St. John the Baptist Church in Ein Karem, birthplace of St. John the Baptist. Photo by author, 05 May 2019.
Praise and glory to you, O God our almighty Father! Thank you very much for the gift of life, for the gift of being born into this world to see and experience your majesty. Indeed, it is always good to be alive, no matter what our condition or status in life may be.
Unfortunately, Lord, there are so many times in life that we fail to see life’s beauty because we have taken control over ourselves and everything, leaving no room for you to work in us, with us and through us. So many times, Lord, we wonder what we would be like what the neighbors and relatives of John the Baptist said when he was born.
All who heard this these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
Luke 1:66
Perhaps, it will be best for us today to be silent as we celebrate John the Baptist’s birthday to let your hand be upon us too, O God, so we may ponder and pray where you are leading us.
It is the start of work and studies for another week. Some of us are getting tired of the routine, some of us could no longer find meaning and direction in life. And some of us are on the brink of giving up on our many plans and even with our very lives!
Let your hand be upon us, Lord, and lead us to your direction. Guide us with your Holy Spirit. Teach us to lay aside our plans and personal agenda to allow you to take us where you would want us to be. Give us the courage to take that plunge into the unknown, trusting you alone wherever you may be leading us.
So many times Lord, we are like John the Baptist’s father Zechariah who believe so much with ourselves that we forget to trust you.
And many times, too, we are like the relatives and neighbors of Elizabeth who always interfere with your plans, insisting on following traditions and patterns, preventing you from surprising us.
Keep us silent today, Lord, to hear you more, to follow you more wherever you are leading us. Amen.
Pilgrims outside the Church of St. John the Baptist in Ein Karem waiting for their turn to enter his birthplace. What a beautiful sight of people still patiently waiting for God to lead them closer to him.
St. Paul’s “little foolishness” yesterday of taking some pride of himself was therapeutic, Lord, for us feeling low. After all, St. Teresa de Avila said “humility is walking in truth” and like St. Paul, we need to be proud sometimes to let people realize the talents you have blessed us with.
But today, Lord, we thank you anew for this beautiful though trying day. And once again, like St. Paul, we have realized that the only bragging rights you have given us is so opposite with the world’s:
Brothers and sisters: since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. To my shame I say that we were too weak! But what anyone dares to boast of (I am speaking in foolishness) I also dare. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that who my weakness.
2 Corinthians 11:18, 21,30
Lord, what really sets us apart from others, from what St. Paul calls as “super apostles”, are the wounds and hurts we bear in love for you and others. We are all the same in everything but anyone’s greatness can truly be found in his/her weakness as the world sees it: in taking all the beatings of this life, in being patient, in being forgiving, in being understanding, in being persevering.
Yes, Jesus, everybody talks about their achievements and what they have done, of how great they are. But those who truly love and serve you, those who follow you as Christ-ians, boast only of their weakness.
In our weakness, Jesus, we become your dwelling place, we become like you — our only treasure in this life!
Continue to bless, Lord, those who ” store up treasures in heaven”, those who truly love with sincerity in their hearts, those who sacrifice for others, those who suffer in the name of truth and justice. Let their light shine on in you. Amen.
The Our Father Church outside Jerusalem where Jesus is believed to have taught his disciples the “Lord’s Prayer”. Photo by author, 05 May 2019.
For the second straight day, Lord, I could identify with St. Paul in his feelings deep within, the urge to brag something in your name!
Brothers and sisters: if only you would put up with a little foolishness from me! Please put up with me. For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these “super apostles.” Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
2 Corinthians 11:1, 5-6
You know it so well, Lord Jesus why I have been complaining a lot lately as I have told you yesterday: I feel so tired in life because I feel shortchanged. Not that I am asking anything in return but like St. Paul, it pains me so much when some people miss the love and dedication we pour upon our ministry.
Until now, Lord, we have those “super apostles” St. Paul called, preying on your sheep as false servants who seduce people like the snake only to feed on their egos and fatten their wallets.
