Christ’s Arms and Alms

One of the things we should do on Lent is almsgiving. Together with prayer and penance, the Church asks us to give alms to our less fortunate brothers.

So why almsgiving in Lent?

Lent is about the commemorating the Passion of Jesus. And the Passion of Christ is not just about pain and suffering, it is about love. Christ loves us so much that He is willing to pay for our sins and die for us. His passion is His total gift of Himself to us. So you can say that Lent is commemoration God’s love for each and one of us through Christ.

"For God so loved the world that he GAVE his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

If God gave, so should we.

Giving alms is not a “get-out-of-purgatory” or “get-out-of-hell” card. It is not something you do mechanically, because love is not something you do mechanically.

Giving alms is something we do because we love God and our neighbor. When we give something to the least of our brethren, we do it to Christ Himself.

And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. (Matthew 25:40)

When we give alms to the poor, it must NOT come from pity, but from a loving heart.

"The poor do not need our sympathy and our pity. The poor need our love and compassion" - Mother Teresa

Pity looks down on the poor, love lifts them up. Giving alms is not just giving money or whatever, it is about giving our very self to our brothers and sisters. That is the reason that the Church suggest that what you save in your fasting you give to the poor. In doing so, what should be yours (your meal -which you worked for), is given away. You give not from your excess, but from your own need.

"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving." – Mother Teresa

This lent, we must be Christ's arms...reaching out in love.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Why All the Sacrifice?

In a convenient and pleasure obsessed culture, sacrifice is not a popular word. Sometimes, people who make sacrifices are looked down on, pitied. The convenient and pleasure junkies see sacrifices as something unnatural, restricting, and even as a psychological problem. When a mother sacrifices her career to take care of her children, they see a woman robbed of her dreams and chained to her children. It is such a sad way of looking at LOVE.

Love without sacrifice is empty. I don’t know if you can call it love at all.

Lent is a time of sacrifice. Why? Because it is the season where we not only remember, but enter into the Sacrifice of God Himself.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16)

Typically we make sacrifices for two reasons. First, to give up what is not good for us. Second, to sacrifice the good for something better.

A smoker sacrifices his cigarette to save his health. A mother sacrifices her career to raise her children. Or a young man sacrifices all his personal ambitions to answer God’s call to priesthood.

During Lent, we are asked to give up some things or actions. Why? For the health of our soul. The first thing we should give up is sin. Sin makes you miserable, sin kills! Sin is a cancer that you should not hold on to.

We are also asked during Lent to give up some of our attachments, like our favorite food, thing to do, etc… Giving up these little things helps us to practice self-control. In this culture where everybody is “doing their thing” regardless of their consequences, self-control is a gem. Self-control goes a long way if you want a happy life. A person who has no self-control will be controlled by the objects of his affection.

These little “giving ups” also leads us to detachment. And detachment is very important if you really want to love.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25

The more we are detached to objects, the more we can attach ourselves to God. The more we are detached to objects, the more we can share them to our neighbor.

Real love always put other’s first. It put God first, our neighbor second, and us last. Love always looks outward, not inward. It is not obsessed in pleasing itself, but giving itself to others.

All our sacrifices during lent, big or small, is there to lead us closer to God and our neighbor. They are not empty actions one does for the sake of doing it.

If your sacrifices are not leading you to love God and your neighbor more, then you are just wasting your time and punishing yourself.

Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Written by Daxx Bondoc

From Porn Sites to Christ’s Light

I grew up in a Catholic family and attended 3 Catholic schools, unfortunately I was a certified “lukewarm Catholic” when I hit my 20’s. It was in my 20’s that my immoral life went to another level. I was addicted to porn and was practicing pre-marital sex. I also accompanied my former boss, who was married, go out to strip clubs and “spas.” I was working as a web designer then for an online gambling company, and do porn websites on the sides.

My life then was all about me. I sought all the pleasure the fallen world could give. I lived in mortal sin, and I was not repentant about it. (Thank God, I did not die back then.)

But God did not quit on me. With God’s mercy and grace, and with the prayers of my uncle, I had a conversion experience before my 26th birthday. It was 3 events that led me back to Christ and His Catholic Church.

The first event was when I first read Chicken Soup for the Soul #2. I remembered crying as I read the stories about people who gave themselves to others on that book. For the first time in my life, I realized that life is not about selfishness, it was about self-giving, it is about love. And I also realized that my selfish ways of life was wrong and I have to change.

I started reading inspirational books, and staying away from Catholic literatures. I was still attached to my sins and I don’t want to be confronted about them. I knew if I started reading Catholic literature, I could not plead ignorance anymore, I knew how hard it is to be a real Catholic. And I did not want that.

The second event was when I bought a book about Mother Teresa’s life. I thought it was harmless enough. But I was wrong. I also cried as I read that book. After reading that book, I knew that I wanted to serve the poor for the rest of my life. And I also realized that I would need Jesus if I wanted to do that. Mother Teresa was straight forward in saying that it was Jesus who gave her strength to do what she did, and I wanted that strength for myself.

