The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 23 January 2024 2 Samuel 6:12-15, 17-19 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Mark 3:31-35
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 15 January 2024 in Davao.
How timely are your words today, O God, for us always checking on what is trending and viral, on who's in, and who's out:
The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house. Standing outside they sent word to Jesus and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Mark 3:31-32, 34-35
Remind us, dear Jesus that being in and being out with you is not physical nor spatial but spiritual in nature; even with one another! How sad many of us these days are preoccupied in being in, being hip, being included and accepted for the sake of status and fame; being in being out is being close, being far from the beloved's heart.
Help us, dear God to imitate King David though he was inside the circle of those carrying your ark to Jerusalem, his heart, his mind, his very self was in you totally! Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Feast of the Sto. Niño, Cycle B, 21 January 2024 Isaiah 9:1-6 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18 ><}}}*> Mark 10:13-16
Photo by Ms. Anne Ramos, 22 March 2020 in Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan during our “libot” of the Blessed Sacrament at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Our Lord Jesus Christ’s attitude to children is perfectly clear in our gospel this Sunday, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Mk 10:15).
Being like a child is actually the main teaching of Jesus Christ who came to us precisely as one. Right at his infancy like most babies these days, Jesus faced a lot of great risks of being harmed or even getting killed.
See how Jesus insisted in all his teachings on this need to become like a child, to go back to one’s beginnings in order to get into God’s kingdom which is actually him, his very person. Keep in mind that the kingdom of God is not a territorial domain but the very person of Jesus Christ himself. It is from this fact we realize that being a child as taught by Jesus is a mystery that can never be explained nor solved in our minds and mental faculties. This we find in that occasion when Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to Jesus hiding in the darkness of the night to discuss the kingdom of God. When Jesus told him of the need to be born from above (or, be born again in earlier translations) which is to become like a child, he thought it to be in the literal manner.
Jesus chided Nicodemus by saying, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?” (Jn. 3:9-10). It was not sarcasm nor an insult by Jesus but a clarification to everyone including us today that being a child to enter the kingdom of God is a mystery we have to embrace and experience and feel in the heart not deduced in the mind.
And this is exactly what the Feast of the Sto. Niño is all about that we celebrate every third Sunday in January.
The Vatican has given us this special celebration as an extension of the Christmas season in recognition of the great role played by the image of Sto. Niño Magellan gifted Queen Juana of Cebu in 1521.
After leaving our shores after Magellan was killed in Mactan, the Spaniards returned in 1565 under Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to claim our islands for the King of Spain. Upon their arrival in Cebu, they found the Sto. Niño enshrined in a house of worship prominently displayed as the main God of the natives along with their other idols and gods. Historians say the people of Cebu during those years between 1521 to 1565 have found the Sto. Niño as the most powerful and effective in granting their prayers for children (fertility), rains and bountiful harvests that rightly it was the Sto. Niño who actually conquered the Philippines that we have become the only Christian nation in this part of the world. In those 44 years after Magellan and his men left the Philippines, the Sto. Niño had remained and stayed with the natives keeping them safe and secured all those years until the Spaniards returned to be colonized through Legazpi.
What a beautiful imagery of the Sto. Niño staying behind with our forefathers conquering them not with swords nor force but with love and mercy, and youthfulness of the Child Jesus!
Recall how last Sunday we have reflected the words stay and remain when Andrew asked Jesus where he was staying: to stay, to dwell mean more than its spatial nature as a place or location but also in a deeper sense, a communion. It is in dwelling in Jesus who is the kingdom of God that we belong, we become a part of that kingdom.
When Jesus spoke of “being born from above” to Nicodemus, he was not only referring to the Sacrament of Baptism but to the very fact how he as the Christ from the very start has always dwelled and remained in the Father.
Three days after being found in the temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 years old, he told Mary his Mother, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”(Lk.2:49). What a beautiful expression of that union in “being in my Father’s house” to show us this mystery of Jesus being like a child, the Son of God who has remained the Father’s beloved One into his adulthood because he had always been in union with the Father. Jesus is inseparable from the Father because he himself takes abode and dwelling in God.
“The Finding of the Savior at the Temple” painting by William Holman Hunt (1860) from en.wikipedia.org.
When Jesus was approaching his Passion and Death, he repeatedly told everyone how everything he had said and done were not his but his Father’s to indicate his communion and union in him. Ultimately there on the Cross, his final words expressed the same truth that he is the Son of God obedient unto death especially when he called out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk.23:46).