They are everywhere, Lord. Not only among priests but also among other professionals.
It is so consoling to hear St. Paul today in our first reading of how we sometimes need to brag a little, to be proud of our efforts so the people may know and realize the sacrifices we make for them because, we love them.
We pray Jesus for all the silent workers, the silent servants who continue to lovingly serve you in others. Send them your proverbial “pat on the shoulder” to console them, O Lord, in their darkness and anguish. Let them shine in their true colors in you! Amen.
Santorini, Greece. Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Pena, 2017.
Ceiling of the altar of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, 12 June 2019.
How great and deeply spiritual is your servant St. Paul, Lord Jesus Christ! No problem is too ordinary for him as he resolves them in the light of the gospel. He shows us in so many instances like in our first reading today how the gospel sheds light on seemingly secular matters like sharing treasures.
Now as you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also. I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:7-9
Here in St. Paul is the answer to our perennial question to your gospel teaching of how can we “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us”? (Mt.5:44)
First, dispose us always to prayer, to communing in you and with you. Detach us from this world once in a while in silence and hiddeness. Just be with you. Alone. Listening to you, feeling you.
Then, open our hearts and minds to your words. Enflesh your words in us, through us and with us.
Once we have been emtpied of ourselves and filled with your words and spirit, move us, guide us, O Lord, to your will and direction like St. Paul. Make us your instrument in doing charity for others.
Cleanse our hearts and our lips that we may worthily proclaim your gospel in words and in deeds. Amen.
Rev. Bp. Jesse Mercado of Paranaque blessing the people with the Gospel book during a Mass. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wk. XI, Yr. I, 17 June 2019
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:38-42
Ordination of our new deacons, 12 June 2019, Minor Basilica and Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
Our feast is still a month and a half away but Lord Jesus Christ, I just feel like telling you today along with my brothers in ministry that we are happy to be your priests!
Thank you for the gift of vocation, thank you for the gift of three new deacons, and thank you for the gift of a new bishop!
St. Paul’s words in today’s first reading are so touching, reminding us of your great love for us to be your ministers of the word. But, they are also very challenging especially when there are some of us who have received your grace in vain, so attached with the trimmings and perks of your call, forgetting you Jesus, our Caller.
Forgive us in failing you, Lord, and help us find our way back to you.
Thank you for our faithful priests who lead and inspire us especially our fellow workers silently shepherding the flock, smelling like the sheep as Pope Francis had asked us to be, always avoiding the limelight now so glaring in the Church.
Thank you also for our old and sick priests, especially those who have aged gracefully, embracing retirement without much complaints and whines.
With St. Paul, we commend ourselves to you O Jesus “through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints” (2Cor.6:4) that many of us now evade or, deny.
It is a very interesting time to be your priests today, Lord, when people no longer believe us and your Church, when people doubt and malign us, and when the “faithful” are not so faithful at all, deserting us. Keep us to remain standing by your side at the Cross like the beloved disciple with Mary our Mother.
We are treated as deceivers and yet at truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
2 Corinthians 6:8-10
Fill us with Holy Spirit, Jesus our Eternal Priest, so our minds and hearts may be enlightened to seek and follow and stand by your truth always. Amen.
The Gospel Book on which every new deacon and priest professes his faith before the Bishop shortly before the Mass of his Ordination. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for this Friday, for another weekend.
As the days moved on since Monday, we didn’t know how this week would move on for many of us: the pressures and stress at home, in the office and the school with all kinds of problems.
Some of us almost gave up life, Lord, because of sickness and loneliness, pains and sufferings, neglect and feelings of being misunderstood and unloved or unwelcomed.
But you were always there, Jesus, loving us, comforting us, assuring us of your presence and grace.
