Category: holiness

How much do you love?

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul

Week XXXIII-C, 17 November 2019

Malaci 3:19-20 ><}}}*> 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 ><}}}*> Luke 21:5-19

The Wailing Wall of Jerusalem Temple, May 2019.

We are now at the penultimate Sunday of the year as Jesus continues to summarize his teachings today at the Temple area in Jerusalem about his final coming at the end of time.

While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All that you see here — the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” He answered, “See that you not be deceived… “

Luke 21:5-8

On the surface, Jesus seemed like to be a “kill joy” in making those bold assertions about the coming destruction of the Temple while everybody was admiring it. But notice how the people reacted: instead of being worried, they asked when it would happen and what would be the warning signs before it takes place as if it is just an ordinary thing!

“Wala lang…” as the young would say these days. Nothing, duh…?

View of Jerusalem from the Church of Dominus Flevit where Jesus wept upon seeing the city from the Mount of Olives.

St. Luke tells us that before Jesus entered Jerusalem, “he wept over it” at the thought that it would be destroyed and that its enemies would not “leave one stone upon another” (Lk.19: 41-44).

If there is anyone deeply hurt and saddened with the Temple’s destruction, it is not other than Jesus Christ our Lord. He certainly shared the people’s admiration for the Temple which he had also claimed as “my Father’s house” (Lk.2:49) when he was accidentally left behind there by Mary and Joseph when he was 12 years old.

Imagine what Jesus must have felt when he spoke of the destruction of the Temple which is the heart of Jerusalem, the jewel of the city, and most of all, the sign of God’s presence among his chosen people!

There must be something deeper with his warning words of the Temple’s destruction that pertains not only to his people at that time but also to us today.

Wailing Wall of Jerusalem, may 2019.

For the Jews at that time, the destruction of the Temple is the end of the world, the signal of the apocalypse. More than a catastrophe involving the destruction of buildings and almost everything including life, it is judgment day that must not be taken lightly.

It is a day calling for conversion as the prophet Malachi in the first reading reminds us that every coming of God is a day of judgment and salvation.

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire… But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.

Malachi 3:19-20

Christ had already come and will come again.

This was his promise and this is what he meant at the cleansing of the temple, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn.2:19). At his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, Jesus Christ had replaced the old Temple worship with himself!

This is what we celebrate in every Holy Mass, God’s coming to us in Jesus Christ his Son.

Jesus comes in every here and now, and his every coming is a process of destroying our old temple of self to give rise to a new temple in Christ. Our concern need not be about a future date of his Second Coming or specific signs of its fulfillment.

Every day Jesus comes again and the challenge is for us to live authentically as Christians daily and not be bothered about the future. He warns us not to be deceived by all of these apocalyptic predictions and statements.

The key word is conversion, of living in the present. Jesus tells us so many things that can be very frightening and scary because what he wants us to do in preparation for his Second Coming is to love, love, and love.

And to love is to always suffer in Christ, with Christ.

He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in in my name… Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky. Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you… You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair of on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

Luke 21:8-19
From I.REDD.IT.

Yes, Jesus will definitely come again at the end of time. Like last Sunday, definitely, there is a resurrection of the dead and life everlasting. But both must be seen in the context of the present time, of the here and now.

When Jesus comes again to judge us at the end of time, he won’t be asking us about the things we have been so preoccupied with in this life like how much money we earn, what car do you drive, or how big is your house?

When Jesus comes again, he will be asking us questions we have always refused to answer in our daily lives like how much have you loved, how much have you sacrificed and suffered for a loved one, or how much have you shared to a stranger?

These are the questions we must be asking ourselves as we near towards the end of the year: how close have I followed Jesus Christ in his Passion and Death so I may be with him in his Resurrection?

May we imitate St. Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians today to faithfully and calmly fulfill our daily tasks in this life, avoiding being idle for each day is the day of the Lord. Amen.

True mobility is in Christ Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Week XXXII, Year I, 14 November 2019

Wisdom 7:22-8:1 ><)))*> <*(((>< Luke 17:20-25

Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, 2019.

Praise and glory to you, O Lord our mighty God!

We keep on searching for so many things in this life to make us more “upwardly mobile” in life: knowledgeable and affluent, healthy and everything.