So that is when I started to go back to the Catholic Church. I knew in my heart that I will find Jesus in His Church, which is also His Body. So I started watching EWTN on cable and reading a lot of Catholic books. It was the first time I really got Catechize. It was the first time I understood what it means to be a real Catholic. I also started going to Mass more often.

The last event was when I was in an evening Mass in St Francis Church in Mandaluyong. I believe it was after I received communion and I was kneeling at the back that I had this clear and profound realization, that God created me, therefore He owns me. And the logical thing for me to do was give Him back my life. And so I did… in tears.

God gave me a lot of opportunity to make amends/reparation for the selfishness and sins I have committed and spread.

After that, for 4 years I was a volunteer of the Missionaries of Charity. I helped around the orphanage, teach Catechism to poor kids, and helped give medicines to the poor.

As for the sins I spread on the web, God led me to start my own blog website, www.inspirationalblogs.com. There I write about Jesus and Catholic spirituality. Every now and then, I get emails from depressed people who found the writings uplifting. It gets around 5,000 hits a month and have total hits of 73,000 since I started it last 2009. I also started last year http://www.youtube.com/catholicanimated, where I post Pro-life, Catechism and inspirational animations. It is now on 11,000 views.

My friends and I also have started a feeding program for malnourished public school students in Tanay, Rizal. We are on our second school year and feeding 70 kids. And every Christmas we give 200 malnourished kids and their family a Christmas party, groceries and toys (which started with 12 grocery bags given to 12 families 5 years ago.)

St. Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20). No matter how far we have fallen to sin, God’s mercy can reach us. No matter how far deep we are in the darkness, Jesus can bring us back to the Light. Jesus can bring us back to Life.

I lived a miserable and empty life before I met Jesus. I did it “my way,” and my way sucks!

Lent is a time of Grace, a time of conversion, and at the end of it is the opportunity for a new life, a resurrection. All you need to have this new life is to ask, seek and knock on Jesus, and He will give it to you. He will give Himself to you. And when you have Jesus you have everything.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

By Daxx Bondoc
(An article for my former Parish newsletter)

On Tribulations -St. Rose of Lima

Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: "Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven." When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: "Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions. We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the sons of God and perfect happiness of soul."

-- St. Rose of Lima

Is Life Living in You?

Life for some is just a series of daily routines. For others, it is seeking one thrill to the next. And there are those who just want to have fun in life like there is no tomorrow. Unfortunately, if you live life like them, you will find yourself drained in the end. Weariness and the fading of your intoxicating emotions will soon over take you. You will either give up out of fatigue, or seek another emotional high like an addict (and the vicious cycle continues.) And it all leads to one place, emptiness.

Like St. Peter we can all say “We worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing.” (Luke 5:5)

As much as we want to liven up our lives, our efforts will always be short-lived, for even we are short-lived. Everything is passing in this world, including us. So every attempt to create our own happiness, our own life, apart from God, will always end in vain.

"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1

So how do we live? I mean really live?

For any creature to live, it needs LIFE. Otherwise it is just a zombie, walking around aimlessly as life passes by.

Natural life is temporal and soon dies. So we need a life that is beyond natural, we need supernatural life. Supernatural life is always dynamic, it never tires nor bores. Most importantly it never gets empty.

“But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

So where do we find this supernatural life? The life that lives…

We shall not find it “where”, but with “Whom.”

Jesus!

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)

Only Jesus can liven up our lives. Only He can give us supernatural joy and peace, and ultimate meaning for our existence. For Jesus Himself is Peace, Joy and Life. To have Jesus live in us is to have all of them.

Only Jesus can lift our natural life to supernatural, our temporal life to eternal. Anything else will fall short. Anything else will pass away.

If Jesus dwells in us, we have the same dynamic power that created the universe living in us. Just imagine that!

You have not known what life is until you have known Jesus.

So don’t waste it.

Come to Him.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

When Christ Comes in Crisis

When Christ Comes in Crisis

We often feel god is close when our ship is sailing smoothly, but seldom when we are being rocked by storms. But Christ does come in storms. Sometimes, it is in the storms that His power is more manifested.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14:22-33

Sometimes God permits crisis to happen to us to show how powerful His grace is. It is in these times that God shows us He is bigger than our problems. Jesus shows us that the winds and waves of life is no competition to Him.

When our natural strengths fail, the supernatural reveals itself and takes over. In crisis, we learn to rely on God than to ourselves, for we have proven that our own effort is seldom enough to survive it. It was in the buffeting winds and waves that Peter was given the chance to walk on water. Even when we feel that the winds and waves of life are drowning us, Christ’s grace is enough for us to rise above it. And all we need is faith.

It was faith that made Peter walk on water; it was also his lack of faith that made him sink. Faith opens us to the supernatural, to the impossible. And Faith in practice is Trust. That is why Jesus always reminds us, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Faith makes the impossible possible. Faith let God be God. And He is the God of Wonders.

Crisis shows God’s power more magnificently. Crisis also gives us the opportunity to experience that magnificent power by trusting in Christ.

Sometimes we only appreciate the Light of the World shining upon us when we are enveloped by the darkness.


Sometimes we truly appreciate Jesus when He comes to us as our Savior. When He reaches out His hand and lifts us from drowning in our misery.

