Saturday, April 5, 2025

Ngon Quá Foodie Blog: K Ramyun (Cedar Park)

Hello, friends! It's been a while since my last Ngon Quá Foodie Blog entry so here we go!

Theresa knows I love ramen noodles and our favorite ramen place is JINYA Ramen (see below) in the Doman North. We have also tried other ramen places but nothing quite compare to JINYA Ramen in broth, flavor, and toppings. Recently, we decided to try a ramen bar - K Ramyn - where you cook your own ramen noodles and add the toppings you want. We tried it mostly for the experience because, well, it is package ramen noodles that we can buy at your local H Mart, MT Supermarket, or Ranch 99 grocery store (for a much cheaper bowl of ramen noodles). It was a fun experience, though! (Bonus. . . the ROSÉ and Bruno Mars song - APT. . .  LOL!)

Here is how it works. Step 1, choose your packaged ramen from their ramen wall. As you go from left to right, the spicier the ramen packages are. Interesting enough, I got the kimchi flavored one and it was not as spicy as the ramen flavored that Theresa picked, which was the Roasting Seoul Ramen.


Step 2, we choose our toppings, which included pickled radish, kimchi, cilantro, green onions, onions, shrimp, rice cakes, hard-boiled eggs, bean sprouts, etc., all in small to-go condiment cups with lids. After you picked your toppings you go pay and get your bowl, utensils, chopsticks, etc. Then comes the fun part. . .

Step 3, we get to cook our ramen in this unique kitchen appliance that we see on YouTube channels on food from countries like Japan and Korean. We start by putting the noodles and seasoning into the bowl. We then add our toppings, which the clerk guides you. She told me to add everything into my bowl except for my pickled radish and kimchi. Then the clerk tells us to hit the "M1" button and then the "yellow" button. This starts the timer and hot water pours into the bowl. We then stirred our noodles and the toppings for 3 minutes.



After the timer goes off, we find a table and enjoy our ramen noodle bowl! Yum!



Like I said, it was a fun experience but certainly a meal we could have easily made at home. :) We had a good time and, best of all, it was quality time spent together. Yay! for date night!

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Friday, April 4, 2025

Gospel Reflections for the Fourth Week of Lent (3/31-4/5/2025)


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Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/5/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in the first reading, we hear how the Prophet Jeremiah "entrusted [his] cause" to the Lord completely because our Lord and God is a "just Judge, searcher of mind and heart." How about us? Do we entrust our cause to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, trusting in him completely with our lives, our very being?

This certainly can be a challenge for us because we do not want to lose control of our lives. We are not ready to say to Jesus: "Jesus, take the wheel" (like in the Carrie Underwood song). There is a deeper spiritual question for us here. Do we trust in God? Do we trust that Jesus is who he says he is, the Son God and the Son of Man? "C.S. Lewis rightly observed: Jesus is either liar, lunatic, or Lord "(https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/barron/what-precisely-is-the-gospel/).

We hear in today's Gospel that the chief priests and Pharisees did not trust Jesus. They did not believe that he is the Christ, and they sought to convince others of the same, saying, "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?" Trust entails a personal relationship and, so for us, as we continue with our Lenten journey, as we pray, fast, and give alms, let us pray for the gift of faith to trust in God and believe in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is as Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me" (John 14:1).

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040525.cfm
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Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/4/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in his homily on today's Gospel, Fr. Doug reflected that nothing happened to our Lord Jesus Christ that he did not allow to happen to him. For instance, "they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come." They were able to arrest him in the Garden because he allowed it to happen. They were able to nail him to the Cross because he allowed it to happen.

Jesus endured his Passion out of obedience to his Father (Philippians 2:8). His Father allowed his Son die on the Cross out of love for us (John 3:16). For these reasons, our path to salvation is through the Cross of Christ who, as he hung of the Cross, as the Father to forgive us, gives his Mother Mary to us as our Mother, and his Blood and water came forth from his side to purify us.

As we move ever closer to Holy Week and Jesus' Passion, may our continued practice of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving give us the courage to follow God's will for us in our lives, even if it means temporal suffering. May we walk the way of the Cross with Christ in faith, not fear, because our salvation awaits us at the end of our journey.

