Reflections: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Is 55:10-11; Rom. 8:18-23; Mt. 13:1-23. Our Gospel today is usually called “The Parable of the Sower.” And yet the sower is mentioned only at the beginning: ‘A sower went out to sow’ and not spoken of again. What is the concern of the parable? It is not the sower but the kinds of soil…

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LECTIO DIVINA: XV Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Translated by Fray Hubert Dunstan Decena, OAR Mt. 13:1-23 A. Invoking the Holy Spirit We invoke the Holy Spirit using the words of St. Augustine. Come, Holy Spirit, by whom every devout soul, who believes in Christ is sanctified to become a citizen of the City of God! (en. Ps 45:8) Come, Holy Spirit, grant…

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Reflections: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Zech. 9:9-10; Rom. 8:9, 11-13; Mt. 11: 25-30 In our Gospel passage today Jesus speaks to God the Father in second person as a Son speaks to his Father. He praises God that he has revealed the mystery of salvation not to those who considered themselves learned about God’s Law i.e., to the Scribes and…

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JULY 2020 RECOLLECTION: The Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda, The Abandoned Sick People

Translated by Fray Hubert Dunstan Decena, OAR Jn. 5:1-9. The crisis of COVID 19 has manifested, among other things, the fragility of the human being, his transitory nature and the boundaries of his existence. In a Promethean era like ours, an insignificant virus has brought to its knees the wisdom of a science that considers…

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SARF-Vicariate of USA Newsletter (June 2020)

June greetings to all of our Secular Augustinian Recollects, Guild members, and the Hispanic Committee! The Sacred Heart/Tagaste community was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, announcing that public Sunday Masses in the Archdiocese were being resumed on a restricted basis on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi,…

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LECTIO DIVINA: XIV Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Translated by Fray Hubert Dunstan Decena, OAR Mt. 11:25-30 A. Invoking the Holy Spirit. We invoke the Holy Spirit using the words of St. Augustine. Come, Holy Spirit, by whom every devout soul, who believes in Christ is sanctified to become a citizen of the City of God! (en. Ps 45:8) Come, Holy Spirit, grant…

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Five friars profess Simple Vows amidst CoVid pandemic

Antipolo City, RIZAL—The Coronavirus (CoVid-19) pandemic is forcing cities and nations into border lockdowns and citizens into isolation. And yet it could not stop the Prior Provincial, Fray Dionisio Q. Selma, OAR, from welcoming into the Order of Augustinian Recollects five young men who made their simple profession of vows at St. Ezekiel Moreno Novitiate-Recoletos…

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