We are back to Ordinary Time.
Sunday Gospel Reflections
With the Christmas season behind us now, we enter now for a few
Sundays in Ordinary time. With the Lord's Baptism last January
10, we will have the 2nd Sunday of the Year on January 17, and
celebrate Sundays in Ordinary Time until February 14 - the 6th
Sunday of the Year. Ash Wednesday will be commemorated on the
17th of February, and the Sundays of Lent - a time for
meditating on the Lord's vocation as Suffering Servant - is
scheduled from February 21 to March 21.
The Christmas season ended with the feast of the Baptism of the
Lord. The Lord's baptism reminds us also of our own baptism and
how we are called to be faithful to our baptismal consecration.
As the Lord was sent by the Father to preach the Good News to
all people, by our baptism, we are also called to bring the
message of the Gospel to others - more in deed than in word.
The 2nd Sunday of the Year is celebrated differently in the
Philippines. For the liturgical calendar in the universal Church,
the 2nd Sunday of the Year presents the gospel account on the
story of the miracle at the wedding of Cana. In the Philippines,
the 2nd Sunday of the Year is reserved for the feast of the Sto.
Niño - the Child Jesus (popular in Europe as the Infant Jesus of
Prague).
Given below are the gospel reflections for the feast of the Lord's
Baptism and for the 2nd Sunday of the Year (gospel - John 2:1-11):
"He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit"
"Do whatever He tells you"
Familiarization with Facebook's Privacy Settings
For those who prefer to set their settings to private in Facebook,
here is an article that will help you familiarize yourself with
the five basic but vital privacy settings in Facebook. Since
Facebook reached a membership of about 350 million last December
2009, it formalized its privacy settings for its members (who want
to keep their account private) with several options and settings,
depending on the member's degree of involvement with the site.
The five basic but vital privacy options in Facebook are:
Profile Information, Contact Information, Applications and
Websites, Search, and Block List. If privacy is very important
to you, then this article can act as a guide to help you in
deciding what options to set, for each of the five basic privacy
settings you are given in your Facebook account.
What is good about Facebook's privacy settings is that you can
set and reset these settings depending on how you want your
social network to grow and develop. Also, the settings are a
security measure so that you can safeguard the information you
share in your Facebook network. The most private setting given
by Facebook is "Only Friends". The most public setting is
"Everyone". There is also another setting called "Customize".
If you want a particular setting for a specific feature in your
Facebook membership, then you may be interested in learning more
about this option.
learn more about privacy in Facebook
44th World Communications Day Message
According to the news, the Vatican will be releasing soon the
Message of Pope Benedict XVI for the 44th World Communications
Day Message. Since this year was dedicated to a Year for Priests,
the Message is a call also for the clergy to engage in using the
internet for their ministry and evangelization work. This Message
will be published on January 24, 2010, the feast of St. Francis
de Sales, patron of writers. If you want to learn of more about
this Message and the other Messages written by Benedict XVI, you
visit the link given below:
Benedict XVI's WCD Messages
Since John Paul II passed away last 2005, Benedict XVI has given
the 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, and will give the 44th WCD Message.
These WCD Messages are important because they give Catholics
guidelines and directives on how to use the internet, and the
other media, for the mission of the Church, and for the common
good - benefitting the family, sectors of society and people of
all walks of life.
Although the 44th World Communications Day Message will be
published this January 24, 2010, the celebration of the 44th
World Communications Day will be on the Sunday (May 16) before
Pentecost Sunday (May 23). In some countries, the Sunday before
Pentecost Sunday is celebrated as the 7th Sunday of Easter, with
Ascension celebrated on the Thursday before this 7th Sunday. In
other countries, instead of a Thursday, they celebrate Ascension
on a Sunday. This is what is followed in the Philippines, as the
local Church wants many of the lay faithful to attend the feast
of the Lord's Ascension.
Some statistics to reflect upon
The Almanac of 2006 has given the following statistics for
world religions:
- catholics 1,105,808,000
- protestants 369,848,000
- orthodox 218,427,000
- anglicans 78,745,000
- hindus 851,291,000
- jews 14,990,000
- muslims 1,283,424,000
- buddhists 375,440,000
- others 827,691,000
- nonreligious and atheists 917,840,000
Although these statistics were given four years ago, we can still
have an idea of what the present statistics are, if the growth
pattern has remained basically the same. With these statistics,
we can see that Muslims are 21.24% of the world population, while
Catholics are 18.30%. If we combine all the Christian faithful
together - which means including the Protestants, the Orthodox,
and the Anglicans - then Christianity still is the majority world
religion with a percentage of 29.33%. This statistic tells us
that Christian unity is a very important factor when it comes
to considering world religions. A very good advocator of the
unity of Christians was John Paul II. Therefore, even if
Catholics are less than the Muslim population, they gain strength
if they advocate the unity of Christians as part of their mission
in the world.
Now these statistics reveal only the population of each religion's
adherents. When it comes to those who use the internet, this is
probably much less - as those who have access to the internet is
not yet that widespread. You can check yourself at this time,
how many results you get in the search engines for the search
term "catholic" or "catholic church" and for the search key word
"muslim" or "islam". You will be surprised at the results. The
same goes for the rest of the other world religions. The online
results reflect a different set of statistics, far different from
the percentage based on physical geography of believers, non-
believers, and atheists.
