SOMEBODY ONCE said that life is like a yoyo in God’s hands: Whether we go up or go down, we always end up in the palm of His hand.
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Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Holy Week, in which we commemorate the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hailed during Palm Sunday, derided during Good Friday, and exalted on Easter Sunday, Jesus through it all remained in the palm of God’s hand.
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To remain in the palm of God’s hand especially this Holy Week, let us do “P-A-L-M,” i.e., Prayers, Almsgiving, Love, and Mortification.
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PRAYERS: This week, let us spend time to be with our Lord to reflect and to pray. Let us take time off from our work and worldly concerns, and really talk and listen to our Lord. Let’s take time to join a retreat or a recollection, do the Stations of the Cross, or spend moments of adoration. Let us do them all not out of obligation, or because of tradition, but with heartfelt and personal devotion.
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ALMSGIVING: Please find time this week to reach out and share to the last, the lost and the least among us. It’s payback time, especially for those of you who have been so blessed by God. Share your time, talent and treasure.
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LOVE: Please do whatever practices or devotions you do this week as an expression of love and gratitude to our loving God. During these days too, let us go out of our way, and go the “extra mile” to show our love and appreciation of the people around us. It is also the time to forgive and ask for forgiveness. It is the time to show that we love and we care.
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MORTIFICATION: Let us make some sacrifice and go beyond our comfort zones. Fasting and abstinence not just from food but from those that we really like should lead us to deeper reflection and deeper relationship with God, Who in turn will lead us to deeper conversion.
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To our acronym P-A-L-M, we add “S” i.e., Prayers, Almsgiving, Love and Mortification, with a Smile! Whatever we do this Holy Week, let us do it all with joy and with gratitude. God loves a cheerful giver! Let us thank God for giving us the chance and the opportunity to somehow respond to His love.
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Perhaps we can add another “S”—i.e., we do Prayers, Almsgiving, Love, Mortification with a “Smile,” and “in Secret.” Yes, the Holy Week is a time more for personal than for public devotion. Our Heavenly Father always sees the heart, and so let us also do everything with sincerity and with the heart.
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Please don’t forget that the passion and death of Christ ends in the Resurrection. In other words, Christ is alive and He will meet us again soon in His Kingdom. But even now, let us all become “agents of the Resurrection,” giving life, giving love and giving hope wherever we go, whatever we do.
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Below is our schedule during Holy Week: April 18, 6 p.m.—Mass and recollection, Shrine of the Divine Word; April 19, 7 p.m to 9 p.m.—Mass and recollection, San Roque Cathedral, Caloocan; April 20, 9 a.m. to 12 noon—Mass and recollection, Good Shepherd Spirituality Center, Sumulong Highway, Antipolo; April 21, 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.—Lenten Special on TV Channel 2; 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.—Recollection on TV, Channel 2; 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.—Last Supper (TV Mass) on Channel 2; April 22, 12 noon to 3 p.m.—Seven Last Words at the Shrine of the Divine Word, Christ the King; April 23, 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.—Recollection, San Beda Chapel, Alabang Hills; 4 p.m.—Lenten Special on TV Channel 2.
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Today Palm Sunday we will have an annual recollection at the Meralco Theater, from 8 a.m to 2 p.m. It will be broadcast live over PTV4.
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Beautiful prayer especially this Holy Week: “Lord, enlighten what is dark within me; strengthen what is weak in me; mend what is broken in me; bind what is bruised in me; heal what is sick in me; straighten what is crooked in me, and revive whatever peace and love that have died in me. Amen.”
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Our Holy week TV Special titled “Jesus in the Heart of Mary” will be aired on Holy Thursday (1:30 p.m.) and Holy Saturday (4 p.m.) on ABS-CBN Channel 2 and TFC. We want to thank the following for helping us in our media apostolate: Executive Resources Inc.; GTA; Pascual Laboratories; Chevron; Globe; R.S. Gothong Lines; PCSO; PLDT; Bridgestone; Design Science Inc.; SM Department Store; Sofia Tower; Pagcor; Boracay Sands Hotel; PM Lopez Forex Corp.; L.R. Tiqui Builders Inc.; Revisco; Conti’s; Alveo; Serendra; Odette Sacaben and family; Chito and Theresita Tiu; Juris Soliman and family; Edgardo Enriquez and family; Chito and Flor Bello; Icasiano and Felicidad Gutierrez; Lennie Reyes; Erma Villacrucis; Miguel Alfonso and Pilar Quiros; Paul Uy; Gertrudes Bautista and family and Erese family.
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Wishing you all a blessed, meaningful Holy Week.
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A moment with the Lord:
Lord, whatever I go through, I will be all right, as long as I am in the palm of your hand. Amen.