Therefore, to accept and welcome a child in Jesus’ name is not just an act of charity nor of a simple finding of Jesus among children. It is ultimately being one, of remaining in the Father because Jesus also said “whoever welcomes such a child in my name, welcomes me” (Mt 18:5).
Photo by author, 2022.
That is why the kingdom of God is for those who are like children always one with God like Jesus.
To be a child is to remain in God, to always love expressed in kindness and care for others especially the weak, being forgiving and merciful and compassionate with those lost like the Father.
To be like a child is being a light who brightens the life of others just like a babies whose very sight and smiles can ease our pains and sorrows, giving us the much needed boost to forge on in life. We are filled with hope whenever we encounter or see infants because they remind us too of God dwelling in them, of a God who assures and ensures us with s bright future.
This the reason we have in our first reading that part of the Book of Isaiah we heard proclaimed on Christmas day to remind us that Jesus is the light born on the darkest night of the year to illumine our lives and the world darkened by sins and evil like wars, poverty, and diseases. We see light in being like a child because that is when we are one in the Father too in being like a child.
Let me cite again that beautiful movie Firefly where the main character, the child named Tonton loved his mother so much that he totally believed her stories that sent him into a journey to search for the magical island filled with fireflies. Tonton dwelled in his mother’s love that he eventually found the magical island with the many fireflies that in the process also brought light into the darkness within the three adults he befriended in the bus going to Bicol.
Many times in my ministry as chaplain in our hospital, I have seen the great powers within every child – of how a sick baby, a sick child could send his/her parents to summon all their faith in God to heal them, to save them.
Listen to the stories of those who join the Traslacion every year in Quiapo: most of them had their panata borne out of answered prayers for their sick children. Every parent knows it so well how they have moved mountains and did the most extraordinary for the sake of their infants and children.
That is the mystery of the kingdom of God belonging to children when God gives us every spiritual blessing we need to achieve the impossible (second reading) to become like children by remaining in God as the only power and salvation in this life.
Be with a child, stay with a child and you shall find God’s kingdom.
Be like a child and you shall experience the kingdom of God! Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. NIcanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 19 January 2024 1 Samuel 24:3-21 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Mark 3:13-19
Photo by Ms. April Oliveros on Mt. Pulag, March 2023.
Dearest Lord Jesus: today I imagined myself one of your twelve Apostles you have called and appointed; I also imagined myself like David in the first reading, stealthily cutting off an end of King Saul's mantle while inside a cave in pursuit of him to kill him!
In my prayers, I felt one desire, one important thing I need in the moment: the grace to overcome personal differences especially with my co-workers in your vineyard, with those above me as superiors.
Teach me, O Lord, to overcome differences with others like your Apostles who came from various backgrounds with temperaments and attitudes even poles apart like Matthew the former tax collector and collaborator with the Romans working with Simon the Cananean also referred to as the Zealot; teach me to focus more on you, to always find you, most of all, to bring you and share you in every dealing with others I have differences with.
Grant me the grace to be centered in you alone than be overtaken by our many differences that ruin the mission you have entrusted to us.
Likewise, teach me the virtue of respect that literally means to look again and again (re specere); when differences become so deep, even would cause us to fight others like David and King Saul, let me still focus on you, O Lord, to respect the person and their office and designation in order to avoid hurting and dividing your precious Body, the Church. Amen.
Photo by Ms. April Oliveros on Mt. Pulag, March 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 18 January 2024 1 Samuel 18:6-9, 19:1-7 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Mark 3:7-12
Photo by author, sunflower farm in La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
"In God I trust; I shall not fear."
Let those words of the psalmist today be my prayer too, dear Father especially when jealousy slowly creeps into me, when people around me do better, when they seem to be more loved or liked or accepted; like King Saul in the first reading today, there are times I am filled with insecurities with my own self, with my strengths and abilities, most especially, with your love.
Jealousy arises easily in our hearts… When we truly enjoy God’s unlimited generosity, we will be grateful for what our brothers and sisters receive. Jealousy will simply have no place in our hearts.
Fr. Henri Nouwen
How true were the words of the late Fr. Henri Nouwen; jealousy arises easily in our hearts; sometimes they just come without us even thinking about it; problem is, many times we entertain and let it take over us, feeling we are a victim of something, like King Saul, or the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son, or those early workers in the parable of the vineyard who felt they should be paid more than those late workers who were paid with same wage as theirs.
When good things happen to others, teach me to rejoice with them, let me be thankful too for their being blessed by you; let me not be jealous of whatever they have for you never fail to bless me too with so many things they do not have; let me be more trusting in your generosity, O God, to never have fear of you running out of blessings and other good things for each one of us according to our own abilities; let me rejoice when other people are blessed like in the gospel today because whatever good things that happen around us are signs you are with us in Christ Jesus.