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Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/3/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, for a year and a half, I helped Fr. Charlie lead the Knights of Columbus Council with our Cor meetings on the "Into the Breach" series, which is based on an Apostolic Exhortation written by Bishop Olmsted (Diocese of Phoenix). Essentially, Bishop Olmsted called men to have courage and conviction of faith to go into the breach to stand up for the family and be the men, husbands, fathers, and models of authentic masculinity that God has called them to be.

In today's first reading, we hear that Moses went into the breach on behalf of the people of God "to turn back His destructive wrath." The Israelites had "become depraved. . . making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it," and so God threatened that his wrath "blaze up against them to consume them." Our Jesus Christ also stood in the breach for us on the Cross and said to God, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

We are indeed "stiff-necked" people. Thankfully, we have powerful intercessors in heaven and prayerful ones on earth to stand in the breach for us. At the same time, our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to conversion every day, to turn away from our destructive path and return to God. As we continue with our Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, let us give praise to God for relenting in His wrath (as justify as He is), give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for interceding for us, and ask for the courage to go into the breach for our loved ones. Jesus, I trust in you.

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Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/2/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, as Fr. Doug reflected this morning in his homily, today's Gospel is a reminder to us that it was God who prayed for us in the garden of Gethsemane. It was God who was betrayed by His own people. It was God who was scourged that the pillar. It was God who reserved the crown of thorns on His head. It was God who carried the Cross to Calvary. It was God who was nailed to the Cross. It was God who died on the Cross. It was the Blood of God that was spilled on the Cross for our salvation because He loves us.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Way to the Father. He is the Word of God sent to speak the Truth of God to us. Jesus is the path to abundant Life, here and now and in eternal life. Jesus teaches us  prayer, humility, and obedience to our Father in heaven. From Saint Paul's Letter to the Philippians (2:6-8):

"[Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."

As we continue on our Lenten journey, may our practice of the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us to believe even more deeply what we profess at Mass - "I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father." - as we move ever closer to Holy Week and the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/1/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today’s Gospel, we hear the story of a man who has been ill for 38 years. He tries to get into the pool of Bethesda when the water is stirred up but others always beat him to it. However, he never lost faith or hope and kept trying and trying every day for 38 years.

From the man, we learn the power of perseverance in faith when our hope is in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, especially in our prayer and spiritual life. God will answer our prayers but on His time and according to His divine will, not ours. This is hard for us to accept and it oftentimes leads us to say to God: " If you're not going to hear my prayers and answer me, then I am not going to listen to you anymore." And so we turn our backs on God.

We can learn from the man with the illness for 38 years. He never lost faith. He never lost hope. Which means that, he has a deep love for God and trust in Him. His prayer was answered because Jesus came and asked him, "Do you want to be well?" As we continue through Lent with our practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, let us ask God for the strength and devotion to persevere in faith, never lose hope, and love God above all.

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Homily for Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent (Year C - 3/31/2025), preached at the 6:30 Daily Mass:

Good morning. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we get this insight into what faith is. The author writes: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. . .” And, then, the author gives examples of people who responded in faith: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. . . By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son. . . By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; he chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin.” (Hebrews 11:1, 14, 17, 24-25).

In today’s Gospel, we witness the faith of “the royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him, ‘You may go; your son will live.’” By faith, the royal official “believed what Jesus said to him and left.” Jesus healed his son and, as a result, not only did he believe but “his whole household came to believe.” He had faith the size of a mustard seed that could move a mountain (Matthew 17:20). The question for us is, how is our faith? When we pray “Jesus, I trust in you,” do we truly believe that we can trust God with all our heart, mind, and soul? Or how about this prayer: “O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!”? The royal official certainly surrendered himself to our Lord Jesus Christ and trusted that Jesus would take care of his son. 