Nice.

But in our pursuits, we miserably fail becoming better persons for eventually, everything ends up with about money and material things, prestige and fame.

We forget you, O God who is Wisdom beyond compare.

For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion, and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.

Wisdom 7:24

Let us find you right here in our hearts, in Christ Jesus who had come to dwell within us. Amen.

Aral ng kapa ni San Martin ng Tours

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-11 ng Nobyembre 2019

Larawan mula sa Google.
Madalas ilarawan
itong dakilang kawal ng Diyos
si San Martin ng Tours sa France
hinahati kanyang kapa
upang bihisan dukhang matanda
nakasalubong sa daan.
Kinagabihan 
kanyang napanaginipan
Panginoong Hesus sa kanyang paanan
tangan-tangan
kapang ipinahiram
sa matandang tinulungan.
Ito ang katuparan
ng Ebanghelyong sa atin ibinalita
mismo ni Hesus na ano man
ang ating gawin sa kapwa natin
siyang ginagawa din natin
sa kanyang Panginoon natin.
Kapilya ng Santisimo Sakramento sa UP-Diliman. Kuha ni Bb. JJ Jimeno ng GMA7 News, 2019.
Kay gandang pagnilayan
isa pang aral nitong kapa
ni Martin na Banal:
lingid sa kaalaman
ng karamihan, dito rin nagmula
kataga ng pook na munting dasalan. 
Sinasabi sa kasaysayan,
noong bagong Kristiyano si Martin
kanyang iniiwan mga tauhan
para manalangin sa kagubatan;
hinuhubad kanyang kapa 
upang makapanalangin ng taimtiman.
Kaya tuwing siya ay hahanapin,
tanging tutuntunin 
saan nakasampay o nakalagay 
hinubad niyang kapa, na kanilang tinuring 
sa wikang Frances na "chapelle" 
na naging chapel, o kapilya sa wika natin.
Ang “Ecce Homo” ni Murillo. Larawan mula sa Google.
Hindi ba natin pansin
itong Panginoong Hesus natin
nang siya ay dumating sa atin
hinubad kanyang pagkadiyos
upang makatulad natin,
matubos sa mga pagkakasala natin?
Hari ng mga hari,
tunay na makapangyarihan
ngunit nang nilibak
sinuutan ng purpurang kapa,
pinutungan ng koronang tinik
at hindi umimik hanggang makamit kaligtasan natin.
Kay sarap pagbulaybulayan
halimbawang iniwan sa atin
nitong si San Martin:
ating kapa ng kapangyarihan at pangalan
ating hubarin upang ang Diyos
ay ating makamit at siya ay makatulad natin.

Breathe on me, Lord…

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Saturday, Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Church, 09 November 2019

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 ><)))*> 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17 ><)))*> John 2:13-22

“Praise be to Christ” says the floor of the Church of the Beatitudes, Galilee, Holy Land, 2019.

Our loving Father in heaven:

Thank you very much for the gift of church, especially beautiful and lovely churches where we encounter you in prayers and the sacraments.

How amazing that these churches “breathe” with their walls, “whispering” to you the many praises and thanksgiving of countless people who have encountered you there.

Whenever I come inside a church, I try to feel your presence as well as those other faithful including those who have gone home to you in heaven.

Indeed, we your “chosen people as living stones” are your buildings, your temple and dwelling place.

Whenever we enter a church, we also enter you, our God as you fill us with life like those fruitful trees saw by Ezekiel in the first reading growing on the banks of the river flowing from the temple.

Forgive us when we destroy our bodies and our communities, forgetting that we are your temple.

Forgive us when we refuse to celebrate the Sunday Mass with our fellow believers.

St. John Lateran Basilica, the Cathedral of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, our Mother Church. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2017.

As we celebrate today the Feast of the Dedication of the Mother of all churches, the Major Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, remind us also to take care of our churches, to always maintain their sacredness, do away with all profanities and “shows” so many priests and lay people are now so fond of doing forgetting it is always your house, not ours.

Breathe into us your life-giving Spirit, Lord Jesus, for us to create a space within us and in our churches for you to come and renew us. Amen.

