Special Talk INTRODUCTION BRO. ALVIN BARCELONA: Research says that not all are happy during Christmas. Perhaps because some feel pressured to give gifts. To some, they need to think of what food to put on the table for the Noche Buena. Indeed, it can be stressful. What is Christmas to you? It has been said that Christmas has three stages with Santa Claus. On the first stage, we are excited because we all believe in Santa Claus. In other countries, Christmas is a SAD season. SAD is an acronym for Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is true in countries that are cold-- because they have snow-- and gloomy because the nights are longer than the days. When you're alone in a cold and gloomy place, it can really be depressing. But in the Philippines, we don’t have snow. We set up bright Christmas lights-- that’s why in January we have higher electric billsJ. But how come during the Christmas season, many of us experience SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder? Why SAD? Here are some observations: Christmas heightens your expectations. Especially in the Philippines-- because we have a long Christmas season. In September, we’re already excited for Jose Mari Chan to come out (in the media with his Christmas songs). Actually, he’s completely Christmas: season: Jose (Joseph), Mari (Mary), and Chan (sounds tiyan in Tagalog or tummy where Jesus is being conceived)J But they say the Christmas season heightens your expectations. Once Christmas season steps in, we expect to have more money and more food. If we don't, we feel miserable. We are used to family members not being around at all times. But when Christmas comes, we feel the need to be complete. If the family is incomplete, we feel sad. In addition, the hectic schedule of successive parties and heavy traffic just makes the season worse. And since we eat more and sleep less, our health also suffers. Merry, Happy It seems that we are more concerned with the less essential and we're less busy with what's truly essential. I love it when we play with words. Say: Christmas. If you remove Christ, what’s left is just mas. So, you become focused on other things, not on the birthday celebrator. The word Christmas begins with Christ. He is the birthday celebrator but more often than not, He is not being celebrated... In our school (Barcelona Academy) we teach children that the most important greeting during Christmas is "Happy Birthday, Jesus." Merry Christmas! In other countries like the United States, the Merry Christmas greeting has been prohibited especially in government offices because they deem that it's promoting a religion of Christianity that tends to discriminate other religions that are non-Christian. To be safe, they say, "Happy Holidays!” or “Season's Greetings!” It's ridiculous if you take away the reason for the celebration. That’s why, I want us to pronounce Merry Christmas as MerryChristmas. We cannot remove Christ in Christmas. That’s why I am happy with this meme: Meanwhile, an advertisement says:

Special TalkThe Lord is humbling me today. May the Holy Spirit use this message to speak to all of us today.We're taking a page, a Scripture, from one of the Letters of St. Paul to the people of Corinth. You may have heard of this before but I pray that I'm able to package this in the way that you need to receive this: "When I was a child..."That's a great reflection question. Once upon a time, we were children. I loved Saturday morning cartoons when I was a child. I loved sleeping in on Saturdays. When I was a child. we had 15 dogs...Everybody, finish that phrase: “When I was a child...” The Message TodayWe're near the tail end of 2024. When you think back of all that have happened in your life, you get to realize that you've come a long way. Imagine all you have been through to get to this moment -- all the struggles, all the mountains you had to cross, all the challenges you had to go through. The thought makes you feel that you're in a much better place now.Joyce Meyer, American Charismatic Christian author, speaker, said this:"I may not be where I want to be but at least I'm not where I used to be."I believe that you're stronger, wiser, and more resilient.But here's the key: Don't get too comfortable just yet because you may have come a long way-- but you still got a long way to go.God is not done yet with you. God is still strengthening you. He's still taking you from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and from glory to glory.You're still in beta version. God is still taking you to the better version.God is still shaping and transforming you. I believe that God still wants to see you grow up. That's the message for today.We're going to break open the word of God. We're going to lean in. Put your hand over your heart and say this with me: "Jesus, I'm here. I'm ready to listen and to be changed only by You.By Your grace, I will be transformed.”Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet And a Light unto my path.OptionsMy eldest child, Ethan, is now seven years old.One of our pastimes whenever we get bored, or whenever we need to kill time, is we play a game called Would You Rather?It's a pretty interesting game because there are no right or wrong answers. Any answer that you give would be the right answer for you. It's simple. It's where you're asked the question and you choose whichever you prefer.For example: Jollibee or Mc Donald’s? 7-11 or Uncle John's?Bini or BTS? Would you rather not using the whole day shampoo or toothpaste? Be stuck in an elevator with the noisiest high school students or middle-aged judgmental men? Go on your whole life without eyebrows or eyelashes?My point is simple. Life is full of choices. Life has a lot of options. It's easy when the choices are

