Vugt: The Last Supper
DURING the Holy Week, I was reading the story of the Last Supper in the four gospels. What struck me was the difference of the report of this event in the Synoptic Gospels with that in the Gospel of St. John.
While the other Gospels mention the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the...
Vugt: Puyopuyo
ACCORDING to the Creator’s master plan, human beings are made man and woman in God’s likeness. Therefore the difference between the sexes and their relationship to each other is willed by God. Therefore the man should leave his father and mother and join his wife and they become one flesh.
Vugt: The solution is: people power
A FRONT page headline in Inquirer of May 10, 2012 said: “We have reached a point of no return. If he gets convicted, he would gladly accept it. If he gets acquitted, that will be a blessing of God.” This statement refers to Chief Justice Corona and is made by one of his defense counsels, Ramon...
Vugt: ‘It’ sings in me
LATELY I have done a lot of traveling. We went on a pilgrimage with the Icon of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel of Escalante from San Francisco, Agusan to CDO and back to Escalante, Negros Occidental where we attended the National Carmel Youth Congress. After that we went to Lala in Lanao and to...
Vugt: Gay marriage?
WITH so many gay people, homosexuals and lesbians in Philippine society, inside and outside the Church as well, gay marriage has become a valid issue in the Philippines also. What should be our stand regarding this issue?
Vugt: Inahan sa Carmen of Escalante
WHEN the Dutch Carmelites came to the Philippines in 1957, they founded their first monastery in Escalante, Negros Occidental. Among them was a Filipino Carmelite, Fr. Fidelis Limcaco, who had entered the Order in the United States. His sister Araceli was an artist. She painted an icon of Our...
Vugt: Carmelite spirituality
THE Order of the Carmelites has no founder like the Franciscans or the Dominicans. The Order has its origin in a movement of hermits who were living on Mount Carmel in the North of Palestine during the 12th century. These hermits were actually lay people who had gone to the Holy Land as...
Vugt: Open letter to my friend Jorge Madlos
DEAR Ka Oris,
According to a news report in our newspaper, SunStar, on March 30, 2012, you issued a statement on the eve of the 43rd founding anniversary of the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, saying: ‘We have formed additional platoons and increased our armed...
Vugt: Trust in the Filipino
GOD created us to be stewards of his creation. That means, creation has been entrusted to us and we have the responsibility to take care of it. This is so with respect to the environment, our eco-systems, etc., but also with respect to humanity, our human environment, our fellow men and women....
Vugt: Praying for the dead?
RECENTLY some of my dear friends in our neighborhood have passed away. Some old people but some young people also, still too young to die. These people have been for me a living example of true Christian life – despite the many shortcomings in their life – because of their commitment to serve in...
Vugt: Spirituality in justice and peace
IN OUR parishes today, there are so-called JPIC groups, study groups on the themes of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. These groups have come about through the Second Plenary Council (PCP II) of the Philippine Bishops Conference which wanted to promote in the Philippine Church the ideas...
Vugt: Just society with a human face
A PROFESSOR of the Centre for Catholic Social Thought at the Catholic University in Leuven (Belgium), Johan Verstraeten, has written some valuable reflections on the so-called Catholic Social Doctrine of the Church. I am quoting here some of his comments.
Vugt: The Mystery of God’s Love
IN MY previous column, I have argued that in life, we must take the road of inner growth towards the end of our life. This means that we have to learn to live with our shortcomings and we must allow others also to have their shortcomings and failures. No one will ever be perfect.
Vugt: People Power and Religion
DURING the early days of martial law, I had joined the Christians for National Liberation (CNL).
Van Vugt: People Power Memories (Part 3)
WHILE we set up the Church Labor Center (CLC), I became friends with Edgar Jopson who was known to me as a moderate student activist and president of the National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP).
Vugt: People Power memories (Part 2)
UPON my return to the Philippines as a tourist, I didn’t get a regular pastoral assignment during my forced stay in Manila. I was invited by friends from the labor movement to participate in a survey on the situation of the industrial workers since the declaration of martial law.
Vugt: People Power memories
ON February 25, we celebrated the 26th Anniversary of the People Power Revolution. That means 26 years of revolutionary change through people power.
There are different ways of bringing about revolutionary change, among others, through prophetic witness and through voluntarism. This is...
Van Vugt: Peoples’ Lawyers
THE other day I found out by chance through a letter to the editor of Inquirer that there exists a National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL). Its national secretariat is based in Quezon City, but apparently it has a sub-office that is based in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Vugt: Elusive justice
THE ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona shows very clearly that justice in our judicial system is very hard to achieve. It will take months for the honorable senators and congressional representatives to oust the honorable chief justice, if ever.
Vugt: The mystery of life and death
TROPICAL Storm Sendong that hit Cagayan de Oro before Christmas has taught us Cagayanons several lessons about the mystery of life and death.
Vugt: History repeats itself
RECENTLY, I was reading the Acts of the Apostles chapter 4.
In summary, I want to describe here what happened in the early Christian community in Jerusalem.
It was shortly after Pentecost that the wonderful event happened where the Holy Spirit of God came down over the Apostles and...
Vugt: The Mystery of Good and Evil
ONE of the most intriguing questions that can be asked of us Christians is: just look around at all the misery that is happening in the world, if God exists, why does He not do anything about it? If God is all good and almighty, how is it possible that there is evil in the world, in the first...
Van Vugt: The Incarnation
AT CHRISTMAS we celebrate the feast of the Incarnation. The word incarnation is derived from the Latin word caro which means flesh. It expresses the stark truth of what happened on that first Christmas day when the Child Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. That child was God Himself...
Van Vugt: Gloria the teacher; PNoy the student
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III is criticized by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, of all people, for the bad state of the economy in our country today.
Vugt: Poverty
THE other day my eyes fell by accident on a poem in a magazine that I was reading. I would like to share this poem with my readers in order to make them realize what poverty really is and who are really poor. The poem was written in Dutch, I translated it into English.
