Lawiswis Ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-04 ng Nobyembre 2019
Mga lumot sa Malagos Gardens, Davao City, Agosto 2017.
Mula pa sa aking pagkabata naroon na aking pagkabighani sa mga lumot na tila baga may naghahabi mumunting alpombra sa mga gilid at tabi-tabi.
Hindi gaanong naabot ng liwanag mga mumunting halaman ang lumot mahiwagang sumusulpot maski sa mga sulok madaling lumalaganap waring sila'y mga nalimot.
Kay lamig sa paningin itong mga lumot kung susuriin tila baga nagpapahiwatig himig ng lilim at dilim, tinig ng mahalumigmig.
Mga lumot sa St. Paul Spirituality Center, Alfonso, Cavite. Setyembre 25, 2019.
Kamakailan ko lamang napagtanto aral na ibig ipaabot marahil ng mga lumot sa atin na laging nalulungkot, nakasimangot lalo na't kung ating buhay ay masalimuot.
Paalala marahil sa atin ng mga lumot hindi man maabot at mabaanaagang lubos ng sikat ng araw, sa lilim ng kadiliman maaaninag pa rin busilak na luntian.
Katotohanan at ganda nitong ating buhay bumubukal saan man ilagay ng Maykapal pahalagahan, pangalagaan dahil walang kapantay paalala ng lumot huwag sanang malimot.
Patak-dugo at lumot, St. Paul Spiritality Center, Alfonso, Cavite. Setyembre 25, 2019.
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.
As the penultimate month of the year, November for me is something like Thursday – so relaxed when people seem to slow down in anticipation of the coming end of the year or week. It acts like a cushion to prepare us for the “stress” of December or Friday. Or, a prelude to leaving, then living.
Cold winds from Siberia we call amihan intensify during this month while autumn is about to end in the western hemisphere. The climate contributes greatly to this laid-back feeling in November almost everywhere, maybe except Down Under where I haven’t been to.
Like autumn’s falling leaves, November is marked with three festivals associated with the dead to signal life and eternity.
On its first day, we celebrate All Saints’ Day in recognition of all the departed souls – including our beloved, of course! -now in heaven considered as “saints” aside from those canonized by the Church.
Day after tomorrow, November 2, we celebrate All Souls’ Day to pray for all those departed, especially our loved ones who are still awaiting entrance into heaven in Purgatory.
Then, on November 11, we celebrate St. Martin of Tours’ feast with a “Martinmas” in the old calendar of the Church after which Advent began for the Christmas countdown. Winter also starts in Europe and North America after the Martinmas immortalised in some poems and literature of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Incidentally, St. Martin of Tours (France) used to be a major saint in Europe because he is one of those first saints recognised by the Church as holy people who have died not as martyrs when persecution finally stopped and Christendom started to rise and “flex” her influence.
Today, November 11 is celebrated as “Remembrance Day” in Europe along with the Commonwealth nations of Britain and “Veterans Day” in the United States in honor of those who have died in the line of duty during the First World War that ended at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year” in 1918. Red poppies take the centerstage on this day to signify the blood offered by the fallen soldiers in that first world war, something very similar to the Christian thinker Tertullian’s assertion that “the blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the Church.”
So many deaths, but so many lives too!
And that is why we celebrate these feasts, whether in the Church or in our civil society.
This is the tragedy of our time when despite all the technological advances and affluence we now have, the more we have been saddled with fear and pains of death and dying.
Focus is more on death as a solution, as an end.
Or, as an entertainment like the pagans in ancient Rome’s Colesseum and of many benighted Christians today celebrating spooky Halloween that underscores the debunked dark side of death.
Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, Malolos Cathedral, 12 June 2019.
In the Old Testament, death was a curse to man’s sins but with Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, death has become a blessing because he has made it our passing too into eternal life.
No, there is no gap between this life and life-after. It is a continuum where death is just a prelude to eternity.
November is a wonderful reminder to us all of this truth we seem to have forgotten these days when all we see and even seek is darkness and death.
November is like a door opening us towards the end of the year that leads us to new year. The weather is so lovely, not so cold and not so hot, perfectly reminding of the beauty of life and reality of death that invites us to live fully and authentically.
This long weekend, I strongly recommend you read Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s second encyclical, Spe Salvi that speaks a lot about the beauty of this life and life-after. His reflections are simple yet so profound and so touching like the following.
“Man’s great, true hope which he holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God… Life in its true sense is not something we have exclusively in or from ourselves: it is a relationship. And life in its totality is a relationship with him who is the source of life. If we are in relation with him who does not die, who is Life itself and Love itself, then we are in life. Then we “live”.
