Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30 >< )))*> <*((( >< Matthew 10:16-23
The pyramids of Egypt. Photo by author, 09 May 2019.
It’s a Friday again, loving Father! Thank you very much for guiding us through, assisting us, helping us through many difficulties and challenges this past week. Indeed, you are our only salvation, O Lord!
In this age when everything is so easy and convenient, with almost everything instantly on our fingertips, please remind us Lord that a little difficulties and sacrifices in life can be good for us too.
Crosses like trials and sacrifices are not punishment but actually blessings for they all make us stronger and better as persons.
Give us the courage to choose what is difficult, to be bold and daring in trying new things, leaving our comfort zones and discarding our old ways so that you may continue to surprise us, Lord.
May your words today to Jacob assure and strengthen those having difficulties in making important decisions about changes and movements in their work and residences, career and directions in life.
“I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation. Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes.”
Genesis 46:3-4
Fill us with your Holy Spirit, Jesus, that we may be “shrewd as serpents and simple as doves”, not worrying on how to answer our detractors and persecutors (Mt. 10:16, 19).
Let us endure all sufferings and difficulties in your holy name, O Jesus that we may all be saved. Amen.
Thursday, Wk. XIV, Yr. I, 11 July 2019, Feast of St. Benedict
Genesis 44:18-21, 23-29; 45:1-5 >< )))*> Matthew 10:7-15
CICM Retreat House in Taytay, Rizal. Photo by author September 2009.
Praise and glory to you, O God, our kind and merciful Father! You never fail to amaze us with your immense love and goodness to us, most especially whenever you write in straight crooked lines in our lives.
Nothing bad ever comes from you. But, if ever something that is not good happens to us, you always ensure it could lead to something beautiful and wonderful. Like with what happened to Joseph, the son of Jacob, who was sold by his brothers but later became an Egyptian official of the Pharaoh.
Our first reading today when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in Egypt is one of the most moving drama scenes in the whole bible for me. It shows also the tremendous faith and love Joseph has for you and his brothers.
“Come closer to me,” he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt. But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.”
Genesis 45:4-5
Increase our faith in you, God, especially when things do not turn out according to our plans and wishes. Let us trust in you that despite our many failures and sins, you will never abandon us to be devoured by the beasts of the forests.
On this feast of St. Benedict, we borrow his prayer for seekers of faith that we may be worthy of our call as Apostles of Jesus sent to “proclaim the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt.10:7).
Gracious and Holy Father,
give us the wisdom to discover You,
the intelligence to understand You,
the diligence to seek after You,
the patience to wait for You,
eyes to behold You,
a heart to meditate upon You,
and a life to proclaim You,
through the power of the Spirit of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-10 ng Hulyo 2019
Lumang kalsada, may 300 taon bago sinilang si Kristo, patungong Petra sa Jordan. Larawan kuha ng may akda noong 01 Mayo 2019.
Matagal ko nang napatunayan Na totoo nga ang kasabihang Isang paglalakbay itong buhay; Ngunit nitong kamakailan lamang Aking napagnilayan ang higit na katotohanan.
Higit na mahalagang malaman Hindi ang landas na daraanan Na wala namang nakakaalam Kungdi sino ang yaring kasamang Makakasabay na aagapay at aalalay.
Tunay nga na isang paglalakbay ang buhay Ngunit hindi ito isang destinasyon na patutunguhan Kungdi isang direksiyon na dapat sundan Kaya ang tinuran ni Hesus noong Huling Hapunan "Ako ang daan at ang katotohanan at ang buhay".
Maaring maraming lugar tayong narating At marahil marami pa ang mararating Ngunit kung hindi nababago pagkatao natin Para din tayong hindi umalis at walang narating Bagkus nanatili dahil mag-isa pa rin.
Paglalakbay palabas ng sarili ang buhay Sapagkat ang hinahanap nating katuturan at kahulugan, Kailanma'y hindi matatagpuan sa ating sarili lamang O saanmang lunan kungdi sa mukha ng bawat kapwa Na katulad at kapatid natin sa yaring buhay paglalakbay.
Larawan ay kuha ni John Bonding ng Architecture & Design Magazine, 25 Mayo 2019. Mula sa Facebook.
Genesis 41:55-57; 42:5-7, 17-24 >< )))*> Matthew 10:1-7
Pyramids of Egypt. Photo by author, 09 May 2019.
Thank you very much, our loving Father, for making us all come together as family and friends, colleagues and acquaintances on many occasions you have planned in all eternity in your infinite wisdom.
Like the sons of Israel who have come to Egypt to buy food during a famine and the 12 Apostles summoned by your Son Jesus, our coming together for various reasons in different seasons were all caused by your divine will.
