We are “formed” by God; “called to be saints” and chosen to bring the Good News to all; to testify for our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Let it be so for now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15)

Bob was only 13 when his father left the family. Being the second oldest of seven children, Bob felt he had to become the man of the home. Weeks later, he was also devastated when his basketball coach tried to molest him. The pain continued a year later when his father eventually started a second family and when his family moved to Florida.

The time has come for all barriers to come down, all hatreds to disappear, and all hostilities among the nations to vanish.

How do you want this year to be better than last year? I’ll ask again: How do you want this year to be better than last year? From my experience, it’s unfortunate that most of us will make the same mistakes, because we can’t break out of the cycle of our daily lives. Most of our lives have a momentum that we can’t stop.

This Sunday, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. The Gospel reading is from Matthew 2:13-23, which describes the Holy Family's flight into Egypt to escape King Herod the Great's proclamation that all male children under the age of two be killed. This was foretold by the Pharoah's proclamation in the Book of Exodus that all male Jewish children be killed. At that time, only Moses was saved by the princess who rescued him from the water; now, only Jesus was saved by Joseph who brought Him into Egypt. Moses and Jesus both played the role of saviour: Moses saved his people from slavery, while Jesus saved both His people and the entire world from slavery to sin. When Herod died, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to return to the Holy Land. In fact, the Joseph of the New Testament shares many similarities with the Joseph of the Old Testament: both were dreamers, both had fathers named Jacob, and both were persecuted by a king and his brothers respectively. The Holy Family later moved to Nazareth, a small town whose population numbered no more than 480 people at the time. Joseph led a humble life there as a carpenter, teaching us the road to sanctity: to perform well our duty to pray and work in front of the Child Jesus, and in doing so grow with Him.

As the people of God, we are encouraged to go beyond our natural families into the supernatural family of God

Like Joseph and Mary, we, too, are called to accomplish the most extraordinary mission with the most ordinary means.

Icons from the Byzantine Church do not just deliver a unique visual appeal, they also guide the viewers to connect with the person or mystery being depicted. "Prep for Christmas" takes you into the world of Byzantine icons.

Let us take a moment from our busy Christmas preparations to contemplate on what “the Lord is near” means for us (Philippians 4:5)

Two takeaways from this Sunday’s readings. Both are powerful prophecies of Isaiah.

Three weeks ago, we gathered donations for the seven people who lost their belongings in a fire that burned their three-storey apartment building in our neighbourhood. Two of them, Fernanda and Curtis, are part of our parish family, so, an e-mail blast about the fire went out to the whole Alpha team, of which Fernanda’s a part. If you got that e-mail, how would you respond? Who here would offer them sympathy in the e-mail? What about prayer? What about a place to stay for the next week?

Eagerness and patience are the paradoxical qualities of this waiting.

God allows us to grow old to wake us up and get us ready for death. We’re called to eternal life, but get distracted by the good life we have here. So, in His goodness, He allows us to get stiff, put on weight, have wrinkly skin, and lose hair. Anyone here losing their hair? No one. God bless you.

What is the meaning of a true King? It all begins with a joke.

God is calling us to understand the big story of our faith, today. In other words, what’s the essence of Christianity? We’re going to answer this using a very practical scenario which builds upon years of talking about our relationship with God, the reality of free will, and consequences.

Let us join the psalmist to sing praises to the Lord, who on a day unbeknownst to us, “will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.” (Psalm 98:9)

You know how we all say we’re busy? Can we be honest and admit that, despite our busy schedules, we still waste time? One survey found that seven in ten people admit to wasting time at work, mostly on social media, then online shopping, browsing travel, sports, and entertainment, and just scrolling down pages with no purpose (Michael Hyatt, Free to Focus, 212).

As we journey on over hills and valleys, let us turn our gaze away from our own darkness to the light of Christ.

We like to think that we can have God in our own pocket. But we’ve got it all wrong. It’s God who finds us and reveals Himself to us; it’s Him who saves us.

Humility is not weakness but the foundation of all the other virtues

I’ve said some foolish things in my life. One time I met a woman who said, “My name’s Sunday.” And I said, “And my name’s… My name’s Justin.” I hesitated because I was about to say, “My name is Monday.” She could see that something was wrong and wasn’t happy. I felt badly because she’d probably gone through that before.

Be persistent, “will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to Him day and night?” (Lk 18:7)　

A good young priest, Fr. Lucio Choi, once shared with me how he was discouraged, and it wasn’t because of his bad haircut. He said he now understood why some priests get cynical: You try so hard, do so much for people, and they don’t care or respond.