The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Thursday, Easter VI, 30 May 2019
Acts 18:1-8 >< }}}*> <*{{{ >< John 16:16-20
From Google.
My dearest Jesus Christ, I am tired. There are times I just force myself to do your work, fighting off temptations of disappointments and disillusions. Like your apostles, I am baffled with your words:
“A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me… Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”
John 16:16, 20
A little while… you were with us, Lord. Not only during those 33 years you spent on earth more than 2000 years ago. A little while in times of joy and success, we feel you so close, Jesus.
But then, a little while, we no longer see you. Not only during those three days of your pasch from Holy Thursday evening to Holy Saturday but especially when we go through our own passion and little deaths.
And a little while later, we see you again in our little resurrections in life, every time we hurdle some obstacles here and there.
Give us the grace always, Lord Jesus, to persevere in our many hardships and trials in life to find you and meet you in between those “little whiles”.
Like St. Paul in the first reading, help us to move on, to accept this is your work and not ours, that our standards are different from yours when defeat for us is victory for you, or when loss for us is a gain for you.
Strengthen us inside, Jesus, so we may be focused on you alone, waiting to encounter you, to meet you in the Church, in your many Sacraments and signs. In these tensions of your being here and not yet, of your sure coming, may we be always on guard and present to meet you. Amen.
Stations of the Cross on the wall of the Catholic Church inside the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Photo by the author, 03 May 2019.
Did our prayer touch you? Share us your thoughts and prayers. You are prayed for. Follow our blog for you daily recipe for the soul. God bless you! fr nick
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wednesday, Easter Wk. VI, 29 May 2019
Acts 17:15,22-18:1 >< }}}*> John 16:12-15 >< }}}*>
My dearest Lord Jesus: As I prayed last night, I cannot remove from my mind that beautiful sight of a man in a chapel, so absorbed in conversing with you, that he seemed to have lost his head in prayer.
Photo by JJ Jimeno of GMA News, UP Chapel, 27 May 2019.
Today our readings speak of the need to lose our selves in you.
St. Paul tried to win over the people of Athens at the Areopagus, proclaiming your Gospel without condemning or attacking their religion. He even cited their shrine “To An Unknown God” (Acts 17:23) as a step closer to discovering you and following you as the true God.
He never lost his cool even when people did not believe his teachings of your resurrection from the dead. He simply had himself lost to your will and left Athens to proceed to Corinth where you have prepared great things for his ministry.
Lord, so many times, we cannot let go of our heads, of our know-it-all-attitude in life that we cannot let go and let God.
Let us always remember your words during the Last Supper, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now” (Jn.16:12).
Let us be patient, waiting for your Holy Spirit to come to us, to fill us with your wisdom, to remind us of your teachings and to guide us in doing your work.
Let us lose not only our heads but our very selves to you so we may do your work in the way you would want it be done. Amen.
Photo by the author, parish sacristy, 10 March 2019.
Did our prayer touch you? Share us your thoughts and prayers. You are prayed for. Follow our blog for you daily recipe for the soul. God bless you! fr nick
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Tuesday, Easter Wk. VI, 28 May 2019
Acts 16:22-34 >< }}}*> John 16:5-11 >< }}}*>
Church of St. Peter Gallicantu (Rooster), Jerusalem, 05 May 2019.
Praise and glory to you, O God our loving Father! Thank you for the night, whether we were able to sleep soundly or not; thank you for the rains, for the sunrise, for the brand new day! Thank you for the internet, thank for the grace of prayer, thank you for the gift of life.
Thank you for your gift of presence in Jesus Christ!
Your readings for today remind us that every presence is always a gift. It is always best to have even a little of anything than nothing at all.
Some of us while reading this still have same problems that persist like a sickness not getting worse, bills to be paid, debts piling up, problems getting bigger. Sometimes for many of us, life is so dark that we cannot even feel you, Lord.
In moments we feel like giving up in life, giving up on you, Jesus, please send us a St. Paul who would shout in a loud voice to us like in the first reading, “Do no harm to yourself; we are all here” (Acts 16:28).
Give us the grace and courage to be present to anyone like St. Paul so we can uplift their sagging spirits and continue to find meaning in life in our simple presence.
Fill us with the Holy Spirit to bring joy and conviction to those who doubt you. May they believe in you and find your presence, find fulfillment to be reassured of the beauty of life. Amen.
Sunset in the desert of Jordan on our way to Amman, 01 May 2019.
