Pinoy Byahero

HISTORY: Forget Jack and Rose. Let us remember the real hearoes during the sinking of RMS Titanic. One of those heroes is the Catholic priest, Reverend Thomas Byles. When Titanic struck an iceberg and is about to sink, Rev. Byles helped children, women and other people to the lifeboats. While he is active in saving other people, the priest did not forgot his calling. He also led the prayers, give absolution and comforted the people. He went down with the ship because he didn’t want to abandon...

CATHOLIC FAITH: It hurts to even mutter the heresy, but Science didn’t spring forth from Richard Dawkins’ ass. Science as a discipline was developed in the High Middle Ages, in the Universities established by the Very Mean Roman Catholic Church. Robert Grosseteste — the bishop of Lincoln — is the first man credited with formalizing the Scientific Method, under the concept of “composition and resolution” using Christian, Islamic and Aristotelean texts. His ideas were translated into the...

emilye : The starting point for the prochoice and prolife arguments are the same: “Individuals have rights.” Where prolife and prochoice part ways is in how they define an individual. It’s not a debate about biology. It is a debate about ethics. Biology is the study of life (complex chemical interactions) and it gives answers to things like “how” and “what” and “when.” It does not answer “should” or “ought.” The study of biology can try to tell us how the gametes become a zygote, what the...

FAITH: February 13 - Today is the feast of SAINT CATHERINE DE RICCI St. Catherine was born in Florence in 1522. Her baptismal name was Alexandrina, but she took the name of Catherine upon entering religion. From her earliest infancy she manifested a great love of prayer, and in her sixth year, her father placed her in the convent of Monticelli in Florence, where her aunt, Louisa de Ricci, was a nun. After a brief return home, she entered the convent of the Dominican nuns at Prat in Tuscany,...

FAITH: February 3 - Today is the feast of SAINT BLAISE, Physician, Bishop, Martyr Many Catholics might remember Saint Blaise’s feast day because of the Blessing of the Throats that took place on this day. Two candles are blessed, held slightly open, and pressed against the throat as the blessing is said. Saint Blaise’s protection of those with throat troubles apparently comes from a legend that a boy was brought to him who had a fishbone stuck in his throat. The boy was about to die when...

GOSPEL: Mark 1:21-28 Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit...

FAITH: January 22 - Today is the feast of SAINT VINCENT PALLOTTI, Priest, Founder of the Pious Society of Missions (Pallotines) A contemporary of Cardinal Newman’s and the Cure of Ars’, St. Vincent Pallotti was a very modern saint who organized so many remarkable pastoral programs that he is considered the forerunner of Catholic Action. He was a man of great ideas and great vision and was able to inspire others to tackle great things. He is the founder of the Pallottine Fathers and the...

SUNDAY GOSPEL: Mark 1:14-20 After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and...

FAITH: January 18 - Today is the feast of SAINT MARGARET OF HUNGARY Daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary and Marie Laskaris; grand-daughter of the Byzantine emperor. When Hungary was freed from the Tatars, her parents had pledged their next child to God. To keep this promise, Margaret was placed in a Dominican convent at Veszprem, Hungary at age 3; Blessed Helen of Hungary served as her novice mistress. She transferred at age ten to the convent of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents on...

FAITH: Today, the Church celebrates the feast for Saint Pope Gregory III. Pope St. Gregory III was the son of a Syrian named John. The date of his birth is not known. His reputation for learning and virtue was so great that the Romans elected him pope by acclamation, when he was accompanying the funeral procession of his predecessor, 11 February, 731. As he was not consecrated for more than a month after his election, it is presumed that he waited for the confirmation of his election by the...

GOSPEL: The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38) The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive i…

COMIC RELIEF: This is “Twilight” for the boys.

FAITH: December 3 - Today is the feast of SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER, co-founder of the Society of Jesus, Patron of Missionaries Born in the family castle of Xavier, near Pamplona in the Basque area of Spanish Navarre on Apr. 7, he was sent to the University of Paris 1525, secured his licentiate in 1528, met Ignatius Loyola and became one of the seven who in 1534, at Montmartre founded the Society of Jesus. In 1536 he left Paris to join Ignatius in Venice, from whence they all in tended to go as...

COMIC RELIEF: The science of Angry Birds.

EXPLORER’S NOTEBOOK: Andres Bonifacio monument at Tutuban, Manila