Category: jesus christ

Our Seat, Our Stand?

SOD-0222-ChairofSaintPeter-790x480
The Chair of St. Peter at the high altar of the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican flanked below by the two teachers of the East, St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius with the two Latin Fathers of the Church St. Ambrose and St. Augustine.  All four saints showed us how love stands on faith; that,  without both love and faith, everything falls apart in the Church.  Photo from Bing.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Friday, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, 22 February 2019
1Peter 5:1-4///Matthew 16:13-19

             Glory and praise to you, O Lord Jesus Christ as we celebrate today a most unique feast, the Chair of St. Peter!

             It is so unique O Lord especially in this age when the world is so concerned with seating arrangement whether at home, in school, in offices, in buses… everywhere seats matter these days because every seat is about position, rank, power and convenience.

             And we have forgotten that more important than our seating position is where we stand.

             On this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, remind us Lord especially your priests of that beautiful example you have shown at the Last Supper when you left your seat to wash the feet of the Apostles.

             How sad and shameful, O Lord, when we your priests fail to realize that the throne of the Eucharist is not a seat of power or prestige but a seat of loving service to everyone.

             So true were the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Romans in the year 110 that the Primacy of Rome is the Primacy of Love because primacy in faith is always primacy in love, two things we can never separate.

             May we your priests heed the call of St. Peter, the designated “owner” of that Chair, that we “Tend the flock of God in your midst, overseeing not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for  shameful profit but eagerly.  Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock” (1Pt.5:2-3).  Amen.  Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan. 

Thinking Like Jesus

jesusrainbow
Photo from Bing.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Thursday, 21 February 2019, Week VI, Year I
Genesis 9:1-13///Mark 8:27-33
My dearest God and Father, today you remind me of the beautiful story of Noah, of how you had promised through him never again to destroy earth.

What a joy always to my eyes to see your rainbow, its beautiful colors without any definitive origin nor end, reminding me of how you have given us more than a promise but a covenant.

When I was a child, I always heard that at the end of every rainbow is a pot of gold that would make anyone who would find it very wealthy.  As I matured, I realized O God that the pot of gold of your rainbow is your Son Jesus Christ our Lord:  whoever finds Him becomes wealthy indeed!

Like the song of the psalmist today, “From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth”, Jesus became your rainbow, your new covenant who stretched  His arms on the Cross to save us.

Give me the grace O God to think like Jesus as the Christ who willed to suffer and die for us in accordance with your Holy Will.

Give me the grace O God to think like Jesus as the Christ so that my life and those around me are enriched in your love and mercy.  Amen.  Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.