Instead of looking on what others have, let me look what I have, and always, let that be YOU in Christ Jesus! Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 17 January 2024 1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Mark 3:1-6
Guillaume Courtois, “David and Goliath,” 1650-1660. Oil on canvas. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Dear God: Bring out in me the youthful faith and confidence of David your servant who slew the giant Goliath in your most holy name; many times in life I get so afraid of the many trials in life that come my way - sickness and death, problems and difficulties, sufferings and pains, failures and rejections, sins and evil situations that enslave me.
Many times, you know how I wanted to give up the fight, to just quit and leave but thank you for that spark of faith in you from within that reminds me of you, of your abiding love and presence like David before Goliath:
“All this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he shall deliver you into our hands.”
1 Samuel 17:47
Most of all, let me hold on to that truth that you sent us your Son Jesus Christ "to do everything that is good than evil, to save life than destroy it" (Mark 3:4); let me do always your work, dear Father, in the way you would want me to do it. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 16 January 2024 1 Samuel 16:1-13 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Mark 2:23-28
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in Infanta, Quezon, 2020.
Is it really possible, dear God, that we shall be able to see and look at persons and things like you?
But the Lord said to Samuel: ”Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.”
1 Samuel 16: 7
If that is the case, O God, then, to see like you is most of all to feel, to listen to experience another person; to see and look at persons and things like you, O God, is to feel the vibes or vibrations, the spirit of another person or of a thing; to see like you, O God, is to be like Jesus mindful always of your will and plan, to you wait for your voice before deciding, before acting.
To see like you, therefore, dear God, is first of all to be one in you, with you in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD in Infanta, Quezon, 2020.
Kapatid. Mula sa salitang ugat na "patid" ibig sabihi'y putol at hiwalay, nag-iisa at walang buhay ni saysay; sa unlaping -ka, nababago kahulugan, nagkakaroon ng kasama nabubuo ugnayan di lamang sa pamilya at tahanan kungdi saanmang samahan.
Kapatid. Ito ang tawagan natin sa isa't-isa na pinagbubuklod di lamang ng dugo kungdi higit sa lahat ng puso at isipan na kung mawawala ang ka-patid, nawawala katuturan at saysay nitong buhay kaya lahat handang ialay habang may buhay.
Kapatid. Turingan at diwa di kayang mapatid kahit ng kamatayan dahil ugnayan magpapatuloy magpakailanman di kayang putulin o tabunan ng libingan dahil batid natin sa pagpanaw buhay di nagwawakas samahan at ugnayan nananatiling wagas.
Kapatid. Kaputol. Ng sarili. Ng buhay. Ng mithiin at adhika. Kadugtong ng tuwa pati ng luha tunay na pagpapala ng Diyos na may likha sa ating mga kapatid at kaibigan upang tayo ay samahan, alalayan, at abangan sakali man maunang pumanaw upang maging ating pisi at lubid sa langit na hindi mapapatid.
Rest in peace, Dindo (larawan kuha ng kanyang ika-60 kaarawan, Marso 09, 2018).
Paalam, aking kinakapatid Fernando "Dindo" R. Alberto Jr.; ikumusta mo ako sa langit sa mga pumanaw nating idolo sa musika, kami na lamang ni Toby magdiriwang ng birthday tuwing Marso dito habang kayo at ang Ninong magkasama na sa buhay na walang hanggan.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 15 January 2024 1 Samuel 15:16-23 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Mark 2:18-22
Photo by author, 2019.
God our Father, teach me to be innovative in witnessing you, in proclaiming you, in making you present in this fast changing world but at the same time still rooted in you, obedient to you; how sad that in our Church today with so many efforts in the guise of "creativity" that led only to empty novelties pretending to be attuned with the time, many have slowly desecrated our liturgy, our celebrations and worst, put into question the relevance of our long held beliefs and teachings on faith and morals; while we have to embrace change happening in the world and in the Church, may we not forget it is YOU, dear Lord, whom we seek, whom we desire, whom we aspire not the social influencers nor rock stars nor any celebrities; teach us to innovate in our ways that are still rooted in you and your precepts not with technology nor with new thoughts; may we learn to understand your Son Jesus Christ's words in today's gospel:
“No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
Mark 2:21-22
Forgive us, dear God, for all the novelties we have brought even into our worship and teachings that have detached us more from you and one another; instead of fostering openness and inclusivity, the opposite had happened because to win more people is first of all to remain faithful and obedient to you which King Saul of Israel had forgotten:
But Samuel said: ”Does the Lord so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the Lord? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams.