What about us? How is our faith? Do we trust that God desires what is best for us in our lives? This is what the Lord God said, in today’s first reading from the Prophet Isaiah: “The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness. . .” God does not want us to dwell on our past hurts and wounds and be bound by them. Rather, He desires that we turn to Him in faith so that He can pour His grace into our hearts and help us overcome the challenges and difficulties in our lives. He wants to wipe away our tears and heal us of our afflictions because he created us to be a joy and a delight. And so, as we continue with our practice of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving but, more importantly, as we approach the Altar of the Lord and receive Him in the Most Holy Eucharist, let us beg God for the gift of faith so that we can believe in Jesus as the royal official believed in him. God is trustworthy and He is certainly worthy of our faith, belief, and trust.

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Below is my homily for Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C - 3/30/2025), preached at the 12:00:


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Sunday, March 30, 2025

Homily for Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C - 3/30/2025)


Good afternoon. Growing up, my parents worked hard to provide for our essential needs - roof over our heads, food on the table, and a car to get us where we needed to go. When I was in middle school and high school, I remember wanting more than what my parents could provide for us. I remember being envious of some of my fellow classmates who skipped school so they could wait in line to get the latest pair of Air Jordan sneakers. As I got older, the “toys” that I wanted got more expensive. The more I had, the more I wanted until, one day, as I sat in Adoration before our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament, I thought to myself: “Is this all there is to life? To chase after the next big thing that advertisers and marketers get paid millions of dollars to tell me that I must have it for my life to be enjoyable?”

My sisters and brothers in Christ, this is what the world has to offer us - power, wealth, and unholy relationships so that we can possess. . . stuff. . . stuff that can all be gone in an instant. All of these things are “fleeting” as we hear in the Book of Ecclesiastes: “[Vanity] of vanities! All things are vanity!. . .  I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind” (1:2, 14). God created us for more than the “stuff” that we possess. The Baltimore Catechism states that God created us “to know, love, and serve [Him]” (126). Saint Paul reminds us that it is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He tells us to “look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18), because “[the] last word, when all is heard: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this concerns all humankind; because God will bring to judgment every work, with all its hidden qualities, whether good or bad” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

The young son, in today’s Gospel parable of the prodigal son, desired what the world seemingly had to offer him: power and wealth. These worldly desires caused him not only to leave his father and “set off to a distant country”, but he did so in the most prideful manner imaginable, demanding his father: “give me the share of your estate that should come to me.” In reality, though, this was what the world had to offer the young son: “a life of dissipation” in which he “freely spent everything” he had and “squandered his inheritance.” In the end, he had nothing to show for it, and, as the world was quick to take from him everything he had, it was just as quick to abandon him when “he found himself in dire need.” We hear that “he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.” The world stripped him of the power that he thought he had because of his wealth. The world stripped him of his most basic need in life - food. . . he was “dying from hunger.” Most of all, the world stripped him of his identity as a beloved son of his father when he had to hire himself out and was sent to a “farm to tend the swine.”

In the plight of the young son, we see a heartbreaking situation that is all too familiar to so many of us here who have family members who have stopped practicing their Catholic faith, left the Catholic Church, and perhaps even turned their backs on God. Our hearts ache for them because, in the Eucharistic celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass, we come to the Altar of the Lord and “have more than enough food to eat, but here [are they], dying from hunger.” They are dying from hunger because they have chosen to separate themselves from our Eucharistic Lord whose “flesh is true food, and. ..  blood is true drink,” and who says to us: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (John 6:55-57). Fortunately, for our sake, there is always hope because our God is loving, merciful, and forgiving to those who come to their senses and want to be reconciled to Him through our Lord Jesus Christ, who “for our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”

The young son, in a moment of lucidity, perhaps as a result of the involuntary fast that he was on, came to his senses and desired to be reconciled with his father. With the humility of a person who had been stripped of everything, even his dignity, he did not blame his father for allowing all these things to happen to him. Rather, he repented and said to his father: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.“ The young son understood in his heart that his father respected his freewill to pursue his own course in life, even if it was not what his father would have wanted or had planned for his life. That, my sisters and brothers in Christ, takes a contrite and humble heart and courage to accept the consequences of our own choices and actions and not blame God. Moreover, the young son’s words and actions before he “set off for a distant country” undoubtedly hurt his father deeply because he desired things of this world more than his relationship with his father. However, rather than lord it over his son and say: “I told you so,” his father patiently waited for him to come to his senses and return home. From his generous heart and filled with compassion for his son, who “was dead, and has come to life again. . . was lost and has been found,” the father embraced his son and kissed him, and restored his dignity as his beloved son.