Saints are life-givers

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Solemnity of All the Saints, 01 November 2019

Revelation 7:2-4. 9-14 ><}}}*> 1 John 3:1-3 ><}}}*> Matthew 5:1-12

“Mary with the Child and the Angels and the Saints” by Duccio Di Buoninsegna (d. 1319).

Glory and praise to you, O Lord our almighty and loving Father in heaven!

Thank you very much for this celebration of the Solemnity of All Saints — of those all ahead of us and have died now enjoying your company in heaven.

Whenever we think of holiness, we always think of men and women not committing sins, of moral exemplars.

Remind us always that holiness is being filled with you, O God, and that saints are givers of life.

“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.”

Matthew 5:8

Fill us with your Holy Spirit, Lord, cleanse us of our sins and evil desires and inclinations as we strive to bear all pains and sufferings to lead holy lives.

It is in purifying our hearts, our very selves, when we are able to truly offer our lives for the loving service of the poor and needy so that while still here on earth, we may already see your face, Lord, among the people we meet until that day we are one in you in eternity. Amen.

Befriending Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, 15 October 2019

Romans 1:16-25 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 11:37-41

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandon us. He is a true friend.

Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation… All blessings come to us through our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example.

St. Teresa of Avila, from the Breviary

Many times in our lives we have always believed that holiness is just for a few people you have chosen, O God. We feel excluded from holiness, from being a saint.

Because we refuse to try to get near you, doubting you despite our belief in you as God!

“For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshipped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Romans 1:19, 25

Sometimes we have tried befriending you through Jesus Christ your Son.

And like the saints, we have indeed experienced your presence, your reality, your blessedness but unfortunately we stopped striving further as St. Teresa tells us.

O dear Jesus, you always come to me, you always make me experience you but I always try explaining everything, letting my mind work more than my heart and soul that I fail to feel and experience you inside me like those Pharisees bent on finding faults in you.

Give me the grace to be silent and still in you, to wait for you as a friend full of love and trust like St. Teresa of Avila. Amen.

Love: the great little way!

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Memorial of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, 01 October 2019

Zechariah 8:20-23 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 9:51-56

White roses for you, dearly beloved devotee of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Christ heard your prayers and had asked St. Therese to send you these white roses as the sign you have been asking regarding what you have been praying for through our daily prayer blog, The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul. God bless you more today, my friend! (Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at the Atok Blooms, Benguet, 01 September 2019.)

On behalf, O Lord, of the many people praying for a “little miracle” today through St. Therese of the Child Jesus, thank you very much for these beautiful white roses. And most especially for answering our prayers!

Thank you again for the gift of another saint today close to our modern time, a woman so young, and most of all, so simple in her faith and in her ways. Just like you, God, when she proclaimed…

“O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my proper place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.”

St. Therese of the Child Jesus, from the Liturgy of the Hours

It is this simple yet profound truth of being love, of doing everything in love that we always forget or take for granted that elevated St. Therese to be the youngest and one of the only five women Doctors of the Church.

In her life you have showed us the need to find the points of convergence of doctrine and experience, of teaching and practice in order to truly be holy and filled with God that fulfilled the Lord’s own words spoken among the crowds more than 2000 years ago:

“I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes.”

Matthew 11:25
Born Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin at Alencon, France in 1873, St. Therese entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux at the age of 15 following a special permission from Church officials. She claimed no visions or extraordinary moments except that she followed a simple path to faith, especially after contracting TB that caused her death in 1897 at the young age of 24. Photo from Google.

Open our minds and our hearts, our very selves, Lord, like St. Therese to humbly embrace this simple truth of love by intensely and passionately living in love, doing ordinary things in the most extraordinary way of love. May we follow your Son Jesus as “he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem”(Lk.9:51) to face his passion, death, and resurrection out of love for you and for us. Amen.

Prayer for our co-workers in the Church

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Saturday, Memorial of St. Lorenzo Ruiz and Companions, 28 September 2019

Zechariah 2:5-9, 14-15 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 9:43-45

From Google.

Today, O God our loving Father, we praise and thank you for the gift of our first Filipino saint, San Lorenzo Ruiz along with his companions martyred in Japan on this day in 1637.

What a great blessing too, dear Father, that our first saint is a layman, someone we need these days to look up to and follow your universal call to holiness.