Talk BRO. RYAN CAPITULO:Truly, the testimony of Mhadz exemplifies our message. We are comforted by the grace that God has given Mhadz. That was a difficult situation to be in.But isn't it comforting that God embraces everyone?You might have thought you will remain in your rock-bottom. You thought you're too far away from God. You thought there's no hope for you.But I'm telling you that God will meet you where you are. He will.    Because God met Mhadz at the lowest point of her life, at the most embarrassing moment of her life. God met Mhadz when she was too embarrassed to admit what she was doing. God met Mhadz when she felt so unworthy.And that’s what God is doing to each and every one of us.We have to believe it because it’s true.I’ll be giving you a summary of Talk 10 of our series COME and SEE because we were not able to take it up on November 17, 2024, when we did not hold our Feast due to the weather forecast that Super Typhoon Pepito would hit Metro Manila on that day.We are still studying the Book of St. John.Talk 10 is titled Resurrection. And the big message of Talk 10 is Jesus Knows Your Name. The CallSt. John started the Resurrection story with Mary Magdalene going to the tomb of Jesus. She was shocked because Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. She was distraught, she started to cry> This is a beautiful image written by St. John. We've seen this image. Where in the Bible did we see two angels?It was in the Ark of the Covenant.(The Ark is a gold-plated wooden chest where the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses was kept. The covenant refers to the Mosaic Covenant, a contract formed between Yahweh and Moses in Exodus and resulted in the Ten Commandments which the Ark carries.https://www.google.com/search?q=ark+of+the+covenant)There are two angels guarding the Ark of the Covenant which is the most powerful symbol of God's Presence for the Israelites.St. John was telling us a very important lesson: That Jesus is God's Presence and Jesus is the Ark of the New Covenant that God made with His people.We also saw two images of angels guarding the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were expelled.From this imagery,St. John is telling us that Jesus is the New Garden of Eden.Jesus is the New Tree of Life, and that the gate of the Garden is no longer closed.We also read in that particular Reading that Mary Magdalene mistook Jesus as a gardener. telling us that JesusGardener of His Garden.When Jesus called Mary Magdalene by her name, she recognized Jesus. She failed to recognize Him a few moments before that. > This is the absolute truth:You recognize Jesus when you hear Him call your name. Double LifeTwenty years ago, in 2004, I heard Jesus call my name. I was reading the very first book of Bro. Bo, Thank God,He's Boss.I can't remember anymore how I got hold a copy of

Talk BRO. BO SANCHEZ: I want you to give a big, big hug to seven persons beside you and tell each one of them: "God is calling you again." Let’s give a big hand to our worship team. Thank you so much, guys. Also, a big hand to Doc Ryan and Mhadz. Beautiful. Everybody say, “I’m happy!” Tell somebody beside you, “I’m happy you’re here!” We’re going to continue reading the Word of the Lord. Everybody, extend your hands towards the Scriptures: Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet And a Light unto my path. Limbo We're going to read the epilogue of John. This is the last talk of our series. This is the 11th talk. In the epilogue, we discovered something that's similar to Avengers Endgame. Its opening act is very different from the previous Avengers movies. The Earth's mightiest heroes were fighting alien invasion. They were doing heroic stuff. But in the opening act of this particular movie, they were like in a limbo. They lost and they didn’t know what they're supposed to do. Captain America was leading a support group. Hulk was no longer smashing things. He was Professor Hulk. He became very gentle, and he was signing autograph for kids. Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, was supposed to be handsome. But in the opening act of Avengers Endgame, Thor was drunk and had a fat belly. I can almost imagine the girls saying, "Refund! We didn't come here to watch Chris Hemsworth in that way!" Crossroad The Avengers were lost. It's almost like what happened to the Apostles in the epilogue of John. Prior to that, they were powerfully going from town to town with supernatural strength, driving out demons, performing miracles, and healing the sick. Even when they saw Jesus alive again, not all their questions were answered. They were still lost. They were still in limbo. This is what happened: This was not just, "We're hungry. We need fish. We will go out." This was Peter saying, "I don't know what I am going do. Maybe, my life for fishing for men is over. I'm going to go back to my old life and I'll start fishing again. This whole idea of giving my life to Jesus. I don't think it's for me anymore. I know Jesus rose from the dead. He's been appearing but for now I really don't know what to do with my life." Have you been in that place? Have you been in that crossroad where you saw great things happen and your hopes are very high? Then, some crisis happened and you lost your way. Your down in the dumps. You're discouraged and frustrated. You're asking, "What's next?” That's the emotional state of Peter. 1. Four Steps to Renewal When you feel like giving up on your calling, I want you to take these four steps: 1.  Remember your conversion. Does this sound familiar? If Peter had a Facebook account, he would have his old