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Let us continue your work Jesus. There are still plenty of things to be done this day: so many loving and acts of kindness, a lot of caring and understanding, some forgiving and asking sorry over there, with a lot of smiles and hugs to share so that those in despair may realize life is so beautiful, that it is good to be alive, that there is beauty even in our dirt and brokenness.
Every Cross is a plus sign, O Lord: afflictions and darkness, suffering and pains in life are an addition, never a minus or a subtraction! Amen.
Dominican Hills, Baguio, January 2019. Photo by author.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wednesday, Wk. X, Yr. I, 12 June 2019
2Corinthians 3:4-11 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:17-19
Detail of “Ordination of the Seven Deacons” by Fra Angelico, 1447-49, Cappella Niccolina, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican. From Google.
My dearest Lord Jesus Christ, our Eternal High Priest: Like your Blessed Mother, my soul proclaims your greatness and my spirit rejoices in you O Lord on this great gift of ordination as deacon of our parishioner, Rev. Roel Aldwin and his two classmates, Rev. Howard and Rev. Laurence.
As his ordination day got nearer, the more I realized your goodness, your love and your mercy. So true are the words of St. Paul in our first reading today:
Brothers and sisters: such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:4-6
Thank you very much for new brothers in the ministry, for new co-workers in your vineyard, Lord. Indeed, you do not call the qualified but you do qualify your calls! As St. Paul had said, no one can lay claim for this great gift of being your “alter Christus” at the altar.
And so, I thank you for this rare gift of having a new deacon in my parish during my tenure. You know how much I have loved your parish amid the many difficulties and pains that continue up to this moment. I hope and pray that your people here would realize this immense gift of a deacon you have called from among them to serve your Church.
But what I like most Lord in your gift of the first deacon from our Parish is also your gift to me to be a better pastor to encourage Rev. RA to strive and persevere in his vocation with so much love and dedication. I am a sinner, Lord, and you know very well how I have discouraged with my words and actions some members of my flock. And despite all this, you have used me to guide our new deacon in his journey.
Soon, he shall find so many flaws among us priests in the ministry. Soon he shall find the many crosses and many crucifixions we shall go through. Soon he shall find that ultimately, no one else is to be followed except you alone, Jesus.
I pray that our new deacons may be the signs of your fulfillment of the Laws of love and mercy. Keep them faithful and obedient to your commandments, Lord, that they may be your indwelling, your presence in this world slowly plunging into darkness and coldness, like what you described as “a sheep without a shepherd”.
I pray for our new deacons to love you more, Jesus our Caller – and not your call so that as they serve in your name, it is you whom they proclaim, it is you whom they make known above all.
Jesus our High Priest, let us your priests and deacons decrease so that you may increase. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday, Easter VII, 07 June 2019
Acts 25:13-21 >< }}}*> >< }}}*> >< }}}*> John 21:15-19
The shore of Lake Tiberias where Jesus asked Simon thrice, “Do you love me?” Photo by author, April 2017.
My dearest sweet Lord Jesus Christ: For the past twenty one years, I have always heard you asking me the same question you asked Simon along the shores of Tiberias. And you always come to me asking me those questions most especially after I have sinned against you, just like when Simon had denied you after you were arrested.
Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep…” And when Jesus had said this, he said to Simon, “Follow me.”
John 21:17b,19b
Lord, you know everything about me: you know my innermost thoughts, you know my sins, you know my weaknesses, you know my insecurities, you know my pains and darkness and most of all, you know how imperfectly I love you.
And that is why I am so in love with you, Jesus: I am not worthy of your love and yet you choose to love me, you choose to be patient with me, you choose to forgive me. And you continue to call me to follow you.
You have given me with so much, Lord, and I have given so little to you. Teach me to give more of your love, more of your fidelity, more of your kindness, more of YOU to others.
Keep us all, especially your priests, to always love you first before following you.
So many times, especially in this age, we have forgotten you our Caller and we have been so focused and madly in love with your call which is secondary.
You will always be our first love, Jesus and it is from that love where everything else follows. Amen.