The sons of Israel did not know how their coming into Egypt would reunite them with their lost brother Joseph they have maltreated and sold a long time ago. The 12 Apostles never had an inkling at that time how they would be betrayed by one of their very own that they welcomed each other as disciples of Jesus.
In your time, God, you perfectly know when and where and how we would meet the many people we now have in our lives.
Give us the grace to always seek your holy will, your grand design and plan with the people who come to our lives. Let us take care of them as precious gifts of family and friends you give us, let us shower them with your love and attention while still around us. May we never take them for granted, value them always as they value us too as gifts coming from you.
Let us not take them into someone not meant to be in our lives.
We pray also for people without friends and family around them, for those in far and distant lands working away from their loved ones, for those languishing in jails especially the innocent one that they may soon be reunited with their family.
Most of all, our loving Father, may we always see your face on every person we shall meet this day. Amen.
With our fellow pilgrims at the Sphinx in Egypt, 09 May, 2019.
Genesis 32:23-33 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 9:32-38
Photo by John Bonding, Architecture & Design, May 25, 2019 via Facebook.
Dearest God our Father:
Teach us to live every moment of our lives with you and with one another.
Teach us to be like your servant Jacob who wrestled with you and prevailed that you named him Israel “because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed” (Gen. 32:29).
So many times in this “digital age” when everything is “mass mediated” like our relationships and even faith in you, we have forgotten to live every moment with you and with others.
We are so out of touch with the reality, tinkering with our gadgets that are meant to bring us closer together but have in fact brought us more apart.
We are so concerned with our gadgets than persons and nature and you, Lord.
Until now, we are a “people who are troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt.9:36), lacking in real, personal relationships and intimacy with others and you.
We pray through your Son Jesus Christ that you may send us more workers for your harvest, not more gadgets or money or things but persons who love and care. Amen.
Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, Malolos Cathedral, 12 June 2019.
Please forgive me for my curiosity: lately I have noticed the sudden sprouting of many “breastfeeding stations” and “lactation sections” in many public places that I feel so tempted getting inside them just to see how the mothers would react.
One of the joys of prayer is how God would communicate with us even with the most crazy ideas we have like that thought of entering a breastfeeding station. I recalled this thought as I dwelt deeply into Isaiah’s prophecy in our first reading today presenting God like a mother comforting her children the Israelites who were exiled to Babylon.
It was one of the lowest points in the history of the Jewish people when they lost everything – family and friends, country and nation, and most of all, their Temple in Jerusalem that they felt they were forsaken by God. As exiles, they were slaves without any freedom at all.
Thus says the Lord: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her, exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her! Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts! As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.”
Isaiah 66:10-11, 12b-13
Sometimes, God allows us to experience several blows and beatings in life not because he punishes us or he takes delight in seeing us suffer; sometimes, we need to be like infants and children again to trust God more, to rely to his goodness. It is the surest way to remind us who we really are. That we are not god.
In our second reading, St. Paul bolstered this imagery of our being children of God by reminding us that the only bragging rights we have as disciples of Jesus is to be one with him in his Cross.
Brothers and sisters: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
As children of the Father and disciples of Jesus, our mark of distinction is not found in our greatness, achievements and success but in our being weak, in our being wounded and bruised, always needing the comfort by God like a mother to her children. This is very clear with St. Paul not only in our second reading today but most especially in his second letter to the Corinthians:
“I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
It is in our weakness when God is most manifested.
Try listening to anyone bragging about his or her achievements and talents: for a time, we get impressed, we admire them but in the long run, it becomes both convulsing and convoluting. But when we come to learn or hear the sacrifices and sufferings of people even those we do not personally know, we feel uplifted. We remember God and his goodness, his mercy and love.
Crucifix at the side wall of the chapel of St. John Evangelist at Cana, Galilee. Photo by author, 06 May 2019.
Only the disciples of Christ who join him in his Cross can be filled with the gift of peace, the only possession of every disciple. See how how when Jesus sent out the 72 other disciples, he asked them not to bring anything at all. The only thing they must have is the peace of Jesus Christ that they have to share with everyone they visit.
“Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.'”
Luke 10:3-5
Remember that when Jesus visited his Apostles in the locked upper room on the evening of Easter Sunday, he also greeted them with “peace” or “shalom” which is God’s greatest gift to anyone. Shalom in Hebrew means having a good relationship with one’s self, with others, and with God. Peace is always borne out of love and only those willing to sacrifice, suffer and even die for someone are the ones who truly love.
Mt. St. Paul Retreat House, June 2017.
There can be no peace in our hearts when we are filled with pride and ego. We need to be like children again, relying solely in the powers of our parents.