DAY 2 NOVEMBER 23, 2024Votive Mass in Honor of the Blessed Virgin MaryWitness Talk By Celebrant:REV. FR. BOB McCONAGHYGood Morning, Everyone.I’d like to express my gratitude to Bro. Randy Borromeo who was the CEO of FEASTCON, and Bro. Bo Sanchez for kindly inviting me to be the celebrant at Mass this morning.A few weeks ago, I called Bro. Bo and I said I would not be giving the Homily.I am going to be giving a Witness Talk.You see, Pope Francis said to us priests, every now and then, especially when it is most important: “It would be good for you to take people into your life, and share with them, so we can see that we’re all in this together.”We’re all on our way. It’s not like we priests made it and all you have to do is to listen to us and you’ll make it.Or rather, he said to witness Let There Be Light. We cannot really truly appreciate the power of that Light -- which is Love-- until we’d been in the darkness. If you would allow me this morning, I would like to take you into my darkness.Accident!Six weeks ago, I was going to an ophthalmologist--I can’t read too well, I have big cataract here and there. And a friend took me in her van to go to the ophthalmologist at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital. So, I was at the second row, behind the passenger seat.Suddenly-- I wasn’t paying attention-- she had to put on the brake, and I got slammed on the front seat, and then on to my back. It was extremely painful.But I got back to the seminary, and the pain was so bad, I couldn’t walk, they had to call an ambulance, took me to a hospital, and long story short, I was there for six nights. They told me that I had congested heart failure.But my cardiologist said, “We could fix that with a new pacemaker.”So, after six nights in the hospital, I got back to the seminary, from the hospital bed to my own bed, fell asleep quite easily.About 2:00 a.m., I woke up with chest pains. I hadn’t experienced chest pains in 27 years. And I sprayed my nitrogen-- supposed to open up the arteries-- but it didn’t work. So, they called Nico, my driver, rushed me to the hospital, got me into the ER...Five minutes later, the pain really got bad, so bad, they had to give me IV Morphine-- but still the pain would not subside.PrayerAnd so, I said a prayer with Nico, my driver, and I remember it was a prayer like, “Please, God, let me get through this, 50th anniversary is coming up in February...”So, there was my asking.Then, a few minutes after-- because the pain started to subside-- I said to the doctor, “Doctor, did I have a heart attack?”And he looked me right in the eye, and he said, “You’re having one right now.” Ah-huh... I didn’t pray a prayer of petition. I

Mass Memorial of St. Cecilia These days, we are reading about Revelation and we are fast approaching the end of the Liturgical Year where we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King (Sunday, November 24, 2024). Jesus was already in Jerusalem. He had had a grand welcome. But then He continued to teach, to preach. Christ Cleanses the Temple of Your Heart Today, we read that Jesus was cleansing the Temple-- of businesses, of those who cheat, of those who take advantage of the pilgrims, because they had no choice -- they had to pay, exchange money. It was at the Temple that cheating was rampant. And all these were with the approval of the priest and Temple carers. It should not be like so. But Christ now is cleansing the Temple-- the Temple of our hearts. The Temple of our hearts should be cleansed from... That’s why we have to practice humility obedience, and charity. ... And hence, today’s saint gives us an example-- St. Cecilia, who was very determined to keep her perpetual virginity, was willing to be beheaded for the sake of witnessing for Christ. Martyrs, by the way, are called witnesses for their faith, for their hope-- “The Lord will be my inheritance. You will be my reward, Lord. Even if we suffer, even if we get sick, it’s okay. We offer what we suffer. So that like You, we save the world.” ... I would like to invite all of us to ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts, our minds, our ears, and to inspire also the speakers of this Conference that Let there be Light-- that we may be open to discern, to learn, to obey, and to do with charity the good things that we are going to hear about the speakers’ experiences. ... And so, in tribute to St. Cecilia, I’ll sing my message to you: Let your light shine for all the world to see The brightness of your love within peace that sets you free Let your light shine through all your nights and days And men will see the things you do and give your Father praise. We shall do this in the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Welcome! BRO. ARUN GOGNA: Welcome to the happiest place on Earth: The FEAST CONFERENCE. Our theme for this year is Let There Be Light. ...What can light do to you? First, Light makes things clearer. ... Who among here have failures in life? You know what the Light of Jesus is telling you? The truth: Those are not failures. Those are lessons. Who among you have problems? The Light of Jesus is clarifying to you that those are not problems. They are disguised blessings. You are going through a crisis. The Light of Jesus is telling you: No, you are not going through a crisis. You are going through a transformational experience. You don’t have money. The Light of Jesus