When the young son’s humble and contrite heart was met by the father’s generous and compassionate heart, this made reconciliation possible between father and son. It is the same with us when it comes to rebuilding our relationship with God or helping others rebuild their relationship with God. Pope Francis once said that the “church is a mother with an open heart. She knows how to welcome and accept, especially those in need of greater care, those in greater difficulty. How much pain can be soothed, how much despair can be allayed in a place where we feel at home" (July 13, 2015). We are the many parts of the One Body of Christ, the Church, called to “welcome and accept, especially those in need of greater care” and make them “feel at home” in our midst.

The question for us then is: how can we - through giving of ourselves generously out of love of God and love of our neighbor - become an instrument of reconciliation for someone we know and love to rebuild their relationship with God? Well, perhaps we can find the answer together as a parish family by attending the English Lenten Mission, being given by Tom Corcoran (co-author of “Rebuilt” and “Rebuilt Faith”). The Lenten Mission starts tonight, March 30th, at 6:30 PM in the church, continuing on March 31st, and ending on April 1st. Moreover, the Lenten Mission is a great opportunity for those of us already going to church to grow deeper in our faith, as well as for those who do not like going to church so invite those you know who are not going to church to join us for the Lenten Mission.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, may our practice of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving lead us to repentance for the times that we, like the young son in the parable of the prodigal son, desire things of this world more than our relationship with God, our Father. Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and with humble and contrite hearts, may we be reconciled to our Father in heaven, rebuild our relationship with God, and help others to do the same in their relationship with Him. Amen.

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Saturday, March 29, 2025

Gospel Reflections for the Third Week of Lent (3/23-29/2025)


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Saturday of the Third Week of Lent (3/29/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, it is love and knowledge of him that God desires from us. It is no coincidence that the first three commandments relate to love and knowledge of the Lord, which Jesus summed up in the Great Commandment: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.

Yet, we oftentimes fall short of this because there are idols in our lives that we wilfully put above God. We need to have humble and contrite heart, like that of the tax collector in today’s Gospel reading, if we truly desire to love and know God. We need to pray as he prayed and say: "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinful one."

The purpose that gives our lives true meaning is to love, know, and serve God (The Baltimore Catechism), who created us and continues to sustains us. As we continue our practice of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, may our hearts be softened and opened to invite the Spirit of God to dwell in our hearts.

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Friday of the Third Week of Lent (3/28/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today's Gospel, Jesus gives us the Great Commandments, saying:

"The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."

The love of God is first not because God needs us to love him for His sake but because we need to love God first for our own sake. When we love God above all things, even and especially above our own relationships with our spouse, children, family members, and friends, then God will show us how to love them as He loves us and them, with all of our and their faults and failings.

This can be a challenge for us because we oftentimes value our human relationships (people who we see and interact with on a daily basis) more than our relationship with God, who, for many of us, confined our relationship with God to Mass on Sundays.

However, in today's Gospel, Jesus is asking us to invite him into our lives, to let him be the Lord of our lives. He promises to be with us until the end of the age, even if and when we feel all alone, we are never alone because Jesus is our past, our present, and our future.

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Thursday of the Third Week of Lent (3/27/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, we often wonder to ourselves, what is the purpose or meaning of life? When we ponder this question, we tend to limit ourselves to things of this world - career, wealth, and even to be a good person and help others. However, we are made for more than things of this world. More specifically, God made us in His image and likeness so that we may come to know Him and be with Him not only in this life, but in eternal life.

We hear precisely this from the Lord God in today's first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah: "Thus says the LORD: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper." God has written His laws onto our hearts so that we can be free from the chains of sin and temptations, free to live as faithful people of God.

Yet, of our own freewill, we choose not obey the commandments of the Lord our God nor do we take care to listen to his voice. Again, the Lord God said to the Prophet Jeremiah: "They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me. . . This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. . . ." And here is the real sad and painful consequences of our rebellious and hardened hearts - "Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech."

However, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, our Father in heaven is a loving, merciful, and forgiving Father, waiting for us to return to Him with love and compassion. Therefore, as we prepare for Holy Week in a couple of weeks from now, may the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving soften our hearts so that we can hear the voice of God speak to us and answer Him, saying: "Here am I, Lord. I have come to do your will."

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Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent (3/26/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium give us a sure path in life that leads to salvation. In them is the Living Word of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who came not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.

For our part, we are to live my the law of God given to us in the deposit of faith and, as Moses tells us in today’s first reading, "teach them to [our] children and to [our] children's children." Jesus tells is in today’s Gospel that "whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

The Lord our God "has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own. . ." and written his laws on our hearts, because "the Lord loves you and because of his fidelity" to us. Therefore, let us "Understand, then, that the Lord, your God, is God indeed, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments" (Deuteronomy 7:6, 8-9).

And so, as we continue with our Lenten journey, may the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving give us steadfast hearts that trust in the law of the Lord and the courage to be obedient to His commandments, setting aside our own pride and urge to pick and choose which commandments we want to follow or not follow, obey or not obey.

Homilies on the Beatitudes:

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Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (3/25/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord.

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is fear of the Lord; however, this fear is out of reverence for our Lord and our God and not out of fear of being punished by God's wrath. While children sometimes fear being punished for their wrongdoings and bad behaviors, most of the time; children fear disappointing their parents from a place of love for their parents and the sacrifices that their parents make on their behalf to care for them.

The latter should be the fear that we should have towards our Father in heaven that moves on to be docile and obedient to His will for us in our lives. This fear is formed over time as our relationship with Him deepens and we come to fully understand with our hearts His love, mercy, and forgiveness. This is the fear of the Lord that the Blessed Virgin Mary had in her heart when she responded to the Angel Gabriel, saying, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Mary's humble obedience to God forever changed the history of humanity. Her Fiat, or "Yes", made possible the greatest event in human history - the Incarnation, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Her "Yes" meant that she became the vessel in which the Redeemer of the world entered into human history. Her "Yes" also meant that she became the instrument in which the Lord God brought about the salvation of the people of God.

Mary is that example par excellence of how God can use us to make known his love, mercy, and forgiveness to His people, if we are willing to cooperate with Him. It took a lot of trust and courage for Mary to say "Yes" to God's will and plan for her life. As we continue with our Lenten journey, through the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, let us beg our Lord Jesus Christ to give us the courage to say "Yes" to him in our lives and come and follow him. In return, Jesus promises to be with us to the end of time.

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Monday of the Third Week of Lent (3/24/2025)


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Sunday of the Third Week of Lent (Year C) (3/23/2025)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, our God is a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness. He is a God of second chances but it is up to us to decide what we do with our second chances because God gives us freewill.

God is the great I AM who "witnessed the affliction of [His} people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so [He knows] well what they are suffering. Therefore [He has] come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” God gave His people Israel a second chance and many more chances after that to turn away from sin and temptations and repent and return to Him.

Our Father in heaven gives us the same chances through our lives to turn away from sin and temptations and repent and return to Him. He is the Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the gardener in today's Gospel parable who says to the Father: "Sir, leave [the fig tree] for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’ We are the fig tree who, of our own freewill, must desire to be cultivated and fertilized by the teachings our Jesus Christ our Lord and his one, holy catholic, and apostolic Church. If we do not, then on the day of judgment, we will be "cut down" and throw into the fire where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

Therefore, as we continue our Lenten journey, may our Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving allow our hearts to be cultivated and fertilized by our Lord and our God and be transformed by Him. 

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Sunday of the Third Week of Lent (Year A Scrutiny)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, how often do we test the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD in our midst or not?” Well, the answer is "Yes!" and we only need to look at the Crucifix to know this Truth because, as Saint Paul puts it so beautifully: "God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the "spring of water welling up to eternal life." And so, we go to him as often as we can to partake of this "living water" that he has to offer us. For us Catholics, it is the graces of the Sacraments that we have received that we can and ought to tap into for the strength and courage to live lives of virtue and faith.