Bronze statues of Jesus conversing with Simon at the shore of Tiberias before his ascension. We have to love Jesus first before we can follow him. Photo by author, April 2017.
Continue praying for us priests. Let us be focused more with Jesus our Caller, not with his call.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wednesday, Easter VII, 05 June 2019
Acts 20:28-28 >< )))*> >< )))*> >< )))*> John 17:11-19
Facade of the Church of All Nations beside the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed his “high priestly prayer” consecrating us to the Father. Photo by author, 04 May 2019.
As I prayed last night, O Lord Jesus Christ, I felt out of words for all the love and joy you have poured me yesterday. As I looked back on the day that had passed and meditate on your words today, I do not know what else to say except thank you, thank you, and thank you.
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. Consecrate them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I send them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
John 17:11,17-19
Wow…! How lovely to hear and experience being prayed for by you, Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. How comforting to dwell on your prayer for us, consecrating us in truth, consecrating yourself for us so that we may be consecrated in truth.
All these despite our unworthiness. You still consecrated us priests, made us holy not because we are good or talented but all because of your love.
Help us to keep in our minds this great honor is not for our own sake but for the world, to continue your work and mission of consecrating the world to the Father.
Keep us united always in you, Jesus who is the Truth, the we may be able to do your work always of making you present among those in need, present especially in our lives, in our prayers, in our church, in our celebration of the Sacraments.
Lord, we have turned away from you. We have forgotten you. Please cast out from us all these prevailing thoughts in the Church of pomp and pageantry on the pretext of glorifying you with so much rituals and decorations in our churches and celebrations.
Consecration and sanctification can never be equated with silver and gold that adorn our churches while the flock go hungry, remaining in the darkness of ignorance and slavery to sins because we have never worked hard to teach them the truth, you.
How can we be holy, O Lord, when we have become of the world? When we have “perverted the truth to draw disciples away from the people” (Acts 20:30).
What a shame, Jesus our High Priest that we your priests cannot sincerely speak like St. Paul as he bid goodbye to his flock in the first reading:
“I have never wanted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You know well that these very hands have served my needs and my companions. In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
Acts 20:33-35
Consecrate us anew, Lord, sanctify us to be one with you again and to serve your truth with fervor and commitment. Forgive us your priests, Lord and let find our way back home to you. Amen.
A view from the entrance to the Temple Wall of Old Jerusalem, 04 May 2019.
Life is a series of coming and going where we never really leave at all.
I have been sharing you this quite often since Advent last year. We do not leave completely but simply come to new levels of relationships with our loved ones. When children grow up and go to college, they move into new environment, new stage in life. They never leave but come to new beginnings. Eventually, they leave home when they graduate in college and get married only to start their own family and home.
We call this series of coming and going in life as “presence in absence”. Sometimes it happens that it is after someone had left us, whether temporarily or permanently like death, that we even get closer with that person. Here we find the wonderful truth that if you want to be eternal, love. Then, a departure no longer becomes an exit but an entry to new mode of presence and relationships.
This is why Jesus commanded us last Sunday to love one another as he loved us, that is, to always love in his Father who is love himself. When we love in union with the Father, then our love is made perfect as it is God who eventually works in us.
The Lord deepens this teaching to us in our gospel today as he prepares us for the great celebration of his Ascension on Sunday, a kind of his own “leaving and coming”. Our gospel today is still part of his long discourse during his Last Supper when Thomas, Philip, and Jude asked him some questions about his impending departure that they could not really fully grasp at that time. Anyway, Jesus now answers the last question from Jude concerning his presence while at the same time prepares them for the inevitable when he has to “leave” them first for his Passion and Death and second, when he returns to the Father in heaven.
( Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”) Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name — will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”
John 14:22-23, 25-26
Altar of the church Dominus Flevit (the Lord Wept) with the old Jerusalem as background, April 2017.
