Forgive yourself
By loreen sarmientoWhat happens if you think your sins are too big and too terrible for God’s forgiveness – that there’s no hope for you and you can’t even forget your own self?
What happens if you think your sins are too big and too terrible for God’s forgiveness – that there’s no hope for you and you can’t even forget your own self?
Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, the founder of the religious group “Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name,” whose blessings political candidates have sought in the previous presidential elections, has announced the list of 12 senatorial bets his flock will support in the upcoming May 13 elections.
Eleven years ago, the world was shocked by the organized terrorist attack on the United States on September 11.
With certain people it has become fashionable to identify Islam or one or the other system of life in vogue at the time. There are also people who say that Islam is a democracy, and by this they mean to imply that there is no difference between Islam and democracy in the West. Others suggest that Communism is but the latest and revised version of Islam and it is in the fitness of things that Muslims imitate the Communist experiment of Soviet Russia. Still others whisper that Islam has the elements of dictatorship and we should revive the cult of ‘obedience to the Amir’ (the leader).
The newly formed White Vote Movement led by the Catholic charismatic group El Shaddai has endorsed over the weekend six senatorial candidates, who have stood by the Church in opposing the reproductive health law, for the upcoming May 13 elections.
I once had court duty in a distant northern town. I had to leave before sunrise in order to get to the courthouse on time. As the light spread in the east I could see smoke rising from the houses as we passed by them. People were preparing breakfast.
Then Pope Benedict XVI was right when he said in February that his then impending depature from the papacy was no flight from the Cross. Proof of this is his continuing crucifixion by critics of the Church and pseudo-fans of Pope Francis. The latter extol the simplicity of the new Pope at the cost of tarnishing the character of the old one. They equate the Pope Emeritus with their own poor notion of the Middle Ages—dark, backward and decadent—and speak as if the saintliness of the new Pontiff is an anomaly among the Successors of Saint Peter.
One morning, I felt a slight nudge when I looked at the little crucifix in the rosary I was holding in my hand. And when I made the sign of the cross, I was brought back to that time when the nuns in school reminded us what the sign of the cross signifies.
FROM the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral to the Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu City jails, the annual “Siete Palabras” or Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ was commemorated by Cebuano faithful last Good Friday.
Today begins the Easter Triduum (Latin word that refers to the three days from sundown Holy Thursday to sundown Easter) and many devout Catholics will be spending the final three days of Lent immersed in recollections and meditating on the Lord’s Passion.
As the nation pauses with the rest of Christendom starting tomorrow to remember Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Black Saturday, we propose a view of our reality through the prism of the Cross.
There are traditional depictions of Jesus in local culture. Jesus Nazareno is the Christ carrying his cross. The carrozas of Lent include icons of him behind the whipping post or as a half naked king of ridicule sitting on a throne contemplating humanity, his and ours. Then there is the Christ’s dead body before his burial. It is often encased in glass. Always the face shows his gentleness.