Spe Salvi, number 27.
One of the beautiful movies I have seen while on vacation in November-December 2005 at the US East Coast was “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise who was asked by the boy Emperor of Japan at the end, “Tell me, how did my samurai die?” Tom Cruise replied, “I shall not tell you how your samurai died but how he lived!”
Live life, share life, enjoy lifein God and with others!
Romans 6:12-18 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 12:39-48
Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, QC, July 2017.
God our Father, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are still a week from now but today’s gospel reminds us that death is so certain to come one day to each one of us.
Nobody is exempted.
And the sooner we come to accept this fact and reality, the better for us.
Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.”
Luke 12:41-43
Too often, we are like St. Peter, feeling so secured with our association with you, that we are always exempted from others.
Today you are reminding us that death will certainly come to each one of us, your stewards here on earth.
Remind us that the greatest gift you have entrusted with us is this gift of self, this gift of life.
Give us the grace to use our very selves, our whole body, for your greater glory as St. Paul told the Romans in our first reading.
It is in coming to terms with death when we begin to come to terms with life because that is when we start living authentically and readily for the great inevitability.
Not in fear but in great honor and privilege in serving you well, our Lord.
Whatever we do with our life shall be our gift to you. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXIX-C, 20 October 2019
Exodus 17:8-13 ><}}}*> 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 ><}}}*> Luke 18:1-8
A pilgrim writing petitions inside a “cave” chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. George’s Church in Madaba, Jordan. May 2019.
We have seen these past two weeks the importance of faith in our lives. The other Sunday Jesus assured us that faith is a gift freely given to us by the Father that enables us to make it through this life’s many challenges. It is also faith that heals and saves us as seen in the healing of the ten lepers last Sunday.
For the next three Sundays beginning today, faith would still be the main theme of our gospel but, each week we are offered with its different aspects that enrich and fulfill our lives.
Today, Jesus shows us that where there is faith, there is always a relationship that springs forth nourished by prayer.
Jesus told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'”
Luke 18:1-5
Mirador, Baguio City, January 2019.
Everybody is saying we should pray. Especially us priests.
But rarely do we explain why we should pray. Worst of all, many among us teach the misconception that we have to pray so God would pour out his blessings upon us, the so-called “health and wealth” preaching to collect more donations!
Prayer is not merely for asking favors from God because he knows what we need and grants these even before we ask him or even without us asking him. Praying for special favors is the lowest form of prayer, the one at the bottom, if you remember our acronym “ACTS”: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.
Prayer is primarily about relationships, of keeping our ties with God closer and personal. It is an expression of our faith in God, something innate within us that we must cultivate for it to blossom and bear much fruit for us.
Prayers do not change things and situations like typhoons and earthquakes.
Prayers change us – our person and attitudes in dealing with life’s blows. It makes us more humane, more kind, more like God to whom we cling to when we pray.
See how the widow pleaded to the heartless judge because she not only believed she deserved justice but she saw a glimmer of humanity in him that even for a small chance he would render her with a just decision because she’s a fellow human being.
And she succeeded in pursuing it!
The widow had such deep faith that the evil judge would recognize their “link” or relationship as humans.
This we find clearer in Jesus explaining the parable.
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa at Palo, Leyte, September 2019.
The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Luke 18:6-8
The title “Lord” is a post-Resurrection address given to Jesus Christ by the disciples when their faith had been deepened by the Holy Spirit. Here, Jesus is introducing something more profound about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary – we pray to be with God, to be one in him by being “justified” or being saved!
Here now is the deeper reason why we must pray always: to be one with God.
And from that comes the crux of the gospel today when the Lord asked, “will he find faith on earth when he comes?”
That question sheds light to the parable which is more than praying unceasingly to God for some favors but to deepen that faith and relationship with God who is our very life, our healing, and our salvation.
That question sheds light to the parable which is about the need to constantly reawaken that faith with prayers as expression of our deep love for Jesus Christ, himself the “word who became flesh” we must proclaim always until he comes again according to St. Paul in the second reading.
That question by Jesus challenges our faith to be like Moses and Joshua remaining focused with God in prayer as we battle life’s many trials and difficulties, challenges that sometimes force many of us to abandon him or change our religious affiliations as if there are different Gods!
Finally, that question probes our hearts not only for faith but also for love for God expressed in our prayers. Where there is faith, there is always relationship, and therefore, there is also love.
And here, we do not merely mean reciting prayers but having a “prayer life” – a communion and intimacy with the Lord cultivated in a disciplined life of prayer because people who truly love always talk and communicate with each other.
