Family Occasions, Speaking Heart to Heart

  October 31, 2023 Hi!   How is each and every one?   Yesterday I was going through files in my laptop and flash drives and I came across a movie that was shared with me last year.   I found the title interesting.   I thought I could watch it sometime after I get a review of the film.   So I searched and found out it is an old movie 2004, with a simple plot entitled The Magic of Ordinary Days.   It is a World War II film about the father of an unwed mother marries her off to a farmer who will raise her baby as his own. Personally I found the movie slow and yet able to hold your interest and curiosity up to the end.   Indeed there is magic in ordinary days when there is love and respect, and persons are true to themselves and to the others.   “I’ve learned more about love in my six months with this family than in the 25 in my father’s home”, confessed Livy, who finally delivered her baby.   It is love that gives meaning, intimacy and virtue into everything we do in our days that usu

  October 24, 2023         Opus Dei                                          Hi!  How is each and every one? Today, October 24, used to be the feast day of St. Raphael, the Archangel.  When the General Roman Calendar was revised in 1969, the feast was transferred to September 29 together with archangels Michael and Gabriel. Nevertheless may I request you to ask St. Raphael to heed my personal petitions for today and always? I depend on your prayers.  You can depend on my prayers as well.  In the last post we talked about a constant longing you and I have, an inner ache.   It cannot be denied that you and I long for happiness that the world cannot give.   It is a beating of the heart that makes each of us restless and ill at ease not knowing what it is and where to find it, and finally be peacefully content.   I think what is happening in these times is a sign of this longing.   Different groups of people are trying to satisfy and fulfill what they have been longing for but perhap

  October 19, 2023 Opus Dei Hi!   How is each and every one?   Did I get you wondering for a while?   I hope I did make you wonder; at the same time I was hoping you would not wait longer than you should. Know what happened?   This computer that I am using just didn’t want to work.   I was not really in panic mode; I kept myself cool.   I thought I still have a notebook to turn to but guess what it did not want to boot. I started to feel the pangs of poverty and detachment. How best to approach the situation?   Tuesday was the same day the Holy Father called for a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer for world peace.   Likewise the Prelate of Opus Dei called to do the same and accompany the Holy Father and the whole world. After all everything was for the good.   I had something more to fast from, abstain from and offer prayers for world peace. It couldn’t have been better, right?   And yesterday late afternoon, I got the device back. I started looking into what happened and

  October 10, 2023 St Josemaria Institute:   The Theology of Creation Hi! How is each and every one?   In the last post we talked a bit about the celebration of the 95 th Anniversary of the Foundation (October 2, 1928) of Opus Dei, Work of God. I just thought it good to mention in today’s post that last October 6, we celebrated the 21st Anniversary of the Canonization (October 6, 2002) of the founder of Opus Dei, St. Josemaria Escriva, the “saint of ordinary life”. This simply confirms the truth that the Work of God produces saints. You and I if we allow God to work in us, that is, we do whatever He tells us to do, he will do His work of making you and me   the saint he wants us to be.   So you and I are more than meets the eye. Following is an excerpt on the topic ( From Broken Gods , Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 1). Once upon a Time… Aleteia At the dawn of creation, God intended great things for

  October 2, 2023 Hi!  How is each and every one?  Today, October 2, we celebrate the 95 th Anniversary of the Foundation of Opus Dei , Work of God.  Though relatively young, it has reached a milestone in 95 years (a child of 95 years).  God is good; has always been good.  As the Founder of Opus Dei always said, Opus Dei is a story/the history of God’s mercy.  What matters most of all is that you and I experience God’s love at every moment of our daily life from the time we awake to the time we go to sleep .   He is watching over you and myself all the time.  God is our Father and you and I are his beloved children.  Hence let us always be very childlike!  The more of a child the better!  Always in need of God’s love and provident care. For without God you and I are nothing. Are you convinced of that truth?  Then apply all the effort to be a child of God the Father. I am very convinced! Fra Angelico’s Baptism of Christ   From Wikipedia: Divine filiation implies  divinization :