Did our prayer touch you? Share us your thoughts and prayers. You are prayed for. Follow our blog for you daily recipe for the soul. God bless you! fr nick
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Easter Week VI, 27 May 2019
Acts 16:11-15 >< }}}*> <*{{{ >< John 15:26-16:4
Photo by Dra. Mai dela Pena, Carmel Monastery in Israel, 2014.
Praise and glory to you O Lord Jesus Christ! Today I praise and thank you in a very special way because of this immense love you have made me experience these days. I feel so blessed because I feel so loved. And I feel so loving too.
You know O Lord I have always looked down at myself, always doubting my abilities and most of all, my goodness. Every time I go on my personal retreats, in my own silent moments with you, I find it so hard to see myself as you see me — a beloved one.
So many times even if I know you have forgiven me for my many sins, I always still feel unworthy and untidy before you.
But when people come to thank me, to remind me of some kindness and charity I have extended them, you overwhelm me.
Maybe that’s the problem with us: we always doubt you love us, that we are loved, that we mean so much to other people. We tend to look on our dark side than on the bright moments you have worked in us and through us.
Teach us to be realistic and humble like Paul who was prevailed upon by Lydia in her generosity to receive them because of their goodness coming from you.
You are absolutely right, Lord Jesus: some people think they are doing God a big favor hurting us your followers because they have not really known you and the Father.
They have never experienced really knowing you, entering into a relationship with you as a person, as a Father, as a Brother.
That’s what make Christianity so different where we have a relating God, a God who knows when to give us that proverbial pat on the shoulders when we forget our goodness in you. You are a personal God who knows us and relates with us.
We pray for those burdened today, for those who feel neglected and even useless because of their plight and sorry condition. Remind us always that despite our many flaws and weaknesses, sins and failures in life, you still love us and would always love us no matter what. Amen.
Our pilgrimage team at Petra in Jordan, 01 May 2019.
Did our prayer touch you? Share us your thoughts and prayers. You are prayed for. Follow us for you daily recipe for the soul. God bless you! fr nick
It’s a lovely day but before thoughts of the work load waiting for you tomorrow distract you, here’s The Boomtown Rats’ 1979 hit “I Don’t Like Mondays” for our last Lord My Chef Sunday Music this month of May.
Written by Sir Bob Geldof and his fellow Irish Johnnie Fingers, I Don’t Like Mondays is a song about the 1979 Cleveland Elementary School Shooting in San Diego, California that killed two adults and injured eight children and a police officer.
According to Geldof, he wrote the song after reading a telex report of the shooting incident while being interviewed at Georgia State University’s campus radio station WRAS. In that report, he learned how 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer fired at children in a school playground in San Diego because she said, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”
Geldof found Spencer strange who also showed no remorse for her crime. She gave no other answers except “I don’t like Mondays” when journalists asked her to “tell me why” the shooting spree. On his way to his hotel, Geldof kept thinking about Spencer’s “senseless reason for the senseless act” that he told himself the “silicon chip inside her head had switched to overload.” He then wrote the song “to illustrate the perfect senseless reason for doing the perfect senseless act.”
Geldof clarified he never intended to exploit the tragedy though, after many years later, he admitted he regretted writing the song that made “Spencer famous.” The song hit the number spot in the UK charts after its release but reached only the 73rd spot in the US where the Spencers tried unsuccessfully to prevent the single from being released there.
In our reflection for this Sunday’s gospel, we said the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus and sent by his Father acts as the “memory” of the Church. Jesus told his disciples during their Last Supper that the “Advocate, the Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” (Jn.14:26).
Like the “silicon chip” of a computer, the Holy Spirit “processes” in us the meaning of the words of the Sacred Scriptures so that we can respond accordingly to the many issues presented to us by the modern world. In that way, we continue to become the presence of Jesus Christ today where some people have become not only senseless but also loveless, causing so many pains and miseries among us.
I Don’t Like Mondays reminds us that despite the modern technologies we have today, what is still most essential among us is the love we have inside, the respect and concern we have for others around us. And this can only be found in Jesus Christ who dwells inside our hearts. Let us “switch” him on and become his presence of love and mercy in this world that is becoming heartless and even senseless sometimes.
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.
What a lovely Friday you calling us friends, Lord Jesus! What an honor for you to regard as your friends even though so many times we disappoint you, even betray you with our sins.
You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
John 15:14-15
How funny, Lord, that just one letter in the word “friend” can spell the big difference to turn it into its exact opposite, the letter “r”: from friend to fiend or enemy.
So many times, Lord, it is the lack of respect that leads us to sin against you and one another, that we become fiend than friend. Friends always respect, which is from the Latin roots re and specere or to “look again”.