Talk We are already at the culmination. We're nearing the end of the book of John. I pray that this has been blessing you. We are now at the tail end where we will see the part where Jesus is crucified but also the part where Jesus is enthroned as King. But I need to tell you that this is a different kind of enthronement. We are more familiar with the modern-day coronation such as the recent coronation of King Charles (left). Did you know that $125M was spent just for that coronation? But there's a different kind of coronation. The Coronation of Jesus looks like this (right): Do you see the difference? Jesus is the only King in our entire universe who chose to be crowned with thorns as King--and that's His throne, the Crucifix. About The Crucifix I need to tell you a little about the Crucifix. I believe that this is the rule of life: When you spend a long time with someone or something, it wears you out. How many of you have been married for more than 10 years? Be honest with me. There's a certain part in your marriage where you're just doing everything by ritual or by routine, right? Sometimes that happens. Things wear out over time. I realized that it's the same thing with the Cross. We appreciate the Cross. We appreciate the Crucifixion. But how many of us can honestly say that sometimes, we don't even acknowledge the Cross anymore with much reverence. Whenever we pray, some of us just do the ritual. You don't even do the Sign of the Cross. A lot of us are in that position simply because we never really experienced the Cross-- unlike the disciples did. Imagine those disciples seeing Jesus up on the Cross. Here's the difference: They saw the Cross as a tool or a symbol of execution. It was a tool for destruction. But as you experience the Cross, I want to make it a little deeper for you. Because to us, we believe in Jesus. And we know Jesus--as opposed to the people who did not believe in Jesus back then. To us, the Cross is not just a symbol of destruction. It's a symbol of the Resurrection. So that whenever we look at the Cross, we are reminded of what Jesus did for all of us. Today, I pray that you will discover a newfound passion and a newfound love for Jesus who died for all of us upon that wooden cross. Experience Jesus Anew Are you ready to experience Jesus in a fresh new way today? Put your heart over your chest and just say this with me: "Dear Jesus, I'm here. I'm present. I'm asking you to speak to me over my situation and over my difficulties. Change me. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet And a Light unto my path. It's time to lean in on the Word of God.

Talk We're still in our Feast Talk series, COME and SEE. We have been really chewing on the Gospel of John. Talk 8, The Foot-Washer Who Got Betrayed, we go a bit fast because we'll be discussing Chapters 13 to 17 of John. There are three main events that happened in those chapters.> These three events start with these words: “Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. (John 13:1a NABre) In the entire Gospel of John, Jesus was talking about the hour. If you remember the miracle of the Wedding in Cana, here, Jesus was telling Mother Mary, "The hour has not yet come for me to do this." In some other accounts in John, you will see Jesus telling people, "The hour is yet to come.” But in this verse, we're reading, the hour has come. The six signs (the miracles of our Lord Jesus) that we are talking about in this series, are pointing to the hour. This is that hour: The seventh sign. I love what is said in John 13:1B: Jesus loves you until death.> Imagine that Jesus was telling that to Himself: "It's my time." He knew the implications of that. He deliberately chose to go and do that because of His great love for you. Jesus loves you to the very end. Why? Because to Him, you are worth saving. You might say, "Bro, I am unworthy because I'm sinful. My life is not good." But God deems you worthy of His sacrifice. If there's still this question in your heart right now: "Does the Lord really love?" I think this answers it: The Lord loves you until death, to the very end. Let's pray: Lord, I know that You love me. Teach me to appreciate Your sacrifice for me. I am valuable. I am forgiven. I am loved. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Let's raise our hands to the Word of God. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet And a Light unto my path. JESUS LOVES YOU. That is the big message of the talk today, from Chapters 13-17. You might notice that in the past, we were discussing the talks by chapter-- usually, one to two chapters per talk. This time, in Talk 8, we're taking five chapters-- but when you read them, you feel how John slows down time, retelling— blow by blow—what happened in the last 24 hours of the earthly life of Jesus. The hour begins with a common tradition-- washing the dirty, muddy, and smelly feet of the disciples. The washing of the feet was a common practice back then-- done by servants. For example, if you're in a rich household, you would have four kinds of servants: Servant No.1: The mayordoma or head servant who commands everyone. Servant No.2 : The PA or personal assistant of the boss. Servant No. 3: A group of skilled workers-- such as the cooks or gardeners.