Most of all, people who love and have faith in each other always spend time together even in silence. Just like in prayer!
Handle life with prayer always. Have a blessed week ahead!
“Losing One’s Head and Self in Prayer”. Photo by Ms. JJ Jimeno of GMA-7 News at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice Parish, UP Diliman, QC, June 2019.
Romans 3:21-30 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 11:47-54
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, September 2019.
O God our loving Father, we worship you and praise you for your majesty and kindness.
In this world where the self-made person is the ideal and economic achievement is the benchmark of success, everybody has become so busy in achieving something, carving a name for one’s self that we forget you.
We have become so proud and vain, O Lord!
Once we have tasted the sweet elixir of “success” in life, the more we thirst and work for so many other things until we finally forget you.
And that is when we become so proud, claiming everything is because of us – that, we are good, we are talented, we are brilliant. We are god, in fact.
But, Lord, I felt it too that when I boast of something in myself, I always run out of many other good things to be proud of myself! I just noticed that whatever we boast in life, it is always the same we thing just boast over and over again to make it big because the truth is, we have nothing to be proud of by our mere selves alone apart from you.
Worst, like in the gospel today, behind every boast we brag is a “woe” from Christ, of trails of evil and sin behind the “success” we are so proud of.
Forgive us, O Lord, for being so proud, for feeling like you, a God.
And this is the funny thing I have realized too about boasting: the more I see whatever I have in life as a grace from you, the more I see so many other good things in me to be proud of because of YOU!
St. Paul was absolutely right: we have all been redeemed and save by God in Christ Jesus. We are all forgiven and beloved sinners of God.
Should we brag or boast of anything, we can only do so in Christ because we all live in utter dependence in you, God.
There is nothing we can do in this world without your grace, O loving God. Amen.
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa at Panglao, Bohol, September 2019.
Which is more difficult to confront, the fact of dying or that of suffering through a serious sickness? I have been thinking these for the past couple of days following my recent visitations of sick parishioners.
Today I visited a parishioner sick for the past three months with a lung disease. She’s 76 years old.
Right upon seeing me, Lola Milagros cried, telling me to ask God to take her because she’s so tired of suffering and waiting for death.
I just let her cry, holding her hands, as I listened to her pouring out of her aches and pains.
After that, I whispered to her the words of St. Teresa de Avila whose feast we are also celebrating today:
Nada te turbe… Solo Dios basta! (Let nothing disturb you… only God suffices!)
St. Teresa De Avila
So beautiful to hear and yes, easier said than done.
Can anybody with a serious ailment be not disturbed?
Been asking myself the same questions too. It is difficult not to be disturbed when one is sick. Aside from the costs of treatment are the enormous pains and sufferings one has to go through with the medical procedures and its many effects to the patient, who eventually would die.
It is a reality getting closer to home with me and I must confess, I am disturbed. Worried. And afraid.
The other week I visited another sick parishioner named Charlie, a former cook paralysed waist down due to a spine injury. He is only in his early 50’s.
What struck me when I saw him were the ropes tied to his both feet. I could not figure out how he could be restless when he is paralysed that his feet have to be tied?
He explained, “Father, I pity my wife when I have to wake her up every night just to move my legs. So, I improvised these ropes tied to my feet so I can just pull them with my hands in case I have to change positions even at night.”
Oh God! What a great love of a man to his wife!
Charlie loves his wife so much that he does not want her to be disturbed with his ailment and condition.
When there is love, we are not disturbed. And the only true love that can make us undisturbed is the love of Jesus Christ, the only perfect love we can have and find.
Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favors, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort.
St. Teresa de Avila
“Love calls for love in return.”
So beautiful words by St. Teresa de Avila.
We can only truly feel that personal love of Jesus if we are also personally in love with him.
We are disturbed with so many things in life when there is not enough love in our hearts, when we have not felt loved enough by others too.
Without love, we would always be disturbed.
I told Lola Milagros this morning to thank God for the gift of tears because they are prayers coming straight from her heart. That God knows very well all her pains and sufferings. Most of all, I told her tears are clear signs of love in her heart.
Later on my way home, Lola Milagros’ daughter was also teary-eyed as she told me she was so glad to see her mother cried. According to her, Lola Milagros is a very tough woman of the “old school” who tried to bear everything and even hide what’s inside her so as not to disturb them. She always wanted them to be assured all’s fine.
Lola Milagros and Charlie do not want to disturb their respective family because they love them. It is love that moves the sick not to disturb others and it is also love that enables us to assure them not to be disturbed.