First thing we notice in the Lord’s statement is the great honor for each of us to be the dwelling place of him and the Father. Can you imagine the kind of intimacy that means we now have with both the Son and the Father dwelling in us? It is something beyond our expectations or hopes when all we want in life is to be with him in heaven after death. But we do not have to wait for our death because right now, right here, Jesus and the Father are dwelling in us. And because of this reality, we are able to find meaning and fulfillment in life despite its many trials and difficulties, pains and tears along the way.
We have experienced the Father’s presence through the words and teachings of Jesus passed on to us through the Sacred Scriptures and the Tradition of the Church. Jesus himself stressed that his words are not really his but the Father’s. Loving the Lord and keeping his words are the same because Jesus is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us according to St. John’s prologue to his gospel. It is for this reason that we are also able to call God “Abba” (Father) because we have that inner recognition of him deep within us in Jesus Christ.
Clouds over Sinai desert in Egypt, 07 May 2019.
Jesus continues his presence and teachings in us in our own time in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the second part of his discourse in our gospel today, his sending of the Holy Spirit upon his return to the Father to be his apostles’ and our Advocate or defender and inner guide to all the truths he had taught us.
Christ did not say everything to the apostles. Aside from the fact that the time of his “presence” on earth was limited (33 years), it was impossible for the evangelists to report everything he had said and done (Jn.21:25). But he knew the totally different situations his disciples would be into and that includes us in the present time. Jesus knew very well the shifts and upheavals coming but, as we have seen in the past 2000 years since he went back to the Father, his Church has continued to exist despite the many predictions of its end. And that is largely due to the work of the Holy Spirit as our Advocate or defender.
From Google.
As our Advocate, the Holy Spirit acts as the “memory” of the Church like in a computer that it “processes” us disciples to act according to the Scriptures and teachings of Jesus in our own time. The Spirit powers us like a dynamo to continue to be the living presence of Jesus in his “absence” in a world that tries to delete him. This was first experienced in the first Council meeting of the Church in Jerusalem in the year 50 AD (Jesus ascended to heaven 33 AD) when the first Christians were plunged into a controversy regarding the imposition of Judaic traditions on Gentile converts. The first reading from the Acts tells us how the Apostles were guided in their proceedings by the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit continues to do the same in the Church when our Pope and bishops pray and reflect on the Scriptures in making its stand on the different issues now confronting us that were non-existent 100 years ago or 2000 years ago like the Internet or global warming. The Holy Spirit is the “heart and soul” of the Church’s living tradition that makes Jesus present in the world today through each one of us, its dwelling-place.
In the second reading, John tells us of the splendor of the heavenly Jerusalem where God is at the middle of everything. It is also the challenge of the gospel to us today, as the indwelling of the Father and of the Son, do we make God present in our family, in our places of work and study? Do we remain faithful to his word that we are not ashamed of praying even in a restaurant?
See that after explaining his mode of presence through us in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus spoke of the gift of peace. Peace is always the fruit of love when we have Jesus as basis within us in all of our undertakings. How sad that even in many families, couples and children plan on their own for their many projects and activities without including their spouses or children in the process. There is no internal unity that often leads to misunderstanding and divisions that make peace so elusive.
Last Wednesday night I was invited to guest in a radio talk show hosted by former colleagues in the news. They complained to me how the Mass is no longer holy and has become very showbiz. Lourd De Veyra complained of priests not prepared with their homily and so “in love” with their voice that they talk nonsense like TV hosts. Photojournalist Melvin Calderon formerly of TIME Magazine and Pulitzer Prize winner last year Manny Mogato of Reuters News lamented at how our churches have become to look like a studio or a stage with all the pomp and pageantry, empty of any sense of the Holy. Though their observations were painfully true, I still felt so glad for them because despite their being so immersed in the world, they all long for the peace of Jesus Christ they believe can be first found among us priests and in our churches! May we go back to the Father so we may be able to share Jesus, only Jesus, and always Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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