Crisis are always an opportunity to encounter Christ more powerfully, more intimately.

So don’t waste the opportunity.

Jesus we trust in you.

By Daxx Bondoc

Are You a Sheep or a Goat?

If your life would end today, would Jesus classify you as a sheep or a goat? Would you enter the Gates of Heaven or be thrown in the pit of darkness?

Matthew 25 tells the story about the end of the world, and how Jesus would separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep were those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the strangers and visited the sick and imprisoned. The goats on the other hand were those who fail to do so. In short, those who acted like Jesus and those who did not.

The sheep were welcomed into heaven while the goats went to hell.

We do not have to wait for the end of the world to be judge if we are sheep or goats. We can objectively look at our lives and see for ourselves. Are we living a life of charity and service? Or is it a life of indifference and selfishness? Do we have eyes that see the hungry, the naked and the sick? Or are we consumed in our own little world of selfish desire and accumulation?

Goat in sheep’s clothing?

Many of us call ourselves Christians but do not act like one. Goats can never pass up as sheep because you can smell the difference a mile away. It is same for us Christians. People can smell authentic Christians from those who are only Christians by name. Many of us say we love God but fail to love our neighbor. This just cannot be, as we see in Matthew 25. Jesus, who is God made flesh said, “Whatever you did to the least of my brethren you did it to Me.”

I think we should examine carefully and honestly how we live our lives before we profess our Christianity and our love for God. People will realize if we are speaking the truth by the fruits of our lives.

Being a Christian means living a life of love and service. Period!

Excuses not to help and serve others are just simply what they are, excuses. They are excuses for our own selfishness and indifference. To fail to love and serve others is to fail to be a Christian!

In the end we are either sheep or goats, Christians or not. There is just simply NO in between.

In What Kind of Relationship Are You In? Give and Take or Give and Give?

We often hear that to be in a good relationship there has to be a “give and take” within the partners. But I think sometimes the “give and take” mentality can get old quick because it has a tendency to be selfish. I give so I can take. Their giving becomes an indirect egotism.

St Thomas Aquinas defines love as to will the good of the other as other. There is no hidden agenda in real love. You love the person for the sake of the person and not because you can get something out of the person.

A real loving relationship practices “give and give.” There is no need for taking because the longings are being satisfied by the partner even before the other asks for it. A person who is deeply in love is focused on her beloved and not on himself. He wants to make his beloved happy. He puts her before himself every time in every thing. And she does the same.

Both are satisfied and fulfilled.

Both feel loved.

Most of us when we are considering entering into a relationship with someone ask this question, “What can I get from this person?” Another way of putting it is “What can this person give me?”

I think we should have a radical change of attitude if we want to experience real and lasting love. We must change the question “What can I get” to “What can I give to this person?”

The best example of this love is Jesus on the Cross. When Jesus let Himself get crucified, it was solely for you and me. There was no hidden agenda on Jesus’ suffering except our salvation. It was a totally selfless act. Jesus died because He loved you and me.

So if we want to have a beautiful relationship, we must learn to love like Jesus. Our love has to be totally unselfish and self-giving.

There is no greater love than to give one’s life for a friend.

By Daxx Bondoc

The Secret of Mary:The Way to Divine Union - By Saint Louis DeMontfort

One must will to become the total possession and property of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This requires us to adopt the soul of Mary as the spiritual chapel for the prayers and offerings of our own soul.

The secret requires that, for the rest of our lives, we perform all of our actions as slaves of love for Mary and that we trust her entirely for everything. The chief difficulty is to enter into the spirit of this devotion, which requires adopting an interior dependence on Mary. I have met many people who, with admirable zeal, have set about exteriorly practicing this holy devotion to Jesus through Mary, but I have met only a few who have actually understood the true secret of its interior spirit of total dependence, and fewer still who have persevered in it.

Read the Secret of Mary here

Angels and the Scums of the Earth

By Daxx Bondoc

We modern people look at the shepherds whom visited Christ with certain "cuteness". Most of the images and statues of them are sentimentalized. But shepherds at the time of Jesus were looked at as "low lives". They were people who cannot keep a regular job.

I like how one priest said that the shepherds were considered the "scums of the earth" during Jesus' time. Yet, they were the first to hear the GOSPEL, the Good News. The scums of the earth were the first choice of the Father to be blessed by the announcement of the birth of the King of Kings!

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' Luke 2:8-12

What an upside down and odd God we have!

Here we see that God operates differently from us. Most of us invite the most famous, influential or powerful people we know to our child’s party. While we show off, God humbles Himself.

The proclamation of the angels to the shepherds shows us that God's way is so far above our ways! Thank God for that!
The shepherds should give us hope! Even if we are considered by the world as misfits, outcast and scums of the earth, we are God's chosen ones. And no matter how much we debase and down cast ourselves, God still want to proclaim the Good News to us.

He still continues to send His angels to proclaiming to us that no matter what we have done that He has sent His Son to save us!

Listen to that still small voice in your heart. It might be the angels inviting you to open your heart to the coming of your Savior, Jesus.

Emmanuel, "God [is] with us"