The challenge therefore is not to reflect on whether to die instantly or slowly but to always love truly!
Sacred Heart Novitiate (Novaliches), 2017.
Human love is always imperfect. Only God can love us perfectly. This he did exactly to us when he sent us Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for us.
To love truly is be personally one in Jesus Christ. When we were still seminarians, Fr. Memeng used to tell us in our class “Priestly Spirituality” that “if we can really cultivate a deep prayer life, we can also experience Jesus Christ in the most personal way.” It is the experience of St. Teresa de Avila and all the other saints.
Nothing can disturb us in this life when our love is borne out of a personal relationship with Jesus in prayer.
Prayer life is more than reciting prayers by following a schedule. Prayer life is a relationship, a communing with God, of being our true selves before him, seeing ourselves as he sees us. And because of this assurance of his love despite our many sins and flaws, that is when we are not disturbed because God loves us no matter what.
When we are not disturbed, then we become silent. Presence is more than enough to share and experience God’s love. St. Paul said “love is not pompous” because true love is always silent, more on deeds than on words.
One thing amusing with death is that it always comes in silence, when we least expect it. Whether we die instantly or slowly, it always happens in silence. And that is also why many are disturbed of dying.
But, if we love patiently our self, others and God, nothing can ever disturb us because when we love, we are already in God. That is when we realize too the wisdom and truth of St. Teresa’s contemporary who claimed that
A soul that walks in love is neither tired nor gets tired.
San Juan dela Cruz
From Google.
Let us love, love, and love until the end onto eternity.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe Week XXVIII-C, 13 October 2019
2 Kings 5:14-17 ><}}}*> 2 Timothy 2:8-13 ><}}}*> Luke 17:11-19
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, September 2019.
This Sunday readings tell us about the skin, the healing of people afflicted with the dreaded “Hansen’s disease” or leprosy. Since ancient time, it has always been seen with deeper implications than mere wounds on the skin that scars not only the leper but also the community. At its worst, it is regarded as a divine punishment that lepers have to be separated from others to live in designated areas for their treatment.
Skin plays a major role in our social status and mobility. Being the largest organ of the human body, the skin is always the first to be seen and noticed that whatever its condition would always have a big impact on the person, for better or for worst.
This is specially true for us Filipinos who are so concerned with our skin color that we still regard being white or maputi is maganda (beautiful) and having dark skin or maitim is pangit (ugly). No wonder everybody is going crazy to get whiter skin with all those soaps and creams and medicines advertised on billboards everywhere!
In a very funny twist unknown to most Filipinos who idolise white skin, many of our popular devotions in the Catholic faith actually have dark skin like Quiapo’s Black Nazarene and Our Lady of Antipolo?!
But, that’s another story of how skin-deep we can be…..
Going back to our reflection of today’s readings, Jesus is inviting us to go deeper than the skin to realize the richer meaning of having faith in him.
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.
Luke 17:11-16
View from the walled city of ancient Jerusalem, May 2019.
Since June 30 of this year, the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time, we have been following Jesus when “he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Lk.9:51). More than a destination to reach, Christ’s journey to Jerusalem is about directions in life because it is spiritual and theological in nature than spatial or geographical.
It is the same truth every pilgrim to the Holy Land realizes too!
And now that Jesus is nearing Jerusalem to fulfill his mission, his teachings are getting clearer and closer to home, indicating also our own “passing over” or pasch with him with the many verbs and movements found in our gospel scene today.
Let’s try reflecting on them one by one. Please bear with me…
“As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem” …. Jesus never stops in his journey to Jerusalem to suffer with us, to cry with us, to die with us. He is committed in being one with us in our many struggles and battles in this life until we make it with him to heaven.
“he travelled through Samaria and Galilee.” This is beautiful. Samaria and Galilee are the regions where the poor and marginalized lived, where sinners abound. But, that is where Jesus would always come. When we are in our darkest moments in life due to sickness, failures and disappointments, especially sin – that is when Jesus comes closest to us! In the first reading, we have heard how God’s Prophet Elisha told the Syrian Army General Naaman to bath in the Jordan River to be healed of his leprosy even if he were a pagan and an enemy of Israel! God loves us all.
“As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.” Keep in mind that Jesus came for the lost like us. Be open and ready for him for he is always passing by. Jesus surely comes to those who patiently wait for him.
“They stood at a distance from him, and raised their voice, saying, ‘Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!’ and when he saw them, he said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’ As they were going they were cleansed.” This episode of the healing of ten lepers can only be found in St. Luke’s gospel filled with many meaningful expressions. First is how “the lepers stood at a distance from Jesus.” This is our usual stance with the Lord when we are full of sin, so ashamed to look at him. But, it does not really matter with the Lord who looks more into is our hearts full of contrition than into our ego full of pride as we shall hear three weeks from now in the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector (Lk. 18:9-14).