1 Samuel 15:23
This New Year, lead us back to you, God, through our leaders in the Church who are faithful to you in prayers, in liturgy, in teachings; innovative like Jesus Christ who fulfilled your Laws of Old in the New settings. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 14 January 2024
Photo by author, San Agustin Church, Intramuros, Manila, 12 January 2024.
We were at the historic San Agustin Church in Intramuros last Friday to officiate the wedding of my godson whose parents were childhood friends in Bocaue, Bulacan.
It was one of the loveliest weddings I have officiated, something like from a fairy tale. The groom was a very eligible bachelor, the bride was a single mom of a five year-old love child. They met six years ago in their former office. He was a very persistent lover, perhaps feeling like a knight in the shining armor while she was adamantly cold who had vowed never to love and trust men again.
But love prevailed. After two years of living together and finally having a son of their own, they came to me and asked to officiate their wedding.
I clarified everything with my godson that what he was going into is not a movie nor a telenovella but he was so cool, perfectly sane, most of all, man enough to stand by his decision, by his bride and her daughter, and their one year old son. She was the most amazing woman I have met recently – beauty and brains with a big heart willing to love again.
Sorry for the long introduction to our music this Sunday we find so related not only with our wedding last Friday but with our gospel today.
Released in 1993 as a track on their extended play (EP) of the same title by the husband and wife team Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn who called themselves as Everything But The Girl (EBTG), I Didn’t Know I Was Looking for Love says all about this mystery of love, mystery of life.
And that is how true love really comes to us, in the most simple and ordinary circumstances of our lives.
I was alone thinking I was just fine I wasn’t looking for anyone to be mine I thought love was just a fabrication A train that wouldn’t stop at my station Home, alone, that was my consignment Solitary confinement So when we met I was skirting around you I didn’t know I was looking for love Until I found you
I didn’t know I was looking for love Until I found you, honey I didn’t know I was looking for love Until I found you, baby Didn’t know I was looking for love Didn’t know I was looking for love
Cause there you stood and I would Oh I wonder could I say how I felt And not be misunderstood A thousand stars came into my system I never knew how much I had missed them Slap on the map of my heart you landed I was coy but you made me candid And now the planets circle around you I didn’t know I was looking for love Until I found you
In this Sunday’s gospel, we find Jesus passing by whom John the Baptist identified as “the Lamb of God”. Upon hearing him speak, his two disciples, Andrew and another companion followed Jesus who asked them “What are you looking for?” Andrew and companion replied with a question, “where do you stay, Rabbi (Teacher)?” That was when Jesus told them to “come and see” and there was no leaving the Lord since then with Andrew bringing his elder brother Simon Peter to Jesus to become his first apostles.
Many times, Jesus is passing by, calling us, inviting us with the same question, “what are you looking for?”
Most of the time, we hardly know what we are really looking for not until we just follow our instincts and feelings, realizing from deep inside our hearts of our need for love and affection, for others, and most especially for God.
It was the same experience of Everything But The Girl in their classic I Didn’t Know I Was Looking for Love. All we need is an open heart for others, for God. Not to forget of the need to listen too to our very selves, to our deepest longings and desires found in our heart where God dwells and invites us to open up to him (https://lordmychef.com/2024/01/13/when-the-question-is-also-the-answer/).
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Sunday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 14 January 2024 1 Samuel 3:3-10.19 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20 ><}}}}*> John 1:35-42
Photo by author, sunrise at Lake Tiberias (Galilee), the Holy Land, May 2019.
We have reflected last Sunday how our questions are an epiphany too of ourselves because a person is known by the questions he/she asks. What really matters in life are the questions we ask or stumble upon than the answers we have that most often are wrong. Many times, there are no easy answers to life’s many questions that actually, we may never find any answer to our questions because they often lead us to more questions.
Fact is, we just have to keep on asking questions as we journey in life. If we ask the right questions, we could arrive at the right answers too; but, even without a ready answer, it is in asking the right question when the problem is half-solved. That is why in life, the questions we have are also the very answers we need most.
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” – which translated means Teacher – , “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.
John 1:35-39
Photo by author, pilgrims in the Holy Land, May 2019.
It is very interesting that the very first words spoken by Jesus recorded in the fourth gospel was this question to Andrew and companion, “What are you looking for?” As we start 2024, these are also the very first words of Jesus to us, what are you looking for?
Here we find the kindness and goodness of Jesus, inviting us to express to him our desires, what we want, what we are looking for. But, here lies too the biggest problem in our life when we do not know what we want or when we are easily distracted with what we really want.
