Homily: June 21, 2025, Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Sufficient Grace)

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 “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’”

This sentence in today’s first reading is one of the most well-known and quoted lines in the New Testament. There are many interpretations about what could be the “thorn in the flesh” which St. Paul referred to and asked for the Lord to remove for him. No one knows for sure, and no one needs to know exactly.

What we do know is that it was something Paul believed the “angel of Satan” was sent to torment him. It was so bad for him that he wished and prayed for the Lord to take away from him. But Jesus did no, and told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Jesus is telling us the same: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Are you struggling terribly?

Do you feel greatly tormented?

Are you facing huge troubles?

Do you feel like there is no way out?

If you are crying out to the Lord like St. Paul, know that you are not alone. God’s silence is not absence. He is with you, more closely than you will ever know. He is supporting you, more firmly than you can ever feel.

That is grace.

Unseen, unfelt, but real and ever present, in the sacraments and sacramentals.

Do you have holy water, blessed rosary, medals, statues, holy pictures?

Look at these, hold on to these, pray with these. They are signs that God is present, God wants to strengthen us through the effects of the ‘thorns in our flesh’.

Go do a good confession, continue to receive the Holy Eucharist. These are sacraments through with abundance of grace are poured into our hearts and uplift our souls even without us feeling it.

There are countless ways to receive grace, like daily nutrition supplements, they build us up silently. While they may not remove the thorns, they build up spiritual resilience.

Because seriously, the Lord’s grace is truly sufficient for us to walk through the valley of death and be unharmed. Believe it, claim it, receive it. Amen.


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Homily: October 18, 2025, Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist (Right - Companion)

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“Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way.” This line from today’s Gospel captures the mission Jesus gave to His seventy-two disciples. He sent them out two by two, trusting completely in divine providence. Tradition tells us that St. Luke, whose feast we celebrate today, was among these seventy-two. Jesus’ instruction was clear: they were to depend entirely on God. No extra money, no supplies, no comfort just faith and obedience. It sounds difficult, but throughout history, we’ve seen countless saints who lived this way: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Mother Teresa, and many others who relied fully on God’s providence and never lacked what they truly needed. In the first reading, St. Paul writes to Timothy and mentions St. Luke. He laments that many of his companions abandoned him, but says with great affection, “Only Luke is with me.” Luke stayed faithful to Paul even when others walked away. Luke was not on...
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 "None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord...”  What does it mean, to live and die for someone? There are many movies I have watched where characters declared ‘I would die for you’ and then they proceed to do the most dangerous tasks and take life threatening risks for the sake of helping or saving their loved one. Yes, they prove that they would truly be willing to die for the person they love by doing anything and everything for the good of that person. And that is what our Lord does for us. He lives and dies for us. He has proven it, He has done it, and He will keep doing it if that is what will save us from sin. Here in this second reading, St. Paul declares that he too would live and die for the Lord, that we all should do the same. Would you? Would you really live and die for the Lord? If you think your answer is ‘Yes’, then it means you really love the Lord more than your own life...
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Homily: October 21, 2025, Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Sin-Grace)

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Did you listen attentively to the Gospel reading? Yes? Let me test you… What did Jesus say? Did He say, “Whoever eats my bread and drinks my wine?”  No! He said, “Whoever eats my FLESH and drinks my BLOOD remains in me and I in him.” Yes, when you receive Holy Communion, you are receiving the real flesh and blood of Jesus. I am sure Fr. Roy, your catechists, parents and the whole parish community have prepared you well for this day, so you know what you are receiving today. But what I want to focus on now is the last part where Jesus says, ‘remains in me and I in him’. 29 years ago in 1996, I received my First Holy Communion. I was eight years old, but I still remember that day vividly. I remember the preparations, my First Reconciliation, and the excitement I felt when I lined up to receive Jesus for the very first time. I remember seeing the priest dipping the Precious Body into the Precious Blood, and then that precious moment – Jesus’ body and blood rested on my tongue. So swee...
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Homily: February 18, 2024, First Sunday in Lent (Repent and belive)

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 "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." Jesus is crying out loud at the Jordan, the same place where John the Baptist was calling out to people before he was arrested. There is sense of urgency in the message, a kind of ‘do it now’ warning, a very clear call for action, “repent, and believe…” As we enter the first Sunday of Lent, this is the first call of Jesus to each of us. ‘Repent’ – have you? ‘Believe’ – do you? If not, what are you waiting for? This is usually the period when our catechumen and candidates go through their final stretch of preparation towards baptism, and this message of Jesus is also calling out to them to take action, to convert their hearts, to believe in Him, to wait no more. Today, during this Mass, we will have the rite of sending, to dispatch them to our bishop for the rite of election at St. Francis of Assisi Parish. They have spent many months learning about the teachings of the Cathol...
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Homily: October 20, 2025, Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Greed)

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Homily: March 7, 2022, Monday of the First Week of Lent.

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  “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am Holy”. Both the first and Gospel readings today presented a ‘to-do’ and ‘not-to-do’ list. Some are really tough tasks. Can we ever accomplish them? Is it possible for us to be holy? We all know that at the sacrament of reconciliation, it is Jesus Himself who is sitting at the confessional, listening to the confessions. And the sacred privilege for me as a priest, is that I get to see as God sees and hear as God hears. And what does God see and hear? He doesn’t see our failures. He sees our brokenness. He doesn’t hear our sins. He hears our desire to be good. And God wants to help us. He reaches out to us, pouring out His graces. We desire to be holy and God desires the same. In that moment of reconciliation, in that meeting of desires, we become holy. And I, the priest who witnesses that sacred moment, also become holy. The very first step to becoming holy is to desire holiness. To desire becoming what God wants us to be, to be like Him, to...
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Homily: December 26,2022, Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr.

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From the first reading, we heard Stephen declare, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But his persecutors ‘cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.’ If we could visualize the scene, we would imagine Stephen looking radiant with joy as he anticipated his death, while his persecutors looking tormented and fearful as they prepared to kill. We know why Stephen was joyful as he looked up to heaven, because he could see where his future would be. We also know why his persecutors were afraid as they closed their ears to Stephen’s words, because they did not want to hear the truth. It tormented their conscience and pierced through the darkness in their hearts. I am sure we ourselves may have experienced the same, when our wrong doings were being highlighted, when our shame were being revealed or when our hurts were being exposed, we might also cry out, “stop! I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to know i...
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