Category: PERSONAL THOUGHTS

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HOMILIES PERSONAL THOUGHTS

Thank You, Father Salty!

This homily was delivered at the Funeral Mass of Fr. Emerito Salustiano (“Salty”) de la Rama, SJ on 9 May 2021 at the Church of the Gesu, Ateneo de Manila University.

I first met Fr. Salty over thirty years ago when we found ourselves in Cebu to attend a newly ordained Jesuit’s Thanksgiving Mass. We were all getting ready to enter the Jesuit novitiate that summer, and I was feeling a little nervous because I didn’t know any of my soon-to-be fellow novices, with whom I would spend two of my initial–and I’m told—crucial years in the Society.

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HOMILIES PERSONAL THOUGHTS

BURNOUT

This reflection has been prompted by Luke 5:1-11.

I suspect very few people knew it then, but in the last two years that I was running a school, I was also running on empty. For several reasons, I found myself precariously on the brink of a burnout. I had worked too hard and cared too little for my well-being–a dangerous but all too common formula for self-endangerment.

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PERSONAL THOUGHTS

BELOVED BY GOD (LONG-LOST FRIENDS – PART ONE)

This reflection was prompted by the Sunday Gospel reading (Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21) addressed to Theophilus (which means “Lover of God”and also “Beloved by God”) .

2018 was the year I lost two friends from high school, virtually one after the other. As in the case of most high school friends, we’ve lost touch over the years for different reasons—one because he moved to California many years ago, the other because he switched religion and maybe decided to keep away.

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