The lepers cried to him, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” and when Jesus saw them, he told them to see the priests and they were cleansed. This is an extraordinary profession of faith in Christ by the ten lepers who were crying out not only for pity but also mercy. There are only three instances in the gospels when Jesus is addressed in his name, once in Matthew and twice in Luke. This is the first and the second is when Dimas the thief called on him saying, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” To say his name “Jesus” in itself is a prayer, an admission of guilt and sin. That is why, as the ten lepers went their way to the priests, they were “cleansed” like Dimas on the cross was instantly promised with paradise.
“And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.”
Here we find every encounter with Jesus in prayer and the sacraments as well as in various events in our life is a passage to salvation and new life. See the transition from being cleansed into being healed: that is something deeper than the skin, so to speak. The Samaritan was not merely cleansed of his skin blemishes but most of all, his soul and inner being that Jesus later told him to “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”
Sometimes in life, we stop at being cleansed by the Lord; after obtaining our prayers and wishes, we never go back to him until we face another problem again. Are we willing to keep on going back to Jesus to kneel before him and to thank him?
Last Sunday we prayed to Jesus to increase our faith and today like the ten lepers from a distance, we cry out to him as our Master to have pity on us. We always have that gift of faith in us but we have to deepen and cultivate it daily in our prayer life and most especially in the Sunday Eucharist, the highest expression of giving thanks to God.
Let us live in our faith and trust in God’s gift freely given to everyone regardless of who we are. Let us rely in the words of St. Paul that
“if we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 Oktubre 2019
Larawan ay kuha ni Rdo. P. Gerry Pascual sa Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, 09 Setyembre 2017 .
Maraming salamat, mahal naming Ina, Birheng Maria sa iyong pagsama sa amin tuwina ngayong inaala-ala iyong himala sa pakikipag-digma ng mga Kastila sa Look ng Lepanto dinarasal iyong Santo Rosario.
Kay sarap namnamin damang-dama namin sa bawat butil ng Rosario pakikiisa mo sa amin upang higit naming sundin butihin mong anak at Panginoon namin na siyang kapanatilihan ng Diyos sa piling amin.
Dahil kay Kristo Hesus na isinilang mo sa amin, Panginoong Diyos naging kapiling namin palaging dumarating maging sa gitna ng mga unos at sigwa nitong karagatan ng buhay namin tumatawag para kami ay sagipin.
Mula sa panganib ng karagatan at latian hanggang sa katihan kailanman ay hindi kami iniwan ni Kristo Hesus na iyong isinilang upang kami ay pangunahan pabalik sa aming tahanan doon sa kalangitan ikaw ngayon nakapisan.
Maraming salamat Mahal naming Ina Birheng Maria nawa amin kang matularan si Hesus ay masundan sa nakakatakot na karagatan at kapanatagan ng kapatagan kanyang mukha sa ami'y mabanaagan kami rin mismo maging misteryo ng iyong Santo Rosario.
Monday, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, 07 October 2019
Jonah 1:1-2:1-2.11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 10:25-37
Part of a painting in a church in Seville, Spain depicting the Battle of Lepanto Bay won through the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary. From Google.
O God our loving Father, as we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, you have assured us again through the readings of today of your abiding love and presence among us.
In the first reading, you remind us how you continue to call us and send us to many missions and tasks in life even if we often doubt and refuse to follow you like Jonas.
Sometimes, we have to wait for the storms to hit us in this sea of life before we can realize that indeed, you are calling us, that you do believe in us to entrust us with specific tasks and mission in life.
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima, Batanes, 2018.
And yet, in the many turbulence in this sea of life we are into, you never fail to save us and assure us of your love and mercy like at the Battle of Lepanto Bay in 1571 when the Holy League of Christians crushed the much feared and powerful navy of the Ottoman Turks.
Thank you in giving us the Blessed Virgin Mary as our Mother too to calm our many fears while in the high seas of life.
On the other hand, you dare to challenge us dear God to find you and share you among the most needy of this long and perilous road of life in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
From Google.
So often, we refuse to leave the security and comfort of our lives than cross the road to reach out to those in the margins left to die in sickness, hunger, and pain- alone.
Through the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ, may our eyes be opened, our faith be deepened to find and serve you Lord and Master in the storms of the high seas and in the security of the roads ahead us. Amen.
lordmychef.com 