The graces of the Sacraments we have received give us "hope [that] does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Our faith in gives us hope because we know in our hearts the Truth that God is love and He loves us unconditionally and forgives us our sins.

As we continue on our Lenten journey, may the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving opens the eyes of our hearts to our Lord Jesus Christ, who comes to us (like he came to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well) and offers us "living water" that quenches our thirsts and leaves us to eternal life in Him. 
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Tuesday, March 25, 2025

"Walking Wounded" - KC Austin Chapter - A Report of the Spiritual Director (3/24/2025)


Worthy Chapter President and Brother Knights,

I bring you greetings from our State Chaplain, Bishop Mulvey, and our Associate State Chaplain, Fr. Chen, whom I am in contact.

In this month's report, I wanted to share a reflection on an article, titled “Walking Wounded,” by Deacon Robert T. Yerhot, that I read in the issue of "The Deacon” (March/April 2025).

The premise of the article is: “With rare exception, the American men entering our diaconate programs and seminaries, or serving as deacons and priests, are impeded by virtue struggles, patterns of sin, distracted or disintegrated interior lives and inhibited intimacy with God and others.” (mentioned in the “Into the Breach” series)

Deacon Yerhot identifies these challenges in communicating the above:
  • “. . .a persistent denial of the deleterious effects of contemporary American culture on men. . . our culture is toxic to spiritual depth and affective maturity.”
  • “. . .men have difficulty acknowledging their wounds, either denying them (“I am not affected by cultural sin”) or minimizing them (“My wounds are not that bad”). . .”
  • “. . .significant barriers to the deep healing needed for fruitful ministry. . . [and] open doors through which Satan enters men’s lives.”
It takes courage to acknowledge our wounds and how deeply they affect us in our relationships with others but, more importantly, in our relationship with God. Moreover, when we allow Satan to have a foothold in our lives, he will continue to whisper his lies into our hearts and, before we know it, we have open wide the doors of our hearts and allow Satan's darkness to overwhelm and consume us. However, we can combat Satan with the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving but we cannot do it by ourselves. We need help from the Holy Spirit.

Deacon Yerhot shares these six steps to utilize today and perhaps work with a spiritual director:
  1. Be humble and beg for the grace to accept that you are wounded.
  2. Your wounds do not define you; God does. So ask yourself, “To what image of God am I attached?”
  3. Beg for the grace to know the roots of your suffering, the patterns of sin in your life, when they began, your fears in regard to them, and the secrets you have kept and lies you have accepted because of your wounds.
  4. Share this inventory with God and your spiritual director.
  5. Beg for the grace of healing and the courage to live in freedom.
  6. Each day beg for the grace of a life of freedom in the Lord, and remain in spiritual direction as you more fully enter into an in-depth relationship with God.
Point #2 above is important for us, because our wounds do not define us. We oftentimes fear facing our woundedness or sharing it with others because we fear being defined by our wounds. However, as Pope Saint John Paul II once said, "“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”

And know that we are not alone in our struggles. Many young couples who come to me with struggles in their marriage oftentimes think that they are the only ones struggling. However, when they realized that other married couples have the same struggles, they have hope that they too can overcome that challenges that they are facing and have a fruitful marriage.

While this article is geared for clergy and men in the seminary or diaconal formation, I believe it applies to all men, especially Knights, because we are called to be role models for other men at our parishes but, most importantly, for our sons and other young men in our families. One of the reasons why I became a Knight, after I came home to the Catholic Church, was because I knew I needed Catholic men to hold me accountable.

Spirit directors are available for all of us; however, as brother Knights, we can also hold each other accountable to live lives of virtue. Therefore, we can substitute spiritual direction with (1) the Sacrament of Reconciliation. (2) going on a retreat for men, and (3) spend time in prayer before our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament in Adoration. If needed, then seek counseling.

Vivat Jesus!

