Dear Family of God,

As we celebrate Epiphany or the Manifestation of Jesus as God and our light, I want to continue with the message of Pope Saint Paul II on the vocation of Christian Families.

In matrimony and in the family a complex of interpersonal relationships is set up--married life, fatherhood and motherhood, filiation and fraternity--through which each human person is introduced into the "human family" and into the "family of God," which is the church.

Dear Family of God,

As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, I want to share with you an excerpt from an Encyclical by Pope Saint John Paul II, “Familiaris Consortio” in 1981, Paragraph 14.

According to the plan of God, marriage is the foundation of the wider community of the family, since the very institution of marriage and conjugal love is ordained to the procreation and education of children, in whom it finds its crowning.34

Dear Family of God,

The Obedient Faith of Joseph: a Model to Follow

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Mt. 1:20-21).

Dear Family of God,

Do you need patience? How to be patient?

St. James said from our Second Reading this weekend, “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord.” He wants us to imitate the farmer who waits patiently for the fruit of the earth.

Dear Family of God,

What are the messages of Our Lady, St. John the Baptist and St. Paul from our readings today?

St. John is not being vindictive toward the Pharisees by warning them; he is being merciful. He does not want the Messiah to arrive and find them unprepared. His urgent mission is to rescue them before it is too late, to show them how to receive God’s great mercy.

Dear Family of God,

This weekend we will begin a new Liturgical Year; we are tasked to prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus as we remember his First Coming on Christmas.

How do we prepare for His coming? We can learn from our first reading: “Come let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths… and walk in the light of the Lord.”

Dear Family of God,

This weekend Jesus is teaching how to be prepared for his Second Coming. How to be vigilant? Humble waiting for God must be our attitude by following his commandments.

According to Prophet Malachi: “All the proud and evildoers will be burned… but for you who fear my name, there will arise the Sun of Justice with its healing rays.”

Dear Family of God,

Why celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome?

First, because it is the Episcopal Seat (the Cathedral) of the Pope as the Bishop of Rome. And so, this Church is the “Mother and Head of all Churches in Rome and the World,” according to the inscription which Pope Clement XII (1730-1740) placed in the Church.

Dear Family of God, Where in the Bible do they refer to a purification or purgation of souls?

In Revelation 21:27 we learned that “Nothing unclean will enter heaven.” This implies that souls dying with imperfection will undergo purification first before they will enter heaven. In Matthew 12:32, it says; “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” “age to come”, meaning after death.