Bless our lay people who make up most of our faithful who are also our most essential co-workers in your vineyard, Lord.

We need them so much in this world that has become very secularized.

Restore their faith not only to you O God but also to us your priests, their priests and teachers and guides to you. May the lay people be faithful to your teachings through the Church they now question in the name of progress and liberalism.

Like San Lorenzo Ruiz, may the faithful trust again their priests and bishops despite the scandals that continue to rock our wounded Church.

What a beautiful sight to behold the martyrdom of San Lorenzo Ruiz with other fellow lay faithful and Dominican priests who all comprise the Body of Christ, the Church. In them were fulfilled your words to the prophet:

“People will live in Jerusalem as though in an open country, because of the multitude of men and beasts in her midst. But I will be for her an encircling wall of fire, says the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.”

Zechariah 2:8-9

May we all trust you, O Lord, especially in this time of varied forms of persecution against the Catholic Church here and abroad. May we have the courage of San Lorenzo Ruiz and companions to suffer with you, and to suffer for you. Amen.

Clothed in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Week XXIII, Year I, 12 September 2019

Colossians 3:12-17 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 6:27-38

Sacred Heat Novitiate (Novaliches), July 2016.

It is only Thursday, Lord Jesus Christ, but suddenly your Most Sacred Heart came to mind, especially this beautiful hymn:

Heart of Jesus, meek and mild
Hear, O hear, Thy feeble child,
When the tempest’s most severe, Heart of Jesus, hear!
Sweetly we’ll rest on Thy Sacred Heart,
Never from Thee, oh let us part,
Hear then Thy loving children’s pray’r,
O Heart of Jesus, Heart of Jesus, hear!

Everyday, Lord, we think of the clothes we would wear and too often, our choices seem endless, taking so much of our time so we would always look good to others.

Today, O Lord, I pray, you clothe me with your person: through your “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, may everything I do be done in your most holy name, O Jesus”, (Col. 3:12, 17).

From Google.

To be clothed in you, O Lord Jesus, means to see the good in others than to see myself as the only one good.

To be clothed in you, O Jesus, is to get into the very heart of your gospel message of “loving our enemies” (Lk.6:27). It is the most radical words in your preaching that seems so impossibly hard for us to follow – unless we are clothed in you, O Christ.

That is why it is very important for us to be clothed in you, Jesus, because loving our enemies is the clearest expression we are your disciples, that is, Christians in the truest sense.

Help us to take off our clothes of pride and selfishness, our clothes of greed and insecurities that make us want more than what we have and what we need, and thus lead to our making enemies because we try to possess and defend.

Instead, let us be clothed in you, Jesus, so that we become poor like you with nothing to keep except everything to give and share.

In that manner, we become open and hospitable instead of being hostile with others. Amen.

Being holy, wise, and practical

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Week XXI, Year I, 30 August 2019

1 Thessalonians ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 25:1-13

Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland. Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual, August 2019.

This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

On this last Friday of August while so many people today await September for their silly Christmas countdown and carols, I pray, Lord, that we may value your call to holiness which is simply to become wise and practical, of staying out of troubles by being close to you.

How absurd that while everybody is so eager for Christmas, nobody is interested with its message and essence of being like you, of being holy and divine that is now more doable since your Son Jesus Christ became human like us.

Teach us, Lord, to be wise like those five virgins in your parable today.

To be wise and holy is first of all to be “reasonable”, that is, to always search and follow and stand by what is true. In this age of fake news and misplaced nationalism and rights, it has become so normal to be carried away by emotions, totally disregarding facts and reason.

Secondly, teach us O Lord to be orderly in our living, not only in “decluttering” our rooms and drawers of so many trash but most especially our very being. Where there is reason, there is always order. Chaos and disorder, confusions and mess happen when we become unreasonable as we fail to see the more essential things in life.

Last but not least, Lord, give us the gift of vision of the future which is always a result of being reasonable and orderly in life. Not just the gift of sight, O Lord which is a mere ability to see things. Grant us vision which is the grace to see beyond time and physical realities, to project and work on the future now.

The wise virgins have vision that they brought extra oil as they have anticipated the delay in the arrival of the groom; the other virgins were foolish because they lived only in the present, on what is physical just like most of us today. Amen.