Here is a link to my previous report from the Chapter meeting in February:

Knights of Columbus Austin Chapter - A Report of the Spiritual Director (2/24/2025) https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2025/02/knights-of-columbus-austin-chapter.html

Deacon Phúc’s challenges for all Knights for the month of April
  • PERSONAL & FAMILY: Pray this “Prayer for a New Bishop” with your family until the Holy Father discerns a new bishop for the Diocese of Austin.
  • COUNCIL: Same as above.



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Monday, March 24, 2025

Homily for Monday of the Third Week of Lent (Year C - 3/24/2025)

Good morning. During Diaconal Formation, our Formation Directors often reminded us that the formation process is a marathon, not a sprint; we are in it for the long run. To use another analogy, diaconal formation is more of a slow cooker than a microwave; it takes time. This is the same with our spiritual and prayer life. Certainly, if God so desires, then our conversion could be like that of Saul. Jesus appeared to him in a dramatic way during his journey to Damascus. Saul’s conversion was immediate and he became Saint Paul, the apostle of Christ. However, our faith is a personal relationship with God who is love and who loves us and, like with all relationships, friendships, marriages, etc. that we experience in our lives,  it takes time and effort to nurture and grow in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Relationships are built on trust. When the Prophet Elisha told Naaman, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean,” Naaman “went away angry, saying, ‘I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. . . (Naaman thought his healing would be immediate. . .) Could I not wash in [the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar] and be cleansed?” However, “his servants came up and reasoned with him. ‘My father,’ they said, ‘if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said. . . Naaman [then] went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” Naaman did not trust Elisha; however, he trusted his servants. Our God is worthy of our trust. When we are challenged in our trust of God, let us pray: “Jesus, I trust in you” over and over again.

Moreover, the Prophet Elisha did not ask Naaman to do anything extraordinary. All he had to do was take a plunge in the Jordan seven times and he was made clean. It is the same with our prayer life and spirituality. Prayer does not have to be something extraordinary because our Father in heaven knows our hearts and our desires before we even have to tell Him. However, God desires us to pray because He desires to have a relationship with us and, in the intimacy of that relationship, our Lord Jesus Christ writes His laws on our hearts, reveals to us His will and plan for us, and gives us the wisdom, strength, and courage to come and follow Him. It is us, who - like the people in the synagogue in Nazareth - oftentimes do not want to hear God’s will and plan for us so we rise up, drive him out of our homes and our lives, and hurl him to the curb so we can do whatever we want to do with our own lives.

As we continue in this season of Lent, let us practice the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving with patience and perseverance. While ordinary, what makes these extraordinary acts of faith is when we do them with love - love of God and love of neighbor, they help us to overcome sin and temptations, cleanse our soul, and grow in our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Most of all, may prayer, fasting, and almsgiving soften our hearts to believe and pray with confidence: “Jesus, I trust in you.”


. . .
Gospel of the Day (Luke 4:24-30)

Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
“Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
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Friday, March 21, 2025

Gospel Reflections for the Second Week of Lent (3/16-22/2025)


. . .
Saturday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/22)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today's Gospel, we hear the familiar story of the prodigal son. At the core of this parable is the love of the Father who allowed the youngest son (of his own freewill) to turn his back on him and live a life that He did not want his son to live. . . "[the son] hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any."

Our Father in heaven gives us freewill to choose to come and follow him or turn our back on Him. Throughout our lives, we have many opportunities to turn away from a life of sin and temptations and return to our Father, through his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. However, like the prodigal son, it is up to us to come to our sense and return to our Father in heaven who wants to give us the best of everything.

This Lent, through our practice of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving give us the wisdom and courage to come to our senses and turn way from the path that we are on if it is leading us away from the love and mercy of our heavenly Father.
. . .
Friday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/21)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, our Lord and Savior entrusted to us, among other things, the deposit of faith and calls us to bear fruit in spreading the Good News to the ends of the earth. Our mission of evangelization starts at home with our families, the domestic churches.

Even in the busyness of life, as parents we have to find a way to get our children to Sunday Mass. I know of a father whose son had a baseball tournament an hour away from home. Although he had work, etc., he made the 1-hour drive so that he can take his son to Sunday Mass. The father prioritized God and Church and so taught his son to put God first, even in the busyness of life.