How many times had it happened when we forget what we are supposed to do when distracted by our endless scrolling of Facebook or Instagram? Or, when we go to the mall just to walk and unwind only to find ourselves buying things we do not need at all? Even our dreams and plans in life crash with costly mistakes because we could not stick to our goals. Despite the viral videos we see almost every week, many still go on road rage and end up fools while great men and women fall in disgrace because of sex scandals, including some priests.
Photo by author, Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.
If we could just focus on what we are looking for, we could have avoided losing the opportunities we have had in life. Sadly, we only confront that question when we face death or when in a major crisis in life, when we realize what we really need most is God. In my three years as a hospital chaplain, I have proven daily in the sick people I visited that the only thing we must first look for in this life is God because in the end, we all go back to him.
That is why ageing gracefully is a virtue. As we get older, it is only then when we realize the spiritual things are more essential than material things. It is later in life we realize when we are already weak and sick that it was not time but us who have actually passed by through the years. Then we become bitter filled with regrets for not having loved God in our very selves, in our family and friends.
Don’t be shy telling Jesus what you are looking for in this life. Tell him what you feel. Nothing is so trivial for him. What matters is we keep on entertaining within us that question until one day, our desire becomes one with his and that is when fullness happens in life. Like what Andrew and his companion experienced that afternoon.
Photo by author, Baguio City, August 2023.
How amazing that the two disciples of John the Baptist answered Jesus with a question too, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”
The word “stay” or “dwell” in some translations is from the Greek word menein which does not necessarily refer to place and space but connotes more of an image of mystery and security. During the last supper, Jesus told his disciples not to be bothered and worried because “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places… I am going to prepare a place for you” (Jn. 14:2). We hear this gospel in funeral Masses to assure people of having a place in heaven but, more than the spatial reality it signifies, to stay or to dwell evokes in us a sense of mystery, of security and home – of heaven in fact – which we all desire though rarely expressed.
Here, we find dwelling is a sense of belonging. Very early on as disciples of John the Baptist, Andrew and companion must have learned their master’s teachings of the coming Messiah with whom they wanted to belong with that is why their question, where do you stay or dwell was actually what they were looking for. See now their question was a revelation of their desires in life too!
And likewise we find Jesus so welcoming when he told them to “come and see” – to experience him. What they have seen and experienced that afternoon must be so profound that in a brief moment with Jesus, they immediately concluded he is the Christ or the Messiah!
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Morong, Bataan, 2023.
But that is how it is with life especially when we examine those birthday parties we have hosted, to the graduation and wedding or ordination that happened so briefly compared with the long preparations we have made; the significance and impact of those brief moments in our lives are something that stay and remain with us, kept us going because in them also we had Jesus impressed and etched in our hearts, in our very being that we must treasure most and take care of lest we lose or waste them.
That is why in the second reading we heard St. Paul telling the Corinthians including us today to stop all forms of immoralities, that as Christians, we live for Christ. Stay focused on that. No one can claim his/her body is totally his/her own and may do whatever he/she wishes like the wokes who claim to be liberal and progressive. They insist “my body, my life”, that it is their right to abort a baby in the womb, that they can just have sex even without commitments and love by using contraceptives. Worst is their claim in the name of openness and freedom, they change everything like gender, looks, concepts and even grammar. What is insane is their insistence even on us on what they think are most important without truly looking deep in their hearts what every human person truly desires.
According to St. Ignatius of Loyola, once we are able to renounce our own will, God’s desire for us always coincides with whatever is really deep down in our hearts. That is because he made us, he knows what is best for us. That is why, we need to pray. And pray correctly not just have devotions and panata that are one-sided and personal without God in the equation, making us selfish and unmindful of others. Prayer is first of all a discipline that brings order in one’s life. The more we dive deeper into prayer and find God, the more we find him in our selves and him in others too.
Photo from Inquirer.net, 09 January 2024.
Every day God is calling us, inviting us to enter into a dialogue, a conversation with him. It is a matter of being open to him like the child Samuel in our first reading, who “grew up, and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect” (1 Samuel 3:19).
See again how the Lord stayed with Samuel who since childhood was answering God’s call, always following him, remaining in him that he became one of the great prophets of Israel.
Jesus welcomes whatever answer we give him, even if it is in a question form too because as we journey in life, his question with our questions eventually reveal the truth within each of us that God loves us so much, that he wants us to stay in him, remain in him. That is why Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, came – so that our joy may be complete and life be fulfilled in him. Amen.
