God. Maymay R. Salvosa (christiane.salvosa@gmail.com)

Reflection:“We have been sent to inspire courage, to support and to lead others to Jesus.” (Pope Francis)

Teach us to love, Jesus. Grant us the grace to never give up on the people we love. Amen.

St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, pray for us.

Paul had no idea for whom the marker “To an Unknown God” was erected. So Paul claimed the marker as the God whom he knew and had experienced. Paul found a way to proclaim the Gospel – one that worked and was true. Like Paul, let us work hard to spread the Good News to a world that is rapidly evolving.

15 After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens, they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. 22 Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. 26 He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, 27 so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29 Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination. 30 God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent 31 because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.” 32 When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” 33 And so Paul left them. 34 But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. 18:1 After this he left Athens and went to Corinth.

R: Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

1 Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights; 2 Praise him, all you his angels, praise him, all you his hosts. (R) 11 Let the kings of the earth and all peoples, the princes and all the judges of the earth, 12 Young men too, and maidens, old men and boys. (R) 13 Praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; His majesty is above earth and heaven. (R) 14 He has lifted up the horn of his people. Be this his praise from all his faithful ones, from the children of Israel, the people close to him. Alleluia. (R)

The Holy Spirit guides us in the way of truth. The world needs it more than ever today. Today, there are many laws contrary to Christian teachings, especially those contrary to the dignity of human life. Let us stand firm in our moral beliefs, particularly those that protect the poor and the defenseless.

I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.

12 Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. 13 But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

think: What are the three goals of the Advocate? Why is it good for Jesus to go away?

Read the Bible in one year 15 Samuel 1-4

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

SOME DID JOIN

Having been a priest, preacher and teacher this long, there are times when I feel like I am simply pouring water on a duck’s back. Certain things I worked hard for, and stuff I toiled so much for, never came to fruition. They were what we might call mere exercises in futility.

         It must have felt like this when Paul went figuratively to the lion’s den at the hill of Ares (Areopagus) to talk to the wise people of the time in Athens. He was with thinkers whose hearts most likely were not open. The Epicureans, on the one hand, idolized pleasure, while the Stoics, on the other, idealized the power of the will. They were philosophers of note who could not be bothered by talks about a God dying and rising back to life.

      But go there, Paul did. Talk to them in their own language, he did. He practically pulled off the unthinkable. Small wonder that Pope St. John Paul II used the image of the “Areopagus” as the new frontiers of evangelization that he called all Christian Catholics to engage in.

       Those of us who have direct experience working with young people from close ranks (and here I refer to those who come from where the majority come from — the world of cradle Catholics who have not attended any Catechism lesson ever in their lives) would know how difficult it is to level up with them.

       Any pious talk turns them off. Talk about human interest and feel-good stories that champion vague virtues like respect and tolerance, and they are with you. Begin talking about obscure items like Eucharist and reconciliation, and they tune out within a couple of minutes.

         Atop the hill, many of those who got to hear Paul speak must have tuned out readily or reacted vehemently when he began to talk of the resurrection. “But some did join him and became believers.”

           Need I say more? Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------

Are you willing to engage others so that they, too, may hear the Good News?

Help me to press on in spreading the Good News even when I don’t see any results, Lord. Amen.