This Lent, may our practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us to prioritize God first in our lives, and so give Him praise and honor. When we do, our children will do the same, and our labor in God’s vineyard will bear much fruit.
. . .
Thursday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/20)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, the first reading, from the Prophet Jeremiah, gives us a beautiful image of what life can be like for us if we have a robust prayer life and spirituality that are rooted in faith in Father, hope and trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and animated by love that comes from the Holy Spirit.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
It fears not the heat when it comes,
its leaves stay green;
In the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit."

We see this in the story of the rich man and Lazarus in the Gospel reading. The rich man "seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD." In death, he is far from God as in life. On the other hand, Lazarus trusted in God even though he had nothing in life. In death, he is in the presence of God whom he loved in life.

As we continue our journey this Lent, may the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, help us build a robust prayer life and spirituality that will help us grow closer to God in this life and in eternal life. 
. . .
Wednesday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/19)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, today is the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

On this Solemnity, Holy Mother Church gives us two Gospel readings to reflect on the life of Saint Joseph. The first Gospel option is the Annunciation of Saint Joseph in which the Angel Gabriel appeared to him in a dream and told him to take Mary, who was pregnant with baby Jesus through the Holy Spirit. In obedience to the Father, he abandoned all his plans to become the foster father of Jesus and protector and provider for Jesus and Mary.

“Why was St. Matthew so keen to note Joseph’s trust in the words received from the messenger of God, if not to invite us to imitate this same loving trust?” (Pope Benedict XVI).

In the second Gospel option, we see Saint Joseph's quiet strength after he and Mary realized that the child Jesus was not part of the caravan returning home. Saint Joseph did not panic nor did he get upset. He looked for Jesus with Mary, consoled and comforted her, and then, when they found Jesus, he led them back home.

Saint Joseph was a man of few words but his actions spoke volumes. He loved Jesus and Mary and dedicated his life to being an example of holiness for Jesus, who "went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them."

“If St. Joseph was so engaged, heart and soul, in protecting and providing for that little family in Nazareth, don’t you think that now in Heaven, he is the same loving guardian of the whole Church, of all of its members, as he was of its head on earth?” (Venerable Pope Pius XII).

St. Joseph, pray for us.
. . .
Tuesday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/18)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, we have many opportunities in our lifetime to turn away from Satan and the path that leads to sin and temptation and death and turn to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that leads to eternal Life.

Jesus gave this chance to Judas Iscariot, in today's Gospel:

Jesus answered,
"It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it."
So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.

Judas had many opportunities to turn away from the path of sin and temptations but, the moment he took the morsel from Jesus, he committed to betraying Jesus and Satan entered him.

And so, Jesus asks us the same question that he asked Simon Peter: "Will you lay down your life for me?" Are we willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and come and follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? As we continue on this Lenten journey, let us ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us against the lures  and snares of the Devil through the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving lest we become like Judas and betray God’s love for us. 
. . .
Second Sunday of Lent (3/16)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today's Gospel, Jesus is transfigured - "his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white" - before Peter, John, and James. Moses, who represented the law, and Elijah, who represented the prophets, were with him.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and prophets, and he spoke to Moses and Elijah of the "exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem." Unlike the exodus that Moses led to free the people of slavery to Pharaoh, leading them to the Promise Land, the exodus that Jesus leads is from slavery to sin and temptations and leading us to eternal life in heaven.

When we come to Mass to pray and receive the Eucharist, we get a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that God has prepared for us. Jesus gives us his Body and Blood as true food and true drink and, in doing so, revealed to us his glory, in the same way that he reveled to Peter, John, and James his glory at the Transfiguration. For our part, we must be like the apostles, who "had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake," we too must awaken from our own slumber and be transformed by God's glory revealed in the Eucharist.

The Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are meant to prepare our hearts for the glory of God in Jesus' glorious Resurrection, which we celebrate at Easter. May our practice of the Lenten disciplines awaken us from our slumber, open our hearts to receive our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and so he can break our bounds of slavery to sin and temptations and be freed to love God and love others. 
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