Teach us, like your apostles in the first reading to learn to respect one another, especially those different from us that we may always see them as brothers and sisters despite our differences like backgrounds, culture, and color.
Teach us, O Lord, to see more of you in others to be the very basis of our friendships rather than looking more into our many differences that we always make as excuses in being apart. Amen.
An optical shop in Madaba, Jordan. Photo by author, 02 May 2019.
Did our prayer touch you? Share us your thoughts and prayers. You are prayed for. Follow us for you daily recipe for the soul. God bless you! fr nick
The Sphinx with the Great Pyramids that express more than words the great love of ancient Egyptians to their gods and rulers. Photo by author, 09 May 2019.
Today is “throwback Thursday”, Lord. We call it tbt. And I cannot resist humming that song by the Extreme, “More than Words” as I prayed over your words for today.
How amazing is the power of a word, especially your words, Lord. Whatever you said came into existence for you words and your being are one. In your goodness, you shared this great power of the words with us that we are your only creatures able to communicate using words.
Before you went back to the Father, you told us to keep your words, to remain in your love so that our joy may be complete.
How sad that we have taken this for granted as we desecrate words of their sanctity and true meaning.
How sad that so often we never meant what we said. We have to multiply our words in order to be meaningful, for others to believe us and trust us.
Help us to regain the sanctity of words, of “palabra de honor” that has long been gone in a world of words that lie, mislead, and deceive.
Help us rediscover anew your words of life, Lord, like the Apostles who relied heavily on your words when they met at the Council of Jerusalem to resolve their first issues as a Church.
May your words guide us anew so we may discover the true meaning of life that in the process, like the ancient peoples, we may express in more than words our great love for you through our wonderful works of art and charity with others. Amen.
The Treasury of the lost city of Petra in Jordan built in 1 BC that express in more than words the beliefs and values of the ancient Nabataeans. Photo by author, 01 May 2019.
*Were you touched by our prayer today? Share us your thoughts and touch other hearts too. If you have prayer intentions, we'll be glad to pray for you. Follow us for your daily recipes for the soul. God bless! fr nick
Thank you very much, Lord Jesus Christ, for coming to us, for bringing God the Father closest to us. Thank you for being our true vine, for being planted in the earth, one with our humanity in everything except sin.
Through your mystery of Incarnation, you have bound yourself to us, Lord, assuring us of your indestructible unity with us who always separate from you, run away from you, and turn away from you in so many sins.
Teach us to remain always in you, Jesus.
To remain in you is to rely more on your powers than on our own strength.
To remain in you is to trust in your promises that you will fulfill them.
To remain in you is to be fruitful in firm faith, fervent hope and unceasing charity and love.
Since the time of Adam and Eve, there has always been that strong temptation to go on our own ways, to break away from you, O God, to be on our own. We have not only put you on trial 2000 years ago but, over a hundred years ago, we have even declared “God is dead”!
Forgive us when we refuse to be pruned of our ego and pride.
Let us overcome our fears to settle our differences like in the Council of Jerusalem so that we may continue to bear fruit in you O Christ. Amen.
From Google.
*Were you touched by our prayer today? Share us your thoughts and touch other hearts too. If you have prayer intentions, we'll be glad to pray for you. Follow us for your daily recipes for the soul. God bless! fr nick
Pilgrims entering through the small door of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, 02 May 2019.
Lately, Lord Jesus Christ, doors have been fascinating me: more than passages where we come and go, or enter and leave, doors are indeed like you! Last week you claimed yourself to be the gate of the sheep with you, Lord as our door, we never leave but, simply, come and come.
When you told your disciples at your Last Supper in today’s gospel that you were going away and will come back to them (Jn.14:28), you were very much like a door, Lord: for how can our hearts be not troubled or afraid when you are going away only to come to another level of relationship and existence with us?
That is the beauty of the door in you, Lord: your going away in your Ascension is your coming to us in new form of closeness, of continuing presence that leads to peace within each one of us.
How wonderful to remember Lord Jesus why the door to your birthplace in Bethlehem is so small: we have to go down, we have to bow and be humble in order to enter you:
They (Paul and Barnabas) strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”
Acts 14:22
Give us the courage and strength, patience and perseverance, Lord, along with faith, hope and love to enter through you our door so that we may always come out as better persons than yesterday. Amen.
View from the inside of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem of its small doors. Photos by author, 02 May 2019.
*Were you touched by our prayer today? Share us your thoughts or your prayers and touch other hearts too. Send us your prayer intentions, we'll be glad to pray for you. Follow us for your daily recipes for the soul. God bless! fr nick
lordmychef.com 