Talk BRO. BENE SANCHEZ: Good Morning! May I tell you a secret? Actually, I really don’t like preaching. Because growing up, I was always compared with my Dad (Bro. Bo Sanchez). So, there’s this, I don’t know... I just don’t like doing it. So, here I am... I do like talking, though. So, be ready, I’m going to talk a lot. Today, we’re going to be talking about Lazarus...* Here, the person in the middle is Martha. She's preparing a feast for the Lord. Then you have Mary who's listening to Jesus (right side of Martha).> Where's Lazarus? We have no idea what he's doing, leaving everything to Mary and Martha. But today, we're going to be talking about Lazarus. *For those who have not followed our Feast Talk series, here’s a backgrounder: Talk 7, The God Who Grieves, is part of our series, Come and See, about the Gospel of John, presenting the seven miracles, called signs, of our Lord Jesus. From Talk 1 to Talk 6, we already went through the six signs-- which are all pointing to the seventh sign—the greatest miracle: The Resurrection of Jesus. Talk 7 recounts the death of Lazarus, Jesus weeping over losing this friend, but at the same time comforting his sisters, Martha and Mary. -- Editor Let’s sing together the song that we always sing before we read the Word: Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path.   Let's give God a big hand. I think this is what my Dad says after the song.J So, we're going to be reading from John 11:1: This is one of the most heartfelt stories in the whole Gospel of John. I want to highlight that line: "The one you love." Maybe, for some people here, we can feel unloved. We can feel like we're always wondering where God is: “My life right now is a mess. It's dark. It's crazy.” But what John reminds us is that Jesus’ kind of love was a personal kind of love. It was a kind of love that made Jesus weep over his friend's illness. The way that Jesus loved his friends was a personal, emotional, and a heartfelt kind of love. The way that Lazarus was loved by Jesus is the same way that Jesus loves you and me. That's a truth that we want to meditate on today. Pray with me: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, we want to open ourselves to that love. Help us see that despite our situation and despite whatever we may be going through, Your love is the constant faithful assurance that we can lean on and hope on. Help us experience Your love today. In Jesus' Name. In the Name of the Father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Symmetrical Story Let's give God a big hand because He deserves it. He's good. I don't like

Talk BRO. BO SANCHEZ:We're reading The Gospel of John. And I wantto preach this Word for you: I want you to see Jesus -- that He is healing you.How many of you need physical healing? How many of you need relationship healing? How many of you need financial healing? Most of all, how many of you need spiritual healing?I want you to know that Jesus is here. Jesus is in your life. He really wants you to see Him.In the Gospel of John, there are seven miracles and we've been going through them Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. John did not call them miracles.He called them signs because signs are important-- but they point to something more important.We've been talking about five signs already:Turning water into wine at CanaHealing of the official's son in CanaHealing of the paralyzed man in BethesdaFeeding of the 5,000 in GalileeHealing of the blind manToday, we're going to talk about the healing of the blind man. This is one of the most fascinating stories.They’re all signs. A sign is important--but it points to something even more important.The FEAST FAMILY October 27, 2024 15 The SignWhat John was saying is that sometimes, we're so caught up in miracles.What Fr. Albert Garong was talking about is that we're so caught up with the answer to our prayer that we forget about something. It's just a sign and it points to something more.Way back, 29 years ago, we built Anawim Home for Abandoned Elderly.Way back, 29 years ago, there was no running water there. There was no electricity there.It was all in the boondocks.It was surrounded by nothing else but grass.And people were having a hard time going there. So, what we did was we put signboards that showed directions on how to go to Anawim.Now, I want you to humor me for a while and I want you to imagine the preposterous-- that you're driving to Anawim during that time, 29 years ago... As you're driving there, you see something peculiar. You see a bunch of people beneath a signboard, sitting around it, having a picnic, sipping their coffee, roasting their marshmallows.You stop by, you go down the car, and you ask them, "What are you doing?"Then, somebody says, "Oh, we were going to Anawim, but then, we love the signs so much that we decided to linger and stay here."You tell them, "No, this is just a sign going there!” Then they say, "Yeah, but we love it here."It was like John saying, "This is a sign. It's a great sign. It's a great miracle." How many of you like it when God answers your prayer? We love it, right?How many of you love it when there's a miracle that happens in your life? You love it, right?But what John, the Gospel writer, was saying is to not get caught up with that and to not stick around it-- because the sign points to the One whose name is Jesus, the Miracle Worker, who will bless