Last Thursday we brought our niece to her doctor at UST Hospital. While waiting for my sister when she left to get the lab results, I saw my niece feeling sleepy. I asked her to sleep on my lap as I gently rubbed her shoulder until she fell asleep soundly and peacefully.
What an attitude of not being bothered by her sickness because she must have great trust in me her uncle, my sister her mom, and also her doctor!
When we embrace our crosses in life and rely solely in Christ, we can also experience peace within. That is when we can rejoice as Jesus assured us, “your names are written in heaven” (Lk. 10:20).
A blessed week ahead to everyone! Jesus loves you, entrust to him all your worries and woes. Amen.
Genesis 13:2, 5-18 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 7:15-20
Petra in Jordan, 30 April 2019. Photo by author.
Almighty God, did you really appear to Abraham when you promised him to be the father of a great nation and made that covenant with him in the desert? What did he see in the desert that he put his faith in you so much, Lord?
The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision…
Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.
Genesis 15:1, 6
To have faith in you, O God, like Abraham is to see more what our eyes can perceive. To have faith in you, O God, like Abraham is to see and experience the fruits of believing in you. To have faith in you, O God, like Abraham is to see nothing at all except you.
When I think of your Holy Land, O Lord, there is really nothing much to see around but its vast wilderness. Most likely during the time of Abraham, it must have been more barren than today. It was in that nothingness that he saw your greatness, O God, that he put his faith in you.
How ironic that it is only when there is nothing left with us that we can truly see your great gifts for us, Lord: our being special, our being loved and cherished by you, our being simply ourselves that we are alive that truly make us have more faith in you than all the things you can shower upon us.
It is in our nothingness, in our simplicity that we become fully aware of your abundance blessings that we start to have faith in you.
Open our eyes of faith to always look for your fruits of love and kindness, mercy and forgiveness, life and fulfillment in us. Amen.
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.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-21 ng Hunyo 2019
Larawan mula sa Google.
Tinanong sila ni Hesus, “Hindi pa ba ninyo nababasa ang talatang ito sa Kasulatan? ‘Ang batong itinakwil ng mga tagapagtayo ng bahay Ang siyang naging batong panulukan. Ginawa ito ng Panginoon, At ito’y kahanga-hanga!'”
Mateo 21:42
Madalas sa ating buhay Tayo'y nanamlay sa maraming Dagok at kabiguan At ating nalilimutan itong katotohanan:
Kagandahan at kabutihan Ng Diyos sa ating nagmamahal Kanya tayong sinasamahan Kung saan hindi nating siya inaasahan.
Pangunahin niyang katangia'y Magtago at magkubli sa mga tabi-tabi Na sa tingin nati'y mga walang silbi Sa pag-aakala nating Diyos ay naroon lang sa malalaki.
Kaya nang Siya ay magkatawang-tao Hindi siya dumating na malaki Kungdi sinilang na munting baby Inaruga at pinalaki.
Nang si Hesus ay magsimulang magsilbi Doon siya natagpuan sa mga tabi-tabi Humirang mga lalaki na wala namang sinabi At nakisama sa mabababang uri ng babai.
Larawan mula sa Rappler sa pamamagitan ng Google.
Kaya kung ang buhay ay isang laro Natitiyak ko paborito sa lahat ni Kristo Ang taguang pung at hindi patintero Lalo nang hindi ang tumbang preso.
Pag masdan ninyo nang matanto: Abalang-abala tayo sa paghahanap Ng kung anu-anong natatago Gayong tayo naman ang nabuburo.
Palaging taya, palaging kawawa; At kung minsan nama'y nadaraya. Kaya kung si Hesus ay iyong matagpuan at... Pung! Siya na ang taya, ikaw ang malaya.
Lately I have been complaining a lot. And even if I keep it to myself, you know it very well because you see everything that is hidden.
I’m getting tired of helping and giving.
I’m getting tired of teaching and listening.
I’m getting tired of… living and doing everything.
I just want to stop and rest, Lord.
And the moment you give me that moment to stop and rest to start praying, I realize that whatever little or much do I have in this life is all yours. Nothing is really ours.
Even this very moment of stopping and resting in you. There is nothing we can claim to be totally ours to keep to ourselves. Not even a split second smile or a simple gesture of recognizing the other person.
Even that act of making the sign of the Cross is all yours and from you, Lord.
Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work. You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9: 8, 11
Thank you, O Lord, for everything.
Take everything that I have, even the littlest thing I keep to myself as mine because it is still yours.
You see whatever is hidden and for us to see that too, is a pure grace from you.
Let us give more, love more, and most of all, see you more. Amen.
Wildflowers in the desert of Petra in Jordan. Photo by author, 30 April 2019.
lordmychef.com 