Category: courage

One mind, one heart, one mission in Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Tuesday, Easter Week-II, 21 April 2020

Acts of the Apostles 4:32-37 ><)))*> +++ 0 +++ <*(((>< John 3:7-15

Posted by Marivic Tribiana on her Facebook 18 April 2020 when a huge fire hit “Happyland” in Tondo district, Manila, leaving 450 families homeless with one fatality.
Artwork by Fr. Marc Ocariza using Digital Art Timelapse after seeing photo at left, claiming it was like seeing Jesus Christ carrying the old man as he contemplated the Divine Mercy that Saturday.

Glory and praise to you, O Lord Jesus Christ for coming to us, and continuing to come to us most especially amid this COVID-19 pandemic.

Increase our faith in you, awaken our being “born from above” in you in the Holy Spirit so that we may continue to find you and follow you in the ordinary things that happen to us.

It is not enough that we as a “community of believers be of one heart and mind, having everything in common” (Acts 4:32).

As a community united in you, Lord Jesus, keep us strong in fulfilling our mission from you.

Remind us always that we merely represent you in this mission.

We are not the ones who will change the world but you, O Lord.

Give us the grace to forget ourselves and carry our cross daily so we can follow you more closely every day.

Most of all, give us the courage to seek your ways and follow wherever your Holy Spirit leads us to so we can best serve you without ever thinking of our very selves or anything in return except that we are doing your most holy will. Amen.

The Facebook post by Marivic Tribiana that inspired Fr. Marc to make a digital representation of the scene amid the huge fire with thick, black smokes billowing above visible kilometers ahead in a city under an extended lockdown due to Covid-19.

He dubbed his artwork “Nag-aalab na Pag-Ibig” (Burning Love), an interplay between the raging fire in the area and the burning love of Jesus to the old man being carried.

That is why we need to be “born from above” to be able to understand teachings of Jesus about heavenly things on earth (Jn.3:12), remaining open to leading of the Holy Spirit to follow the Lord closely, not our selves, nor our plans, nor our personal agenda.

Being bold for the Lord

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Monday, Easter Week II, 20 April 2020

Acts of the Apostles 4:23-31 <*(((>< +0+ ><)))*> John 3:1-8

Photo from news.abs-cbn.com

Thank you very much, Jesus, in giving us a taste of the first Easter in our own time with the COVID-19 pandemic. In both instances – then and now – you have shown us that Easter is about being bold not in ourselves or for our own sake but being bold in you in the Holy Spirit.

As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:31

What a shame to our national leaders and to us in the society, Lord when we have acted just like the priests and Pharisees of your time who looked down on your apostles and the masses who boldly proclaimed your good news in words and in deeds!

Today, our nurses in the frontline of battling the pandemic have long been maligned and even insulted by some of our leaders. Although now being praised for their heroism and boldness in fighting COVID-19, they still lag behind in total support from our leaders.

Likewise, our lives in this extended lockdown would surely be more difficult without our other frontliners like garbage collectors, drivers and so-called “ordinary” people who work even in the dead of the night so we can have food and clean surroundings.

Open our eyes and our hearts, Jesus, to be born from above, to claim the power of the Holy Spirit you have given us so we can be bold and daring this time of the corona virus to serve you among our brothers and sisters so much in need of help.

Lead us, Jesus, to enlighten others so they may keep their balance and sanity in this most troubling time of modern history. Amen.