FEAST OF THE 3 WISE MEN by REV FR MARIO P. RIVERA

Traditionally the end of Christmas is the Epiphany , the Feast of the 3 kings or The 3 wise men, or the 12th day After Christmas,( Christmas ends on February 2 - Baptism of Jesus)The Three wise men came out to search the newly born king and give homage by giving gifts.

When you give gifts you are wise, because you follow the example of the 3 wise men, when we give we think of what the appropriate gift to give the one we will give it to. As for the wise men gifts they brought were;

GOLD – Royalty, during Jesus time was the most precious metal, if you have an abundance of it means your wealthy, respectable and it is worthy of KINGS ,it represents the Divinity of Christ.

in the Old Testament – the Temple was made with Gold, hence was called the House of GOLD, why because Gold represents the power and majesty of GOD.

We cant offer Him gold but we can offer Him loyalty, because he is God, can people see that God is God and God is Divine, can people see your loyalty? through your actions? In your beliefs? That Jesus is Divine

If we have had doubts in our life and faith , time to offer ourselves to God , that we are an offering to God , we exist to glorify God and to be of service to our fellowmen, how we treat and serve others is how we treat and serve Jesus

we can only glorify Him if we believe and accept Him as God, Are you loyal to Christ ?? if you are then your like GOLD .

Frankincense – used to worship God in prayer, the smoke represents our prayers going to the heaven. DO we worship God, do we prove we worship God in words? in thought? in words?

Example; chain letters, chain mails, chain text – ignore! Our belief our faith should be based on love not on FEAR. God does not threaten us to do things
Example , Astrology, horoscopes, why base your life here?

(3 wisemen were Astronomers- study of the heavenly bodies the movement to the starts not Astrology, study of the stars in connection with man and human activities.

Superstitions - Year of the Rabbit, we are not Chinese, we are created better than animals, why then base on animals

Ang taong nagtitiwala ay pinagpapala, ang taong walang tiwala ay di pinagpapala

The 3 wise were trying to find Jesus, patient. Wag maging kuripot sa Diyos


Myrhh – for curing wounds and embalming, acknowledges the humanity of Jesus
We are human and vulnerable to pain , we abhor and don’t want pain, it’s not right to ask and say God take me specially if we are sick, and it’s a sin to say when a family member is ill to say Lord take him/ her to end his suffering, we should offer our suffering for the benefit of others, to ask God to use it as an offering to help others. Participation in Gods suffering, a purging, .. we suffer because we are no superheroes, We need to accept our humanity!. Tao ka

Being human were succeptible to pain, suffering, and everytime we do suffer, let us offer it to God.

3 wise men offered gifts to God, these gifts to Jesus a reminder ,
Pag mamahal sa iyo ng Diyos, let manifest our love for god and men and the very esse3nce of our life is to glorigy God and be of service to humanity.

January 1 – NEW YEARS DAY

A reflective start...new year, new begginings, redirection...


Feast Day of Mary the Mother of God- by Rev FR MARIO P. RIVERA

1.DESIGN A LIFE – what do u want out of your life, what are your plans for your life? what do you still want to happen in your life? if u have a design, a plan in your head youll do everything to achieve that.

God made you and gave you your life, so make it useful! everything you do good or bad affects the people around you whether you realize it or not.

" If u think you can, your right, if you think you cant, your also right" – WINSTON CHURCHILL. It matters what you think you can do.

To achieve your dreams How? start with positive thinking – all things will be easier. NO excuses. Write it plot it,then just do it.

2. PRIORITIZE – WHAT IS IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE?? putting into order the hierarchy of values you have,
why do u work ? for what ? why?

When what we do equivalents NO TIME for the people/reason we do things for ... then
we may have to re-organize our priorities.

So what are your priorities, LIST IT, the time is now! All we do affects others, attitudes affect others.

3. PUT THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN FRONT
Today is the Feast of the MOther of GOd, what better way than to look up to her for example, for help, for guidance, often times to keep the peace in our conversations specially with those whose beliefs and religions are different from us we refrain from talking about her, we are ashamed to talk about her, were afraid to rock the boat, we hide her, we hide our love for her, to think that we should be proud of her ,

to think that the next most important person in the NEW TESTAMENT aside from JESUS is the Blessed Mary, we should be ashamed in hiding our love for her, One of the best best gifts God gave us is the Blessed Mary.

As for those who do not believe in her who contest Catholics belief for her, we can only say that : we have the received the very best gift from God that you don’t have and that’s the blessed Mary,

a Mom who loves us, pacifies us , helps us, consoles us, who helps be our bridge,a mom who only almost always wants whats good for us, our greatest intercessor, and will always be there for us too til the last day.

Be the change you wish to see in this world!



what i learned:

design my life, plan, make no excuses in implementing it,prioritize, to not forget Mama MAry is there for me, and that in order not to be frustrated with how people bungle up things and when things dont go my way .. to try to be the change i wish to see in this world.