Reflection for the Memoria of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist.

I'm sure many of us have some people that we do not like to meet or just have this feeling of...'arghhhh'...when we see them. There are many reasons for not wanting to meet them or the feelings of 'arghhhh' even when we see them. 

Now, let us look at those people in our life.......who are they? Why do we have this reaction when we see them? There is this one reason that I want to look at in today's reflection. We have this certain people in our life that we do not like to meet because they point out all our mistakes and wrong doings. And it hurts, and we feel disgusted to hear the 'truth' told about us. Most times we do not agree with them when they say things about us. Even if we agree, we do not acknowledge it in front of them. And the next time, if possible we try to avoid meeting them. 

Hmmm can they be our conscience? Is that the reason why we do not want to meet them? In today's Memorial of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist (ref: Mark 6: 17-29), we see that this great Saint has been a 'conscience' to Herod the tetrarch. John the Baptist rebuked Herod for his incestuous and adulterous marriage to Herodias. Herod became murderer because he was afraid to stand for truth and did not want to repent. He is a murderer because he did not listen to his 'conscience'.

We pray today that we would be open to the criticisms, feed-backs and the 'truths' that others give us and we offer it all to the Lord in our prayers and discernment and make the necessary and right changes and improvement for a better living.

The Beheading of John the Baptist - by Rembrandt

Prayer Power Rally against the RH Bill and some fond memories....

Yesterday I proudly attended the Prayer Power Rally against the RH Bill organized by the Episcopal Commision on Family and Life (ECFL) of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) at the famous EDSA Shrine. Yes I am a 'Pro-Life' and I think I made it clear while I was working as a Youth Minister for the Catholic Diocese of Melaka-Johor, Malaysia. We had many 'Pro-Life' events such as No Apologies, Theology of the Body courses and New Sexual Revolution seminars organized by the Diocesan Youth Ministry. I'm glad that I was able to continue to make my stand here in this land of the Philippines joining my brothers and sisters in Christ in their stand to oppose the RH Bill. 

Participating in this rally brought back some memories. First as mentioned above, it brought back the memories of my experiences as a youth minister. Hahaha I wished I brought my  'pro-life' t-shirt. It was so appropriate for the event.

Second memories was the Bersih 3.0 rally I participated in Seremban. Click here for my short post on it. The difference with this 'Oppose RH Bill Rally' is that, this is a religious rally where we had prayers, sermons and lectures and ended with the Holy Eucharist. Though many Filipino participated (The paper today said more than 10 thousand) I did not see any police. It was a peaceful rally unlike Bersih where police shot teargas and beat up protestors and arrested and charged a few people.  

My third event that came to mind when I participated in this rally was the World Youth Day events that I participated. Click here for my post on it. The songs, music and the mass of the 'Oppose RH Bill Rally' reminded me of the World Youth Day 1995 in Manila. The rain reminded me of the recent 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid. That event we had a storm but yesterday we were prepared for the rain.


Here are some pictures of the Prayer Power Rally against the RH Bil:-